There was a radio crime/mystery anthology show called Suspense. There was an episode that aired in the forties called "One and One's a Lonsome," starring the late former president Ronald Reagan - obviously long before he entered politics -and Cathy Lewis.

Reagan played a character called George Belloc. Belloc had been hired by a man of late middle age named Henry Grover, to manage his lumberyard for him while he went away for a much needed vacation. Two months later Grover came back with a pretty, much younger bride named Marie (Cathy Lewis).

Grover came back to discover that George had put in some "improvements." Belloc had rigged up a gambling apparatus in part of the lumberyard and this sideline operation had brought in a thousand dollars a week. Straight arrow Henry Grover wants no part of it and tries to throw George out. But George refuses to leave and says that if Henry tries to throw him out or tries to have the gambling equipment moved, George would call the police and turn in Henry for running a gambling operation.

It seems that George had bought all the equipment, as well as ran the lumberyard, in Henry's name. "I'm just a man working here," George says, "and you're the boss like always.' [something like that]

Later Marie goes to see George alone. She flirts with him while conspiring with him to kill her new husband, the much older Henry Grover. Grover has left her well fixed in his will. Upon his death Marie gets everything, all the money, assets, the lumberyard, everything. There is an interesting dynamic at work here.

It is Marie who proposes this scheme and George who is resistant to it at first. He says, "Not on your life. I'm happy with my little racket. I'm not screwing it up by killing anybody." Marie talks him into it. They have an understanding that they will be married afterwards.

Interestingly, once on board with the plan it is George who gives every indication that he will be able to live with the crime. All that matters to him is the money, the lumberyard, the gambling racket, and the lovely Marie. This is emphatically not the case with Marie.

You know what? I'll continue this tomorrow.

Good Night,

wingedcentaur