As I'm digging through the broadcast history of this series I have been finding many more repeats than expected and originally thought. Cole often changed the names of his scripts when they would be reused. And when he repeated them, he usually changed the names of the characters. In the Thunderbolt episode we heard many similarities with Gentle Strangler. We can't detect them all because we only have 80 recordings. They occur so often in those 80, that it suggests the reuse of concepts, sections of dialogue, and scripts was almost rampant. This particular script was broadcast on 1946-05-07 with the title The Man Nobody Liked. I will be creating a chart of such repeats as I have been able to find them, and will be updating the Casey log as well.
ADC continuity notes...
50-04-06 TYPOS INCLUDED
A clerk in the bookkeeping department on Mr. Windber's company is found murdered and an unsuccessful attempt is made to destroy his apartment by starting a fire. On checking with the firm, Casey and Logan learn that the cashier under whom the clerk worked had disappeared several weeks ago. Casey believes the two are connected and that that was the reason the clerk was killed. At the interview both Mr. Windber and Mr. Haywood, the V.P., wear diamond rings. ON the drive home Casey and Ann notice that a large rock has fallen off a cliff or been pried loose to create a landslide. At the clerk's apartment they find a small roll of film hidden and as they look at it they are struck from behind and the only bit of film their assailant doesn't get shows a man's hand wearing a diamond ring, and also a bit of the rock that had been pried loose. When they return to the plant, Haywood is no longer wearing his ring, so he is the killer. Haywood is the one who stole the money. He killed the Cashier, threw his body over the cliff and then started the landslide to cover it in order that the embezzlement would be blamed on him. The clerk was killed because he had seen the whole thing and recorded it on film.
1946-05-07 The Man Nobody Liked
A clerk in the bookkeeping department on Mr. Norbitt's company is found murdered and an unsuccessful attempt is made to destroy his apartment by starting a fire. On checking with the firm, Casey and Logan learn that the cashier under whom the clerk Ronson worked had disappeared several weeks ago. Casey believes the two are connected and that that was the reason the Ronson was killed. At the interview both Mr. Norbitt and Mr. Hartwell, the V.P., wear diamond rings. On the drive home Casey and Ann notice that a large rock has fallen off a cliff or been pried loose to create a landslide. At the Ronson's apartment they find a small roll of film hidden and as they look at it they are struck from behind and the only bit of film their assailant doesn't get shows a man's hand wearing a diamond ring, and also a bit of the rock that had been pried loose. When they return to the plant, Hartwell is no longer wearing his ring, so he is the killer. Hartwell is the one who stole the money. He killed Slater, the Cashier, threw his body over the cliff and then started the landslide to cover it in order that the embezzlement would be blamed on him. Ronson was killed because he had seen the whole thing and recorded it on film.
We learn early on that the apartment was burned after someone was searching through it, and did not find what they wanted to. So they wanted to make sure that if it was there but didn't find it, that the fire would destroy it. The original thought of Casey and Logan was the fire was to cover the murder and anything else that would lead to their detection. Later they realize it was to cover up the murder and destroy additional evidence.
This is another episode where the person had photographic developing in a home. The prior episode was Murder in Black and White.
Keep track of the names: Milton is the bookkeeper, killed as part of the fire cover-up. The cashier, Crowley, is the one who uncovered the embezzlement.
Milton was killed by being struck with a piece of iron... a crowbar later figures into the story.
10:30 Essential clue: "the big white rock that looked like a warty cucumber" is a recognizable rock that fell during the landslide. Casey says it's a wonder that the rock "didn't do a Brodie a long time ago." Steve Brodie claimed to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge in 1866, so any long fall jump went into the popular vocabulary as "do a Brodie." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Brodie_(bridge_jumper) NY Daily News columnist Jimmy Breslin wrote in his May 24, 1983 column that Brodie put sand in his socks, a lot of it, to be sure he went feet first for the dive of 135 feet and went smoothly into the water with barely a splash. Then he took his socks off underwater and came right up.
1886-07-24 NY Times
10:55 The old timer says someone could move the rock with a crowbar, but the rain seemed to have done it... little does he know...
11:30 Ethelbert knows Casey seems very sad not in the mood for talking. Casey admits Ann is angry at him. Ethelbert says if it's over diamonds, he knows that's a sore subject among women.
13:30 Ann tells Casey the police say it's a case of embezzlement. Casey is now figuring out the logic of the case.
15:00 Casey and Ann are at Milton's burned out apartment looking for clues. Casey finds rolled up film inside a curtain rod. Just as they're about to turn around and leave, they're both attacked and knocked out. When they become conscious, Casey finds a piece of a negative. It has part of the "cucumber rock" and part of a hand holding a crowbar, and the hand has a diamond ring on a finger!
20:05 Casey relates the full story of the case to Logan, Winber, and Haywood, and the cover-up. Crowley had figured out one of the executives was embezzling, and wanted to put the blame onto Crowley the cashier who was leaving on vacation, to make it look like he absconded with the funds. The executive threw Crowley over the edge of the cliff, then caused the landslide. Milton the bookkeeper decided to trail the executive, and took a pictures of him causing the landslide so he could blackmail him. Instead, Milton was killed, and the executive frantically searched for the films and could not find them. It was not until Casey and Ann went back to the apartment and found them hidden in the curtain rod that anyone knew where the film was, and that's when they we struck, and he got away with the film, except for a small incriminating image. Casey was not certain if it was Winber or Haywood, but when he saw that Haywood was not wearing his diamond ring, he knew who the culprit was. When he holds a gun and tries to escape, Ann knocks Haywood out with a swing of her handbag -- she has a brick in it in case she had the chance for revenge for the attack of the other day.
The diamond exchanges:
7:43 Windber wears a diamond ring that he rotated to hide or protect the stone in his hand. Casey and Ann notice.
8:47 Ann says someday she will "quit this newspaper racket, and get married, and live like a human being."
8:57 Casey asks if she picked a guy and she says "I will pick the first one that puts a diamond on my finger." Windber's diamond was big but she says that a small diamond "will do."
9:16 Casey says "personally I got no use for diamonds." Ann responds somewhat sternly "you wouldn't."
9:30 The landscape unfolds in front of them as they drive through the country. Casey says "It's nature in her fairest aspects, budding trees, new grass, birds..." and Ann says "and bees."
11:05 The old-timer says goodbye to Casey "and his Missus" and Ann yells back "I'm not his Missus... I'm not even his friend... I hate men who have no use for diamonds."
23:40 Ann finally gets a diamond ring... Winber gave Ann his diamond ring as a reward for her role in the case.
The AFRS closing is music after the Blue Note epilogue and then "This adventure of Crime Photographer starring Staat [sic] Cotsworth as Casey, came to you through the worldwide facilities of the United States Armed Forces Radio Service, the voice of information and education."
Casey 50-04-06 335 The Fire AFRS.mp3
Degoo https://app.degoo.com/share/GXv9fw7JJO84Rm
hubiC http://ovh.to/kBHxXmt
There are no newspaper clippings related to this episode.
