What happens
Ned Beaumont works as an aide to politician Paul Madvig in a mid-1930s city run by machine politics. The Campbell Playhouse adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's novel The Glass Key, starring Orson Welles, follows Ned as Madvig backs Senator Henry's re-election and courts the senator's daughter, Janet. Tensions rise between Madvig and Shadow Rory, a gangster whose gambling houses Madvig begins to close, and a murder is discovered on China Street. Ned's loyalty is tested as the political stakes grow around the killing. The transcript covers the story only up to this point.
A prohibition-era American city dominated by party politics and organized crime, including party headquarters, gambling houses and the Henry family home.
Characters: Ned Beaumont, Paul Madvig, Janet Henry, Senator Henry, Shadow Rory, Opal Madvig, Taylor Henry, Lieutenant Brett
Listen for: Ned's shifting loyalty to Paul Madvig as the Henry murder and Shadow Rory's threats draw him into the political fight.
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.