What happens
Elizabeth McDonald receives a telegram reporting that her husband, Lieutenant John McDonald, has been killed in action during the First World War, yet a battered, unidentified officer who was pulled from the battlefield carries her letter. Years later she marries Larry Hamilton, and their son Drew is drawn toward joining the Royal Air Force as war returns to Europe. Eric Kessler, an Austrian chemist who works at the Hamilton company, becomes a frequent guest at the house. Screen Director's Playhouse presents this drama, broadcast by NBC on January 13, 1950, with Claudette Colbert starring alongside Jeff Chandler, with Colbert in her original role as Elizabeth.
Baltimore and the Western Front in 1918, then the Hamilton home and chemical works in the years between the wars and into the Second World War
Characters: Elizabeth McDonald Hamilton, John McDonald, Larry Hamilton, Drew Hamilton, Eric Kessler, Dr. Ludwig, Jesse, Dr. Callan
Listen for: The telegram at the McDonald door, Elizabeth's confrontation with the disfigured chemist at the Hamilton dinner table, and the December 20th scene at the old house
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.