What happens
Sam Spade, a San Francisco private investigator, receives a telegram from Casper Gutman, a man he believed was dead. Gutman's message warns him about two rogues, Lawrence and Hope Laverne, and offers money. Soon Lawrence Laverne, a dentist who insists a patient owes him for a bridge in his jaw, visits Spade's office, and his unstable behavior draws Spade into a tangle of missing persons, a stolen dental fixture and a search for a man named Herman Julius. This episode of Suspense, first broadcast on January 10, 1948, stars Howard Duff as Spade and is presented as one of the Sam Spade adventures. The story follows Spade as he pieces together the connections between the Laverne siblings, the bridge and Gutman's scheme.
San Francisco, California, in the late 1940s
Characters: Sam Spade, Casper Gutman, Lawrence Laverne, Hope Laverne, Herman Julius, Effie Perrine, Joel Cairo
Listen for: Spade's recounting of how the Laverne siblings and Gutman's telegram tie together, and the references to the dental bridge.
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.