Claire Trevor, the Academy Award winning actress and "Queen of Film Noir," made one of her five appearances on Suspense in the drama "The Blue Hour." Here she plays Lois LaPaul, a Chicago dancer who becomes a media darling when her wealthy paramour is murdered. Instantly in demand, she accepts an offer to perform at an "extremely chic" nightclub called the The Blue Hour in New York City. At the airport she meets Alec Mahoney, a reporter with whom she shares some saucy banter.
When she arrives at the sparkling blue nightclub she soon discovers that the owner, Anthony LaCada, has no real interest in her dancing talents. His icy interest is in her murdered boyfriend, Jason White.
Not knowing what to do, she turns to Mahoney for help. Together they discover the blue diamond worth half a million dollars that Jason White was hiding.
"The Blue Hour Diamond" at the center of this story was probably based on the Hope Diamond, pictured to the right. This episode was written by Marty Schwartz and includes a number of moments of entertaining dialogue.
"The Blue Hour" was produced edited and directed by William Spier. The music, more prominent and detailed than usual in this episode, was composed by Lucien Moraweck and conducted by Lud Gluskin. At the time Claire Trevor appeared on this episode she was promoting the movie The Velvet Touch. Also featured were Hans Conried, Wally Maher and Sydney Miller. This broadcast aired on September 25, 1947.
. Download Suspense_1947.09.25_The_Blue_Hour.mp3
(Photo of the Hope Diamond from Morguefile.com)
As I am a fan of Dita von Teese and burlesque, I envisioned Claire Trevor's character as a burleycue girl--I don't think you could really mention that stuff on the air back then, though.
Posted by: Stacy Sobotka | September 26, 2008 at 12:49 PM