Suspense - You Can Die Laughing

In "You Can Die Laughing," a wife murders her husband to protect her lover.

Betty Willoughby is annoyed by her husband Herbert's fondness for practical jokes and stupid humor. Herbert thinks he is a laugh riot, but Betty doesn't.

How does she put up with Herbert? One of her husband's employees, Jack, is also her lover. Unfortunately, Jack has been stealing from the company, and Herbert has found out. He plans to have Jack hauled off to jail, but if that happens, Herbert may also find out about their romance!

Jack and Betty decide that the only way to prevent the truth from being discovered is to make Herbert disappear.

"You Can Die Laughing" was written by Robert Arthur, Jr. and produced/directed by Bruno Zirato, Jr. Evelyn Juster played Betty and Larry Haines played Jack. Ian Martin played Herbert Willoughby and Lee Vines played Jolly George Gordon. This episode aired on July 30, 1961.

. Download Suspense_1961.07.30_You Can Die Laughing.mp3

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Comments

[Stacy Sobotka]

I envision the backstory as follows....she thought his laugh was cute when they first met...she thought it was cute when they married on April Fool's Day....but it went too far when, expecting a mink coat as an anniversary present she opens the box and 12 giant moths fly out of the box and a tattered (and used) mink coat is all that remains while her husband laughs and laughs.

[cmillinsf]

Good backstory! One does wonder how she ended up marrying the guy in the first place. He seems exhausting.

[Dan Dreibelbis]

Robert Arthur is, of course, the genius writer who, along with his writing partner David Kogan did the series The Mysterious Traveler and The Sealed Book. This story was originally produced as a Sealed Book episode.

[Christine A. Miller]

Hi Dan, Actually, a number of Robert Arthur's previoously used scripts were recycled in the later years of Suspense, but I didn't know this one was a Sealed Book episode. Thanks for pointing that out--Best, Christine