In "The Death Parade," Agnes Moorehead stars as a woman who accidentally finds a threatening letter and then becomes involved in a murder.
As the episode opens, a parade is winding down, the crowd is dispersing, and two men look up to see...a woman falling from the roof of the Benson Building!
Who was she? Why did she fall from the roof? Ellen Johnson is at the police station attempting to explain to the lieutenant what happened. Ellen was the only other person on the roof at the time of the accident. The officer asks her how it was that she came to be involved, and so she tells him....
It had all started that morning, when her normal daily routine had been disrupted. Ellen was late and rushing to get to work, when she found a letter on the street addressed to a woman named Sheila Mannix. Ellen read the letter and realized that she must find Sheila...before it was too late!
"The Death Parade" was written by tv screenwriter Shirley Gordon and adapted by Antony Ellis. Agnes Moorehead starred. Also appearing were Joseph Kearns, Jerry Hausner, Byron Kane, Lou Krugman, Jack Kruschen, Lou Merrill, Jay Novello, and Jeannette Nolan. This episode aired on February 15, 1951.
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Suspense presented this story a second time on May 15, 1956. Paula Winslowe starred. Also appearing were Howard McNear, Jack Kruschen, Jack Carrol, Virginia Eiler, Frank Gerstle, Stacy Harris, Helen Kleeb, Clayton Post, and George Walsh.
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Agnes Moorehead again does her over the top approach at playing a neurotic woman obsessed with finding a woman who she feels is in danger because of a threatening letter. Ms. Moorehead's performance in Sorry Wrong Number was a Suspense classic, but it became parodied in subsequent programs such as this one where she is helpless to obtain help in a impersonal, insentive society.
Posted by: Mike Newton | September 29, 2011 at 05:38 PM