PLAYHOUSE 90: THE GREY NURSE SAID NOTHING (TV)
Summary
One in this dramatic anthology series. Thirteen years after a highly publicized murder trial took place, the primary players in that case are gathered once again in the same federal court building; this time, the suicide of one them has brought them to the Office of the Coroner. The Reverend Dave Light, to whom the suicide note was sent, uses a delay in the start of the hearing as an opportunity to go across the hall to the courtroom in which wealthy Australian landowner Herbert Wills was tried for the murder of Patrick Aherne. On the night the crime was committed, Aherne had been fired from his job as Wills's boatman. Light narrates the story with the help of flashbacks of the trial, intercut with flashbacks of the events leading up to the crime. The first witness for the prosecution is Snowy Bingham, a fisherman who discovered the only physical evidence in this case. He reeled in a grey nurse, a voracious man-eating shark, and brought it to his brother's aquarium. After several days in captivity, the shark regurgitated a human arm, identified as Aherne's by its tattoo. It is determined that the arm had been sawed off the body rather than bitten off, and no other body parts were ever found, inside the grey nurse or elsewhere. Subsequent witnesses for the prosecution, including Hazel Wills, the sister of the accused, depict Wills as a stern and unfriendly man with a rough side and a grudge against Aherne. Witnesses for the defense do little to contradict this view of Wills's character, but they testify that he had a solid alibi. Years later, questions remain unanswered, and emotions still run high. Includes commercials and promos. Commercials include James and Gloria Stewart for the American Gas Association and James Daly for Camel cigarettes.
Details
- NETWORK: CBS
- DATE: November 26, 1959 9:30 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:28:34
- COLOR/B&W: B&W
- CATALOG ID: T:44881
- GENRE: Drama, mystery/suspense
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, mystery/suspense; Trials - Drama
- SERIES RUN: CBS - TV series, 1956-1961
- COMMERCIALS:
- TV - Commercials - Allstate car insurance
- TV - Commercials - Allstate home insurance
- TV - Commercials - American Gas Association
- TV - Commercials - Camel cigarettes
- TV - Promos - "Playhouse 90: The Tunnel"
- TV - Promos - "The Big Party"
- TV - Promos - "The Twilight Zone: Perchance to Dream" (voice-over only)
CREDITS
- Fred Coe … Producer
- Robert Goldman … Associate Producer
- Russell Stoneham … Associate Producer
- Ronald Winston … Director
- Sumner Locke Elliott … Writer
- Richard Boone … Host
- Ann Todd … Cast, Laura Wills
- High Griffith … Cast, the Reverend Dave Light
- Michael David … Cast, Herbert Wills
- Don Dubbins … Cast, Bluey Davis
- Angela Lansbury … Cast, Hazel Wills
- Patricia Cutts … Cast, Mavis Greenop
- Paul Comi … Cast, Pat Aherne
- Willard Sage … Cast, Mr. Croaker
- Norah Howard … Cast, Ma Wills
- Angela Thornton … Cast, Peggy Parsons
- William Tregoe … Cast, Michael Scott-Finley
- Peter Gordon … Cast, Mr. Crane
- Tony Haig … Cast, Young Bluey
- Ken Huxham … Cast, Cobber McGill
- Arthur Gould Porter … Cast, George Clamsby
- Milton Parsons … Cast, Dr. Angell
- John Alderson … Cast, Snowy Bingham
- Stanley Fraser … Cast, Tiger
- Patrick Westwood … Cast, the Coroner
- Ted Wederspoon … Cast, the Judge
- Roy Dean … Cast, the Court Clerk