PaleyArchive ColorBars TopBanner2

CAMPBELL SUMMER SOUNDSTAGE: LIFE SENTENCE (TV)

Summary

One in this anthology series presented by Campbell’s Soup.

Jean Ryder lives with her husband in a rented house across the road from a penitentiary. She loathes the location and wishes that she lived elsewhere, although her husband Jeff, a factory foreman, finds the whole situation humorous. Jean feels especially uncomfortable being around convicts, such as the one working in the warden’s garden outside their window. Jeff tells her not to worry and leaves for work, ignoring Jean’s warning that something terrible may be impending. After Jeff leaves, Jean stares dismissively at the prisoner in the garden and unfastens the top of her robe, seemingly mocking him. He acknowledges her but says nothing. Later that day the prisoner speaks to Jean while she is out watering her flowers. She is frightened and yells at him to go away, although he stays, seemingly frustrated by her antipathy towards him, as she has stared at him from her window for the better part of two months. He explains that he is not attempting an escape, claiming that he will be released from his prison sentence in two weeks. The prisoner says that he has often daydreamed about her, believing she is “out of place” in her house and would be more comfortable in some other, more glamorous setting. Jean keeps trying to go inside but the prisoner holds her there, revealing that his name is Hank Bradon and that he used to be an intern. He demands that she say his name back to him, asking her to “make believe I’m not a convict” in order to afford him a small measure of human dignity. He kisses her and promises to take her away with him after he is released, although she rebuffs him and sends him away.

That night, Jeff reveals that he plans to spend his vacation time at home, although Jean was hoping to go away for a while. She becomes increasingly desperate to get away from the prison, but Jeff continues to laugh off her requests. On the day before his release, Hank tries to visit Jean again as she locks herself in her house. She calls Jeff and asks to go to New York for the weekend, but he doesn’t believe her excuse and orders her to stay home. Jean produces a handgun from an end table drawer. That night, when Jeff gets home, Jean tries to talk to him again, accusing him of no longer communicating with her at all. She asks again to go to New York but he insists that she is not going anywhere without him. He believes that when they lived in New York Jean was sleeping around, although she insists that nothing of the sort occurred. Jeff reveals that he could have taken a job in Detroit but chose their present location because he felt that Jean could be kept home and prevented from cheating on him. He continues to laugh at her and she takes out the handgun, shooting Jeff and causing him to collapse.

Jean immediately calls the police and claims that she shot an “intruder” trying to enter the house. The police arrive and investigate the scene; she claims that her husband is working very late and is not home. The police believe that Jean mistakenly shot Jeff as he was entering the house, and they inform her that Jeff is dead. The next morning, Hank comes to visit Jean and catches her just as she is preparing to leave. He tells her that he read about Jeff’s death in the newspaper and believes Jean killed Jeff in order to be with him. Jean orders him to get out, but he still has plans to go away with her. She insists that she merely felt sorry for him, and threatens to call the police. Hank warns her that doing so would reopen the case on Jeff’s accidental death. A police officer happens to come around as Jean admits that she drew the handgun out of fear, and she holds Hank at gunpoint as well. The officer gets Jean to calm down, explaining that he was following Hank to make sure he left on his scheduled train. The officer arrests her when she confesses that she killed Jeff, and as he takes her away she hears Jeff’s voice in her head, mocking her. Includes commercials.

(Also includes an in-studio commercial for Campbell’s soup).

Details

  • NETWORK: NBC
  • DATE: March 12, 1954 9:30 PM
  • RUNNING TIME: 0:29:37
  • COLOR/B&W: B&W
  • CATALOG ID: B:91420
  • GENRE: Drama
  • SUBJECT HEADING: Drama; Romance
  • SERIES RUN: NBC - TV series, 1952-1954
  • COMMERCIALS:
    • TV – Commercials – Campbell’s soup
    • TV – Commercials – V-8 vegetable juice

CREDITS

  • Martin Horrell … Producer
  • Garry Simpson … Director
  • S. Lee Pogostin … Writer
  • Margaret Kleckner … Based on a story by
  • Georgiann Johnson (See also: Georgann Johnson) … Cast, Jean Ryder
  • James Dean … Cast, Hank Bradon
  • Nicholas Saunders … Cast, Jeff Ryder
  • Matt Crowley … Cast, The Policeman