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Title

Hung Jury

Plot

A mediocre accountant leading a double life is romantically entangled with a prostitute and knee-deep in gambling debt outside his normal world. When the bookies come knocking at his door, his real life is threatened. He comes across the solution to his problems when he is asked to serve jury duty for a crime he actually committed!

Episode

0321

Air Dates

  • First Run - August 5, 1975
  • Repeat - December 16, 1975

Actors

Writer

Listen

Rating

108
90     18


21 Responses to Episode 0321

A seemingly average accountant with an average job and average home and married to an average woman is actually having an affair with a call girl and deeply in debt because of gambling. The bookies are demanding payment and his world is ready to fall apart. A chance encounter on the highway seems to solve all his problems. He ends up enpaneled on a jury for a murder he committed.

Claudia Reynolds

A fabulous story with a labyrinthine plot line. There are more layers of complexity to this story than any so far. An apparent saint is leading a double life gambling and having an affair when his credit is called in. He is faced with having his life turned upside down when fate steps in and seems to do a mostly good man a good turn.

Ginger

Howard Da Silva was great in this, as always! He just has a great voice for radio. He instantly draws you in to any story. This tale certainly takes some interesting and varied twists and turns. From a rather mundane tale of infidelity, to an intriguing premise of "What If". What if you served on a jury for a crime you actually committed? It was interesting how Da Silva's character kept trying to take what he saw as the "High" road. Cheating on his wife was okay, but telling her--horrors! Suicide was all right, as long as it benefited his family. Murder (though technically, it was self-defense) was justified since it was a nazi war criminal ( which was a twist which I doubt anyone saw coming!) Since the death was acceptable-- no one need pay for the crime. The ending seemed a little rushed and I'm not sure the author really made the last twist as believable as the others-- that all of a sudden Pollard wanted credit so badly for the avenging of Warsaw that he publically confessed to the crime. Still a very enjoyable tale. The part about a criminal serving on a jury was reminiscent of a "Suspense" tale "Circumstantial Terror" in which Ronald Reagan is falsely accused of murdering a shop keeper and finds the real killer serving on his jury to decide his guilt or innocence.

Pammy Pam

This is a great show! Howard's voice is cool and his delivery is smooth. The only thing I don't like about this one is that there really isn't any transition from when he's feeling guilty to wanting to take all the credit. There's no build up. Apart from that, It's a good one. Keeps you wondering what's this guy goning to do next.

Jeff Scarr

The storyline was very interesting with a plot that I'd never heard before. It really had a lot of potential. But then, in the final portion of the third act, it fell flat on it's face; becoming just plain silly. There was no rhyme or reason for him to suddenly have a change of heart and confess to the killing other than to gain glory from a complete fabrication that he created. So when he suddenly jumps up as a juror and starts shouting that he's the one who committed the murder, even though his well thought out scheme was going as planned, I'm sitting there thinking how stupid it suddenly had become. Becasue of that I'm giving it a 2 in our poll.

J. Kidd

I suggested this one after it came up randomly in my shuffle mix. I have been getting a lot of dogs that way recently--lots of Elspith Eric Episodes. So I enjoyed this episode. Here is a guy who seems totally boring but, wait, he has a girlfriend. He can't afford his alternate lifestyle so he thinks about killing himself. Then he randomly crosses paths with a really bad guy and he actually KILLS the guy instead of himself. He is racked with guilt for letting someone else get caught for his crime. Not racked with guilt for killing someone, mind you, but for letting someone else take the blame. I guess you could say it falls on its face, but I didn't catch that. I was wrapped up in this one. It had me all along. I thought the guy was going batty all along so I could take the outburst. He was quite the wack job. For me, there was the unexpected twist and the really different story line. It was just a different one than what I have been listening to recently.

Mr. Magods

Well, to avoid the “dogs”, as you put it (there had to be some out of 1,399 episodes), I compiled a list of best episodes that i’ve Since added some to, that I posted in the Comments section of the eerie snowy wintery Episode “RETURN TO SHADOW LAKE” . Check them out, and post a Best Of CBSRMT list of your own there!

Melanie

I must say that although I had some serious problems with the story development here, I nonetheless enjoyed this episode thoroughly. The twists of the tale kept me engaged until the end--even if it was those very twists that gave me the troubles I had with it. "Hung Jury" is a really contrived script, when you come right down to it. There are at least five "whoppers" in the tale: 1) that the protagonist would just happen across an escaped Nazi war criminal who just 2) happens to be carrying around a small fortune, the very amount our hero needs to get out of debt; 3) that said hero would then manage to kill said Nazi; 4) that the hero would then be chosen for jury duty for this very case; and 5) that our man would proceed to undergo an inexplicable last-second conversion and blurt out the truth in the courtroom. Any single one of these would have been acceptable in a well-made story; possibly even two. But three is over the edge, and four...Well...And FIVE...! Still, "Hung Jury" has, for me, the kind of delirious illogic of a good crime-story comic book from the 1950s. It's more fun to just sit back and have fun with each new wild plot twist than to worry about the credibility of it all. So, for that, I deem it a fine episode, good listening from beginning to end. Great choice!

Mr. Reynolds

This was a very interesting show because it presented a bunch of moral dilemnas. The guy is cheating on his wife, but he pulls over to help a stranded motorist. Then there is the complex situation of a nazi war criminal, who freaks out and tries to shoot the guy, who ends up shooting him, and it all is blamed on the one person who really is a victim of the war crimes of the nazi. Then at then end, the cheater tries to grab credit away from the victim, who tries to avoid actually implicating the war criminal. The situation, early in the show, when Howard DaSilva's character is faking the phone conversation with "work" when it is actually his little bimbo, caught me off guard even as it caught the character off guard, and was very effective and dramatic. I must say, as a WW2 history buff, I don't know if there actually was a "Werwolf of Warsaw", but this is pretty chilling. During the tragedy of Warsaw there were many terrible figures. This kept twisting and turning and was a very good choice.

Jorge B.

the SS officer in charge of the destruction of Warsaw was Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, and if he doesn't qualify as a bloodthirsty monster no one does.

Jeremy Bushong

Twisted tale indeed, and I think it's credible that DaSilva's character snaps at the end and confesses considering how deep in the muck of guilt he was at by that point. A little contrived but compelling nonetheless.

Mike in Grand Rapids

Mr. DaSilva's voice carried me through the program despite the Dickensian plot turns. I wasn't entirely happy with the seemingly rushed ending, however, I enjoyed the story's journey to the end nonetheless. Again, DaSilva's reading is absolutely first-rate and saved the script from its inherent flaws. 3.5 stars.

David Quintana

The change of heart was completely plausible. His character had been set up from the very beginning as someone who could never make a mark on the world, and this was finally his chance. I enjoyed this episode.

Sparky

I cannot add more than others, like Pammy Pam have stated. I can see at the end where he may have wanted to make his mark on the world, but it did seem a bit rushed as he was more diffident up until that point. It was a good listen overall.

Alec

Excellent well written well acted episode, every scene takes you in a new direction, portraying Midlife Crisis gone amok.

Melanie

I enjoyed this episode. There was no murder in this episode. This was clearly self-defense. The twists and turns in this episode kept you listening to the end. I gave this episode 5 Stars.

Don Heiland,Jr.

This episode is worth a listen but is too similar to another episode where a guilty judge tries a man for a crime the judge committed. I enjoyed it almost to the end but the ending is just too quickly resolved. It didn’t seem realistic compared to the rest of the story.

Christine

Heavily in debt from gambling, Henry is carrying a large amount of cash, enough for Pollard to pay off his debts, which he does. By chance, Pollard is chosen to serve on the jury hearing the case against the murdered man’s chauffeur, whom police have accused of the crime. Pollard wants to convince his fellow jurors to acquit the chauffeur, whose testimony makes him appear to be guilty.

Jack

Heavily in debt from gambling, Henry is carrying a large amount of cash, enough for Pollard to pay off his debts, which he does. By chance, Pollard is chosen to serve on the jury hearing the case against the murdered man’s chauffeur, whom police have accused of the crime. Pollard wants to convince his fellow jurors to acquit the chauffeur, whose testimony makes him appear to be guilty.

Mike

Great story here. One of the best. I thought I knew the ending but the way the came to it was something that surprized me.

Nathan

This was a great episode, but to avoid the “dogs”, as Mr Magic’s above said (there had to be some out of 1,399 episodes), I compiled Lists of BEST CBS Radio Mystery Theater Episodes, that I posted in the Comments Section of the eerie snowy Episode “RETURN TO SHADOW LAKE” . Check them out, and post a Best Of CBSRMT List of your own there!

Melanie


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