The Hunted

"The Hunted" is the only episode of Suspense accessible on the Internet.  It is available through the Museum of Broadcast Communication's website.

To view this episode, go to http://www.museum.tv/, then click on the heading Collections, and then Search the Archives. When you get to the Search the Archives page, click on Click Here to Search the Archives Catalog. You will have to register with an e-mail addess and password. When you have done that, you will be asked if you want to search radio or TV, click on TV and then enter Suspense where it asks for a Series Title in the Search box. This will produce a 3 page list of episodes, mostly for Kraft Suspense Theatre. Skip those and scroll to the end of the list. At the end, there are two copies of the same episode of Suspense in their collection. One is slightly longer than the other. Click on either copy of Suspense: "The Hunted."

"The Hunted" is the story of a young man named Derek Howard who has made his way in life by being the son of someone important. The setting of this story is a hunting lodge, where Derek is staying with his friends John and Sylvia. Derek and John have an ongoing bet over who can bring back the bigger animal from their daily hunting trips. Derek easily wins the bet everyday because he appears to have no troubles finding game. As we can see, sometimes Derek is so lucky at hunting that when he retrieves his kill, it has already been stuffed and mounted.

Back at the lodge, John and Sylvia await Derek. They haven't been lucky at the hunt and they know they are going to lose the bet. Sylvia asks John why he makes the bet everyday if he knows he is going to lose. In this crucial scene, John explains to Sylvia that when the boss' son says he wants to make a bet, you have to make a bet --even if you lose 50 bucks a day. Got that Syvia?

What Derek's friends don't know is that he has been winning their bets by poaching from the local game preserve. This hasn't gone unnoticed by the game warden, Mr. Meeker. He catches Derek in the act and decides to teach him a lesson.

Mr. Meeker spells it out for Derek: "... you're gonna learn just what it means to be hunted. Hunted like an animal."

"The Hunted" was an original television play by Ben Radin. Although the idea here may seem similar to the famous short story, "The Most Dangerous Game" don't expect a retelling of that story. "The Hunted" is a critter-friendly tale that teaches us all a lesson about hunting. Mr. Meeker was played by Ward Bond and John Kerr played Derek Howard. Sylvia Mason was played by Jane DuFrayne and Steve Parker played John Mason.

"The Hunted" aired on June 29, 1954.