A TOUCH OF EVIL is an episode from the 1957 anthology series SUSPICION.

This episode, which is set in New Orleans, features, Audrey Totter, Bethel Leslie, Harry Guardino, Jacqueline Mayo, John Carradine and Gene Roth.

Harry is a man with a problem. His girlfriend (Mayo) has discovered that he is married to Bethel Leslie. No more hanky panky till the wife issue is settled. Leslie is an invalid and Guardino just can not bring himself to divorce her. But a spot of murder is quite another matter.

Guardino contacts ex paramour Audrey Totter for some advice. Totter brings in local handyman John Carradine in for a third opinion. Poison? No, too messy. A bomb perhaps? No, that would be too easy to trace. How about a bomb on a small boat while out in the Gulf? Bingo.

The plan is for Guardino to send Leslie on a boat tour for her health. Carradine, for a modest fee, will build a time bomb. Totter will deliver said device to the boat as Guardino sends the wife out to meet her end. All goes according to plan and the boat explodes killing all aboard. Well...not quite to plan, as it turns out. There were several loose ends and the police soon gobble the three of them up.





Old pros Totter and Carradine are a hoot in this one. Good little bit of television. Two time Oscar winner D of P Ray Rennahan gives the bit a nice look.

The episode was directed by John Brahm who helmed THE LODGER, HANGOVER SQUARE, THE LOCKET, SINGAPORE and THE BRASHER DOUBLOON. Screenplay was by Halsted Welles who did 3:10 to YUMA.