On A Country Road Episodes

Cary Grant stars in this classic episode that has an interesting history: it’s by a one-hit-wonder writer who became a prominent journalist. Grant gives his usual fine performance. The story was disconcerting to many listeners because hitch-hiking was a common practice at the time, and there were always warnings about being careful about picking up riders. Also, stories about a car breakdown as a precursor to a violent crime or attack, was not all that common as plotlines. Those kinds of stories became more common in later decades. Cars were not as reliable as they are in these years, and required constant attention to maintenance, and there was great concern about having a breakdown in an unfamiliar area, far from a pay phone, or some kind of retail business that might be able to call for help. That means, this story generated more shudders in the 1950 audience than it would today with more modern vehicles, GPS-capable smartphones, and phones in general.