The writing and acting on this episode are a cut above the rest, making this a real gem of the series. The dialogue and story are believable and it did not take me long to get into it. Very nice surprise endng too.

Marcella Trelawney, living in 1912, is ordered by her rich father, J.J., to marry his business associate, William Stillman. But she loves Edward Wilson, an astronomer. To help him decide who should have her hand, J.J. asks Wilson and Stillman to accompany him on a trip to the Arctic, rugged enough to test any man. J.J., testing himself, disappears in a blizzard. Wilson finds him, frozen to death, and his diary, which contains his decision on who should marry Marcella.

I rate this episode ★★★★☆ for GOOD. This story ranks up to Alfred Hitchcock good. Sam Dann wrote a dynamic Romantic-Mystery story. Here we have a girl living in the 1910's who loves an astronomer, but her father believes she'll be better off being married to a boring gentleman that will be financially stable. The father puts the 2 men to the test and takes them on an expedition to the Arctic. Her father freezes to death. The 2 men return home, along with the dead man's diary that reads his decision on who should marry the girl. She marries the astronomer. At first she was happy about it, but things have changed for the worse. More importantly, the rejected guy reveals the ugly truth to her about what was written in the diary. One of the BEST surprising endings I've ever heard! Unfortunately, the last few minutes of this story was cut off, so no one knows what the resolution was. We have a climax, but no resolution. The cast was dynamic as well: Fred Gwynne (as J.J. Trelawney), Marian Haley (as Marcella Trelawney), Earl Hammond (as William Stillwell & the Reporter) and Lloyd Battista (as Edward Wilson: the Astronomer). I loved Fred Gwynne's line at the 19-minute mark when he uses the old phrase, "Cut the mustard" which means "to perform well" or "to meet expectations" because his character & Earl Hammond's character are battling against the girl & the astronomer. One sees Marriage as a business, but never sees love as a benefit. One would see love as something that feeds the soul, but another would see love as something that doesn't feed the stomach. THE CYNICAL vs. THE SPIRITUAL. The sound effects of the door knocking, violin playing at the concert at Carnegie Hall, patrons murmuring, tableware clinking, classical music playing, seagulls, a buoy, music band playing by the docks, unfolding the letter, and the howling wind in the Arctic were spot on. That goes the same with the music. There were compromising tracks in ACT-1, agonizing themes in ACT-2, and sinister tunes in ACT-3 that was building the mystery up. And finally, our Host with his dynamic contribution. In his prologue, he quotes Walt Whitman who said, "I am mortis'd and tenon'd in granite. And I know the amplitudes of time." In ACT-1, he draws you in to where this story takes place: 1912 where men lived like kings, his word was Law, and marriage was a plan to strengthen one's position to expand families & territories. In ACT-2, he states that love is for the poets, the dreamers, and the romantics, which is referring to 2 of our characters. He also states that sensible intelligent people never fall in love, but they deal with a lot of grief, which is referring to the other 2 characters. In ACT-3, he gets the fans to pause for a moment as to why & whom do we marry? Is it for attractiveness, to be rich, to please our in-laws, or for romantic love? A mystery we can only solve on our own. As I mentioned before, the last few minutes of this CBSRMT episode has been cut off. If we knew what E.G. Marshall's words were at the end of ACT-3 & the Epilogue, I would've given this 5 out of 5 stars. Oh, well. But still, it's a terrific story that I recommend, especially if you're a fan of Fred Gwynne and enjoy surprising endings. Enjoy! =0]

I was always under the impression that she and Edward were engaged by the end of the episode, but the wedding hadn't taken place yet. (I could be wrong.) In my opinion, it's not fair to give the episode one star less just because of the ending being cut-off. That was an error in this particular recording, not in the original script, so it has nothing to do with the actual episode. The quality of the episode is the same, regardless of whether this recording is complete or not.

After reading Russells review I know see that Iw as not teh only oen who experienced tehe dn being cut off. I enjoyed this episode very much. The old saying it doesn't matter who you marry tehy hange into someone else anyway after you get married. There si mroe to a book than its cover! Check this episode out it is a good one!

This is a very good episode and it deserves five stars, even if it was cut off at the end. I don't think that's the fault of the original episode, but just in the recording this particular broadcast is from. I like this episode because it once again shows that not everything is black and white. I like the way they explored the issue of arranged marriage vs. marriage by choice. The ending was very interesting, (but I won't give it away). Too bad the ending was cut off, but I don't think they planned it that way. I just wish we could get a recording where we could finally hear the end.

I'm glad others liked this and found it worth listening to, but for me, it was dull, boring, repetitive, and lifeless. It had whiny unlikeable characters, a weak story, and the puny twist ending was cut as short as my patience after 41 min of listening to it, but hey, to each their own, it may suit you. Good luck. :-)

The cut off recording was replaced with the full episode. We now hear the end and the epilogue.