Suspense Upgrades

Today's Suspense episode is One Way Street which features an almost 19-year old Roddy McDowall in his only Suspense appearance. This is not a very good episode though there is mildly surprising ending. It's a man suspected of marrying a wealthy woman then poisoning her for the inheritance... but it's different this time because there are British accents. You know things can go wrong when the house's supply of rat poison is on the shelf next to the woman's heart medication. But hey, the Suspense music makes the plot and the script better, especially if you double-up on the Roma Sauterne.

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Enjoy it anyway... even lackluster Suspense can be better than a lot of other programs!

Today's Suspense episode is Three Blind Mice and stars Van Heflin. He plays a downward spiraling partner in a publishing business who wished to be in charge of the enterprise once more. One partner is killed in what might be suicide, and Heflin's character finds a way to have the other partner framed for the crime. And then there's Helen who wants to be named a partner and seems to be ready to pressure the new top executive with charm and a bit of blackmail. He's selfish. She's selfish. They're both evil, but in a sophisticated way. They deserve every bad thing that happens to them. Heflin is excellent in this first of many appearances on the series.

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The author of the script is Kenneth Pettus who went on to have a big television writing and series consulting career in the 1950s and 1960s. But there's a backstory that was national news less than a year before this script was used. He was an editor for the military publication Stars and Stripes and got negative attention from MacArthur's staff in a journalistic standoff about editorial freedom. Be sure to download the academic (but highly readable and fascinating) paper about Pettus' career.

Today's Suspense episode is End of the Road with Glenn Ford. He's a car sales guy with an eye for the ladies and he's involved with the wrong one... wait... if she was the right one, it wouldn't be a Suspense episode, would it? Silly me... They start an affair and her husband does not take kindly to the idea. They escape the husband's tough guy and head to her hometown to explore the mysterious circumstance of her father's death. Things are not what they seem, and as the saying goes, a good time with the wrong person doesn't often end well.

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This is Ford's first Suspense appearance, and he would not be on the series again until 10 years later. His radio series, Adventures of Christopher London, was on the air only a short time. Collectors are always on the lookout for more than the three that have been around forever. That NBC series was created by Erle Stanley Garner and produced by Bill Robson.

Today's Suspense episode is The Thirteenth Sound starring Agnes Moorehead. This is definitely not one of Suspense’s better broadcasts, but it is special for Suspense history. A radio critic of the day documented what a Suspense broadcast was like. He offers us, more than 75 years later, a wonderful glimpse into what went into this very broadcast featuring one of its favorite guest stars. He describes William Spier’s interaction with the cast and the staff, as well as the scene in the studio. It may be worth reading his account prior to listening to the broadcast.

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Cathy & Elliott Lewis offer this script about a sound that stirs the guilt of a murderess into admitting to killing her husband. A similar plot device of sound driving one to madness was 1945’s Fury and Sound. In this instance, the sounds of nails against a blackboard grates against the guilty mind of the evil woman. She is preoccupied about her social status. Her plot against her husband was to stop him from what might be called his desire for “status downsizing.” She won’t have any of that, and arranges an accident where he will fall from a suitable height after hanging outside a home from a window. That way, she gets all his assets. After all, one can live more extravagantly than two.

This is not one of Agnes Moorehead’s most memorable performances, even if she was excellent in it. The script does not allow for it (but the music tries its darndest). But critic Allen Rich's commentary lets us sit in on the final rehearsal and the broadcast with insights into the personalities and actions of Moorehead, Spier and others.

Today's Suspense episode is Always Room at the Top and is Anne Baxter's first appearance in the series. It's an insurance fraud story and is implausible but is still fun to listen to these awful people. Someone from the ad agency commits suicide and Baxter's character is after their job in what seems just moments later. Stick with it and the various credibility issues. It's worth a listen but not one for the top 10 lists.

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This episode because a photo layout, months later, for Radio Mirror. A PDF can be downloaded at the link in the blogpost. That layout has a different cast than the episode! The reason is explained in the post.

The blogpost also has some details about Roma Wines and their marketing issues that led to their cancelling the sponsorship. They're clearly flailing about in their strategy and can't figure out what the right messaging is.

Today's Suspense episode is Three Faces at Midnight with William Bendix. The episode has its serious moments, but Bendix delivers the light moments of the script well, without undermining the story. This enjoyable episode is a real treat in another way: a failed gunshot in the east coast broadcast demonstrates how good an actor Hans Conried was. He buys time with additional and emotive dialogue of his own creation as the backup gun also fails and the third one finally works. The west coast broadcast goes flawlessly. There is a comparison clip noted at today's blogpost.

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Enjoy!

Today's Suspense episode is Elwood. It stars comedian Eddie Bracken in a disturbing cast-against-type role as an envious misfit high school dropout who kills out of vengeance. It is a disturbing and uncomfortable drama because you sense what’s coming and you know the killer. You’re not sure when and how others will finally wise up. Bracken is delivers a fine performance in this story by Robert L. Richards.

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This broadcast has some behind-the-scenes maneuverings. It is possible that this role was intended for a Mickey Rooney appearance that fell through because of scheduling issues. This is the final appearance of Ken Niles as announcer. Truman Bradley returns next week. Producer William Spier is ordered by his doctors to bedrest after another heart incident. Suspense creator Charles Vanda fills in, but is uncredited. It is another incident along show history that eventually builds to Vanda and Spier having great animus between them.

Today's Suspense episode is You Take Ballistics starring Howard da Silva. It's a 1938 Cornell Woolrich story that highlights the tug of war between the emerging science of forensics (in this case, ballistics identifying bullet patterns and matching with specific guns) and the gut instincts a detective has about the case. As collectors, we sometimes get our chronologies backwards or mixed up because we see the golden age "all at once" and not as an unfolding and incremental series of events. It sounds strange to hear Jack Webb in this broadcast as a criminal under interrogation! But the Dragnet program would not start airing until about two years later. So we listen to this today and it sounds odd because of something that hadn't happened yet!

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(People always ask if Jack was a family relation... if there was I'd have a better car... a different house... more reel decks... entertainment console... a chef...)

The script was used later as the audition "The Hunters" which became the CBS series, Pursuit. That unaired audition changed da Silva's character to a Scotland Yard detective. The "feel" of this broadcast may have inspired the production approach to the CBS series "The Line-Up," an often overlooked but well-done CBS police procedural of the early 1950s.

Today's Suspense episode stars Phil Silvers in the amusing The Swift Rise of Eddie Albright. It's a light chuckle-inducing play about a hotel elevator operator who is trying to impress a manicurist who works in the building by fibbing about having a big job. She spurns his overtures when she finds out the truth. But one day, there's a gang hit in the building and thugs come into his elevator with a rolled-up rug... with feet sticking out of it!

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It's not one of the most memorable Suspense episodes but it is highly enjoyable and a nice change of pace from some of the usual fare. Frank Lovejoy plays a gangster who gives Eddie some romantic advice and does him a favor in his dying words to the police. A running gag in the story is the pronunciation of the word “phony.” The script was by Roy Grandey and Robert L. Richards.

Dennis Day was originally planned for this episode. After hearing Silvers, it's hard to think of anyone else who could have played the part better.

Today's Suspense episode is Community Property and features a fine performance by the new Hollywood star, Kirk Douglas. His 1946 movie debut in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers received rave reviews. The scripters, Arthur Julian and Howard Leeds, became big-time TV writers and producers of some memorable TV series.

Be sure to read the end of the blogpost. The week after this broadcast was a very busy and important one for Suspense. In the same week, the series received its Peabody Award and Roma Wines cancelled their sponsorship.

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The script for Community Property could have been better and had a better prepared foundation for the details behind its outcome. But Douglas is excellent in the part in a story about greed about an inheritance and a plan to cut his wife out of sharing it. This could easily have been a story better suited for The Whistler than Suspense. Aside from its flaws, it is overall worthwhile listening.

Today's Suspense episode is Green-Eyed Monster and stars Lloyd Nolan. It's one of the stranger plotlines because... two murderers end up marrying... each other! If then was now, this plotline would be on the series Criminal Minds!

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The story is by Elliott Lewis and Robert L. Richards. Wally Maher is great as a high-pressure insurance agent. Joe Kearns is his usual superb self, playing a skeptical police sergeant. Cathy Lewis plays the new wife who somehow finds her husband's admission of murdering his first wife alluring, while we listeners silently grimace at how really disturbing that is. Nolan is not the best guest star actor, for sure, but his lack of convincing affect makes his character seem equally rattling with the comfortable ease he talks about it all at the end. Perhaps he was the best person for this part.

NOTE: Posts will be intermittent for the next two weeks with various classic radio projects demanding attention. Great stuff happening!

Today's Suspense episode is Win, Place and Murder with Richard Conte. It's a fun episode with gambling and gangsters and fast talkers. And there's a bit of amusing flirty interplay with his character and a competing woman detective who has the office across the hallway.

The story is by radio and pulp veteran Emile Tepperman, but is adapted by young Richard Breen. He'd win an Oscar for the 1953 Titanic screenplay and was nominated for his screenplay for the 1948 A Foreign Affair. He went on to have a fine movie and television career.

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Enjoy!! (Just a reminder that posts will not be daily again for another week or so).

Today's Suspense episode is Lady in Distress and stars Ava Gardner in her only series appearance. The story is a good listen despite "it just so happens" coincidences piling up and up and up and straining its plausibility. But there's an important part of Suspense history at the halfway point: Orson Welles has an unannounced, uncredited cameo as a gas station attendant! It's his final Suspense appearance; the blogpost has the amusing details about how it came about on the day of the broadcast.

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The story was by John Michael Hayes, screenwriter for some highly regarded Hitchcock movies: Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, The Trouble with Harry, and The Man Who Knew Too Much. Hayes was paying his rent by scripting radio series in the late 1940s before his screenwriting career gained its traction.

Today's Suspense episode is the Peabody Award “victory lap” repeat performance of Dead Ernest, the legendary Seeleg Lester - Merwin Gerard script. The Award nudged Roma Wines to reverse its decision to cancel and extend its sponsorship for another half year. Despite its importance in Suspense history, Dead Ernest was broadcast only once more after this. This second time is another superb performance.

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Radio critics were generally pleased with the Peabody selection for the production quality of the series, but warned that Dead Ernest was definitely not for kids.

This episode is another glimpse behind the scenes maneuverings. In the concluding moments of the east broadcast, CBS West Coast President Don Thornburgh announces the Peabody Award. He's not very good, sounding tentative and uncomfortable. For the west broadcast, Suspense ensemble member John McIntire substitutes as Thornburgh. He delivers Thornburgh's lines with authority and confidence. More details are in the blogpost.

Today's Suspense episode is Death at Live Oak with film noir legend Robert Mitchum. An unhappy wife realizes that Mitchum's character is a dead ringer for her inattentive husband. And Mitchum's character wants out of a very bad business situation. It's a marriage made in Suspense plotline heaven! They'll create a private plane accident that will eliminate the husband but they'll give him all the clothes and ID and belt him into the pilot's seat. That will make the authorities think it's Mitchum's character. And then he's free to run away with the wife and assume the husband's identity. What could possibly go wrong?

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Radio legends Robert E. Lee and E. Jack Neuman wrote the script. The plotline details would not work with today's forensic technologies, and there are some pinholes in the plot, but that's okay for us classic radio fans who just enjoy the good story, good presentation, (the Suspense music!), and a nice ride. Mitchum does fine for someone who did not perform on radio often.

Today's Suspense episode is Knight Comes Riding. Virginia Bruce returns to star in the series. It's a good listen, but is sometimes more soap opera than suspenseful. Howard Duff is great in it.

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Apologies for the short description. As I mentioned earlier, FB bots are blocking posts that include Suspense plot details. I know many of you have been going directly to the blog without these posts: THANKS very much! Enjoy!

Today's Suspense episode is a the second performance of A Thing of Beauty, but this time it features the legendary Angela Lansbury. Her performance is the favorite of the two done on the series. Perhaps her long tenure in the CBS as the beloved mystery writer who lived in Cabot Cove has something to do with it. I can't mention the series because there is a word in it that the FB bots don't like. Get the full details of the episode... and why Elliott Lewis does the mid show breaks [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Today's Suspense episode is Make Mad the Guilty. It is Hume Cronyn's final Suspense appearance. You have a great actor playing a bad actor and doing it very well.

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Thanks again to all who go directly to the blogpost. Your support and encouragement are greatly appreciated.

The Facebook bots don't allow description of Suspense plotlines without risk of them being pulled - still waiting for human review of the Robert Mitchum FB post episode that was taken down last week. The blogposts are back on the daily schedule starting today.

Today's Suspense episode is Stand-In with June Havoc. She plays second level actor whose resemblance to a movie star leads to a nefarious plan. It’s an interesting plot with many intricacies in the timetable of the plan. It shows how much can be done in the 24 minutes of drama of a Suspense episode.

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Thanks again to all who go directly to the blogpost. Your support and encouragement are greatly appreciated. Posts are back on a daily schedule and are released at 5AM Eastern US time.

Apologies for the new brief and unimaginative format of the posts. Facebook bots don't allow description of Suspense plotlines without risk of them being pulled. Still waiting for the human review of a post that caused a 24-hour ban last week.

Today's Suspense episode is the second performance of a Mel Dinelli script. It's Dead of Night and stars Elliott Reid. Producer William Spier is on his way to New York for three weeks of Suspense productions there, so series creator Charles Vanda fills in... and there's an inside joke in the production. Reid is his usual excellent self.

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Thanks again to all who go directly to the blogpost. Posts are back on a daily schedule and are released at 5AM Eastern US time. The next three posts about the New York shows have much background information.

Today's plot description would have been blocked by the Facebook bots, for sure. Enjoy!

Today's Suspense episode is Phobia, broadcast from New York and stars Broadway and theatrical training legend Eva Le Gallienne. Producer William Spier was in New York for a few reasons. The main one was so his production of the Sam Spade series could continue while Howard Duff was filming Mark Hellinger's ground-breaking police procedural movie The Naked City. It's interesting to hear a NY-based Suspense cast again since the show moved to Hollywood four years earlier.

The script was by Joal Hunt (yes, "Joal"; his name was JOseph ALfred Hunt, hence "Joal").

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Thanks again to all who go directly to the blogpost. Posts are on a daily schedule and are released at 5AM Eastern US time. Please tell fellow classic radio enthusiasts about the blog.

Today's Suspense episode is Money Talks with Alan Baxter. He's a a money-obsessed con-man who won't let anyone or anything get in the way of his plans. The details of the Robert Richards script may get one of these posts banned again. It's a good episode, the second of the three from New York City in 1947. And... we now have the east and west broadcasts documented.

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Thanks again to all who go directly to the blogpost. Posts are on a daily schedule and are released at 5AM Eastern US time. Please tell fellow classic radio enthusiasts about the blog.