Suspense Upgrades

Today's Suspense episode is Account Payable with Edward Arnold and a marvelously despicable performance by Joe Kearns as a horrible and corrupt boss. Arnold plays a timid, frail bookkeeper. He is angered that his class-obsessed boss insults his daughter who has eyes for the boss' son. The bookkeeper realizes that there's something going on with the company books. He hatches a plan to get revenge for the insults, and to get his share of the boss' ill-gotten gains to make up for his underpaid previously loyal and honest service, and do away with the boss. It's a great story with superb performances, and a surprising Whistler-like conclusion. It has been an unfortunately unappreciated Suspense broadcast for decades. It's time it gets the attention it deserves. It is stunning how much can happen in just 24 minutes of drama.

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Edward Arnold was not the original choice for the part. Actor Frank Morgan was signed as guest star, but died unexpectedly about three weeks before. He was 59.

The Suspense Project daily blogposts have series history and episode and performer background. They are up at 5:00am ET and include links to stream or download FLAC and MP3 recordings of the episodes. Enjoy!

Today's Suspense episode is Good Night, Mrs. Russell with Bette Davis in her only Suspense appearance. She plays a recently widowed office worker who starts a friendly acquaintance with the man behind the counter at a diner. A series of incidents there are unnerving and ends up with her tied up in a dark room of his home. How did she get there, trapped with a dangerous man who has severe anger, delusions, and paranoia? Her only chance to escape is to use those delusions against him.

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This creepy story was written by Ben S. Hunter, who became a very popular 1960s Los Angeles area TV personality. He started in radio as an announcer after WW2, but had some success in television and radio scriptwriting thereafter.

The Suspense Project daily blogposts have series history and episode and performer background. They are up at 5:00am ET and include links to stream or download FLAC and MP3 recordings of the episodes. Enjoy!

Today's Suspense episode features Victor Mature in the Cornell Woolrich story, Momentum. A man's financial troubles and bad temper cascade into three murders in three hours. It’s an unbelievable story that can test listener's patience, and proves again that Suspense is not family listening. E. Jack Neuman's adaptation preserves Woolrich's literary device in which nearly-innocent act has unplanned bad consequences that compound and spin out of control. Hence the word “momentum” to describe all the unstoppable bad decisions and actions of Mature's character. Mature is great, the story is relentless, and the 30 minute time slot thankfully stops it.

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The Suspense Project daily blogposts have series history and episode and performer background. They are up at 5:00am ET and include links to stream or download FLAC and MP3 recordings of the episodes. Enjoy!

Today's Suspense episode is The Search for Isabel and stars Red Skelton. It's an amusing creative fantasy combined with a crime detection plotline. He plays a lonely bank clerk in a new apartment and a new phone. The phone rings almost constantly with calls for “Isabel.” He becomes obsessed with her, fantasizing what she must be like, imagining she is attracted to him and that a romantic relationship is possible if only he could find her. He questions callers and starts to track Isabel down, piecing together whatever information he could find. He winds up with more than he bargained for. "Isabel" is part of a ruthless gambling operation!

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The Suspense Project daily blogposts have series history and episode and performer background. They are up at 5:00am ET and include links to stream or download FLAC and MP3 recordings of the episodes. Enjoy!

Today's Suspense episode is Murder of Aunt Delia and stars Van Heflin. His nefarious low-life character sees a too-good-to-be-true opportunity for a big financial score in grabbing the fortune of a frail, elderly woman. The script is not as demanding for a stunning performance like Three O'Clock, but it's Heflin, a Hollywood star who's great on radio... on Suspense... with a good surprise ending.

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The story is by Lou Huston, who was a writer for TV's Petticoat Junction. Uncle Joe, Kate, and Billie Jo, Bobbie Jo, and Betty Jo would be appalled at the scheme Mr. Huston creates here

The Suspense Project daily blogposts have series history and episode and performer background. They are up at 5:00am ET and include links to stream or download FLAC and MP3 recordings of the episodes. Enjoy!

Today's Suspense episode is The Red Headed Woman with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. It's an implausible story with publicity-driven casting that we accept and enjoy because we love Lucy! It will not be many months after this broadcast that Desi and Lucy would make television history as they created one of the most durable media franchises. Their personal relationship would end up stormy, but there's an innocence and newness in the show's listening. Ball's character has stolen a payroll worth more than $250,000 in today's money and starts heading for the border to start a new life. She encounters Arnaz' character and his stalled car at the side of the road and slowly starts to suspect he's a killer. Listen for the fun of it!

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The blogpost has details about the performance and how the script may have been enhanced from its original submission to accommodate the two stars.

The Suspense Project daily blogposts have series history and episode and performer background. They are up at 5:00am ET and include links to stream or download FLAC and MP3 recordings of the episodes. Enjoy!

Today's Suspense episode is The Long Wait with Burt Lancaster in a good story with a surprising ending. He's freshly-released from prison and anxious to get immediate revenge against the woman whose testimony led to his brother's suicide. When she's repentant, he decides to delay his vengeful act and lead her on with gifts and support to make the ultimate revenge all the sweeter and all the more vicious. But who's fooling whom?

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The script is by Fred Freiberger. Yes, he’s that Fred Freiberger, known among nostalgia fans and “Trekkies” as the producer of the much disparaged final season of the original Star Trek. He may be held in low regard by sci-fi fans, but he did have a long career as a screenwriter and producer, especially for television, and had some successes. (Shh! Please don't mention Space:1999)

The Suspense Project daily blogposts have series history and episode and performer background. They are up at 5:00am ET and include links to stream or download FLAC and MP3 recordings of the episodes. Enjoy!

Today's Suspense episode is Mission Completed with Jimmy Stewart. It's an intriguing episode that involves the psychological residue of war service. Stewart portrays a paralyzed veteran who was tortured in a prison camp. It is a good story that involves grudges, revenge, mistaken identity and a surprise ending. Today, it is likely the character would be said to be suffering from PTSD. It is interesting that Stewart even took the role since he had his own challenges with what they called "shell shock" in that time. The blogpost has more details about that.

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Cary Grant was originally planned for this role, but it after hearing Stewart it is hard to believe anyone could do it as well. The sound quality of this recording is likely a big improvement for anyone who has heard this episode before. It's worth listening just to hear the better sound. The author of the script became an important Seattle area broadcasting executive and on-air personality.

The Suspense Project daily blogposts have series history and episode and performer background. They are up at 5:00am ET and include links to stream or download FLAC and MP3 recordings of the episodes. Enjoy!

Today's Suspense episode is For Love or Murder with Mickey Rooney in another fine appearance. He portrays a young pianist in an affair with an older woman. She convinces him they can live happily ever after if he murders her older and very wealthy husband and stages it as a robbery. He commits the brutal act and injures her, as planned, to make the incident believable to the police and hide her involvement. He soon realizes that her plans may not include him at all, and he’s been played for a patsy.

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The Suspense Project daily blogposts have series history and episode and performer background. They are up at 5:00am ET and include links to stream or download FLAC and MP3 recordings of the episodes. Enjoy!

greybelt wrote:researcher Karl Schadow responded to a request with information about the mysterious author Therd Jefre

Today's Suspense episode is The Flame Blue Glove with Lana Turner. It's the second transcribed Suspense broadcast and her second appearance on the series. She plays a newly married ex-detective whose former boss believes that her husband killed his first wife. She decides to do the detective work herself to make sure it’s done right! It’s a good story, and a mildly surprising ending.

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Look for a separate post today for the beginning of a 10-installment series on the Good Old Days Of Radio podcast that features stories by Cornell Woolrich. I was asked by host John Tefteller and producer Daniel Chase to assist with episode background.

The Suspense Project daily blogposts have series history and episode and performer background. They are up at 5:00am ET and include links to stream or download FLAC and MP3 recordings of the episodes. Enjoy!

Today's Suspense episode is Double Entry. It's the second performance of the script, but this time with the multi-talented Eddie Cantor. He delivers a fine performance (but does not mention whoopie or Susie). And... we get to hear Wally Maher as the racetrack announcer! There's an inside joke about "that fink" Paul Frees, too!

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The Suspense Project daily blogposts have series history and episode and performer background. They are up at 5:00am ET and include links to stream or download FLAC and MP3 recordings of the episodes. Enjoy!

Today's Suspense episode stars Ida Lupino in The Bullet, by Larry Marcus. Her character is an unwilling participant in a terrorizing form of “Russian Roulette.” Her husband is out of prison. He's embittered by his jail time, and jealous of the business success she's had without him. Her fear builds with every repetition of "the game."

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Animation favorite voice June Foray appears in the Auto-Lite commercials.

The Suspense Project daily blogposts have series history and episode and performer background. They are up at 5:00am ET and include links to stream or download FLAC and MP3 recordings of the episodes. Enjoy!

greybelt wrote: Today's Suspense episode stars Ida Lupino in The Bullet, by Larry Marcus. Her character is an unwilling participant in a terrorizing form of “Russian Roulette.” Her husband is out of prison. He's embittered by his jail time, and jealous of the business success she's had without him. Her fear builds with every repetition of "the game."

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greybelt wrote:

Let's make a list: this ranks right up there with X-Ray Camera as an unlikeable episode.

As I say about some irksome Suspense episodes:
Why can't this be one of the missing episodes so we can think more highly of it?

Today's Suspense episode stars Danny Kaye in I Never Met the Dead Man by William Bruckner. It's a case of mistaken identity as an innocent man with a prison record is framed for a gangland killing. This is not a Suspense best episode in plot or performance (though Kaye is fine), but it gets better after the unusually late mid-show commercial. Maybe there was a pep talk to the cast while Harlow was telling us how smart we are when we buy Auto-Lite spark plugs. The production runs late on time and you can hear how Wilcox, Kearns, and Simms speed up their commercial and closing credits to get the show to come in on the money.

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The Suspense Project daily blogposts have series  and episode history with performer, writer, and other production background. They are up at 5:00am ET and include links to stream or download FLAC and MP3 recordings of the episodes. Enjoy!

Today's Suspense episode is Four Hours to Kill with Robert Taylor. He plays an enterprising newspaper reporter who wants to own a small newspaper business of his own. He asks his brother, a wealthy attorney, for the $5,000 he needs. (That's $65,000 in today's money). The brother is not happy with the prospect, and a scuffle begins. The brother falls and hits his head, and he's dead. A telephone is off the hook, with a young woman still on the line, and she's heard everything, and knows who he is. The story turns... it’s not someone trying to evade a killing by an unknown assailant, but an assailant looking for the right person to kill. It is unnerving how quickly he decided to find this woman to kill her rather than flee the scene... and how he uses his methodical investigative reporting skills for his evil pursuit.

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This script was used four times with minor modifications in 15 months... on The Whistler, Philip Morris Playhouse, Suspense, and Murder by Experts!

The Suspense Project daily blogposts have series and episode history with performer, writer, and other production background. They are up at 5:00am ET and include links to stream or download FLAC and MP3 recordings of the episodes. Enjoy!

Today's Suspense episode is The Escape of Lacey Abbott with William Powell. A man escapes from the psychiatric wing of a Manhattan hospital to expose the truth behind his wife’s murder. There are times when Powell’s performance is similar to Give Me Liberty. This time, however, his crazed performance is not to escape the law, but to assist the law and authorities. The story reaches a creepy crescendo which is so untenable as a broadcast at that period that you know things turn out well. Ride with it. It's not as good as Give Me Liberty, but it has its moments of engagement.

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The Suspense Project daily blogposts have series and episode history with performer, writer, and other production background. They are up at 5:00am ET and include links to stream or download FLAC and MP3 recordings of the episodes. Enjoy!

greybelt wrote:Got the Spier copy of Philip Morris Playhouse version of Four Hours to Kill. Curiously, The Whistler production storyline had a cousin who refused to lend the money, but it is a brother in this Suspense version. The PMP production has him as a brother, but he's 28 years old and not 34. The PMP script has the 34 scratched out and 28 written in on the Spier copy of the script. Wonder why the change!

Today's Suspense episode is Mr. Diogenes with Ozzie & Harriet Nelson who star as... themselves in a mostly lighthearted story. It's another publicity-driven casting, but Joe Kearns steals the show as the strange con-man Mr. Hector Diogenes. He's engaged in game show corruption by paying off a staffer to arrange for the show to call the Nelson's house with the game's question, pretend to be Ozzie, provide the winning answer, then collect the prize money (delivered in cash!). The set-up of the story is much better than its forced "we have to end this somehow" conclusion. Enjoy Joe Kearns who is so very amusing as the con-man perpetrates his ruse, which makes the listening worthwhile.

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The Suspense Project daily blogposts have series and episode history with performer, writer, and other production background. They are up at 5:00am ET and include links to stream or download FLAC and MP3 recordings of the episodes. Enjoy!

greybelt wrote:

Today's Suspense episode is Mr. Diogenes with Ozzie & Harriet Nelson who star as... themselves in a mostly lighthearted story. It's another publicity-driven casting, but Joe Kearns steals the show as the strange con-man Mr. Hector Diogenes. He's engaged in game show corruption by paying off a staffer to arrange for the show to call the Nelson's house with the game's question, pretend to be Ozzie, provide the winning answer, then collect the prize money (delivered in cash!). The set-up of the story is much better than its forced "we have to end this somehow" conclusion. Enjoy Joe Kearns who is so very amusing as the con-man perpetrates his ruse, which makes the listening worthwhile.

Today's Suspense episode is Consideration with Rosalind Russell. Her character's husband embezzled $10,000 from his company. She's lost $22,000 on the horses. He's tripling their insurance, which raises concerns about his plan to get out from under their debts. He's a professional chemist working on a concoction that poisons without a telltale trace. It's a Richard Vodra script that's predictable until it’s not! It's one of his best, and gets better as it goes on. Enjoy it and Russell's performance.

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The dollar figures bandied about in the story were meant to be shocking to the listeners of that time. This is the opening's breakfast conversation, adjusted for inflation: “I stole $132,000, go get cash out of the safe deposit box for me” or “I lost $290,000 at the races and you didn’t even notice because you were so engrossed in your lab experiments” is how it would sound to listeners. The $10,000 and $22,000 of the story seem like nothing to today's listeners. But when average household income was $3300 and the average home was $7400, their combined debts of $32,000 likely seemed insurmountable.

The Suspense Project daily blogposts have series and episode history with performer, writer, and other production background. They are up at 5:00am ET and include links to stream or download FLAC and MP3 recordings of the episodes. Enjoy!

Today's Suspense episode is The Butcher's Wife. It stars Kirk Douglas in an excellent performance in a James Poe script. The story is about envy and a love triangle that has no easy exit. It concludes with a surprising and brutal sequence that shows yet again that Suspense is not for kids. This episode is not often mentioned as a top Suspense broadcast, but it should be.

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This was Poe's first Suspense script. Classic radio fans know him best for the adaptation of the short story that became Escape's legendary production of Three Skeleton Key just a few months earlier. Poe was about 28 when that was broadcast, and he would soon become an Oscar-winning screenwriter.

The Suspense Project daily blogposts have series and episode history with performer, writer, and other production background. They are up at 5:00am ET and include links to stream or download FLAC and MP3 recordings of the episodes. Enjoy!

Today's Suspense episode is Murder Strikes Three Times and is the sole appearance of Marlene Dietrich on the series. It's a repeat production of Three Times Murder from 1946. She plays a conniving murderess whose life becomes intertwined with a corrupt money-grubbing lawyer, played so very well by Hans Conried.

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The Suspense Project daily blogposts have series and episode history with performer, writer, and other production background. They are up at 5:00am ET and include links to stream or download FLAC and MP3 recordings of the episodes. Enjoy!