Stars on Suspense (Old Time Radio)

Suspense takes some rare trips into the otherworldly realms of science fiction in this bonus episode. John McIntire is a mad scientist with an equally mad experiment in "Donovan's Brain" (originally aired on CBS on Februay 7, 1948), and Jack Benny is a one-man welcoming committee on Mars in "Plan X" (originally aired aired on CBS on February 2, 1953). Two Ray Bradbury stories come to radio life in...

Helen Walker's Hollywood career was short and marked by an offscreen tragedy, but she made memorable appearances in comedies and dramas opposite co-stars like Fred MacMurray and Tyrone Power. We'll hear her opposite John Beal in "Deadline at Dawn" - the final hour-long episode of  Suspense (originally aired on CBS on May 15, 1948). Then she reprises her big screen role as  The Old Gold Comedy Thea...

In this bonus episode, I'm sharing my favorite  Suspense shows starring Gene Kelly. The star of  Singin' in the Rain doesn't sing or dance, but instead he shows off his dramatic chops in three radio thrillers. First, he's stalked on the highway in "Death Went Along For the Ride" (originally aired on CBS on April 27, 1944), and then he's a man whose sudden lucky streak just may help him get away wi...

Before he was Rambo's commanding officer, Richard Crenna was a squeaky-voiced teenager on radio in  Our Miss Brooks and  A Date with Judy . His career began on the air and stretched into the early 2000s, and it included an Emmy win and starring roles on multiple TV shows. We'll hear him in a pair of radio thrillers: first, he's a young crook whose life of crime finally catches up with him in "The...

Norman Lloyd began his career on stage with Orson Welles and on screen under the direction of Alfred Hitchcock. He went on to TV stardom in the 1980s on  St. Elsewhere and made his final screen appearance in 2015 at the age of 100. We'll hear Mr. Lloyd as a tyrannical radio producer in "Fury and Sound" (AFRS rebroadcast from July 26, 1945). Plus, he co-stars with Herbert Marshall as a client who f...

Herbert Marshall puts his English accent to great use in this pair of radio thrillers - two of the twenty-one appearances he logged on Suspense . First, he's the crown prosecutor out to convict a wily wife killer in "Murder by Jury" (originally aired on CBS on February 22, 1954). Then, he's in a battle of wits against a German saboteur in an open boat in "Flood on the Goodwins" (AFRS rebroadcast f...

Possessing one of the all-time great voices of the radio era, Hans Conried was equally effective in comedies and dramas as characters both old and young from all parts of the world. We'll hear him as the king's executioner in "The Groom of the Ladder" (originally aired on CBS on March 13, 1956), a refugee looking for a new life in America in "Freedom This Way" (originally aired on CBS on January 2...

John Lund joins our five-timer's club as he makes his final four appearances on  Suspense . First, he's a Marine who may have discovered paradise in the middle of the war in the Pacific in "The Island" (originally aired on CBS on January 12, 1958). Then he's a gambler who bets too much on his own system in "Winner Lose All" (originally aired on CBS on April 27, 1958). A bank robber gone straight i...

Though she never found the fame of her sister Margaret, Barbara Whiting had a run in Hollywood as a Fox contract player. We'll hear her in "The Rim of Terror" (originally aired on CBS on December 2, 1956) as a woman who picks up a hitchhiking defector and in "One Way Trip," a story from Romance (originally aired on CBS on December 17, 1955). Plus, she reprises her breakout big screen role in  Juni...

We've got two stars for the price of one in each of these  Suspense shows! For this bonus episode, I'm sharing my favorite installments of "radio's outstanding theater of thrills" that featured a pair of big name stars at the microphone. J. Carrol Naish and Joseph Cotten are hunter and hunted in "The Most Dangerous Game" (originally aired on CBS on February 1, 1945) and Hume Cronyn and Keenan Wynn...

Virginia Gregg was one of the radio era's busiest and best performers. The versatile and talented actress could be heard on everything from detective dramas to westerns, often playing multiple characters in the same episode. We'll hear her as a woman held captive by a maniac in "Goodnight, Mrs. Russell" (originally aired on CBS on August 3, 1954) and as half of a murderous pair of newlyweds in "Wh...

To celebrate St. Patrick's Day, we've got a line-up of Irish-American stars making appearances on "radio's outstanding theater of thrills." Maureen O'Hara is an amateur sleuth hunting a killer in "The White Rose Murders" (originally aired on CBS on July 6, 1943) and Thomas Mitchell is a railroad magnate plagued by nightmares in "Case History of Edgar Lowndes" (originally aired on CBS on June 8, 19...

We bid farewell to Joseph Cotten - an institution on Suspense . The star of  The Third Man made 18 appearances on "radio's outstanding theater of thrills," and we'll hear his final shows, including an adaptation of Ambrose Bierce's "An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge" (originally aired on CBS on December 15, 1957). In his last starring role on  Suspense , Cotten plays a man trying to save one of his...

Though never considered a bankable star by the studios, Martha Scott worked steadily on the big and small screens for fifty years. She earned an Oscar nomination for her performance in the film version of  Our Town and she set baby Moses in the basket in  The Ten Commandments . She stars in a very odd episode of Suspense as a mother who experiences a frightening vision of her child's future in "Cr...

For this bonus episode, we're saddling up with the best Suspense stories of the old west. Alan Ladd hunts for his brother's murderer in "A Killing in Abilene" (originally aired on CBS on December 14, 1950). Then, Richard Widmark fights a bloody feud in "The Hunting of Bob Lee" (originally aired on CBS on October 29, 1951) and he tracks a deadly panther through the snow in "The Track of the Cat" (o...

Whether he was keeping the peace in Dodge City or playing a villain on  Suspense , William Conrad was one of radio's all-time greatest performers. We'll hear the man with one of Hollywood's best voices in three old time radio thrillers. First, he's a hired killer whose plans never quite pan out in "A Matter of Timing" (originally aired on CBS on June 12, 1956). Then, he's on a cross-country drive...

In this bonus podcast episode, a collection of characters makes the St. Valentine's Day massacre look like a picnic. We'll hear five  Suspense  stories about romances gone wrong with husbands and wives at each other's throats. Peter Lorre plots to get rid of an unfaithful wife in "Till Death Do Us Part" (originally aired on CBS on December 15, 1942), and even though his wife isn't real, Edward G....

In this bonus episode, I'm sharing my favorite installments of  Suspense  starring Oscar-winner Van Heflin. First, he's an executive with a murderous plan to climb the corporate ladder in "Three Blind Mice" (originally aired on CBS on January 30, 1947) and he's a man caught by his own trap for his unfaithful wife in "Three O'Clock" (originally aired on CBS on March 10, 1949). Heflin plays a hitchh...

Parley Baer may be best known to old time radio fans for his many years in Dodge City as Deputy Chester Proudfoot on  Gunsmoke , but he lent his voice to hundreds of radio shows across nearly every genre on the air. We'll hear him in a  Suspense  western as a man hunting his brother's murderer in "A Killing in Abilene" (originally aired on CBS on February 3, 1955). Then, he's a husband planning a...

Dan Dailey shed his musical comedy persona for his two appearances on  Suspense . The Oscar nominee and Golden Globe winner starred as a pair of men caught in deadly love triangles, First, he's a carnival performer who spends his days buried alive in a glass coffin while his wife and his barker get closer in "Six Feet Under" (originally aired on CBS on April 13, 1950). Then, he boards a chartered...

In addition to being an amazing actress, Lillian Gish pioneered the craft of film acting - the more nuanced performance choices that a camera could capture vs. the broad techniques designed to reach the back of a theatre. Her career stretched from the silent era all the way to the late 1980s, and along the way she starred in films made by D.W. Griffith and stared down Robert Mitchum in  The Night...

We close out 2023 with a break from radio thrillers. Instead, it's our annual showcase of a classic Christmas film recreated for radio. This year, it's one of the best as James Stewart and Donna read recreate their roles as George and Mary Bailey in a  Lux Radio Theatre recreation of  It's a Wonderful Life (originally aired on CBS on March 10, 1947).

Jack Kruschen earned an Oscar nod for his performance as Jack Lemmon's kindly and concerned neighbor in  The Apartment , but before that he was a busy and very versatile radio performer. With a knack for accents and dialects, it wasn't uncommon for Kruschen to play multiple roles in the same thirty minutes. We'll hear him as a gangster who prepares an explosive Christmas gift for a rival in "A Pre...

We're back! And with Christmas right around the corner, I'm sharing my favorite holiday stories from "radio's outstanding theater of thrills." Peter Lorre has a killer idea for a present for his wife in "Back for Christmas" (originally aired on CBS on December 23, 1943) and Dennis Day turns to crime on Christmas Eve to save his family in "Christmas for Carol" (originally aired on CBS on December 2...

Frank Lovejoy joins our five-timer's club and flies the unfriendly skies in a pair of thrillers involving pilots and their dangerous flight plants. First, he's overseeing the first flight of an experimental plane whose pilot returns with a warning from beyond the stars in "The Outer Limit" (originally aired on CBS on March 17, 1957). Then, Lovejoy plays a pilot who commits a cross-country murder a...