Stars on Suspense (Old Time Radio)

Alan Baxter made a name for himself playing dangerous characters on screen - moody men on the wrong side of the law. He turned to television as film roles dried up in the postwar years, and he was busy on the small screen up through the 1970s. In his one and only visit to Suspense , Baxter played a bank teller with an elaborate plan to get away with robbery in "Money Talks" (originally aired on CB...

Veteran character actor John McIntire is back in the spotlight in two episodes of  Suspense . First, he's a promising poet who suddenly becomes a killer in the sixty-minute production of "House by the River" (originally aired on CBS on February 28, 1948). Then, McIntire is a father desperate to keep his son out of an institution in "John Barbie and Son" (AFRS rebroadcast, originally aired on CBS o...

It's a radio short story collection with four tales from the great Ray Bradbury - including one of his terrifying tales that became one of the scariest episodes of  Suspense . Agnes Moorehead stars in "The Whole Town's Sleeping" (originally aired on CBS on August 31, 1958). Next, Richard Widmark stars in Bradbury's crime drama "Killer, Come Back to Me" from The  Mollé Mystery Theatre  (originally...

Antony Ellis wrote and starred in episodes of  Suspense before he became the show's director. From 1954 to 1958, Ellis had the reins of "radio's outstanding theater of thrills" and steered the program into the realm of science fiction with adaptations of stories by Ray Bradbury as well as his own stories of fantasy and horror. We'll hear him starring in "Telling," the story of a man desperate to c...

It's been a crazy month, and the Halloween Haunts countdown of bonus episodes suffered as a result. To make it up to you after a lengthy delay, I'm sharing a trilogy of terror - three scary old time radio shows to enjoy in the days before Halloween. First, Frank Lovejoy learns about the consequences of defying a voodoo curse in "Papa Benjamin," a Cornell Woolrich adapted for  Escape (originally ai...

Paula Winslowe, aka the long-suffering Mrs. Riley on  The Life of Riley , returns to the podcast in two more radio thrillers. First, she's in a frantic race against the clock to find a woman in danger in "The Death Parade" (originally aired on CBS on May 15, 1956). Then, she's a florist who may be the only person who can identify a murderer in "The Twelfth Rose" (originally aired on CBS on June 5,...

Our annual countdown to Halloween kicks off with one of the biggest names in Hollywood horror. Boris Karloff plays a scientist who thinks he can bring the dead back to life, and he wants to test his theories on his late wife. Lurene Tuttle co-stars in "Death Robbery," a chilling tale from  Lights Out (originally aired on ABC on July 16, 1947).

British actor Ben Wright's natural voice made him a perfect fit for characters like Sherlock Holmes and Scotland Yard men, but his affinity for accents and dialects allowed him to play all sorts of parts - sometimes even multiple characters in the same radio episode. We'll hear him as a wounded man on the run in a radio adaptation of the classic film Odd Man Out (originally aired on CBS on Decembe...

Big screen tough guy Sheldon Leonard went from cutting a menacing figure in  To Have and Have Not and  It's a Wonderful Life to producing classic TV sitcoms like  The Andy Griffith Show and  The Dick Van Dyke Show . In three old time radio thrillers, he'll show off his acting chops, first as a hired killer who's looking for a friend in "Feast of the Furies" (originally aired on CBS on July 11, 194...

Cathy and Elliott Lewis were two of the busiest - and best - performers of the radio era. Both could get laughs (Cathy on  My Friend Irma and Elliott on  The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show ) and could be heard on mysteries, including "radio's outstanding theater of thrills." Cathy co-starred in several of the show's best episodes, and Elliott directed the program during some of its most innovative ye...

His star in Hollywood didn't burn bright for long, but Zachary Scott made memorable impressions as mysterious villains in movies like Mildred Pierce . In his one and only appearance on  Suspense , Scott plays a man accused of bumping off an annoying neighbor in "Murder Off Key" (originally aired on CBS on November 15, 1945). Plus, he stars as the infamous Dr. Samuel Mudd - the man who treated John...

Joseph Kearns - the longtime voice of "The Man in Black" - makes his final starring appearance on  Suspense as a trigger-happy store owner who learns a tragic lesson in vigilante justice in "Hold-Up" (originally aired on CBS on August 29, 1956). Then, he stars in a pair of thrillers from  The Whistler - "Final Returns" (originally aired on CBS on October 29, 1945) and "Murder in Haste" (originally...

In this bonus show, I'm sharing my favorite  Suspense shows starring Robert Young. Before he made rounds as kindly old Marcus Welby or showed how Father Knows Best , Young made several memorable appearances on "radio's outstanding theater of thrills." First, he's tormented by dreams of one of history's most infamous duels in "A Friend to Alexander" (originally aired on CBS on August 3, 1943). Next...

Whitfield Connor broke out on the Broadway stage in the 1940s, and he returned to the theatre in the 1960s as a manager and producer. In between, he made two starring turns on  Suspense . First, he's an editor who finds a perfect murder plot in a manuscript in "Sequel to Murder" (originally aired on CBS on June 22, 1954). Then he's a prosecutor investigating a death that could be a heart attack or...

Lucille Fletcher penned some of the best old time radio thrillers of all time - stories that can still keep listeners on the edge of their seats over eighty years later. She wrote "Sorry, Wrong Number," "The Hitch-hiker," and many more episodes that rank among the best of Suspense . We'll hear Mildred Natwick starring in a tale of a boarding house with a ghostly new tenant in "The Furnished Floor"...

It's our annual (belated) birthday tribute to the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. This year, it's a double feature of Hitchcock pictures recreated for radio. Joseph Cotten stars in adaptations of  Foreign Correspondent and  Shadow of a Doubt from  Academy Award (originally aired on CBS on July 24 and September 11, 1946).

For the 350th episode of  Stars of Suspense , we'll hear a recreation of the film noir classic  Crossfire  for "radio's outstanding theater of thrills" with its original stars Robert Young, Robert Mitchum, and Robert Ryan. A man is murdered, and a homicide detective and an Army sergeant conduct parallel investigations to figure out whodunnit. This sixty-minute adaptation originally aired on CBS on...

The "First Lady of  Suspense " is back, and she becomes the inaugural member of our "ten-timer's club." We'll hear her as an artist haunted by the same gruesome image in "Death and Miss Turner" (originally aired on CBS on May 19, 1957). Then she's a woman plagued by a sinister unseen force in an adaptation of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" (originally aired on CBS on June 30, 19...

NOTE: Due to some technical issues, this episode meant for July 28th isn't being uploaded until today. Sorry for the delay! In this bonus episode, I'm sharing my favorite  Suspense shows starring Academy Award-winner Charles Laughton. One of the most frequent guests on "radio's outstanding theater of thrills," Laughton made ten visits to the program and his appearances rank among some of the serie...

In this special bonus show, we salute the late, great Tony Bennett with one of the legendary crooner's old time radio appearances. In this May 9, 1954 episode of  Guest Star , Bennett promotes savings bonds and sings "Cheek to Cheek" and Hank Williams' "There'll Be No Teardrops Tonight."

Stage star, screen actor, and train imitator - no, really - Reginald Gardiner was an in-demand comedy star in the 1940s. He appeared alongside Charlie Chaplin and Barbara Stanwyck, and he memorably impersonated train engines for a royal audience at Buckingham Palace. We'll hear him in a murder mystery on an ocean liner with Olivia de Havilland in "Voyage Through Darkness" (originally aired on CBS...

Veteran radio actor and superb character actor John Dehner returns to the podcast to star in a pair of thrillers. First, he's a doctor who arrogantly believes he cannot be murdered and devises an experiment to put his theories to the ultimate test in "The Last Letter of Dr. Bronson" (originally aired on CBS on November 4, 1954). Then, Dehner is plagued by recurring dreams of Aaron Burr, Alexander...

In this bonus episode, we're celebrating the return of one of the greatest heroes of the movies with a film that inspired his creation. Charlton Heston - who unfortunately never made it to  Suspense - recreates his role as rogue adventurer Harry Steele (a direct inspiration for the character of Indiana Jones) in Secret of the Incas on  The Lux Radio Theatre (originally aired on NBC on December 14,...

George Murphy went from singing and dancing in movie musicals to the floor of the US Senate. Murphy retired from Hollywood in 1952 and was elected to a single term as one of California's senators in 1964. We'll hear two of his pre-politics performances from  Suspense ; first, he's a hit and run driver with an uncooperative eyewitness in "Death on Highway 99" (originally aired on CBS on October 4,...

John Hodiak battles fire and ice in his final appearances on  Suspense . First, he's battling the wind, the cold, and a rival climber in order to stay alive to reach the top of an unclimbed peak in "The Mountain" (originally aired on CBS on March 16, 1953). Then he's an oil driller fighting the flames that threaten to consume his well and his livelihood in "Hellfire" (originally aired on CBS on Se...