Suspense - Radio’s Outstanding Theater of Thrills

Originally Aired: June 8, 1950 Suspense #388, "The Case of Henri Vibard," finds Henri Vibard living comfortably at Gladstone Memorial Rest Home under the assumed name Leclerc, claiming amnesia after arriving three years earlier with two hundred thousand dollars in American currency. When Sergeant Jack Freeman of the London Bureau of Missing Persons brings a woman named Mary to the rest home, Henri...

Originally Aired: June 1, 1950 Suspense #387, "A Case of Nerves," stars Edward G. Robinson as Albert Baker, a man driven to murder by years of watching his wife Louise suffer from trigeminal neuralgia, a painful nerve condition. After observing Louise's debilitating symptoms for four long years, Albert devises a chilling plan. He travels to Toledo, where he deceives a young doctor named Dr. Martin...

Originally Aired: May 25, 1950 Suspense #386, "Very Much Like a Nightmare," follows Bryce McClane, an office worker returning to his job at the Nugent building after recovering from the flu. Still exhausted from working all night on an assignment, McClane relies on pills from his pharmacist Hermie to stay awake through the long day, despite warnings from his girlfriend Catherine Warren about the d...

Originally Aired: May 18, 1950 Suspense #385, "Angel Face," Cherry Wheeler faces every sister's nightmare when her younger brother Chick falls under the spell of Ruby Rose Redding, a notorious burlesque queen with dangerous connections. Despite Cherry's desperate attempts to intervene, including a confrontation with Ruby herself, Chick remains infatuated and plans to run away to Chicago with the d...

Originally Aired: May 11, 1950 Suspense #384, "The Man in the Room," stars John Lund as a freelance writer who hires Miss Markham, a typist working in a shabby office building, to handle his manuscripts. From the beginning, something seems off about the building's peculiar elevator operator, a dwarf-like old man with rounded shoulders who listens at doors and intercepts the writer's visits. When t...

Originally Aired: May 4, 1950 Suspense #383, "Statement of Mary Blake," stars Joan Bennett as Mary Blake, a young assistant who accepts a position working for the brilliant and charming Dr. Gregory Martin. Initially dazzled by the luxurious surroundings and the opportunity to work with such a renowned scientist, Mary soon notices troubling undercurrents in the household. Dr. Martin's beautiful wif...

Originally Aired: April 27, 1950 Suspense #382, "The Chain," stars Agnes Moorhead as Leonora Cofferner, a bitter housewife who receives an ominous chain letter warning that whoever breaks the chain will meet with evil. Consumed by jealousy over her husband George's relationship with his secretary, Betty Holden, and resentful of her social rival Abby Reynolds, Leonora sees the superstitious letter...

Originally Aired: April 20, 1950 Suspense #381, "Pearls Are a Nuisance," Walter Gage is enjoying a leisurely morning of doing nothing when his fiancée Ellen McIntosh calls with an urgent request. Mrs. Penruddock's pearl necklace has been stolen, and Ellen insists Walter must recover it. The twist? The pearls are fake. Mrs. Penruddock secretly sold the real pearls her husband gave her for their gol...

Originally Aired: April 13, 1950 Suspense #380, "Six Feet Under," finds carnival performer Jack Daly trapped in more ways than one. Ten hours a day, he lies buried alive in a coffin while paying customers stare down at him through a glass window, his survival dependent on an air pump that seems to beat in rhythm with his heart. Above ground, Jack drowns his misery in whiskey, haunted by the knowle...

Originally Aired: April 6, 1950 Suspense #379, "Salvage," stars Van Johnson as Danny Connor, a down-on-his-luck pilot who gets an unexpected visit from his ex-flame, Gloria Davis. She offers him a lucrative flying job working for her husband, Wendell H. Davis, and his newly formed Intercontinent Salvage Corporation. The company claims to be in the business of recovering Spanish gold from sunken ga...

Originally Aired: March 30, 1950 Suspense #378, "Blood Sacrifice," presents Joseph Cotten as John Scales, a playwright whose success is entirely tied to the brilliant actor Garrick Drury. After a triumphant meeting about film rights to their hit play "Bitter Laurel," disaster strikes outside the theater when a car skids out of control. Gary is thrown through a storefront window, severing an artery...

Originally Aired: March 23, 1950 Suspense #377, "One and One's a Lonesome," Ronald Reagan stars as George Bellock, a man whose profitable side venture is about to collide with his boss's conscience. When Henry Grover left town for a two-month vacation, he entrusted George with managing his modest lumber yard. George saw opportunity and transformed the business, installing slot machines and gamblin...

Originally Aired: March 16, 1950 Suspense #376, "Motive for Murder," stars Alan Ladd as Detective Dave Murphy, whose world shatters when he comes home to find a murdered stranger in his apartment and his wife Mary passed out drunk beside the body. The victim, Victor Hamilton, supposedly came to demonstrate a vacuum cleaner, but no vacuum cleaner is found at the scene. All the evidence points to Ma...

Originally Aired: March 9, 1950 Suspense #375, "Banquo's Chair," stars James Mason as Sir William Brent, the recently retired head of English criminal investigation, whose illustrious career has been marred by only one failure: the unsolved Bedford murder case. Three years ago, John Bedford brutally murdered his wealthy aunt, Miss Martha Ferguson, in the gloomy Victorian mansion known as Turret Ho...

Originally Aired: March 2, 1950 Suspense #374, "Lady Killer," stars Loretta Young as Peg Lincoln, a woman who buys a last-minute airplane ticket from a stranger named Nordlinger to catch a fully-booked flight. Aboard the plane, she meets the talkative Grant Benton, who strikes up a conversation just before Peg suddenly becomes violently ill. Benton rushes her to the hospital, where doctors discove...

Originally Aired: February 23, 1950 Suspense #373, "Slow Burn," Johnny Wilson stands in a dingy hotel room watching the clock tick toward midnight, waiting for the moment when the slow burn that has consumed him for three months will finally be satisfied. As he prepares to make a fateful phone call to sports reporter Todd Sloan, Johnny recounts the events that led him to this desperate moment. It...

Originally Aired: February 16, 1950 Suspense #372, "Murder Strikes Three Times," stars Marlene Dietrich as Laura, a woman whose husband Robert dies in a suspicious bathtub electrocution after his electric razor malfunctions. When Assistant District Attorney Elmer Garner arrives to investigate, he wastes no time confronting Laura with his theory: she murdered her husband for his hundred thousand do...

Originally Aired: February 9, 1950 Suspense #371, "The Butcher's Wife," stars Kirk Douglas as Harry Carr, a New York transplant who lands a liquor clerk job at a Los Angeles supermarket. On his first day, Harry locks eyes with Mary, the checkout girl, and despite warnings from Nick the vegetable man that she's married, he can't resist the attraction. Mary's husband is Krause, the store's butcher—a...

Originally Aired: February 2, 1950 Suspense #370, "Consideration," stars Rosalind Russell as Ellen Forrester, a woman whose gambling addiction has devastating consequences. When her husband Charles reveals he's embezzled company funds to cover their expenses and needs ten thousand dollars before auditors arrive, Ellen must confess a terrible secret: she's lost all their money betting on the horses...

Originally Aired: January 26, 1950 Suspense #369, "Mr Diogenes," stars Ozzy and Harriet Nelson in a mysterious tale that begins with an innocent penny fortune card. When Ozzy steps on a scale at a tobacco shop, he receives an ominous prediction: "Today will be the most memorable day of your life." The prophecy seems to come true almost immediately when he encounters the eccentric Hector Diogenes,...

Originally Aired: January 19, 1950 Suspense #368, "The Escape of Lacey Abbott," stars William Powell as Lacey Abbott, a man who has spent two years confined in the psychopathic ward at Bellevue Hospital. When his lawyer Nicholas Westland visits, Lacey seizes his opportunity for freedom in the most violent way possible: he strangles Westland, switches clothes with him, and forges the lawyer's signa...

Originally Aired: January 12, 1950 Suspense #367, "Four Hours to Kill," stars Robert Taylor as Theodore, a down-on-his-luck newspaper man who visits his successful lawyer brother Walter at an exclusive New York bachelor's club. Theodore needs five thousand dollars to invest in a small Florida newspaper with a war buddy, representing his last chance at the kind of journalism career he's always drea...

Originally Aired: January 5, 1950 Suspense #366, "I Never Met the Dead Man," stars Danny Kaye as Joe Wickoff, an ordinary truck driver whose life turns into a nightmare on New Year's Day. While walking home from work along an empty side street, Joe suddenly finds himself in the middle of a murder scene when bullets fly and a man is shot dead in a nearby car. Officer Callan immediately suspects Joe...

Originally Aired: December 29, 1949 In Suspense #365, "The Bullet," Ruth Martin finds herself trapped in a psychological nightmare with her husband Harry. When Harry returns from a three-year prison sentence for a business mistake, he discovers that Ruth has transformed herself and their dress manufacturing business into something far more successful than he left behind. Unable to accept that his...

Originally Aired: December 22, 1949 Suspense #364, "Double Entry," stars Eddie Cantor as Eddie, a bookkeeper who discovers his longtime friend and colleague Sam Crockett is in serious trouble. Sam, the company's head bookkeeper, confesses he's been embezzling money for nine years—a staggering hundred thousand dollars—not for personal gain, but to be an "unknown benefactor." He's sent kids to summe...