Suspense - Radio’s Outstanding Theater of Thrills

Originally Aired: January 25, 1945 In Suspense #127, “Drury’s Bones,” Boris Karloff stars as a Scotland Yard inspector who awakes in a London alley with no memory of his past—only to be reborn as “Terence Drury” and given a new life in law enforcement. Twenty years later, Drury is dispatched to a Devon village to investigate a skeleton unearthed in a garden, stirring half-buried memories and old m...

Originally Aired: January 18, 1945 In Suspense #126, “To Find Help,” Frank Sinatra and Agnes Moorehead deliver haunting performances in a taut tale of psychological terror. When a frail-seeming young man shows up at Mrs. Gillis’s door looking for work, she thinks her prayers for help have been answered. But as the day unfolds, the “help” becomes a nightmare—her new handyman is disturbed, unpredict...

Originally Aired: January 11, 1945 In Suspense #125, “Drive-In,” Nancy Kelly stars as Mildred, a Hollywood carhop whose late-night act of kindness turns into a nightmare. After serving one last customer on a rainy night, Mildred accepts a ride from the stranger—only to realize she’s trapped with a desperate fugitive. As the pair careen into the dark hills above Los Angeles, Mildred must summon her...

Originally Aired: January 4, 1945 In Suspense #124, “I Had an Alibi,” Keenan Wynn stars as Joe Eichner, a cynical newspaperman-turned-mystery writer who dreams up the “perfect” crime—then tries to live it. When Joe marries a dying heiress for her fortune and crafts a seemingly airtight alibi for her murder, everything seems to go according to plan. But fate, and a deadly twist, reveal that no alib...

Originally Aired: December 28, 1944 In Suspense #123, “A Thing of Beauty,” June Duprez stars as Madeline Tremaine, a legendary actress whose career was shadowed by scandal, jealousy, and murder. From the heights of fame to a life of isolation, Madeline recounts her rise and fall to two visiting clergymen during a stormy night. As the truth of her past is slowly revealed—including a deadly rivalry,...

Originally Aired: December 21, 1944 In Suspense #122, “The Brighton Strangler,” John Loder stars as Reginald Parker, a famed stage actor celebrated for his chilling role as a strangler—until a bomb-blast-induced head injury blurs the line between actor and character. Wandering into the fog-bound streets of wartime England, Parker slips into the role of his murderous alter ego, targeting those he b...

Originally Aired: December 14, 1944 In Suspense #121, “The Lodger,” Robert Montgomery stars in a chilling adaptation of the classic tale inspired by the Jack the Ripper legend. In 1888 London, Ellen and Robert Bunting, desperate for income, take in a mysterious new lodger, Mr. Sleuth—an intense, reclusive man obsessed with scripture and secrecy. As “The Avenger” murders young women in the foggy st...

Originally Aired: November 30, 1944 In Suspense #120, “The Black Curtain,” Cary Grant stars as Frank Townsend, a man who awakens on a snowy street with no memory of the past three years—and no clue why a stranger is hunting him with a gun. As Townsend pieces together a new identity, he uncovers a murder for which he is the prime suspect, a lost love, and a trail of betrayal that stretches back to...

Originally Aired: November 23, 1944 In Suspense #119, “The Fountain Plays,” Charles Laughton stars as Mr. Spiller, a mild-mannered Englishman whose tranquil country life hides a dark secret. When an old “friend” turns up demanding hush money—and threatening to expose Spiller’s criminal past—an impulsive act of violence leads to a cunning coverup by the garden fountain. As the investigation closes...

Originally Aired: November 16, 1944 In Suspense #118, “Dead of the Night,” young Jimmy Barton returns to Los Angeles to find his sister Helen battered and terrified of her violent new husband. When that husband turns up dead, Jimmy and Helen become fugitives—hauling the corpse through motels, beaches, and a fog of mounting panic as suspicion and guilt threaten to destroy them both. With a nosy lan...

Originally Aired: November 9, 1944 In Suspense #117, “You Were Wonderful,” American singing star Lorna Dean finds herself swept into a dangerous world of spies, coded messages, and sabotage while performing at a Buenos Aires nightclub. When a fellow performer dies under suspicious circumstances and a song request becomes the signal for a Nazi submarine attack, Lorna must choose between saving her...

Originally Aired: November 2, 1944 In Suspense #116, “The Singing Walls,” Tommy Cochran wakes up from a terrifying dream—only to find blood on his shirt, a key in his pocket, and no memory of what happened the night before. With the help of his cop brother-in-law, Tommy races against time to piece together a night of narcotics, strangers, and a mysterious “singing wall” before the police do. As th...

Originally Aired: October 26, 1944 In Suspense #115, “The Night Man,” Stella Rhodes becomes convinced that Tom Nixon—the man who murdered her mother a decade ago and swore revenge—has escaped prison and is stalking her as the night elevator operator in her New York apartment. Haunted by memories and terror, Stella is driven to the edge of sanity in a harrowing, claustrophobic encounter where nothi...

Originally Aired: October 19, 1944 In Suspense #114, “Eve,” a woman’s fierce devotion sends her on a desperate mission to free her husband, wrongfully convicted of murder. Disguised as “Evelyn Jarvis,” Eve tracks down the real killer—a charming but dangerous man with a secret, and a taste for cigars. In a deadly web of deception, tape-recorded confessions, and double-crosses, Eve’s own motives are...

Originally Aired: October 12, 1944 In Suspense #113, “The Merry Widower,” George Munsey—dreamer, would-be aristocrat, and frustrated husband—begins to believe he’s a prince destined for greatness. Caught between two women and haunted by a waltz from a popular operetta, George’s delusions spiral into murder and deceit. But when his lies unravel, he’s left facing a fate worse than justice: the lonel...

Originally Aired: October 5, 1944 In Suspense #112, “Dateline: Lisbon,” foreign correspondent William Baldwin finds himself on trial, accused of murder amidst the intrigue of neutral Portugal during World War II. When an old flame, photographer Terry Moore, snaps a forbidden photo in a Lisbon hotel, it triggers a deadly chase involving a Nazi war criminal, blackmailers, and the desperate hunt for...

Originally Aired: September 28, 1944 In Suspense #111, “The Man Who Couldn’t Lose,” Leonard Snell wakes up to a day where fate seems to be on his side—until his lucky streak turns into a descent through murder, mistaken identity, and a frantic cover-up. As Snell schemes to escape the consequences of killing his wife, a surreal cascade of chance events keeps him just one step ahead—until a final, f...

Originally Aired: September 21, 1944 In Suspense #110, “The Bluebeard of Bellac,” a small French village is haunted by a string of gruesome murders attributed to a mysterious “Bluebeard.” When Cecile Combré goes to the occupying German authorities, she claims her own husband is the killer—setting in motion a tense night of accusation, confession, and wartime intrigue. But as secrets are revealed i...

Originally Aired: September 14, 1944 In Suspense #109, “You’ll Never See Me Again,” Ed Bliss’s young wife Janet storms out after a marital fight, promising he’ll never see her again. But when she vanishes without a trace, suspicion quickly falls on Ed—especially after a grisly discovery at her mother’s home and mounting evidence points to murder. As the walls close in, Ed races against time and a...

Originally Aired: September 7, 1944 In Suspense #108, “Voyage Through Darkness,” a transatlantic crossing becomes a nightmare for Judith Webster, traveling companion to a wealthy widow whose sudden death in blackout-shrouded London sets the stage for murder and deceit at sea. As rumors swirl of a fugitive “blackout killer” aboard, Judith’s only confidant is a charming—but suspicious—fellow passeng...

Originally Aired: August 31, 1944 In Suspense #107, “Black Path of Fear,” an ill-fated romance explodes into violence on the steamy streets of Havana. When Bill Scott and his lover Eve flee her gangster husband for a new life, she’s murdered moments after their arrival, and Scott is framed for the crime. On the run through shadowy alleys, he finds unlikely help from a mysterious woman called “Midn...

Originally Aired: August 24, 1944 In Suspense #106, “Actor’s Blood,” Broadway legend Maurice Tilleyou gathers his daughter’s friends, lovers, and enemies for a midnight banquet—one that promises to reveal the truth behind star Marcia Tilleyou’s violent death. As thunder crashes outside, old wounds and rivalries resurface, and the line between theater and real life blurs in Ben Hecht’s haunting tal...

Originally Aired: August 17, 1944 In Suspense #105, “The Diary of Sophronia Winters,” a lonely spinster’s Florida vacation turns swiftly into a gothic nightmare when a whirlwind romance sweeps her to a deserted Maine hotel and a husband she barely knows. As Sophronia pens her diary, her new life becomes a nightmare of isolation, suspicion, and madness, trapped in a decaying mansion haunted by trag...

Originally Aired: August 10, 1944 In Suspense #104, “The Man Who Knew How,” a chance conversation on a train plunges the unassuming Mr. Pender into a nightmare of suspicion and obsession. When a stranger boasts of knowing the perfect, undetectable way to murder—by poisoning with a compound triggered by a hot bath—Pender brushes it off as a morbid joke. But as deaths-by-bath mount in his neighborho...

Originally Aired: August 3, 1944 In Suspense #103, “Banquo’s Chair,” retired detective Sir William Brent stages a dinner party at a gloomy English mansion to unmask a murderer who’s slipped through the law. With the help of a crime writer, a loyal friend, and an actress hired to impersonate the murder victim’s ghost, Brent creates an atmosphere of terror and psychological warfare to break the kill...