Suspense - Radio’s Outstanding Theater of Thrills

Originally Aired: November 2, 1950 Suspense #401, "The Victoria Cross," finds Captain Vale, a housemaster at the prestigious Hoxley School, trapped in a nightmare of his own making. Tormented by war memories and dependent on medication to escape his dreams, Vale struggles to maintain his position of authority and respectability. When he catches student Francis Aud passing exam answers to Giles Bat...

Originally Aired: October 26, 1950 Suspense #400, "Too Hot to Live," Jefferson Casey, an ex-Air Corps captain still wearing his old uniform, jumps off a freight train near Marcus Junction with nowhere to go and nothing to lose. When his worn boot starts falling apart on the hot tar road, he encounters Benjamin Maxwell, the local sheriff, who proves surprisingly friendly and helps him find a shoe r...

Originally Aired: October 19, 1950 Suspense #399, "The Wages of Sin," stars Barbara Stanwyck as Ruby Miller, a woman with a questionable past who returns to her apartment to find a murdered man bleeding on her rug. The victim is David Madlock, a man Ruby claims she's never met, yet he was shot to death in her living room and had a key to her apartment on his body. Captain Salvador doesn't believe...

Originally Aired: October 12, 1950 Suspense #398, "Rave Notice," presents Milton Berle as Sam, a passionate actor whose world crumbles when director Norman replaces him in the role of the bell ringer during rehearsals. After five days of work, Norman coldly dismisses Sam from the part that he believes carries the entire production, citing only that Sam isn't right for it and brutally telling him h...

Originally Aired: October 5, 1950 Suspense #397, "The Rose Garden," stars Miriam Hopkins as Mrs. Trimble, a recently widowed woman who arrives at her cousin Amy Hansen's home seeking refuge and a new start. With no family or friends left after her husband George's death, Effie hopes to find comfort in the quiet household. However, her arrival is met with immediate hostility from Amy's other lodger...

Originally Aired: September 28, 1950 Suspense #396, "Fly by Night," stars Joseph Cotten as Mickey Manning, a desperate man trapped in a nightmare of his own making. After being held without sleep for 72 brutal hours by Lieutenant Driscoll and Sergeant Cogan, Manning signs a confession to the murder of Leo Garvin just to be allowed to rest. But Manning didn't kill anyone. When he wakes, he realizes...

Originally Aired: September 21, 1950 Suspense #395, "The Crowd," Lieutenant Johnny Stilano investigates the murder of Edgar Dale, an ordinary man found stabbed to death on a New York City street in broad daylight. Within minutes of the killing, a mysterious crowd has gathered around the body, their faces pressed in to witness death. As Stilano begins his investigation, speaking with Dale's landlad...

Originally Aired: September 14, 1950 Suspense #394, "Over the Bounding Main," stars Dan Daly as Martin Evans, a down-on-his-luck husband whose strained marriage to his wife Claire reaches a breaking point. Claire constantly reminds Marty of his joblessness and compares their shabby life to the prosperity of their wealthy friends, the Warrens. She even throws barbs about her ex-husband Lou Barris,...

Originally Aired: August 31, 1950 Suspense #392, "True Report," Lieutenant Ben Kennedy receives what seems like a routine assignment from Captain Zoste: investigate a fatal hit-and-run accident that occurred at 3:30 in the morning on Center Street. A victim lies dead, struck by a dark-colored sedan that never stopped. Kennedy begins his investigation with the only witness, Jenny Thurston, a neighb...

Originally Aired: June 29, 1950 Suspense #391, "Love, Honor, or Murder," Helen and Harry Lewis face a life-changing decision when Harry, a struggling cab driver, discovers $12,000 in cash left behind by one of his regular passengers, Sidney Walker, a prominent news commentator. After seven years of disappointing marriage and financial hardship, Helen sees this as their chance to escape their miser...

Originally Aired: June 22, 1950 Suspense #390, "The One Millionth Joe," features Jack Carson as Al Gerzant, a public relations man who orchestrates a Fourth of July promotional stunt for the Bureau of Better Business Promotion. At the airport, Gerzant and his team wait to surprise the one millionth passenger through the gates with a lavish prize package including hotel accommodations, tickets, gif...

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...