Suspense - Radio’s Outstanding Theater of Thrills

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...

Originally Aired: December 15, 1949 Suspense #363, "The Flame Blue Glove," stars Lana Turner as Shadow, a former detective who left the business when she married Jimmy Conway. Her former boss Dutch refuses to let an old case rest, convinced that Jimmy murdered his wealthy first wife Eloise, whose death was ruled a suicide after she consumed dissolved sleeping tablets on New Year's Eve. Dutch belie...

Originally Aired: December 8, 1949 In Suspense #362, "For Love or Murder," pianist Tommy Lee commits the unthinkable at the urging of his lover Anne. Following a meticulously rehearsed plan, Tommy climbs the back stairs of an apartment building with a gun in hand, ready to kill Anne's husband. The drums beat in his head as he confronts the helpless victim, a fat little man who looks at him like a...

Originally Aired: December 1, 1949 Suspense #361, "Mission Completed," stars James Stewart as Tom, a paralyzed World War II veteran who has spent four years in a VA hospital, able to communicate only by blinking his eyes once for yes and twice for no. Tom's world revolves around a square on the ceiling that reminds him of Sagamo prison camp in Tokyo, where a brutal guard named Suki tortured and ki...

Originally Aired: November 24, 1949 Suspense #360, "The Long Wait," stars Burt Lancaster as Dan Vettel, a man fresh out of prison with murder on his mind. Dan's brother Richie died in jail two years earlier, and Dan blames Lois Williams, the woman who informed on Richie to protect her lover, Tim Grady. When Dan arrives in New York to exact his revenge, Lieutenant Len Bush warns him not to go throu...

Originally Aired: November 17, 1949 Suspense #359, "The Red-Headed Woman," stars Lucille Ball as Linda, a secretary whose broken engagement sends her down a dangerous path. After her fiancé Frank coldly breaks off their two-year relationship, Linda resolves to stop thinking of others and focus solely on herself. When her boss Mr. Jensen withdraws the company payroll early before his Florida vacati...

Originally Aired: November 10, 1949 Suspense #358, "The Murder of Aunt Delia," presents a chilling tale of identity theft and cold-blooded murder. Dort Sharples, a down-on-his-luck hitchhiker crossing the Arizona desert, catches a ride with Glendon Brayle, a young man heading to Santa Barbara to visit his wealthy invalid aunt after seventeen years apart. As Brayle shares intimate details of his ch...

Originally Aired: November 3, 1949 Suspense #357, "The Search for Isabell," stars Red Skelton as Dick Brown, an ordinary bank clerk whose life takes a strange turn when he receives a newly installed telephone. The phone comes with an unexpected complication: it belonged to the previous subscriber, a mysterious woman named Isabel LaRue. As calls pour in from various men seeking Isabel, Dick becomes...

Originally Aired: October 27, 1949 Suspense #356, "Momentum," stars Victor Mature as Dick Payne, a man whose life spirals dangerously out of control in a single day. Standing on a train platform with a bullet in his neck, Dick waits to meet his wife Pauline and escape to San Francisco. As snow begins to fall, he reflects on how everything went wrong since that morning when Pauline woke him at noon...

Originally Aired: October 20, 1949 Suspense #355, "Good Night Mrs Russell," stars Betty Davis as a middle-aged widow who becomes an unwitting target of danger. Mrs. Russell is a regular customer at Henry's Cafe, a small, pleasant lunch spot near her office in the Hillmar Building. Henry, the cafe's polite and solitary proprietor, seems particularly attentive to her, inviting her to try one of his...

Originally Aired: October 13, 1949 Suspense #354, "Account Payable," stars Edward Arnold as Timothy Baker, a long-suffering head bookkeeper who has endured 22 years of humiliation from his tyrannical boss, John Waterberry. Baker's life outside the office revolves around his beloved 20-year-old daughter Jessie, whose happiness means everything to him. When Jessie falls in love with a young medical...

Originally Aired: October 6, 1949 Suspense #353, "The Defense Rests," stars Van Johnson as Robert Tasker, an ex-convict on trial for murder. As his defense attorney Max Krager addresses the court, Robert reflects on the twisted irony of his situation: Krager is the only friend he's ever had, yet without him, Robert wouldn't be in this courtroom at all. The story flashes back to Robert's release fr...

Originally Aired: September 29, 1949 Suspense #352, "Blind Date," finds vaudeville performer Gloria LaFay preparing to leave Chicago after closing night when a mysterious stranger named Vincent Hawthorne arrives at her dressing room. The cultured, poetry-quoting Vincent has arranged a blind date with the young acrobatic dancer, bringing wine and roses for what he insists should be an intimate even...

Originally Aired: September 22, 1949 Suspense #351, "Experiment 6-R," Morris Brandt has spent twelve long years as assistant manager at the Carlton Plaza Hotel, enduring daily humiliation at the hands of his boss, Paul Koblenz. Each afternoon at precisely 3:15, Brandt must perform a degrading ritual: delivering coffee, unlocking the liquor cabinet with Koblenz's key, and serving brandy while being...

Originally Aired: September 15, 1949 Suspense #350, "Last Confession," Jesse, a young woman living with her roommate Edna, becomes increasingly disturbed by newspaper reports of a brutal murder. Thomas L. Howard has been found stabbed to death in Woodland Grove, and Jesse's overactive imagination begins to spiral. As she pores over the details, she's struck by the victim's resemblance to Henry Hac...