Suspense - Radio’s Outstanding Theater of Thrills

Originally Aired: January 20, 1949 Suspense #324, "If the Dead Could Talk," stars Dana Andrews as Joe, a trapeze artist caught in a tortured love triangle. Joe is hopelessly in love with Fran, his partner in a three-person circus act, but she chooses to marry Tommy, Joe's best friend and roommate. Unable to accept losing Fran to his closest companion, Joe spirals into drinking and sleepless nights...

Originally Aired: January 13, 1949 Suspense #323, "The Too Perfect Alibi," stars Danny Kaye as Sam Rogers, a man hopelessly in love with Catherine, the woman of his dreams. When Catherine and her fiancé Jack Stewart announce they're getting married on Monday, Sam's world shatters. Catherine is lovely and kind, while Jack is a handsome former football hero now working as a clerk in a sports shop. D...

Originally Aired: January 6, 1949 Suspense #322, "To Find Help," stars Ethel Barrymore as Mrs. Gillis, an elderly widow living alone with her maid Sarah and her aging dog. When a mild-mannered young man named Howard Wilton appears at her door seeking odd jobs, Mrs. Gillis hires him to do heavy cleaning work despite warnings from her roomer, Mr. Armstrong. At first, Howard seems harmless enough, bu...

Originally Aired: December 30, 1948 Suspense #321, "Break-Up," follows Marty Connors, a disgraced ex-cop who has crossed over to the wrong side of the law. Suspended from the police force after being set up by a woman who stole his gun during a drunken encounter, Marty angrily rejects the warnings of his former partner, Detective Kivlahan, and takes a job as a bodyguard for criminals Doc Williamso...

Originally Aired: December 23, 1948 Suspense #320, "Holiday Story," stars Herbert Marshall as Professor Wilfred Carpenter, a mild-mannered botanist long dominated by his overbearing wife, Hermione. When Hermione insists he shave his beard before their trip to America, the transformation proves more significant than either could imagine. At the bookshop, Wilfred encounters the sympathetic Miss Mari...

Originally Aired: December 16, 1948 Suspense #319, "No Escape," stars James Cagney as Harry Graham, a bus driver about to receive his town's safest driver of the year award. While racing through the dark canyon road to pick up his girlfriend Eve before the ceremony, Harry encounters another car. In the chaos of swerving and braking, the other vehicle plunges 500 feet down into the canyon, bursting...

Originally Aired: December 9, 1948 Suspense #318, "The Sisters," Lydia and Ellie Haskell live together in quiet isolation, two aging sisters bound by secrets and an uneasy dynamic. When Lydia returns from a mysterious shopping trip, she reveals she's purchased an expensive casket—a Duravo—for herself, to be held for three weeks. Ellie, the fragile younger sister who clings to memories of their gir...

Originally Aired: December 2, 1948 Suspense #317, "The Hands of Mr Ottermole," In the fog-shrouded streets of London's Casper Street district, a mysterious strangler stalks victims with terrifying efficiency, killing without motive or mercy. A veteran police sergeant with fifteen years on the force recounts the chilling crimes to a persistent newspaper man who has been lurking in the district's sh...

Originally Aired: November 25, 1948 Suspense #316, "The Screaming Woman," young Margaret Leary takes a shortcut through Mr. Kelly's vacant lot on Thanksgiving Day when she hears something terrifying: a woman's voice screaming from beneath tons of freshly dumped dirt and debris. The voice comes from the area where she and the neighborhood children used to play in a large concrete pipe they called "...

Originally Aired: November 18, 1948 Suspense #315, "Sorry, Wrong Number," presents Agnes Moorhead as Mrs. Stevenson, an invalid woman alone in her home who becomes inadvertently entangled in a terrifying situation. While attempting to reach her husband's office at Murray Hill 4-0098, where he's supposedly working late, the operator accidentally connects her to a crossed line. Mrs. Stevenson overhe...

Originally Aired: November 11, 1948 Suspense #314, "Muddy Track," Harry Clark is flat broke and nursing a Coke in a bar when he meets Brandy, a woman with connections to the local bookie, Augie Persian. Before the night is over, Persian offers Harry an easy job answering phones in an apartment, paying five percent of the take from his illegal betting operation. The setup seems almost too good to b...

Originally Aired: November 4, 1948 Suspense #313, "Death Sentence," stars John Garfield as Tommy, a private investigator who returns from a Brazilian vacation only to find himself in deadly trouble. Six months earlier, Tommy had captured Maxie Dunn, a killer working for crime boss Lou Cromwell, collecting a fifteen thousand dollar reward in the process. Tommy thought the killing was a private matt...

Originally Aired: October 21, 1948 Suspense #312, "Give Me Liberty," stars William Powell as Earl French, a cunning embezzler who has successfully hidden a quarter of a million dollars from authorities. While being transported to prison by train, handcuffed to a detective, French sees his chance for freedom when the train crashes. The detective becomes trapped in the burning wreckage, his legs pin...

Originally Aired: October 14, 1948 Suspense #311, "A Little Piece of Rope," stars Lucille Ball as Isabel, a con artist who preys on wealthy older men by posing as an innocent schoolgirl. Her scheme is simple yet effective: she lets respectable gentlemen pick her up near exclusive schools, waits until they drive to a secluded location, then knocks them unconscious with a blackjack and steals their...

Originally Aired: October 7, 1948 Suspense #310, "Night Cry," finds Detective Lieutenant Mark Duglin nursing a bitter grudge after being passed over for promotion in favor of his colleague, now Captain Knight. The department believes Duglin is too much of a lone wolf, too quick with his fists, and unwilling to work as part of the modern investigative team. When a murder occurs at an upscale gambli...

Originally Aired: September 30, 1948 Suspense #309, "The Man Who Wanted To Be Edward G Robinson," stars Edward G. Robinson himself in a darkly comic psychological thriller. Homer J. Hubbard is a meek, browbeaten husband who has endured twenty years of constant nagging and persecution from his domineering wife, Ada. His mundane existence takes a dramatic turn when he sees the reissue of Little Caes...

Originally Aired: September 23, 1948 Suspense #308, "Celebration," follows Todd Ward as he visits his wife Emily at a sanitarium on what she believes is their recent wedding anniversary, though in reality eight years have passed. Emily suffers from brain damage after falling down the stairs, creating pressure that distorts her grasp on reality but cannot be operated on without fatal consequences....

Originally Aired: September 16, 1948 Suspense #307, "Hitch-Hike Poker," presents a harrowing tale of betrayal on the open road. Ridge Fowler, a college student hitchhiking home, gets picked up by the seemingly affable J. Stuart Beldon, a well-dressed middle-aged man driving a canary yellow convertible. As they travel down the California coast, Beldon teaches Ridge a harmless game called license pl...

Originally Aired: September 9, 1948 Suspense #306, "The Big Shot," stars Burt Lancaster as Charlie Morton, a young mining engineer with curly blonde hair and a baby face who has learned to compensate for his innocent appearance with ruthless violence. Morton arrives in Mexico to work for Quinn on an illegal gold operation—setting up a secret stamping mill to process half a million dollars in gold...

Originally Aired: September 2, 1948 Suspense #305, "The Morrison Affair," stars Madeline Carroll as Sheila Morrison, a desperate Englishwoman seeking the help of Boston attorney Mr. Ballou. She needs advice about divorcing her husband, Dr. Paul Morrison, a prominent surgeon from a distinguished family, but she's terrified to reveal her identity. As she reluctantly tells her story, she explains how...

Originally Aired: August 26, 1948 Suspense #304, "Song of the Heart," Neil Wilson walks into a police station with a shocking confession: he has murdered his beloved Aunt Alice by smothering her with a pillow. As he tells his story to the skeptical officers, Neil explains how his carefully ordered life unraveled after meeting Muriel Jones at the company picnic. The brash, forward Muriel is unlike...

Originally Aired: August 19, 1948 Suspense #303, "Crisis," presents a harrowing tale that begins with Martha Scott's character, Mary Norquist, keeping a desperate vigil over her gravely ill baby, Kurt, who is suffering from pneumonia with a dangerously high fever of 106 degrees. With no nurses available due to a widespread epidemic and her husband Paul away on business, she must battle exhaustion...

Originally Aired: August 12, 1948 Suspense #302, "Beware the Quiet Man," Margie finds herself in a terrifying situation when she stops at Charlie's bar to wait for her boyfriend Ralph. A smooth-talking private detective strikes up a conversation and reveals he's been hired by a bank teller to investigate his cheating wife. As the detective describes his client, a quiet, unassuming man with thinnin...

Originally Aired: August 5, 1948 Suspense #301, "An Honest Man," stars Charles Lawton as Freddie, a 44-year-old store clerk whose lifelong devotion to his mother has just ended with her death. For 26 years, Freddie has worked faithfully for Mr. Kelsey, shaped by his mother's harsh childhood lesson that dishonesty is the worst sin imaginable. But after his mother's passing, Freddie experiences an u...

Originally Aired: July 29, 1948 Suspense #300, "The Yellow Wall-paper," Agnes Moorhead stars as a woman whose husband John, a doctor, has rented an isolated country house for the summer to help cure her nervous condition. Against John's orders, she keeps a secret journal to record her thoughts and feelings. Despite the beautiful grounds and his caring attention, she finds something deeply unsettli...