Stars on Suspense (Old Time Radio)

Join me on a trip back to 1943 and my favorite episodes of Suspense from that year. It was the year production of the show moved from New York to Hollywood, which meant it was easier for film stars to make appearances, and it picked up a sponsor in the form of Roma Wines. We'll hear Maureen O'Hara as a debutante turned detective in “The White Rose Murders” (originally aired on CBS on July 6, 1943), and Warren William reprise his big screen role as The Lone Wolf - a reformed jewel thief turned sleuth - in “Murder Goes for a Swim” (originally aired on CBS on July 20, 1943). Agnes Moorehead cements her status as the “first lady of Suspense” in the legendary “Sorry, Wrong Number” (originally aired on CBS on August 21, 1943), and Orson Welles plays a hunter who tracks human prey in “The Most Dangerous Game” (originally aired on CBS on September 23, 1943). Finally, Charles Laughton is a patriarch whose family reputation may be sullied by murder in “Wet Saturday” (originally aired on CBS on December 16, 1943), and Peter Lorre finds his foolproof murder scheme had an unexpected complication in “Back for Christmas” (originally aired on CBS on December 23, 1943).

Myron McCormick took home a Tony for his performance as gruff but lovable sailor Luther Billis in the original Broadway production of South Pacific, and before his premature passing at the age of 54 he logged several memorable turns on the stage and screen. We'll hear him as an archeologist who may have found a lost treasure in “Door of Gold” (originally aired on CBS on February 10, 1957) and as a mental patient who escapes from the hospital with revenge on his mind in “Madman of Manhattan” (originally aired on CBS on March 8, 1959). Plus, he plays detective in “No Time for Murder” from Crime Club (originally aired on Mutual on September 25, 1947).

One of the busiest (and best) actors of the radio era, Harry Bartell could be heard everywhere - as an announcer chatting with Nigel Bruce on Sherlock Holmes, as cowboys on Gunsmoke, and as suspects on Dragnet. We'll hear him as a man who cooks up what he thinks is a perfect swindle in "Final Payment" (originally aired on CBS on January 13, 1955) and as a pharmacist racing to correct a fatal mistake in "To None a Deadly Drug" (originally aired on CBS on October 25, 1955). Plus, Bartell plays Doc Holiday in Gunsmoke (originally aired on CBS on July 19, 1952) and as Archie Goodwin opposite Sydney Greenstreet's Nero Wolfe in "The Case of the Disappearing Diamonds" (originally aired on NBC on March 9, 1951).

Radio and big screen star Frank Lovejoy makes his final appearances on Suspense in a pair of shows where he plays characters both scary and sympathetic. First, he's a man with an unhealthy fixation on his Army buddy's wife in "Friend of Daddy's" (AFRS rebroadcast from May 17, 1959). Then, his wife is going into labor when their car breaks down on the Hollywood Freeway in "Ivy is a Lovely Name" (originally aired on CBS on June 21, 1959). Plus, we'll hear him as a con man in "Windfall" from The Whistler (originally aired on CBS on May 5, 1947) and as Chicago reporter Randy Stone in "The Night is a Weapon" from Night Beat (originally aired on NBC on February 13, 1950).

For seven years on radio, Jackie Kelk portrayed cub reporter and Superman's pal Jimmy Olsen, and he helped to define the character for generations of depictions in comics, cartoons, and films. We'll hear him in a pair of Suspense thrillers - first as a man who murders his brother to preserve their childhood home in "Shadow on the Wall" (originally aired on CBS on September 22, 1957), and then in a western drama as a young gunfighter out for revenge in "Sundown" (originally aired on CBS on May 4, 1958). Plus we'll hear him as Jimmy in "The Mystery of the Flying Monster" from The Adventures of Superman (originally aired on ABC on March 7, 1949).

Elsa Lanchester achieved cinematic immortality with her iconic portrayal of the Bride of Frankenstein in the Universal horror classic. But her work in the realm of monsters was just a part of her long career on the stage and screen - a career that included two Oscar nominations and a dozen films where she co-starred with her husband Charles Laughton. We'll hear the couple in a Suspense adaptation of "The ABC Murders" (originally aired on CBS on May 18, 1943) and in a true crime historical drama from Columbia Presents Corwin ("The Moat Farm Murder," originally aired on CBS on July 18, 1944). Plus, Elsa Lanchester leads an all-female cast in a Suspense thriller set at a girls schoool - "Finishing School" (originally aired on CBS on December 30, 1943).

Best known as Effie, the loyal secretary to Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon, Lee Patrick enjoyed great success on the Broadway stage and worked steadily as a character actress on the big and small screens. We'll hear her in a pair of shows from Suspense: first, she's half of a murderous married couple in "Just One Happy Little Family" (originally aired on CBS on April 6, 1958), and then she plays a woman whose part-time job takes a turn for the dangerous in "My Dear Niece" (originally aired on CBS on November 16, 1958). Plus, she recreates one of her great Broadway roles alongside Orson Welles and Jack Benny in a Campbell Playhouse production of "June Moon" (originally aired on CBS on March 24, 1940).

In the earliest days of Suspense, Berry Kroeger introduced each week's story as the "Man in Black." Years later, this talented and versatile actor would step into starring roles on "radio's outstanding theatre of thrills." We'll hear him in an adaptation of W.F. Harvey's "August Heat" (originally aired on CBS on March 20, 1948) and as a would-be murderer who develops unusual mental powers in "It's All In Your Mind" (AFRS rebroadcast from July 20, 1958). Plus we'll hear more of his radio performances that show off his range - as a killer in "Eight Steps to Murder" from Inner Sanctum (originally aired on CBS on June 4, 1946) and as a spy on a daring mission in "Confidential Agent" from Escape (originally aired on CBS on April 2, 1949).

We say goodbye to Herbert Marshall - one of the most frequent guest stars on Suspense. Marshall logged twenty appearances on "radio's outstanding theatre of thrills" between 1944 and 1959. He also starred in the 1940 audition show that helped to get Suspense a slot on the schedule. We'll hear him in a pair of those shows - an adaptation of Wilkie Collins' "The Dead Alive" (originally aired on CBS on March 9, 1953) and "The Long Shot," the story of a very deadly road trip (AFRS rebroadcast from February 9, 1958). Plus, we'll hear Marshall in his own radio series as The Man Called X - a debonair, globetrotting secret agent - in a pair of adventures (originally aired on NBC on January 13, 1951 and February 17, 1951).

In this bonus episode, I share my favorite Suspense shows starring William Bendix - the lovable lug of The Life of Riley and the Oscar-nominated character actor of Lifeboat, The Blue Dahlia, and more. He's a Runyonesque brawler turned detective in Raymond Chandler's "Pearls are a Nuisance" (originally aired on CBS on April 19, 1945), and an unwitting participant in a political blackmail scheme in "Three Faces at Midnight" (originally aired on CBS on February 27, 1947). Finally, Bendix is a safecracker who discovers his estranged son is eager to go into the family business in "The Gift of Jumbo Brannigan" (originally aired on CBS on March 1, 1951).

Born in Austria, Vanessa Brown and her family fled the Nazis and made their way to America where she soon found success on the Broadway stage and as a juvenile contestant on The Quiz Kids. She broke into films in the 1940s before returning to the stage, where she originated the iconic role made famous by Marilyn Monroe in the original production of The Seven Year Itch. We'll hear Ms. Brown in an adaptation of a classic urban legend of paranoia and deception - "The Vanishing Lady" (AFRS rebroadcast from April 7, 1957). Then, she goes undercover to catch her sister's killer in "Vamp Till Dead" (AFRS rebroadcast from September 29, 1957). Plus, she finds romance at sea in "It's a Date" from Hollywood Star Time (originally aired on CBS on January 11, 1947) and she discusses her career on screen and as a Quiz Kid in an excerpt from an episode from July 21, 1946.

British character actor Torin Thatcher made a name for himself as a Hollywood heavy in everything from seafaring adventures to magical fantasies. We'll hear him as a miner forced to return to the site of an accident where he was the only survivor in "The Digger" (originally aired on CBS on October 9, 1956). Plus, he plays Mark Anthony as CBS brings you a "live" report of "The Assassination of Julius Caesar" in You Are There (originally aired on CBS on April 24, 1949) and he's part of a terrific cast in a fascinating adaptation of fourteenth-century Japanese theatre in "Noh Plays of Japan" from The CBS Radio Workshop (originally aired on CBS on April 7, 1957).

We bid goodbye to Lee Bowman with his first and last appearances on Suspense. He co-stars with Walter Hampden and Susan Hayward in "The Dead Sleep Lightly" (originally aired on CBS on March 30, 1943) - the story of a man who places a call to a grave and hears the voice of the dead on the other end of the line. Then, Bowman is a man whose fiancee disappears off the face of the earth - or does she? - in "I Won't Take a Minute" (originally aired on CBS on December 6, 1945). Finally, Bowman plays one of America's most famous detectives in "The Pinkerton Man" from The Cavalcade of America (originally aired on NBC on November 18, 1946).

I won't be able to put together new episodes for the next two weeks, so I've decided to reach back into the "Stars on Suspense" archive and share some of my favorite "best of" collections. This week, it's a showcase of the comedians who showed a different side of their talents when they starred on Suspense in thrillers. First, Danny Kaye schemes to bump off a rival and steal his girl in "The Too-Perfect Alibi" (originally aired on CBS on January 13, 1949).  Then, Fibber McGee and Molly take a car trip with an uninvited passenger in "Backseat Driver" (originally aired on CBS on February 3, 1949) and Bob Hope tries to talk his way out of a date with a killer in "Death Has a Shadow" (originally aired on CBS on May 5, 1949). Finally, Milton Berle tries method acting as a way to beat a murder rap in "Rave Notice" (originally aired on CBS on October 12, 1950) and Eve Arden of Our Miss Brooks is a jilted woman with murder on her mind in "The Well-Dressed Corpse" (originally aired on CBS on January 18, 1951).

Tony Barrett was a very busy radio actor, with recurring and regular roles on The Adventures of Frank Race, Defense Attorney, and Tales of The Texas Rangers. He could also be heard in guest spots on all sorts of mysteries, westerns, and dramas. Barrett went on to a long and successful career as a writer, where - among other things - he developed the classic 60s/70s cop show The Mod Squad. We'll hear him in four of his starring turns on Suspense, beginning with "Give Me Liberty" (AFRS rebroadcast from March 29, 1955) where he's a fugitive trying desperately to lose a pair of handcuffs. Then he's a murderer who's recognized by a high school classmate in "Remember Me?" (AFRS rebroadcast from May 3, 1955). In "Over the Bounding Main" (AFRS rebroadcast from June 21, 1955), he tries to survive a boat trip from hell, and in "The Flame" (originally aired on CBS on May 29, 1956), he plays a pyromaniac who tries to put his skills to work and help a friend.

Donald Crisp took home on Oscar for his powerful performance in How Green Was My Valley, but that was just one notch on his belt during a long Hollywood career that stretched from the silent era to the 1960s and included stints as actor, producer, and director. We'll hear him in "Banquo's Chair" - the story of a Scotland Yard inspector with an ingenious method to catch a killer (originally aired on CBS on June 1, 1943). Then, Crisp is a psychiatrist who tries to discover what haunts a railroad tycoon in "Case History of Edgar Lowndes" (originally aired on CBS on June 8, 1944). Plus, he recreates his Academy Award-winning role in The Screen Guild Theatre (originally aired on CBS on March 22, 1942).

To celebrate 400 episodes of Stars on Suspense, I'm sharing five of my favorites from the first decade of "radio's outstanding theatre of thrills" - a star-studded showcase of classic chillers. First, Orson Welles wishes he only had a brain...and gets one with disasterous results in "Donovan's Brain," a two-part sci-fi/horror epic (originally aired on CBS on May 18 and May 25, 1944). Then, Robert Young isn't a father and he doesn't know best in "You'll Never See Me Again," a classic story from Cornell Woolrich (originally aired on CBS on September 5, 1946). Edward G. Robinson plays himself and "The Man Who Thought He Was Edward G. Robinson" in a comedic thriller (originally aired on CBS on September 30, 1948). Brian Donlevy is a psychiatrist whose new patient is a human lie detector in "Lazarus Walks" (originally aired on CBS on October 31, 1946). And finally, Lucille Ball is a crook who catches a bigger fish - a serial killer - in her trap in "A Little Piece of Rope" (originally aired on CBS on October 14, 1948).

We're ringing in 2025 with the great Frank Lovejoy in three radio thrillers, including a belated New Year's Eve story. First, he tries to talk an amateur pilot safely down to the ground in "The Long Night" (originally aired on CBS on July 13, 1958). Then, an unusual watch leads him to find a lot of time on his hands in "The Thirty-Second of December" (originally aired on CBS on December 28, 1958). Finally, he's a bank teller with the inside track to steal $100,000 from a safe deposit box in "Death in Box 234" (originally aired on CBS on March 15, 1959). Plus, we'll hear Lovejoy in an episode of his own outstanding radio drama Night Beat - a show known as "The Football Player and the Syndicate" (originally aired on NBC on June 12, 1950).

Before we sign off for the year, it's time for our annual presentation of a classic Christmas film recreated for radio. This year, it's the holiday romantic comedy Remember the Night, recreated with original stars Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray in a broadcast from The Lux Radio Theatre (originally aired on CBS on March 25, 1940).

Christmastime is here, and to celebrate I've got five Suspense seasonal stories that - in a departure from the usual fare on this podcast - all have happy endings! Eddie Cantor stars in a tale of clerical crime at Christmastime in "Double Entry" (originally aired on CBS on December 22, 1949), and Greer Garson joins a little girl in her long wait in "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" (originally aired on CBS on December 21, 1953). Jack Kruschen plans to rub out a rival gangster with an explosive Christmas gift in "A Present for Benny" (originally aired on CBS on December 13, 1955). A little girl wants a dog for Christmas and gets one in the strangest way possible in "Dog Star" (originally aired on CBS on December 22, 1957), and a soldier gives a buddy a ride to remember in "A Korean Christmas Carol" (originally aired on CBS on December 20, 1959).

Herbert Marshall is back for Christmas! He stars in John Collier's tale of holly jolly homicide "Holiday Story" (originally aired on CBS on December 23, 1948), and he plays a naval officer whose fast thinking changes the course of history in "The Man Who Won the War" (originally aired on CBS on October 5, 1958). Plus, we'll hear him in an episode of his own radio spy adventure series The Man Called X. It's a holiday tale known as "From a Starlit Hill" (originally aired on NBC on December 23, 1950).

Best known as the kindly attorney who takes on Kris Kringle's case in Miracle on 34th Street, John Payne starred in crime dramas, westerns, and adventures on the big screen and as a TV gunslinger in The Restless Gun. We'll hear him as a small town police chief with a big-time mystery on his hands in Dashiell Hammett's "Two Sharp Knives" (originally aired on CBS on June 7, 1945). Plus, he recreates his celebrated movie role as the Lux Radio Theatre presents "Miracle on 34th Street," also featuring Maureen O'Hara and Edmund Gwenn (originally aired on CBS on December 20, 1948).

It's another TV-radio crossover as we hear four Suspense stars who also played murderers on the classic detective series Columbo: Anne Baxter ("Requiem for a Fallen Star") in "The Death of Barbara Allen" (originally aired on CBS on October 20, 1952); Richard Basehart ("Dagger of the Mind") in "The Perfectionist" (originally aired on CBS on January 21, 1952); Jose Ferrer ("Mind Over Mayhem") in "The Pit and the Pendulum" (originally aired on CBS on November 27, 1947); and two-time Columbo guest star Ray Milland (killer in "The Greenhouse Jungle" and the victim's husband in "Death Lends a Hand") in "Chicken Feed" (originally aired on CBS on September 8, 1949) and "After the Movies" (originally aired on CBS on December 7, 1950).

Ruth Hussey picked up an Oscar nomination for her performance as a cyncial photographer in The Philadelphia Story, and she had a long career on the big and small screens, as well as on the Broadway stage. We'll hear as the wife of a pilot who's moments away from a catastrophe in the sky in "Firing Run" (AFRS rebroadcast from November 3, 1957). Plus, she recreates her Philadelphia Story role with many of her co-stars in a special "Victory Theatre" war bond fundraiser from The Lux Radio Theatre (originally aired on CBS on July 20, 1942).

Character actress Eve McVeagh was a regular presence on the Broadway stage, the big screen, and on TV for over five decades, and during her career she starred in everything from High Noon to Petticoat Junction. We'll hear her as a woman whose auction purchase comes loaded with trouble in "Going, Going, Gone" (originally aired on CBS on May 10, 1955) and as part of a film crew who discovers real-life outlaws in a western ghost town in "Hollywood Hostages" (originally aired on CBS on February 21, 1956). Plus, we'll hear her as one of history's most infamous poisoners in "The Seven-Layered Cake of Madame Lafarge" from Crime Classics (originally aired on CBS on October 14, 1953).

In this bonus episode, I'm sharing my favorite Suspense shows starring the great James Mason. The smooth, polished star of Lolita, North by Northwest, and The Veil plays crooks, cops, and a man whose guilt or innocence may never be known for sure. We'll hear "Where There's a Will" (originally aired on CBS on February 24, 1949), "Banquo's Chair" (originally aired on CBS on March 9, 1950), "The Greatest Thief in the World" (originally aired on CBS on June 21, 1951), and "Odd Man Out" (originally aired on CBS on February 11, 1952).

Herbert Marshall returns to the podcast in two old time radio thrillers - a pair of shows where he plays a coward and a man unafraid of death who find their worldviews challenged in critical moments. He stars in an adaptation of Graham Greene's "The Man Within" (originally aired on CBS on April 27, 1953) and in "Action" (originally aired on CBS on October 5, 1953). Plus, we'll hear him as globe-trotting secret agent Ken Thurston, aka The Man Called X (originally aired on NBC on May 4, 1951).

Just in time for trick-or-treating, here are my picks for the scariest stories to ever air on "radio's outstanding theater of thrills." Orson Welles takes a long drive with an uninvited guest in "The Hitch-hiker" (originally aired on CBS on September 2, 1942), and Robert Taylor soon regrets moving into "The House in Cypress Canyon" (originally aired on CBS on December 5, 1946). Ralph Edwards goes on a "Ghost Hunt" (originally aired on CBS on June 23, 1949) and Cary Grant picks a bad spot to run out of gas in "On a Country Road" (originally aired on CBS on November 16, 1950). Finally, Vincent Price faces off against an army of rats in "Three Skeleton Key" (originally aired on CBS on November 11, 1956).

With Halloween right around the corner, I'm sharing some classic episodes of Suspense featuring some of the biggest stars of classic Hollywood horror: Peter Lorre in "Till Death Do Us Part" (originally aired on CBS on December 15, 1942); Bela Lugosi in "The Doctor Prescribed Death" (originally aired on CBS on February 16, 1943); Boris Karloff in "Drury's Bones" (originally aired on CBS on January 25, 1945); Claude Rains and Vincent Price in "The Hands of Mr. Ottermole" (originally aired on CBS on December 2, 1948); and Price again in "The Pit and the Pendulum" (originally aired on CBS on November 19, 1957).

Best known as the "Control Voice" that opened each episode of The Outer Limits, Vic Perrin was all over the dial during the golden age of radio. He was a regular resident of Dodge City on Gunsmoke, he frequently encountered Sgt. Joe Friday on Dragnet, and he co-starred with Raymond Burr on Fort Laramie. We'll hear him as a reporter who has a rendezvous with a killer in "The Lady in the Red Hat" (originally aired on CBS on August 30, 1955). Then, he's a trapeze artist with love and murder on his mind in "Gallardo" (originally aired on CBS on March 20, 1956). And he's a postmaster who has to intercept a time-bomb sent through the mail in "Fragile - Contents Death" (originally aired on CBS on May 22, 1956). Plus, we'll hear him in "Sergeant Gorse's Baby," an episode of Fort Laramie (originally aired on CBS on May 29, 1956).

Character actor John McIntire - who rode the range on Wagon Train and the mean streets of the city in a squad car on Naked City - returns to the podcast for his third starring appearance. McIntire plays a car enthusiast who takes his antique on a 500 mile tour in "The Big Day" (originally aired on CBS on May 26, 1957) and a convict who's crafted a seemingly perfect plan to escape from prison in "Rain Tonight" (originally aired on CBS on June 29, 1958). Plus, he's the host and emcee of "Report on E.S.P." - a docudrama from The CBS Radio Workshop (originally aired on CBS on March 9, 1956).

Eva Le Gallienne was a legend of the American stage - not only for her performances on Broadway but for her support of the development of off-Broadway and regional theatrical companies across the country. She made only one appearance on Suspense in "Phobia" (originally aired on CBS on June 26, 1947), where she played a wealthy wheelchair-bound woman with a fear of metal, a kleptomaniac sister, and a corpse in the house. Then she plays one of theatre's richest and most complex villainesses as Lady MacBeth in "MacBeth" from Great Plays (originally aired on NBC on July 12, 1953).

June Havoc - actress, singer, and younger sister of Gypsy Rose Lee - returns to the podcast in a sixty-minute adaptation of Cornell Woolrich's "The Black Angel" (originally aired on CBS on January 24, 1948). She plays a woman who plays detective to clear her husband of murder, only to get close to the man who may be the real killer. Then, she recreates one of her big screen roles opposite George Raft in a Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of "Intrigue" (originally aired on CBS on May 10, 1948).

We'll turn on the TV this week with three radio thrillers featuring future television stars. Before he was Bart Maverick, Jack Kelly led the frantic search for a deadly snake on a boat in "A Shipment of Mute Fate" (originally aired on CBS on January 6, 1957). Beloved TV mom June Lockhart of Lassie and Lost in Space is an actress who's had enough poor treatment at the hands of a producer in "Shooting Star" (originally aired on CBS on March 24, 1957). And Richard Anderson, who'd later give orders to the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman, plays an inexperienced cavalry officer who's too eager for action in "Command" (originally aired on CBS on September 14, 1958).

To the Batcave! In this bonus episode, we'll hear five Suspense stars who played Gotham City bad guys opposite Adam West and Burt Ward on Batman. We'll hear Vincent Price (Egghead) and Ida Lupino (Dr. Cassandra Spellcraft) in "Fugue in C Minor" (originally aired on CBS on June 1, 1944), Roddy McDowall (Bookworm) in "One Way Street" (originally aired on CBS on January 23, 1947), Anne Baxter (Zelda the Great, and Olga, Queen of the Cossacks) in "Always Room at the Top" (originally aired on CBS on February 20, 1947), Van Johnson (The Minstrel) in "The Defense Rests" (originally aired on CBS on October 6, 1949), and Milton Berle (Louie the Lilac) in "Rave Notice" (originally aired on CBS on October 25, 1950).

John Dickson Carr - one of the giants of the golden age of mystery fiction - penned dozens of scripts in the early years of Suspense with stories ranging from historical crime drama to international espionage to good old fashioned murders. We'll hear a tale of spies and sorcery in "The Lord of the Witch Doctors" (originally aired on CBS on October 27, 1942) and of a sabotage plot exposed in Madame Toussaud's in "Menace in Wax" (originally aired on CBS on November 17, 1942). Carr takes us back to London in the early 1800s when you could earn a living robbing graves in "The Body Snatchers" (originally aired on CBS on November 24, 1942), and an Italian honeymoon could turn into a funeral in "The Bride Vanishes" (originally aired on CBS on December 1, 1942).

In this bonus episode, we salute some of the singers who stepped up to the Suspense microphone and traded trills for thrills. Lena Horne is caught up in wartime espionage in "You Were Wonderful" (originally aired on CBS on November 9, 1944), and Frank Sinatra is the handyman from hell in "To Find Help" (AFRS rebroadcast from January 18, 1945). Ezio Pinza is an opera singer who leaves them dead in the aisles in "Aria from Murder" (originally aired on CBS on January 25, 1951), and Dinah Shore sings and stars in the tale of "Frankie and Johnny" (originally aired on CBS on May 5, 1952). Rosemary Clooney headlines a bloody tale of the Roaring Twenties in "St. James Infirmary Blues" (originally aired on CBS on February 23, 1953) and Ethel Merman is a cabaret singer who takes the wrong newcomer under her wing in "Never Follow a Banjo Act" (originally aired on CBS on February 1, 1954). Finally, Margaret Whiting is a sharp dressed woman with murder on her mind in "The Well-Dressed Corpse" (AFRS rebroadcast from October 13, 1957).

Best known to radio fans as Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve's on again/off again fiancee, Shirley Mitchell had a long career on the air and the big and small screens. We'll hear her meet a man and his knife in "Blind Date" (originally aired on CBS on November 18, 1954). Plus, she's Leila Ransom opposite Harold Peary in The Great Gildersleeve (originally aired on NBC on September 26, 1943).

The great character actor John Dehner signs off with his final starring role on Suspense. He plays a husband and father who tries to keep his family safe after an armed fugitive breaks into their home in "Strange for a Killer" (originally aired on CBS on September 6, 1955). Plus, we'll hear him as the narrator in one of the best (and scariest) Suspense episodes - "Zero Hour" (originally aired on CBS on April 5, 1955). We'll also hear Dehner in his two signature western radio roles: the Frontier Gentleman ("Aces and Eights" - originally aired on CBS on April 20, 1958) and Paladin in the radio version of Have Gun, Will Travel ("Strange Vendetta" - originally aired on CBS on November 23, 1958).

Happy Birthday, Hitch! This month, we celebrate the birthday of the big screen master of suspense with the audition recording for The Alfred Hitchcock Show - a series that would have featured the director as narrator of thrillers and chillers. Joseph Kearns stars in an adaptation of "Malice Aforethought," hosted and narrated by Alfred Hitchcock.

A busy character actor on the big and small screens, Sam Edwards was also a versatile radio performer. Even in his 30s, he could still play teens - to comedic effect on Meet Corliss Archer or in dramas like Gunsmoke and Dragnet. But he was also effective at playing adults in shows all around the dial, including Suspense. We'll hear him as man on the run, accused of murder and without shoes, in "Too Hot to Live" (originally aired on CBS on June 29, 1954). Then, he stars in a tense tale of Russian roulette - "The Game" (AFRS rebroadcast from March 15, 1955). Finally, Edwards plays a jealous man who plots revenge against his boss and the woman they both love in "This Will Kill You" (originally aired on CBS on November 29, 1955).

Radio, TV, and big screen star Frank Lovejoy returns to the podcast in a trio of stories that show off his talents as well as the variety of tales that Suspense could tell. First, he's a human guinea pig (and co-stars with his wife, Joan Banks) in an experiment to expand his senses in "Man from Tomorrow" (AFRS rebroadcast from September 1, 1957). Next, Mr. and Mrs. Lovejoy star in the story of a bookkeeper who owes a pile of money to his bookie - "Win, Place, or Die" (AFRS rebroadcast from April 13, 1958), and he tries to save the woman he loves from a forced marriage in "Affair at Aden" (AFRS rebroadcast from September 28, 1958). Plus, we'll hear Lovejoy in his own radio series as Chicago reporter Randy Stone in "The City at Your Fingertips" from Night Beat (originally aired on NBC on July 31, 1950).

Vivi Janiss was one of the radio era's most versatile and talented actresses, and she lent her voice to roles in comedies, westerns, thrillers, and everything in between. We'll hear her on a long car ride with her husband and an armed fugitive in "Backseat Driver" (originally aired on CBS on July 19, 1955), and she plays the wife of a man about to be executed in "Waiting" (originally aired on CBS on October 2, 1956). Plus, she appears in a dual role as a pair of twin sisters at the center of a mystery in "The Dancing Hands" from The Adventures of Philip Marlowe (originally aired on CBS on March 19, 1949).

We bid a fond farewell to actor, director, and occasional Suspense host Robert Montgomery. In addition to acting as emcee and narrator, Montgomery plays a man who may (or may not) be the homicidal maniac stalking the streets of London in "The Lodger" (originally aired on CBS on February 14, 1948). Plus, he recreates his big screen role of Philip Marlowe in "Lady in the Lake" from The Lux Radio Theatre (originally aired on CBS on February 9, 1948).

Character Walter Abel began his career in Eugene O'Neill stage dramas in the 1920s and he worked steadily on the big and small screens all the way through the 1980s. We'll hear him as a bank employee who wants to add some fun - and some ill-gotten gains - to his life in "Quiet Desperation" (originally aired on CBS on August 7, 1947). Plus, he co-stars in a radio version of "Double Indemnity" from The Lady Esther Screen Guild Theatre (originally aired on CBS on March 5, 1945) and "I Spy Sister Sarri," a drama from Theatre 5 (originally aired on ABC on July 27, 1965).

We bid goodbye to the "First Lady of Suspense" as Agnes Moorehead stars in three old time radio thrillers. First, she plays a high school teacher who tries to save her student from a grisly end behind the wheel of a hot rod in "The Empty Chair" (originally aired on CBS on September 21, 1953). Then, Ms. Moorehead plays a mother who's a little too close to her adult son and who grows very upset when he introduces her to his fiancee in "Don't Call Me Mother" (originally aired on CBS on January 4, 1959). And - in the final episode of Suspense produced in Hollywood - she plays a patient who plans to end her relationship with her psychiatrist with a bullet in "Headshrinker" (originally aired on CBS on August 23, 1959).

In this bonus episode, I'm sharing my favorite Suspense shows from the 18 appearances Joseph Cotten made on the program. The star of Shadow of a Doubt and The Third Man plays both heroes and villains across these six episodes. First, he's searching for his missing wife in "You'll Never See Me Again" (originally aired on CBS on September 14, 1944), and he's hunted by J. Carrol Naish in "The Most Dangerous Game" (originally aired on CBS on February 1, 1945). After an impulsive murder, Cotten has to reverse engineer an alibi in "Crime Without Passion" (originally aired on CBS on May 2, 1946), and he's haunted by a corpse no one else can see in "The Thing in the Window" (originally aired on CBS on December 19, 1946). A case of mistaken identity and a long-suffering wife have Cotten in the vise in "The Day I Died" (originally aired on June 30, 1949), and he's got to clear his name after he confesses to a murder he didn't commit in "Fly By Night" (originally aired on CBS on September 28, 1950).

As a contract player for Warner Brothers and Fox, Mark Stevens starred in film noir and dramas alongside the likes of Lucille Ball and Richard Widmark. But even though he was hailed as one of the most promising new stars of Hollywood, his career never really took off. We'll hear Stevens in his one and only appearance on Suspense; he plays a man who walks into the wrong house and into a murder in "Tree of Life" (originally aired on CBS on January 2, 1947). Plus, he recreates one of his screen roles as The Lux Radio Theatre presents The Dark Corner (originally aired on CBS on November 10, 1947).

Suspense takes some rare trips into the otherworldly realms of science fiction in this bonus episode. John McIntire is a mad scientist with an equally mad experiment in "Donovan's Brain" (originally aired on CBS on Februay 7, 1948), and Jack Benny is a one-man welcoming committee on Mars in "Plan X" (originally aired aired on CBS on February 2, 1953). Two Ray Bradbury stories come to radio life in "Zero Hour" (originally aired on CBS on April 5, 1955) and "Kaleidoscope" (originally aired on CBS on July 12, 1955). A test pilot returns with a warning from space in "The Outer Limit" (originally aired on CBS on March 17, 1957), and an average Joe has to convince aliens not to destroy Earth in "You Died Last Night" (originally aired on CBS on April 1, 1962).

Helen Walker's Hollywood career was short and marked by an offscreen tragedy, but she made memorable appearances in comedies and dramas opposite co-stars like Fred MacMurray and Tyrone Power. We'll hear her opposite John Beal in "Deadline at Dawn" - the final hour-long episode of Suspense (originally aired on CBS on May 15, 1948). Then she reprises her big screen role as The Old Gold Comedy Theatre presents Brewster's Millions (originally aired on NBC on March 25, 1945).

In this bonus episode, I'm sharing my favorite Suspense shows starring Gene Kelly. The star of Singin' in the Rain doesn't sing or dance, but instead he shows off his dramatic chops in three radio thrillers. First, he's stalked on the highway in "Death Went Along For the Ride" (originally aired on CBS on April 27, 1944), and then he's a man whose sudden lucky streak just may help him get away with murder in "The Man Who Couldn't Lose" (originally aired on CBS on September 28, 1944). And finally, he's a deranged man who menaces an old woman who made the mistake of hiring him as a handyman in "To Find Help" (originally aired on CBS on January 6, 1949).