Stars on Suspense (Old Time Radio)

Latest Episodes:

Episode 366 - Dan Dailey Jan 20, 2024

Show notes

Dan Dailey shed his musical comedy persona for his two appearances on Suspense. The Oscar nominee and Golden Globe winner starred as a pair of men caught in deadly love triangles, First, he's a carnival performer who spends his days buried alive in a glass coffin while his wife and his barker get closer in "Six Feet Under" (originally aired on CBS on April 13, 1950). Then, he boards a chartered fishing boat only to discover his wife and the captain have plans for a surprise burial at sea in "Over the Bounding Main" (originally aired on CBS on September 14, 1950).

Episode 365 - Lillian Gish Jan 11, 2024

Show notes

In addition to being an amazing actress, Lillian Gish pioneered the craft of film acting - the more nuanced performance choices that a camera could capture vs. the broad techniques designed to reach the back of a theatre. Her career stretched from the silent era all the way to the late 1980s, and along the way she starred in films made by D.W. Griffith and stared down Robert Mitchum in The Night of the Hunter. We'll hear her in "Marry for Murder" (originally aired on CBS on September 9, 1943). Then, we'll hear her as a guest panelist in two episodes of Information Please (a partial recording of an episode from October 25, 1938 and another show from July 4, 1939).

BONUS - Silver Bells, Silver Screen 2023 Dec 24, 2023

Show notes

We close out 2023 with a break from radio thrillers. Instead, it's our annual showcase of a classic Christmas film recreated for radio. This year, it's one of the best as James Stewart and Donna read recreate their roles as George and Mary Bailey in a Lux Radio Theatre recreation of It's a Wonderful Life (originally aired on CBS on March 10, 1947).

Episode 364 - Jack Kruschen Dec 22, 2023

Show notes

Jack Kruschen earned an Oscar nod for his performance as Jack Lemmon's kindly and concerned neighbor in The Apartment, but before that he was a busy and very versatile radio performer. With a knack for accents and dialects, it wasn't uncommon for Kruschen to play multiple roles in the same thirty minutes. We'll hear him as a gangster who prepares an explosive Christmas gift for a rival in "A Present for Benny" (originally aired on CBS on December 14, 1955). Then, he's a nightclub mind reader who tries to use his powers to find the man who killed his wife in "With Murder in Mind" (originally aired on CBS on June 24, 1962). Plus, as a holiday bonus, we'll hear an adaptation of "Back for Christmas" from Escape (originally aired on CBS on December 24, 1947).

BONUS - Season's Greetings from Suspense Dec 20, 2023

Show notes

We're back! And with Christmas right around the corner, I'm sharing my favorite holiday stories from "radio's outstanding theater of thrills." Peter Lorre has a killer idea for a present for his wife in "Back for Christmas" (originally aired on CBS on December 23, 1943) and Dennis Day turns to crime on Christmas Eve to save his family in "Christmas for Carol" (originally aired on CBS on December 21, 1950). Two boys share a Christmas adventure when they explore "The Cave" (originally aired on CBS on December 20, 1955), and Raymond Burr is a Santa Claus looking for revenge on the man who sent him to prison in "Out for Christmas" (originally aired on CBS on December 21, 1958). Finally, a ghost is on the scene to help an ex-con keep a Christmas promise to a dying man in "Yuletide Miracle" (originally aired on CBS on December 17, 1961).

Episode 363 - Frank Lovejoy (Part 5) Nov 30, 2023

Show notes

Frank Lovejoy joins our five-timer's club and flies the unfriendly skies in a pair of thrillers involving pilots and their dangerous flight plants. First, he's overseeing the first flight of an experimental plane whose pilot returns with a warning from beyond the stars in "The Outer Limit" (originally aired on CBS on March 17, 1957). Then, Lovejoy plays a pilot who commits a cross-country murder and plans a perfect alibi with a fast flight home in "Jet Stream" (originally aired on CBS on December 1, 1957). Finally, we'll hear him in an outing from Escape where he's offered a fortune in exchange for a murder in "A Letter from Jason" (originally aired on CBS on November 29, 1949).

Note: Still no intro - fingers crossed I'll be back on the air next time!

Episode 362 - Alan Baxter Nov 22, 2023

Show notes

Alan Baxter made a name for himself playing dangerous characters on screen - moody men on the wrong side of the law. He turned to television as film roles dried up in the postwar years, and he was busy on the small screen up through the 1970s. In his one and only visit to Suspense, Baxter played a bank teller with an elaborate plan to get away with robbery in "Money Talks" (originally aired on CBS on July 3, 1947). We'll also hear Mr. Baxter in two more thrillers: "Make No Mistake" from The Mollé Mystery Theatre (originally aired on NBC on April 30, 1948) and "Law of the Jungle" from the syndicated series Crime Does Not Pay.

Note: No intro this week; allergy season claimed my voice again but hopefully I'll be back soon!

Episode 361 - John McIntire (Part 2) Nov 16, 2023

Show notes

Veteran character actor John McIntire is back in the spotlight in two episodes of Suspense. First, he's a promising poet who suddenly becomes a killer in the sixty-minute production of "House by the River" (originally aired on CBS on February 28, 1948). Then, McIntire is a father desperate to keep his son out of an institution in "John Barbie and Son" (AFRS rebroadcast, originally aired on CBS on March 29, 1959).

Episode 360 - Ray Bradbury (Part 3) Nov 09, 2023

Show notes

It's a radio short story collection with four tales from the great Ray Bradbury - including one of his terrifying tales that became one of the scariest episodes of Suspense. Agnes Moorehead stars in "The Whole Town's Sleeping" (originally aired on CBS on August 31, 1958). Next, Richard Widmark stars in Bradbury's crime drama "Killer, Come Back to Me" from The Mollé Mystery Theatre (originally aired on NBC on May 17, 1946). Nelson Olmstead reads Bradbury's "The Night" (originally aired on NBC on August 20, 1947), and Radio City Playhouse presents "The Lake" (originally aired on NBC on October 16, 1949). Plus - after "The Lake," an adaptation of Roald Dahl's suspenseful classic "Man from the South" - presented on Radio City Playhouse as "Collector's Item."

Episode 359 - Antony Ellis Nov 02, 2023

Show notes

Antony Ellis wrote and starred in episodes of Suspense before he became the show's director. From 1954 to 1958, Ellis had the reins of "radio's outstanding theater of thrills" and steered the program into the realm of science fiction with adaptations of stories by Ray Bradbury as well as his own stories of fantasy and horror. We'll hear him starring in "Telling," the story of a man desperate to confess to murder (originally aired on CBS on July 20, 1954). Then, he's writer, producer, and director of "I Saw Myself Running," a surreal thriller about a woman haunted by nightmares even when she's awake (originally aired on CBS on May 24, 1955). Finally, we'll hear an episode of Frontier Gentleman - Ellis' outstanding drama about an English newspaper reporter covering the wild west. John Dehner stars as J.B. Kendall in "Aces and Eights" (originally aired on CBS on April 20, 1958).

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