SUSPENSE

One of the longest running and most successful radio series ever produced, Suspense employed some of Hollywood's foremost actors to bring its riveting stories to life. Extremely well produced and directed, Suspense represents the pinnacle of the medium. Over 900 episodes were broadcast between 1942 and 1962. The majority were crime dramas, but the producers often ventured into the Science Fiction, Adventure, and Horror genres as well. Unless otherwise noted, all shows were half- hour format.

WEBMASTER RECOMMENDS:
The Black Door; A Strange Day in May; 2462; The Hitch-hiker; The House in Cypress Canyon; Return Trip; Door of Gold

An actor takes a room in a boarding house and soon begins to have visions in his dreams about the room's former inhabitant, who cries out for his help in solving her disappearance.

In an overpopulated dystopian future, a poet is sentenced to death for the unspeakable crime of being superfluous and obsolete.

Reviews:
Surprisingly good for a late episode. The atmosphere is flawless. - Seth Gaines

Enjoyed this episode very much - perhaps because it was very similar to one of my favorite Twilight Zone shows, where Burgess Meredith is sentenced to die for the crime of being an obsolete librarian in a future that has burned all its books. Who knows, perhaps that show may have inspired this one. - Ed Corbeil

A nogoodnik hocks his wife's jewelry in return for a watch with the uncanny ability to reset time to its own reckoning. Perhaps he has finally found a way to make crime pay. What could possibly go wrong when you control time itself? Lots....

Reviews:
A fun cautionary tale. Reminded me of the poor man in the old Twilight Zone episode who had 'all the time in the world'. -Seth Gaines

A man has vivid dreams of his friendship with Alexander Hamilton, and of his upcoming duel with Aaron Burr. Story by James Thurber.

Reviews:
It starts off rather funny, but gets pretty creepy as Aaron Burr harasses the man in his dreams, and he prepares for a duel to avenge his friend, Hamilton. -- Seth Gaines

On Christmas Eve during the Korean War, a soldier hitches a ride on a truck driven by a mysterious soldier with a special delivery to make.

Reviews:
An enjoyable episode, it's almost a reverse of the old 'hitch-hiking prom queen' story. - Seth Gaines

A trapper connives the captain of a passenger ship into allowing the transport of a bushmaster-- the world's deadliest snake-- with predictable consequences.

A 19th century prison hulk delivering convicts to the penal colony of Australia is endangered when the desperate prisoners decide to stage a revolt.

An astronaut returns from space to find the world has somehow changed in his absence.

Two men trapped for the winter at a remote research station in the Arctic Circle must contend against each other as well as the elements.

Following a stroke, a wealthy financier decides to climb an unassailable glacier in the Swiss Alps.

A recitation of Lewis Carroll leads a southern lawyer into a Balkan assassination plot.

Reviews:
Taut and suspenseful, the final action took me completely by surprise.- Seth Gaines

Story of a doomed voyage to uncover the mystery of Franklin's famous lost expedition. The rescue ship becomes icebound, and the crew face the prospect of enduring the brutal Arctic winter.

On a scorching London day, an artist feels compelled to sketch a man he has never seen before. Later, taking a walk, he encounters the man carving a tombstone with the artist's own name on it.

Suspense produced two versions of this story, one with Ronald Coleman, and the other with Hans Conreid.

Reviews:
Great story. Definitely one of the top shows ever done for Suspense. The incidental music is fantastic, and makes the whole thing ten times as eerie. The Hans Conreid version was part of an hour show, and was apparently a lesser effort. -Seth Gaines

A renowned prosecutor is determined to catch the only murderer who ever evaded his litigation, with the aid of an unusual ally--- the shade of his target's victim.

Reviews:
A very good episode, with a very slimy villain, and a great ending.- Seth Gaines

A teacher on a cruise receives a message from a dying sailor, and is menaced by those who wish to hear it.

Reviews:
Average spy thriller, but the final twist did surprise me.- Seth Gaines

A couple rent a quaint country home, but very quickly find themselves beset by phone calls from a ghostly source demanding that they leave.

A couple stranded on the road in a storm seek shelter at a remote castle where a mad scientist waits for a human subject on whom to test the destructive potential of his death ray. Sheesh!

A legendary lost Mayan city of gold becomes a death trap for two men who discover its location - and a horror beyond description lurking in its depths.

A medical student studying anatomy gets entangled with murderers and psychos in order to attain the cadavers he needs to complete his studies. Adapted by John Dickson Carr from the story by Robert Louis Stevenson.

A shooting victim in Sweden relates a warning about a spy within the American nuclear weapons program. Federal agents must rout him out before he gives everything away to the Russians. Based on a true story.

A spy traveling cross-country by bus exchanges military and government secrets with foreign agents.

A look into the lives of US cavalry troopers on a search and rescue mission into hostile Sioux territory.

An adventurer discovers a strange valley in remotest South America whose inhabitants have evolved without sight. When he falls in love with a local girl, the locals want to make him blind too. Story by H.G. Wells.

Two versions were produced for Suspense, six for the BBC, and three for Escape ; other versions appeared on Favorite Story (as 'Strange Valley'), and on CBS Radio Mystery Theater (as 'Search for Eden').

A miserly tycoon scoffs at his nephew's intention to squander family money on an archaeological expedition to Egypt, even going so far as to disinherit him. However, he learns the price of his narrow views when the young man sends him a mummy's bone in the mail, along with an ancient curse.

A disillusioned correspondent photographs a man in a bar, and must discover why his subject reacts so violently.

Reviews:
Corny propaganda for the consumption of the victorious American public.-Seth Gaines

Before dying, a father insists on a bell being installed in his tomb in the event he needs 'help'. His son-in-law sees it as evidence of the old man's senility - until the bell starts ringing....

A version of this story originally appeared in the 1940's series Creeps By Night.

When an Irishman has trouble renting out an inherited manor, he must contend with the ghost of an ancestor.

Reviews:
The last show of the series. It didn't go out with a bang, but a workmanlike effort. - Seth Gaines

Scott's expedition to the South Pole meets with disappointment when they find that Amundsen made it first. But that pales in comparison to the wretched time they have on the return trip.

Reviews:
A grimly realistic portrayal of men who know their time is running out. - Seth Gaines

A washed up miner is called back to the scene of the disaster many blame him for, to mine a vein in defiance of a native taboo.

Reviews:
A good adventure story in the Conrad tradition; the ending is especially powerful. - Seth Gaines

A rare 2-part 1 hour episode. Following a fatal car accident, a vicious tycoon's brain is kept alive by an ambitious scientist, who is certain that his technique will save countless lives. Unfortunately, this brain does not have such philanthropic inclinations.

Reviews:
Creepy, creepy, creepy! Listening to the man mumble "Sure, sure, sure" sent chills down my spine. One of the top shows for this series, if not any series.- Seth Gaines

A scientist working on harnessing solar power and irritated by emotional distractions, creates a robot to help him, with the usual unfortunate consequences.

Reviews:
Fun old sci-fi story with whizzing machinery, crackling electricity, etc. - Seth Gaines

A couple penetrate a deep Incan tomb, considered sacred by the locals, and soon find themselves betrayed by their guide and sealed in. To escape they must navigate their way through booby traps and deadly pitfalls to reach a distant exit.

Reviews:
An engaging episode, full of action a la Raiders of the Lost Ark; Scads o' fun. - Webmaster

H.P. Lovecraft tale about a 'thing' conjured up by a deformed outcast which feeds only on massive amounts of blood.

Reviews:
A very disturbing tale, the monster effects are especially good for the time.- Seth Gaines

The experience of a flight crew on a bombing mission during the Korean War. Stars Fred McMurray.

A salvage crew helping to rescue ships in the English Channel during the war inadvertently takes on a Nazi saboteur.

An eccentric scientist's preoccupation with the paranormal may be a headache for government officials, but it comes in useful when he is kidnapped by an enemy agent.

A much abridged version of the classic story by Mary Shelley. Doctor Frankenstein creates life, but his friend, a cleric, insists that he destroy it.

Reviews:
Given that they couldn't possibly cover the entire story in 30 minutes, it manages to be interesting and coherent. - Seth Gaines

Ida Lupino plays a debutante looking to marry a recently widowed socialite in early 20th century Philadelphia. She learns that his home has been built around a giant pipe organ that can be heard, and felt, throughout the house. Disturbing events begin to occur when his two children return from boarding school and speak of what might be hidden in those giant pipes... also stars Vincent Price.

Reviews:
A+ for production. The sound effects convey the time period perfectly and the acting is first class. The storyline is eerie and you're not sure if it's a ghost story or a crime drama until the last couple of minutes. Price is the perfect charming widower and reserved lunatic. -Gary Zech

The story is good, but Vincent Price is fantastic and the sound effects are tremendous. Sometimes, the right actor can make all the difference and that's the case here. - Clarence Grigsby

In Kenya, a neophyte trophy hunter causes trouble for the native guide and the professional hunter he's hired when he merely wounds a lion. While attempting to finish it off, the professional feels fear for the first time on a hunt.

As a publicity stunt, a disc jockey teams up with a psychic investigator to stay the night in a haunted house where four suicides have been committed and wins up getting more than he bargained for.

A shipwreck lying in a fragile undersea gully hoards a fortune in gold - for anyone fool enough to try and retrieve it. Based on a true story.

A couple touring in Mecca insist on purchasing a souvenir in the form of a small green idol, over the vehement objections of the vendor, who warns them the statuette carries with it the 'curse of Ramkar'.

Reviews:
A somewhat annoying episode for the racial stereotyping and lack of any knowledge of the locale displayed by the writer. Mecca is a Muslim-only city, forbidden to Western tourists and Hindu street vendors alike. The plot - such as it is - offers nothing a hundred other hackneyed stories about cursed idols do. - Ed Corbeil

A down-and-out pulp writer finds himself distracted from his work by the uncanny singing of the woman in the apartment above him. Intrigued, he ventures up to meet her, but her hostile hubby claims she has been dead for many years.

Heads, You Lose Super Science

A private detective is hired to find a very ill man who vanished years ago. He is surely dead, so how has he contacted his attorney?

Reviews:
A very good show, especially since it's one of the later episodes, which I usually find fairly weak. Good sci-fi suspense. - Seth Gaines

A suburban family finds life takes a strange turn when 'something' crash lands in their backyard.

A fellow going on a cross country car trip keeps meeting up with the same pesky spectral hitchhiker that he has no intention of picking up. Starring Orson Welles. Story by Lucille Fletcher.

Reviews:
The show that got me into old radio. A real blood chiller, and a must-have for your collection.- Seth Gaines

Sometimes, late at night, I take a drive through the country while I play my tape of this episode and I always have it in the car for long trips. A really good thriller. - Clarence Grigsby

A couple move into what seems an ideal house, except for one sealed closet from which strange animalistic sounds emanate, and blood runs out from under the door. Soon the closet begins to exert an uncanny influence on the wife. Stars Robert Taylor.

Reviews:
No Suspense collection is complete without this episode. One of the creepiest stories ever produced for radio. If this one doesn't keep you spellbound, nothing will. -- Webmaster

The scariest radio episode ever-- no contest, because I listened to this while driving during the daytime, and I was still scared stiff!-- David Hassell

Probably Suspense's greatest episode, 'The House In Cypress Canyon' is radio's all time scariest show (maybe next to Quiet, Please's 'The Thing On The Fourble Board'). If your looking for a chill, Hell, their ain't nothing scarier than 'The House In Cypress Canyon'. -- Luc L'Heureux

Wait for a dark, rainy night to turn out the lights and listen to this one! Absolutely frightening, the perfect scary radio show! - Clarence Grigsby

The Invisible Ape SF/ Super Science

A chimpanzee subject to experiments into invisibility escapes from the lab. One of the lab workers, a self-seeking ne'er-do-well, decides to go after it by making himself invisible as well. And while he's at it, why not grab a chance for a little petty larceny....?

When a young man's fiancee disappears while dropping off a parcel for her boss, he can't convince anyone that she even exists, let alone help him find out what has happened to her. Story by Cornell Woolrich.

A version of this story appeared on Escape as "Finger of Doom".

Reviews:
A good adaptation of a great story. Modifications to the resolution of the story to make it relevant to the post-war world weakened the story. The Escape version is superior, but this is good. - Geoff Loker

Ever suspect your kids are hiding something? Well, perhaps they are - like maybe a plot to take over the world...

When a meteor destroys a spaceship, its crew is hurled outward into space in a dozen directions. Their suit radios will keep them in contact range for only so long. What do men talk about when death seems imminent?

Versions of this story also appeared on Dimension X, Bradbury 13, and The Shape of Things to Come (BBC)

A woman must figure out if her husband murdered a prospective investor in order to get money to keep their dude ranch operating. Story by Cornell Woolrich.

Reviews:
A good adaptation of the original story. The ending was changed from the original, but Woolrich liked it well enough to rewrite the original story with the new ending. - Geoff Loker

A man whose near-death experience has left him with omniscience and a compulsion to speak out when he hears a lie, takes up residence with a doctor and his wife.

Two versions were made.

Reviews:
One of the typical mediocre early efforts. This has to be at least the tenth neurotic wife I've had to listen to. They really grate on my nerves. - Seth Gaines

An iron-willed South American plantation owner is determined to prevent a plague of army ants from overrunning his land.

Versions of this story appeared on Escape , Mystery in the Air; also as 'The Naked Jungle' (based on the movie of the same name) on Lux Radio Theater.

A young couple living in communist Czechoslovakia are inspired by western radio broadcasts to attempt a desperate escape through the Iron Curtain.

A true story about a British gunboat pinned down by Communist forces on the Yangtze river during the struggle between Mao and China's Nationalists. Stars Ray Milland.

The British consulate on Zanzibar is threatened by a German agent stirring up the natives of the mainland by posing as a powerful witch doctor. Story by John Dickson Carr.

Reviews:
The cartoonishly bad Germans had me rooting for them by the end of this propaganda piece. Sounds like it was made for broadcast in WWI, given the plot. - Seth Gaines

An ex-pilot answers an ad for volunteers to take part in sensory deprivation experiments to enhance ESP.

A member of the Soviet embassy in Mexico is told he is to be sent back because he is now considered a security risk. Since this almost certainly means a one-way ticket to a prison camp in Siberia, he plans to make an escape for freedom. Based on a true story. Starring William Powell.

Hungry for adventure, two soldiers venture beyond British India's North West Frontier in the hopes of founding their own private kingdom. Story by Rudyard Kipling.

A daydreamer in the park imagines a murder. He is then hired to help out at the murderer's vaudeville act. He becomes convinced that the man is now planning to murder his assistant.

Reviews:
A pretty decent episode, but the plot is a bit confusing. - Seth Gaines

An accident at a military nuclear test site threatens to detonate the bomb prematurely. Can the workers fix the problem before the countdown reaches zero?

Classic tale of a world renowned hunter who gets shipwrecked on an island owned by a madman who shares his passion for the hunt, except that he hunts only the most dangerous of game-- human beings. Two versions were made, one with Orson Welles, the other with Joseph Cotten.

Versions of this story also appeared on Escape , The Chase, Hollywood Star Time, and Arch Oboler's Plays.

An expedition to climb one of the tallest peaks in the world goes horribly wrong when one of the party is found murdered.

An insurance investigator suspects that his wife may be responsible for the string of arsons that have been plaguing the city recently. Story by Cornell Woolrich.

4 separate versions of this story were produced for Suspense; other versions appeared on Tonight's Best Story and Presenting Boris Karloff.

Reviews:
Good story, reasonably well done, but weakened by a change to the ending of the original story, which gave the story a new twist ending that unfortunately somewhat contradicts the rest of the story.- Geoff Loker

A Confederate saboteur hanged from a bridge by Union troops gets a reprieve when the rope snaps; can he evade the enemy's pursuit and reach home? Story by Ambrose Bierce.

At least two - perhaps three - versions were made for Suspense; Versions of this story also appeared on Escape and CBS Radio Mystery Theater

After becoming lost, a party of settlers is snowed in for the winter in the Rocky Mountains. When their food runs out, things get very ugly very fast. Based on a true story.

Reviews:
A powerful episode. Even though it makes no mention of the Donner party's use of 'long pig', it is still an awful and grim tale.- Seth Gaines

A test pilot on an experimental high altitude aircraft with only ten minutes worth of fuel disappears from radar for ten hours, yet returns safely. Of course, it is impossible, as is his story of contact with aliens and the dire warning they've asked him to deliver to Mankind.

Two versions of this story were made for Suspense. Versions also appeared on Escape, X Minus One , Dimension X, and Beyond Tomorrow .

Two men go in search a fabled lost diamond mine despite the stories of the unknown fates of previous expeditions, which the locals attribute to the ghost of a dead cavalry officer who guards the place against all intruders.

Edgar Allen Poe's classic about the grisly atrocities of the Spanish Inquisition.

Perhaps as many as 4 versions produced for Suspense; also a version for Appointment with Fear, and a modernized version was done for CBS Radio Mystery Theater .

Reviews:
I just really couldn't get into this one for some reason. - Clarence Grigsby

Jack Benny guest stars in this sci-fi spoof about how the Martians deal with an impending invasion of pesky, primitive Earthmen.

Reviews:
I would disagree a bit with the above summary as it seems to me to be more of a tongue-in-cheek but otherwise serious SF story rather than an outright spoof. I found the resolution to be a tad anti-climactic. - Harry Leshko

Premonition Occult

An American writer and his wife have their idyllic vacation in the Austrian Alps ruined by his premonition of something terrible about to happen.

A fiction based on the uprising lead by the Earl of Essex against Queen Elisabeth I, wherein they are tragic lovers whose affections are at odds with their pride and ambition. Stars James Mason.

The first astronaut to venture beyond the Earth's atmosphere is so overcome with awe and freefall euphoria that he refuses to return to the ground.

Space explorers happen across an alien world whose native civilization has been destroyed, leaving only the scarred ruins of dead cities.

Versions of this story also appeared on The Mysterious Traveler as 'The Planet Zevius', and on Theater 5 as 'In Absence of All Intelligent Life'.

Reviews:
I enjoy this sort of sci-fi, but I saw the 'twist' coming in the first few minutes.- Seth Gaines

Suspense was a top notch series overall, but I thought this one was not as well done as it could have been. The Theater Five version was better. - Webmaster

America's top secret new nuclear submarine is hijacked by hostile forces and must be destroyed before it launches missiles to destroy New York.

Reviews:
Not nearly as gripping today as it must have been in 1955. Somehow, I can always spot the episodes where everything will be okay in the end.- Seth Gaines

A scientist conducting experiments in the shrinking of cancer cells unwisely makes himself a test subject, with tragic results.

Four people on a bus leaving a remote insane asylum in the mountains become trapped by an avalanche; but the nightmare is made even worse when they become convinced that one of them is an escaped homicidal psychopath.

Reviews:
A tale of Suspense that is well calculated to raise the hair on the back of your neck. Before the end of this little "Return Trip" I had declared each of the bus occupants as the killer. But there can be only one "Killer Greg". I must warn you that the plot thickens when the bus is covered by a snow avalanche and the suspense grows to overwhelming proportions. A show that is worth a listen but look out for the ending! Ha Ha! -Don Walker

I thought I knew who the killer was after the first five minutes, but I changed my mind twice during the show. It turns out that I was right the first time! A mystery show that can keep me guessing is a treat. This one is not as good as "The Hitchhiker" or some of the other legendary episodes, but it's worth a listen. - C. Grigsby

The remarkable true story of how Bligh and his loyal sailors, set adrift from the Bounty, survived a 4000 mile voyage across the Pacific in a small rowboat to exact revenge on the mutineers. Stars Charles Laughton.

While investigating the murder of a man found in the cellar of the home of a ventriliquist, a police detective gets some unexpected help from the ventriliquist's dummy. Story by Ray Bradbury.

Another version of this story was made be the BBC.

Reviews:
Kind of silly in spots and can be very hard to follow. For a good living ventriloquist's dummy story, I would recommend the Escape audition episode 'Dead of Night' instead.- Harry Leshko

An experienced game hunter undertakes a personal mission on behalf of humanity, to assassinate the maniacal fascist dictator of a certain central European country.

A middle-aged bachelor resolves to escape from Communist-controlled Poland by hijacking an airliner.

In a duel between two Confederate officers, the duelist entitled to the second shot decides after his opponent's shot missed to wait on it until he's good and ready. Starring Van Heflin.
In the end credits, it was stated that the story was by someone named Alexander Pushkin. However, the premise is identical to that from the Fyodor Dostoyevsky story 'The Pistol Shot', which was adapted on The Weird Circle.

A railroad signalman is driven to the brink of madness by a spectral apparition at the mouth of a train tunnel, which seems to be trying to warn him of ..........what? Story by Charles Dickens.

3 separate versions of this story were produced for Suspense. Other versions appeared on Lights Out, Nightfall , and Columbia Workshop; Also on Weird Circle as 'The Thing in the Tunnel' and as 'Hello Below There' on Beyond Midnight, a horror series from South Africa.

A couple travelling in the remote Appalachians come across a hillbilly family which forces the visitors to 'eat' the sins of a recently deceased family member (a 'sin-eater' for most of his life), so that the dead man's soul won't be damned.

A young man comes out of a drug stupor to discover that he may have killed another man. He has only a few hours to try to find out what happened. Story by Cornell Woolrich.

Two separate versions were produced for Suspense.

Reviews:
A decent adaptation. The original story was somewhat flawed, and neither adaptation really does anything to fix the flaws. - Geoff Loker

Vincent Price as a spy in Nazi Germany desperately trying to avoid the Gestapo, whom he is convinced is on to him.

A man decides to kill his wife by planting a bomb in their basement. When he surprises a couple of thieves, he is tied in the basement within sight of the bomb so that they can make their getaway. The bomb is set to go off at three o'clock, unless he can find some way to get help... Stars Van Heflin. Story by Cornell Woolrich.

Reviews:
An excellent presentation of a very strong story. Very much a character driven story, as we sit with the husband, trying to figure a way out, and trying to deal with his impending doom. Van Heflin does an excellent job as the husband - a poorly cast actor here would have killed the whole production. - Geoff Loker

Three men are besieged in a lighthouse when a ship wrecks on the shoal and releases a horde of starving rats. Stars Vincent Price.

Two versions of this story were produced for Suspense. Also, versions were done on Escape and for an independently produced series called