Stars on Suspense (Old Time Radio) – Détails, épisodes et analyse

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).

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).

With a tough face, a gravelly voice, and a demeanor that meant business, Charles McGraw made memorable impressions on screen as both cops and criminals in movies like The Narrow Margin and The Killers. McGraw starred on the big and small screens as well as the stage over the course of his long career. We'll hear him in a pair of "tales well calculated to keep you in Suspense" plus the audition recording for a hardboiled police procedural drama. First, he's trying to avert a disaster in the sky in "Two Hundred and Twenty Seven Minutes of Hate" (an AFRS rebroadcast from February 24, 1957). Then, he's fresh out of prison with a plan to get revenge on the prosecutor who sent him there in "The Silver Frame" (originally aired on CBS on February 2, 1958). Finally, McGraw stars as Lt. Lou Dana in the audition recording for The Man from Homicide (recorded on or around September 16, 1950).

Coming up next: A bonus episode featuring the best of Ray Milland on Suspense and on Sunday, 12/11 William Conrad returns to the podcast!

Note: No intro; is cold season over yet?

We say goodbye to Tony-winner and Oscar-nominee Nancy Kelly this week as the star of The Bad Seed and the Broadway production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? takes her final bow on the podcast. We'll hear her in a pair of thrillers from Suspense plus an episode of Escape for even more old time radio excitement. First, Ms. Kelly co-stars with Suspense MVP Cathy Lewis in "Dark Journey" - a script penned by the great Lucille Fletcher (originally aired on CBS on April 25, 1946). Then, she plays a lawyer who saves her client from conviction only to realize it may fall to her to make sure justice prevails in "Trial by Jury" (originally aired on CBS on June 16, 1957). Finally, we'll hear her in "The Rim of Terror," where she plays a woman helping her fiance on the lam from spies. This episode of Escape originally aired on CBS on May 12, 1950.

June Havoc wore many hats during her long showbiz career - actress, singer, playwright, director, and more. The sister of legendary burlesque queen Gypsy Rose Lee, Havoc found her biggest successes on Broadway with appearances on the big and small screens in between acclaimed stage runs. In 1948, she married William Spier - "the Hitchcock of the airwaves" and longtime producer and director of Suspense - and she starred in several episodes of "radio's outstanding theater of thrills." We'll hear her today in "Stand-In" as she plots to steal the spotlight from an aging movie star (originally aired on CBS on June 12, 1947) and "Subway," where she plans to dispose of a longtime rival on the way home from work (originally aired on CBS on October 30, 1947). Plus, we'll hear her opposite Howard Duff as Sam Spade's latest client in "The Hot Hundred Grand Caper" (originally aired on CBS on September 19, 1948).

For this bonus episode, we're celebrating "Noirvember" with five tales from crime fiction master Cornell Woolrich. His stories inspired movies like Rear Window and Phantom Lady and dozens of old time radio shows. First, Nancy Kelly is out to save her husband from a date with the executioner in "Eve" (an AFRS rebroadcast from October 19, 1944). Then, Lee Bowman stars in the search for a missing woman in "I Won't Take a Minute" (originally aired on CBS on December 6, 1945) and Robert Young hunts for his missing wife in "You'll Never See Me Again" (originally aired on CBS on September 5, 1946). Finally, Henry DeSilva and Jack Webb play cop and criminal in "You Take Ballistics" (originally aired on CBS on March 13, 1947) and Fredric March is an arson investigator whose latest case strikes close to home in "The Night Reveals" (originally aired on CBS on May 26, 1949).

Lloyd Nolan makes his final podcast visit in "Vial of Death" - the tale of a missing sample of cholera that threatens a city. This tense and timely thriller originally aired on CBS on May 18, 1953. We'll also hear the character actor in a radio adaptation of The House on 92nd Street. Nolan reprises his role as an FBI agent hunting Nazi spies in America in this broadcast from The Screen Guild Theatre (originally aired on CBS on June 10, 1946).

**Note: Intros aren't back yet. Thanks for your patience!

In his final appearance on the podcast, Charles Laughton menaces June Havoc and recreates one of his classic screen roles. First, he co-stars with Ms. Havoc in "Blind Date" (originally aired on CBS on September 29, 1949). Then, Laughton is back in the uniform of the infamous Captain Bligh. He earned an Academy Award nomination for his performance as Bligh in the 1935 big screen adaptation of Mutiny on the Bounty, and he returns to the role for the story of what happened after the captain was set adrift. We'll hear "The Revenge of Captain Bligh" (originally aired on CBS on May 17, 1954). And finally, we'll hear Laughton in another of his memorable screen performances as Academy Award presents Ruggles of Red Gap (originally aired on June 8, 1946).

We close out this Halloween season of bonus spooky shows with an encore production of "The Hitchhiker" - Lucille Fletcher's harrowing account of horror on the highway that was later adapted for television by Rod Serling as an episode of The Twilight Zone. We've heard Orson Welles in the 1942 Suspense production of the story; today, we'll hear Welles return to the role of cross-country driver Ronald Adams - the man who encounters the sinister stranger thumbing a ride on the side of the road - in this episode of The Mercury Summer Theatre of the Air (originally aired on CBS on June 21, 1946).