1954-12-30 Odd Man Out

The adaptation of the story of the Irish separatist movement and a bank robbery was made popular by a highly regarded 1947 movie of the same name. The perpetrator of the robbery is dazed and stumbles through dark alleyways, and keeps moving to avoid police detection and arrest. He can hear the police sirens as they try track him down. People are afraid to shelter him for fear of repercussions from others and the authorities. One might turn him in for the reward for his capture. An artist wants only to paint his portrait before the fugitive succumbs to his injuries. There is a young woman who loves him, however, and finds him just before as the story reaches its climax.

The story was adapted by Antony Ellis from the original 1945 novel by British author Frederick Laurence Green.

The first broadcast of the script was in February 1952 and starred James and Pamela Mason. Further information can be found at these resources:

• https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2024/07/1952-02-11-odd-man-out.html

• https://archive.org/details/TSP520211 is where recordings can be streamed or downloaded.

There are both network and Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS#513) recordings. The AFRS recording is the better of the two and is new to circulation.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3

An Internet Archive page is not available at this time.

Download from MediaFire
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/k71rtzhwkghnf/Suspense_-_Odd_Man_Out_1954

The program can be streamed at YouTube https://youtu.be/rTFo2Q56cGk

THE CAST

Ben Wright (Johnny), Betty Harford (Agnes), Joseph Kearns (Shell), Charles Davis (Nolan), Richard Peel (1st Police Officer), Dick Ryan (Fencie / Pat), Tom McKee (Murphy), Ray Lawrence (2nd Police Officer), Larry Thor (Narrator)

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1954-12-23 Premonition

The first Antony Ellis production is a John Dunkel story about a husband and wife staying at a ski lodge in the Swiss Alps. They are there for relaxation and for him to finish writing his book. The husband, however, has a vivid premonition of a deadly avalanche in which he and others will lose their life. The images and the sensation were so strong for him that he tells everyone they need to evacuate. They don’t believe him, provide myriad reasons why it could never happen, and that history proves there is no need to be concerned. All of the people at the lodge decide to stay.

You just know what’s going to happen next when you hear the line at about 18:40 when you hear that the husband is writing a “scientific note” about his premonition “when someone finds it.” Call it a… premonition…

It is a good story and production, like many of the Ellis productions will be. The Ellis period has an emphasis on storytelling, relies less on being driven by events in the news, and even tackles some psychological dramas. There will be 93 productions before Suspense replaces him with William N. Robson in mid-October 1956.

There is a sense in this period that CBS was rather ambivalent about radio drama and Suspense in terms of the support they would give it. During the Ellis period there is very little news coverage of the series, and that is a sign that CBS’ publicity effort on behalf of the series was meager, at best. All these years later, it is a great benefit for classic radio enthusiasts to hear these programs because many of the Ellis shows are “hidden gems” because of CBS’ marketing neglect at the time. Robson would be more successful at squeezing the CBS “suits” for promotional and money for fees for higher profile actors. Ellis relied on the radio pros enthusiasts have come to love all these decades later, and the productions benefit from their marvelous skills.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3

An Internet Archive page is not available at this time.

Download from MediaFire
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/u3hy5mtigeef2/Suspense_-_Premonition

The program can be streamed at YouTube https://youtu.be/9Jt68XWrA_Y

THE CAST

Larry Dobkin (Tony), Charlotte Lawrence (Gwen), Edgar Barrier (Braun), John Dehner (Rouge), Fritz Feld (Landeck), Joe Cranston (Sergeant), Nan Boardman (Madame Rouge), Ben Wright (Radio Announcer)

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Bernard Herrmann stops by to visit Suspense to conduct the orchestra, something he had not done since 1943-09-16 The Cross-Eyed Bear. Lud Gluskin was obviously not available, possibly for some Christmas holiday break. Herrmann’s simple but haunting Suspense theme was used throughout the 20-year run of the series in many different contexts.

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1954-12-16 Pretty Girl

Lynne Allen stars as a pretty college girl knows that fellow students and male faculty are attracted to her, and she has an attraction to older men. She seems programmed to automatically use that attraction to her advantage, but turns suitors away once she has what she wants. The suitors turn into stalkers, and a stalker who is convinced he wants to marry her becomes violent when she turns him away. The broadcast begins when she is in a police station, speechless. Police are determined to understand how that man died in her confrontation with him. The end is a bit creepy as she starts to flirt with a police officer and you realize the undercurrent of trouble that she brings with her in even the smallest of acquaintanceships. You wonder if this could all happen again… and again...

The story is by E. Jack Neuman. Lynne Allen (occasionally billed as “Marilyn” or “Lynn”) was active in radio, including many Macdonnell shows, in the late 1940s and early 1950s. She was in many 1950s TV productions. She passed away at age 49, of cancer, in 1972.

The announced broadcast was “Baby Sitter,” which has a different plotline. That script might never have been broadcast. Newspaper listings were sparse in the non-sponsored era of Suspense. The newspaper plotlines that could be found had this (composite) description:

A young girl finds there are hazards in every occupation, even baby-sitting, especially when a jilted man is concerned in “Baby Sitter,” on Suspense.

The plot of Pretty Girl includes a young girl, and a jilted man, but she’s not a baby sitter, and she’s in college when babysitting was common among high school students. Sure, she’s in an academic environment where long-term older cynical faculty sometimes refer to introductory freshman classes in a derogatory manner as “baby sitting,” but this is not a snide reference in a script title. No newspaper listing of Pretty Girl or a correct published plotline has surfaced. The script of “Baby Sitter” might never have been produced. Or, it could have gone in for a massive re-write and became Pretty Girl. We may never know. If there was an original “Baby Sitter” script, we do not know the author.

Classic radio researcher and international entertainer notes that...

After fifteen shows, producer-director Norman Macdonnell leaves Suspense. He was busy prepping Gunsmoke for television, as well as producing two weekly radio series, Gunsmoke and Romance. Antony Ellis replaces him, and will produce and direct the next 93 shows. Ellis’s associate director is Ken McManus.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3

An Internet Archive page is not available at this time.

Download from MediaFire
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/5v2gk0oinesrc/Suspense_-_Pretty_Girl

The program can be streamed at YouTube https://youtu.be/6WEUTq-VEPE

THE CAST

Lynne Allen (Emmy Carter), Paul Dubov (Lieutenant Lew Gayle), William Justine (Sergeant Ham Norman), Dolores Pinard [Brown] (Sally), Vic Perrin (Ray Hamilton), Tim Graham (Dr. Walter Church), Ann Morrison (Mrs. Hilda Church), Sam Edwards (Jug), Larry Thor (Narrator)

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1954-12-09 On a Country Road

Harry Bartell and Virginia Gregg star in the third production of the famous script about a couple lost on Long Island south shore roads in a heavy rain. Police have warned that there is an escaped homicidal psychiatric patient in the area. The script was by “one-hit-wonder” Walter Bazar who went on to have a successful career as a newspaper journalist. There were productions in April 1950 with Cary Grant and in January 1954 with Frank and Joan Lovejoy. It was a very popular script. It was also performed later in the series (with Howard Duff and Ida Lupino) and there was a television production, too.

November 1950 production with Cary Grant

• The blogpost for the first broadcast has details about the story, Walter Bazar, the Suspense television production (with the top-down convertible riding in the rain) and other aspects of the story https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2024/04/1950-11-16-on-country-road.html

• The network and AFRS recordings related to the 1950 broadcast can be downloaded or streamed at https://archive.org/details/TSP501116

January 1954 production with Frank Lovejoy and Joan Banks

• The background for the January 1954 production can be found at https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2024/09/1954-01-04-on-country-road.html

• https://archive.org/details/TSP540104 has download and streaming resources.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3

An Internet Archive page is not available at this time.

Download from MediaFire
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1wa0e5qhgm3o0/Suspense_-_On_a_Country_Road_-_1954-12-09

The program can be streamed at YouTube https://youtu.be/hG6RxTMwScg

THE CAST

Harry Bartell (David), Virginia Gregg (Dorothy), Helen Kleeb (Nellie), Thomas McKee (News Announcer), Jack Carol (Cop), Larry Thor (Narrator)

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1954-12-02 The Shot

William Conrad and John Dehner star in this Edgar-award winning story by E. Jack Neuman. He adapted it from Alexander Pushkin’s 1831 short story and changed the venue to the post-Civil War United States. Six months before this broadcast, the Mystery Writers of America gave it the award. Their determination was based on the October, 1953 broadcast that starred Van Heflin.

Details about the script and the initial broadcast can be found at:

• https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2024/09/1953-10-12-shot.html

• https://archive.org/details/TSP531012 is where the 1953 broadcast recording can be downloaded or streamed.

This broadcast is an example of the work of two or radio’s finest actors and what they brought to the medium and the art of radio. Heflin was an exceptional radio actor, unlike many of his movie counterparts, and his 1953 broadcast was very well done, as usual for him. But for many of the scripts that are presented again in the unsponsored, sustaining network broadcasts, without the glitz of Hollywood publicitymongers, the CBS radio ensemble delivers consistently fine and compelling performances. They are often better than the original sponsored presentations.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3

An Internet Archive page is not available at this time.

Download from MediaFire
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1xr95ls90rukj/Suspense_-_The_Shot_1954

The program can be streamed at YouTube https://youtu.be/VH__l9mmFx0

THE CAST

William Conrad (Lt. Zachary Payton), John Dehner (Ben Rolls), Vic Perrin (The Second), Edgar Barrier (Temple), Parley Baer (Jim Stockwell), Frank Gerstle (Pauk), Marvin Bryan (Quincy), Lynn Allen (Marsha), Larry Thor (Narrator)

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ALMOST FINAL UPDATE 11/15/2024 11:45am US ET - Internet Archive provides update; Suspense Project recordings are fine

UPDATE 11/15/2024 11:45am US ET: Contrary to the prior update, the Internet Archive features have ALMOST been restored.  New pages can be uploaded and previous pages can now be but previous pages cannot be edited yet. New pages cannot be put into The Suspense Project Special Collection. They are placed in "Community Audio." This is marvelous news. Streaming has been working well for the last week. Until the edits and the proper placement of new pages is working again, we will hold new pages. Recordings will still be placed in MediaFire.

The founder and chair of The Internet Archive, Brewster Kahle, posted an update on November 14, 2024 about their recovery and how they are protecting their operations and content. It is at https://blog.archive.org/2024/11/14/learning-from-cyberattacks/ They have been making software, security, and procedural upgrades. This part of the blog is particularly interesting... underlines and bold items are my own:

Much of the development during this time has been focused on securing the services so they can still run while attacks continue.  

The Internet Archive is adapting to a more hostile world, where DDOS attacks are recurring periodically (such as yesterday and today), and more severe attacks might happen. Our response has been to harden our services and learn from friends. This note is to share some high level findings, without being so detailed as to help those that are still attacking archive.org.

Yes, note that attacks are still occurring. Once hackers can pull down a site, they keep attacking it as the target works to recover. It's like a boxing match where there is no bell to end a round. But it is good news that services are back, and are being restored.

Be advised: You may be asked to create a new password when logging into The Internet Archive. 

Streaming functions on the pages are now fully restored. Enjoy!

11/15/2024 11:45am ET

1954-11-25 Shooting Star

Virginia Christine stars in a story of an angry Hollywood actress whose casting in a new film was spurned by a big shot producer. She stalks him and invades his weekend retreat, threatening to harm him unless he changes his mind. She’s deadly serious about it, too. People come to the door for various reasons, but she has him restrained so they can’t see him and he can’t call for help. She even pretends to be the housekeeper, providing assurance that all is fine, speaking with a Swedish accent (which is somewhat of an inside joke to the story). Her revengeful scheme does not work out as she intended. She’ll never get the part she so desperately wanted because she goes just a bit to far with the scheme. This is a good story with fine performances, with another great Joe Kearns portrayal. He plays the narcissistic movie mogul she targets.

The script was by Ruth Bourne, a freelance writer for radio in the 1950s. This was her only Suspense script, and it’s quite good.

Virginia Christine worked in radio for many years. This is her sole Suspense performance. She was doing some work on the Gunsmoke and Romance series around the time of this broadcast for Macdonnell. She would later appear in Have Gun -- Will Travel radio episodes. The role she was most famous for, in a career filled with successful supporting big and small screen roles, was in a series of television commercials. She was “Mrs. Olsen” in the 1960s for Folgers Coffee. YouTube has several of the commercials, such as this one https://youtu.be/TfD6fstnfQA?si=8a_eENG13ZA5RsjT

Christine was married to Fritz Feld, who also did some 1950s Suspense work, but they never appeared on the series together. Christine had a sideline career to tutor actors in Swedish accent (and likely others). She was one of those actors who always seemed to be working on something, with less downtime between gigs than most. She had a long and highly successful career in TV and movies, and voice acting, but never made it big in terms of achieving highly recognizable stardom. She was one of those actors for whom the audience muttered “I’ve seen her before… but I don’t know when… she’s so familiar…” but might never recall her name. Her active career spanned almost 40 years. Wikipedia has an overview of her career and life https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Christine 

This episode was pre-recorded on Wednesday, November 10, 1954. in the Macdonnell period. Rehearsal began at 11:30am on. The show was recorded from 4:15pm to 5:00pm.

No network recording has been located. An Armed Forces Radio Service recording (AFRS#508) has survived. It circulated for many years in below average sound, but this recording is a major improvement and adds greatly to the enjoyment of the episode.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3

An Internet Archive page is not available at this time.

Download from MediaFire
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/w2pr6eqicrr2n/Suspense_-_Shooting_Star

The program can be streamed at YouTube https://youtu.be/QEY5s4DDSTY

THE CAST

Virginia Christine (Gay Lansing), Joseph Kearns (J. D. Zimmer), John Dehner (Bennie), Sam Edwards (Ed the Delivery Boy), Michael Ann Barrett (Iris), John Larch (Miles / Dave), Jill Jarmyn (Secretary), Larry Thor (Narrator)

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