1943-05-18 The ABC Murders

This episode is based on the 1936 novel of the same name by Agatha Christie. Her novel featured famous detective Hercule Poirot, but he is nowhere to be found in this adaptation. Instead, the story is told in first-person-narrative, the style that would make Suspense so unique. The narrative is supplied by Charles Laughton, who portrays a traveling salesman who suffers from blackouts. He worries that he might be the one committing the murders during these events, with no memory of his actions.

Laughton was on Suspense ten times in the 1940s and 1950s, but his wife, Elsa Lanchester, was on Suspense twice in 1943 and did not appear again. Both had very long and successful careers, with Charles’ ending with his death in the early 1960s at age 63. She continued her acting in movies into the 1970s.

Keith Scott notes that Robert Tallman is the scriptwriter for this episode. He had worked with William Spier many years earlier when he worked on March of Time in the 1930s. Tallman would become a regular contributor to Suspense but was noted more for his work with Spier on The Adventures of Sam Spade. Spier also contributed to this script.

Two recordings of this broadcast have survived, and the network recording is preferred. An Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS#9) release in highly listenable sound is now available. The AFRS version had previously been available in low quality sound and has been replaced.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP430518

THE CAST

CHARLES LAUGHTON (Alexander Bonaparte Cust), ELSA LANCHESTER (Miss Lily Marberry), BRAMWELL FLETCHER (Franklin Clark), Raymond Lawrence (Librarian / Man at newsstand / Bartender), Robert Harris (Inspector Mackenzie), Hans Conried (Newsboy / Train call), unknown (Olivia Asher), Vicki Marsden? (Mary Barnard), unknown (Louise Clark), unknown (Cameron Clark), Joe Kearns (Man in Black / Second Newsboy / Butler)

The tease for the next week’s show is announced as “She Overheard Murder Speaking,” one of the many titles used for Sorry, Wrong Number until that spark of genius title was found just days before broadcast.

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1943-05-11 Mr. Markham, Antique Dealer

This is the story of a dealer in antiques who has what seems to be a lucrative side-hustle in blackmail. Oh, and there’s the clocks. Lots of clocks in his room. Creepy. He’s separately blackmailing a couple, and when they each stop at the shop to pay Markham, they’re shocked to find the other there. They talk to Markham and realize the only way to stop him is to murder him. Markham warned them that if they did, he would be back to haunt them within half an hour… and he does!

The script was adapted for the second issue of the Suspense comic book. It was renamed “The Man Who Lived Again.”

Paul Lukas has already appeared on Suspense, but this episode is the first appearances of British actors Heather Angel and Bramwell Fletcher. Angel would appear once more in 1948. Fletcher made two more appearances, including the very next episode and once more in September 1943. Angel was in many British and US films, including some voice acting for Walt Disney. Fletcher had an active movie career but left film to concentrate on theater and eventually television. This performance was around the time of his change in direction.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP430511

THE CAST

PAUL LUKAS (Charles & Robert Markham), HEATHER ANGEL (Judy Ray), BRAMWELL FLETCHER (Ronald Gilbert), Joe Kearns (Man in Black / Cabbie / Inspector Ross), unknown (Trick clock voice / Phone Operator)

Real-life husband and wife Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester were originally scheduled to appear in The ABC Murders for this date. They had scheduling issues and their performance in the Agatha Christie story was delayed to the following week.

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1943-05-04 Death Flies Blind

Anytime you hear that a “millionaire industrialist” is on the private plane you’re on during wartime, be careful: strange stuff can happen.

Richard Dix plays a Navy lieutenant traveling with his fiancé Monica. They are boarding a plane from New York to Los Angeles with a planned stop for them to de-plane in Philadelphia. Just prior to boarding, millionaire industrialist Silas Naylor and two bodyguards and his secretary Mr. Shepherd arrive to board the same plane. Naylor is on a mission vital to the United States war effort, and normally buys all the seats on the plane for himself and his assistants. He allows the lieutenant and Monica come on board. After a short while in the air, the Lieutenant realizes that they should have landed in Philadelphia but were still airborne… over the Atlantic. The pilots are gone and the plane is on autopilot… headed to Nazi Germany as part of a plot to kidnap Naylor.

Below are pictures of cast members Montagu Love, Gale Page, and Dix. Love died at aged 63 on May 17, just two weeks after doing this show. He suffered from heart issues for many years.  

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP430504

THE CAST

RICHARD DIX (Fred Onslow), GALE PAGE (Monica Vail), Montagu Love (Silas Naylor), Wally Maher (Cohen / Airport P. A.), Joe Kearns (Man in Black / Limo Driver), Hans Conried (German-speaking Englishman), John Lake? (Michael Shepherd), unknown (Miss Lee, the Air Hostess), unknown (Barney O’Reilly / Englishman #2)

Richard Dix would become the star of The Whistler movie series. This Suspense broadcast was about a year before the release of the first movie. Suspense had “movie envy” with the Whistler movies and though there were attempts to create a movie series based on Suspense scripts, they never happened. Suspense was a big success on television for five years but The Whistler was not. The series only mustered 39 weeks of syndicated episodes.

For most of the American public of the 1930s and 1940s, air travel was a mystery. It was for government personnel, business executives, and the very wealthy. This plotline would not be possible under air travel and piloting rules, business and safety regulations, and the technology of the time. The scripters could rely on only a minuscule percentage of the listening audience with any familiarity with personal air travel, making it unlikely that the plausibility of the plotline would be questioned.

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1943-04-27 The Diary of Sophronia Winters

This episode is the debut of an original Lucille Fletcher script, the first of many for the series. The Hitch-hiker was the first Fletcher script on Suspense, this was the first premiere, and it was the first time that Agnes Moorehead performed one of Fletcher’s scripts. The next would be Sorry, Wrong Number.

The plotline has forty-year-old single Sophronia Winters starting a new chapter in her life. Her invalid father has died, and she no longer has the responsibilities of caring for him. To get break away and a fresh start, she stays at St. Petersburg, Florida. She ends up meeting a handsome hotel owner from Maine, and they fall in love. There is one quirk about him as he keeps mentioning his sister, who also has the uncommon name Saphronia. They marry and arrive in Maine to live at the remote, large and old hotel. Things feel strange when it’s revealed Hiram’s sister killed his brother with an axe… and another murder may be in the offing.

The script also includes Ray Collins, yet another Mercury Theater player like Moorehead. Most people know Collins for his greatest television role: Lt. Tragg on the Perry Mason series.

William Spier described this script in CBS publicity as “one of the most terrifying scripts he has ever read.” You can tell he liked the script because he used it again 14 months later when Suspense had a sponsor, Roma Wines. Then he did it yet again when he was producer of Philip Morris Playhouse six years after this broadcast.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP430427

THE CAST

AGNES MOOREHEAD (Sophronia), RAY COLLINS (Hiram), Mary Jane Croft? (Nurse), Joe Kearns (Man in Black)

This episode was the topic of the podcast Golden Days of Radio classic radio program collector John Tefteller and Suspense expert Don Ramlow. Don has great insights into Fletcher’s work because he interviewed her over the years and at radio conventions many years ago. The podcast can be accessed at YouTube https://youtu.be/c-Xtu74_Fnw

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1943-04-20 The Moment of Darkness

Interest in the supernatural and spirituality was very high in the early 20^th Century. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had great interest in the occult, and Harry Houdini did his best to expose fraudulent mystics. Movies from dramas to comedies in the 1930s and 1940s would have scenes of seances where there was an attempt to communicate with the deceased.

That John Dickson Carr would use the darkened room of a séance as the scene of a murder by stabbing is no surprise. It fits his reputation of being a specialist in “locked room” mysteries. Having Peter Lorre in the cast makes it all the more entertaining. Wendy Barrie plays a niece who believe her aunt may be falling prey to a fake medium’s scheme.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP430420

THE CAST

PETER LORRE (George Ravel / Flamond), WENDY BARRIE (Marjorie Grey), GEORGE ZUCCO (Alec Stevens), unknown (Ken Blake), unknown (Aunt Hester), Hans Conried (Train guard), Joe Kearns (Man in Black)

Wendy had some notoriety in the early 1940s for being the companion of gangster Bugsy Siegel. She was also a TV pioneer, as one of the medium’s first talk show hosts in the late 1940s and the 1950s.

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1943-04-13 Fear Paints a Picture

Here you are, a young woman of 23, about to inherit a large family fortune, but you’re terrified of developing the same mental illness that your mother suffered at the same age. The inheritance is contingent upon reaching 23 while living in her father’s old San Francisco home. She is under the supervision of two guardians who live in the same house. If she doesn’t remain in the house, the guardians get the fortune. What could possibly go wrong? Everyone’s motives are certainly for the best with the utmost integrity. This certainly sounds like an Inner Sanctum plotline more than a Suspense one. It should. One of the Inner Sanctum scripters wrote the play.

The star of the episode is Nancy Coleman who had a long acting career, mainly in supporting roles. She was active in theater, radio, movies, and television. For many years she had the lead role in the 1950s TV version of Valiant Lady, a soap opera that started on radio. She performed in many different 1950s television series and continued acting through the 1960s.

The author of the script was Sigmund Miller, a regular writer for Inner Sanctum. Miller’s career had its bumps along the way, getting caught in the snare of Red Channels. He decided to ride it out in the UK where he wrote theatrical and screenplays. He did return to the US. Later in life, he developed a curiosity about science writing and had a best-selling book to help patients discern their symptoms to aid in accurate diagnoses of medical conditions.

This episode did not get much pre-broadcast publicity. Suspense had just moved to Hollywood, and perhaps there was not time to plan out the publicity strategy and schedule.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP430413

THE CAST

NANCY COLEMAN (Julia Powell), Fred MacKaye (Dr. Barrow, alias Ralph Powell), Edwin Maxwell (Harvey Lyons), Beatrice Benaderet (Laura Lyons), Joe Kearns (Man in Black / Lawyer)

This script would be repeated in 1945 with Lana Turner as the star.

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1943-04-06 Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble

Paul Lukas is the star of Suspense as a magician who finds himself working to solve the murder of an actress. She was in the audience watching a performance of Macbeth. Spoiler alert: be careful about the opera glasses you bring to the theater. It is rather gruesome to think about a spring-loaded needle… sorry, too much information.

Just months after this broadcast, the movie Watch on the Rhine would be released. Lukas would win an Academy Award for his performance in the same role that also won him acclaim on Broadway.

This script was used in BBC’s Appointment with Fear series 1943-10-28.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP430406

THE CAST

PAUL LUKAS (Ludwig Von Arnheim), Alfred Shirley (Howard White), Ted Osborne (Man in Black), others

Studio technician Robert Sammon was credited on-air, which was kind of a rarity at the time.

This was the final show originating from CBS New York, and the final Suspense directed by CBS staff director John Dietz. Suspense would relocate back to New York in 1959.

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John Barker, aka "chasedad" at the classic radio forum Cobalt Club notes that such a pair of opera glasses were on display at a London Museum exhibition in 2016. Here's the article https://we-make-money-not-art.com/140-years-of-crime-and-policing-scotland-yards-black-museum-goes-on-show/ and here;s the picture https://we-make-money-not-art.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/24023768124_f49b19a2fb_c.jpg 

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