Stars On Suspense (old Time Radio)

During a wartime break in her acting career, Sarah Churchill worked on the planning of the British invasion of North Africa, and she served as an unofficial advisor to her father Winston - who just happened to be prime minister. After the war, she returned to the stage and screen, but struggles with alcoholism cut short what should have been a long career on both sides of the pond. We'll hear her in her one and only visit to Suspense - an adaptation of Charles Dickens' "The Signalman" (originally aired on CBS on November 4, 1956). Then, she saddles up and heads west with Jack Benny in an episode of his comedy program (originally aired on CBS on March 5, 1950). Finally, she leads us an audio tour of her home in "Portrait of London" from The CBS Radio Workshop (originally aired on CBS on July 20, 1956).

Over the course of his long career, character actor Jerome Cowan prosecuted Santa Claus and took a bullet to kick off The Maltese Falcon. We'll hear him in his only visit to Suspense as a crooked lawyer out to frame his law partner in "Mortmain" (originally aired on CBS on July 31, 1947). Then, he co-stars with Madeleine Carroll in Noel Coward's "Tonight at 8:30" from Best Plays (originally aired on NBC on August 30, 1953).

In this bonus episode, we're saying goodbye to Dean Stockwell, the Oscar-nominated star whose career stretched over seven decades in Hollywood who passed away on November 7th. From his earliest days as a child star in the 40s to his work with David Lynch, his Golden Globe-winning turn on Quantum Leap and his many memorable screen turns, Stockwell was always a compelling presence in a film or TV show. While he never made a visit to Suspense, Stockwell did appear on other radio anthologies, and we'll hear two of them: "Hans Brinker" from Family Theatre (originally aired on Mutual on November 8, 1950) and "Home's Not a Place" from Stars Over Hollywood (originally aired on CBS on June 7, 1952).  

Ann Sothern's career on the stage and screen stretched six decades from bit parts in the 20s to an Oscar nomination for her final performance in 1987. She was most famous for her ten B-picture comedies as brash but lovable showgirl Maisie and for a pair of TV sitcoms that earned her four Emmy nods. We'll hear her in her only Suspense appearance - "Beware the Quiet Man" (originally aired on CBS on August 12, 1948). Then, she recreates her signature screen role in Maisie Was a Lady on The Lux Radio Theatre (originally aired on CBS on November 24, 1941).

Richard Widmark takes on the role of Iago, one of Shakespeare's most complex characters, in this ambitious two-part adaptation of Othello (originally aired on CBS on May 4th and 11th, 1953). Widmark is joined by Suspense director Elliott Lewis as Othello and Cathy Lewis as Desdemona in this production featuring Verdi operas and an all-star cast of radio character actors.

For this year's final bonus Halloween show, we're taking a trip to Transylvania. Orson Welles and The Mercury Theatre On the Air present a spine-tingling adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula (originally aired on CBS on July 11, 1938).

With Halloween right around the corner, we welcome Herbert Marshall back to the podcast in a pair of old time radio chillers. First, he has the title role in an adaptation of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" (originally aired on CBS on November 3, 1952). Then, Marshall stars in a one-man show - the tale of terror called "The Waxwork" (originally aired on CBS on March 1, 1959).

Late at night, Jeanette Nolan takes the long way home all by herself as a killer stalks her town. Ray Bradbury's terrifying short story becomes a classic radio horror tale in "The Whole Town's Sleeping" (originally aired on CBS on June 14, 1955).

Before he was a big screen character actor in Psycho and Cloak and Dagger and a steady hand on network TV dramas like Naked City and Wagon Train, John McIntire was a busy radio performer. We'll hear him co-starring with real-life wife Jeanette Nolan in a sixty-minute adaptation of Curt Siodmak's sci-fi horror classic "Donovan's Brain" (originally aired on CBS on February 7, 1948).  For tickets to the livestream of my original Halloween old time radio comedy this Saturday, 10/23 at 7:00 pm, visit https://www.ashlandtheatre.org/event/terror-on-the-tracks

We head into the mountains with William Conrad in this week's Halloween bonus episode. Here, he's part of a hunting party searching the Himalayas for the mythical yeti. It's a terrifying tale from Escape - "The Abominable Snowman" (originally aired on CBS on September 13, 1953).

Frank Lovejoy returns to the podcast in two of the mot intense stories to ever air on Suspense. First, Lovejoy and real-life wife Joan Banks run out of gas right in the middle of a classic radio horror story - "On a Country Road" (originally aired on CBS on January 4, 1954). Then, he tries to talk an inexperienced pilot down to the ground safely in "The Long Night" (originally aired on CBS on November 18, 1956).

This week's bonus scary story comes from the mind of science fiction master Ray Bradbury. It stirred up controversy when it aired on CBS, and it still provides chills nearly 70 years later. It's "Zero Hour" (originally aired on CBS on April 5, 1955), a tale of a child's backyard game with catastrophic consequences.

Character actor and comedian Jack Carson closes out his run on Suspense with three old time radio thrillers. First, he's an ambitious circus employee with the gift of gab in "Death Pitch" (originally aired on CBS on March 29, 1951). Then, Carson narrates a tense tale of a malfunctioning atomic bomb at a test site in "Misfire" (originally aired on CBS on October 6, 1957). Finally, he arrives at his psychiatrist's office with some shocking news in "Analytical Hour" (originally aired on CBS on June 28, 1959).

Our countdown to Halloween kicks off with one of the scariest shows to air on Suspense! The great William Conrad stars in "The Waxwork" (originally aired on CBS on May 1, 1956) - a psychological horror story where he plays every role.

Suave and silver-haired, Otto Kruger made a name for himself as debonair villains on screen. He memorably ran a deadly domestic spy ring in Alfred Hitchcock's Saboteur, menaced Philip Marlowe in Murder, My Sweet, and many more. We'll hear him in his only Suspense appearance - the Cornell Woolrich story "After Dinner Story" (originally aired on CBS on October 26, 1943). Then, he joins the cast of Laura in a recreation on The Lux Radio Theatre (originally aired on CBS on February 5, 1945).

In this bonus episode, I'll share my picks for the best Suspense installments starring the legendary Orson Welles. We'll hear him first on a cross-country trip into a nightmare in "The Hitch-Hiker" (originally aired on CBS on September 2, 1942). Then, in a rare Suspense two-parter, Welles plays a scientist whose innovation could bring about the end of the world in "Donovan's Brain" (originally aired on CBS on May 18 and May 25, 1944).

Though he was born into Hollywood fame - the son of one of the movies' first major stars - Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. hadn't intended on becoming an actor. Ultimately, his screen successes were just one chapter in a rich and colorful life including wartime service in counterintelligence. We'll hear the star of Little Caesar and Gunga Din in "Deep Into Darkness" (originally aired on CBS on July 22, 1948). Plus, he stars in the espionage drama "The Big Kill" from The Silent Men (originally aired on February 3, 1952).

Stage and screen star Victor Jory makes his final appearances on Suspense in a pair of episodes that didn't belong on "radio's outstanding theater of thrills." We'll hear the actor from Gone With the Wind and A Midsummer Night's Dream in "Old Army Buddy" (originally aired on CBS on September 8, 1957) and "Death Notice" (originally aired on February 8, 1959). Plus, he stars as a dogged detective in "You Take Ballistics," a Cornell Woolrich story adapted for the audition recording of The Hunters (from November 29, 1948).

Dorothy McGuire jumped from the Broadway stage to the big screen with acclaimed performances in Claudia and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. She earned an Oscar nod for her turn as a woman confronting her bigotry in Gentleman's Agreement and she'd later gain Disney fame as memorable moms in Old Yeller and Swiss Family Robinson. We'll hear her as a woman trying to reconstruct the night of a murder in "Last Confession" (originally aired on CBS on September 15, 1949). Then, she recreates her screen role in a radio adaptation of The Spiral Staircase on The Screen Directors' Playhouse (originally aired on NBC on November 25, 1949).

In his final visits to Suspense, Charles Boyer played two legendary lawmen from his native France. First, the four-time Oscar nominee plays Eugene Vidocq, the master thief who switched sides and became the head of the Sûreté. We'll hear "Vidocq's Final Case" (originally aired on CBS on September 29, 1952). Then, Boyer stars as Alphonse Bertillion, a policeman who used anthropology to develop a system of identifying criminal suspects. Boyer plays the innovative cop in "The Bertillion Method" (originally aired on CBS on April 26, 1954).