Stars On Suspense (old Time Radio)

Four-time Oscar nominee Barbara Stanwyck was one of the biggest stars of Hollywood, dazzling audiences with her dynamic turns in Double Indemnity, Stella Dallas, and more. We’ll hear Stanwyck in her one and only Suspense appearance - “The Wages of Sin” (originally aired on CBS on October 19, 1950). Then, she stars in a radio recreation of a big screen adaptation of one of the most famous Suspense shows of all time - “Sorry, Wrong Number” (originally aired on The Lux Radio Theatre on January 9, 1950).

Oscar-winner Ronald Colman was a radio fixture as Jack Benny’s long-suffering neighbor and a college president in The Halls of Ivy, but he could also be heard in tales of terror on Suspense. We’ll hear Colman in an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Dunwich Horror” (an Armed Forces Radio rebroadcast of an episode from November 1, 1945) and in “The Noose of Coincidence” (originally aired on CBS on April 7, 1949).

Whether he was a thorn in the side of The Absent Minded Professor or reluctantly destroying Coke machines in Dr. Strangelove, Keenan Wynn was always a welcome presence on screen. We’ll hear the character actor in two of his visits to “radio’s outstanding theater of thrills” - “The Walls Came Tumbling Down” (originally aired on CBS on June 29, 1944) and “I Had an Alibi” (originally aired on CBS on January 4, 1945).

Charles Laughton plays two very different - but equally disturbed - men in these installments of “radio’s outstanding theater of thrills.” The star of Witness for the Prosecution and Mutiny on the Bounty is “An Honest Man” (originally aired on CBS on August 5, 1948) and the infamous English executioner “Jack Ketch” (originally aired on CBS on September 22, 1952).

After she worked on radio as a child actor, Joan Lorring broke out in movies at age 19 with an Oscar-nominated turn in The Corn is Green. It was one of many successes she’d have in a career that took her to the big and small screens as well as the Broadway stage. We’ll hear her in two old time radio tales of Suspense: “A Man in the House” (originally aired on CBS on August 2, 1945) and “The Great Horrell” (originally aired on CBS on August 22, 1946).

Oscar-nominated actor Richard Widmark brings more of his unique intensity to Suspense as he stars in a pair of dramas pitting man against nature. We’ll hear him in “The Track of the Cat” (originally aired on CBS on February 18, 1952) and “How Long is the Night?” (originally aired on CBS on October 13, 1952).

Oscar and Tony-winning actor Jose Ferrer came to Suspense before he made his Hollywood debut when he was the toast of the Great White Way for his performance as Cyrano. He brought his stage actor’s intensity to his only performance on radio’s outstanding theater of thrills - an adaptation of Poe’s “The Pit and the Pendulum” (originally aired on CBS on November 28, 1947). We’ll also hear the star as detective Philo Vance in “The Case of the Strange Music” (originally aired on NBC on August 9, 1945).

Feisty, fiercely independent Maureen O'Hara - the red-headed Irish-American leading lady of old Hollywood - made only one visit to "radio's outstanding theater of thrills," but it's a great episode that finds her playing a strong woman stepping up to track down a killer. It's "The White Rose Murders" (originally aired on CBS on July 6, 1943). Then she recreates her screen role from How Green Was My Valley in a broadcast from the Gulf Screen Guild Theatre (originally aired on CBS on March 22, 1942).

Joseph Cotten - hero of The Third Man and heel of Shadow of a Doubt - is back for two more visits to "radio's outstanding theater of thrills." He stars as a director caught up in a real-life mystery in "Sneak Preview" (originally aired on CBS on March 23, 1944) and as a convict who assumes the identity of a dead reverend in "Beyond Good and Evil" (originally aired on CBS on October 11, 1945).

We couldn't let 2018 end without one more Star On Suspense, and our final leading lady of the year is the great Judy Garland. She doesn't sing in her one and only visit to Suspense but she delivers a terrific dramatic performance in "Drive-In" (originally aired on CBS on November 21, 1946). Then, she recreates her iconic film role of Dorothy Gale as The Lux Radio Theatre presents "The Wizard of Oz" (originally aired on CBS on December 25, 1950).

Dapper British leading man Herbert Marshall returns to the Suspense microphone in two radio thrillers - including a chiller of a Christmas story. The star of Foreign Correspondent and The Little Foxes stars in "My Own Murderer" (originally aired on CBS on May 24, 1945) and in "Holiday Story" - an adaptation of John Collier's "Back for Christmas" - (originally aired on CBS on December 23, 1948).

Oscar-winning actress Mary Astor started in the silent era, transitioned to the talkies, and worked on stage, screen, and television even as she struggled with tragedies and trials off screen. We'll hear her in the only visit she made to Suspense - "In Fear and Trembling" (originally aired on February 16, 1943). Then, Mary Astor recreates her screen role of Brigid O'Shaughnessy in a Screen Guild Theatre production of "The Maltese Falcon" (originally aired on CBS on September 20, 1943).

For Gene Kelly's final performances on Suspense, he headlined two stories as a pair of dangerous, desperate men - characters who were miles from the men he played in musicals like Anchors Away and Singing in the Rain. Kelly trades song and dance for sinister scares in "The Man Who Couldn't Lose" (originally aired on CBS on September 28, 1944) and "To Find Help" (originally aired on CBS on January 4, 1949).

Gregory Peck stars in a "ripped from the headlines" tale of teenage drug addiction in his fifth and final appearance on Suspense. Peck plays a juvenile investigator in "The Truth About Jerry Baxter" (originally aired on CBS on June 14, 1951). Then, he recreates his screen role in a radio adaptation of Yellow Sky from the Screen Director's Playhouse (originally aired on NBC on July 15, 1949).

Jane Wyman won as Oscar for her performance as a deaf-mute woman in Johnny Belinda, but this week we'll hear her put her voice to excellent use acting and singing. She stars in "Catch Me If You Can" (originally aired on CBS on February 17, 1949) and visits Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in an episode of their comedy show from November 30, 1951.

Edmund Gwenn may be best known as Kris Kringle in Miracle on 34th Street, but in his two visits to Suspense no one would mistake him for Santa Claus. We'll hear the Oscar-winning English actor in Dorothy L. Sayers' "The Fountain Plays" (originally aired on CBS on August 10, 1943) and in "Murder in Black and White" (originally aired on CBS on April 14, 1949).

Gloria Swanson is ready for her close-up. The silent movie star and box office sensation ruled Hollywood in the 1920s and returned with a vengeance with a sensational turn in Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard. We'll hear Swanson recreate her Oscar-nominated role of Norma Desmond in a Lux Radio Theatre adaptation (originally aired on CBS on September 17, 1951). We'll also hear her one and only visit to Suspense - "Murder by the Book" (originally aired on CBS on July 10, 1947).

Edward G. Robinson - one of the great big screen gangsters, begins and ends his run on Suspense with these two old time radio thrillers. We'll hear him as a man with an imaginary wife in "My Wife, Geraldine" (originally aired on CBS on March 1, 1945) and as a man who wants his actual wife to disappear in "A Case of Nerves" (originally aired on CBS on June 1, 1950).

"The man with the perfect profile" enjoyed great success as a Hollywood leading man, but Robert Taylor explored darker, more complex roles as his career went on. We'll hear the star in a pair of radio thrillers - "Four Hours to Kill" (originally aired on CBS on January 12, 1950) and - just in time for Halloween - the classic chiller "The House in Cypress Canyon" (originally aired on CBS on December 5, 1946).

It's the 100th episode of well-calculated tales from Stars On Suspense, and we're marking the occasion with the first and last episodes of "radio's outstanding theater of thrills" - "The Burning Court" (originally aired on CBS on June 17, 1942) and "Devilstone" (originally aired on CBS on September 30, 1962). Plus - we'll hear "The Lodger," the Forecast episode that served as a sort of audition for the program (originally aired on CBS on July 22, 1940).