Stars On Suspense (old Time Radio)

Oscar winner Van Heflin made memorable appearances in Johnny Eager, 3:10 to Yuma and Shane, and he lent his powerful presence to the radio role of Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe. In nine visits to Suspense, he played complex heroes and despicable heels, and sometimes his characters were blends of both. We'll hear him in "Three Blind Mice" (originally aired on CBS on January 30, 1947) and "The Lady in the Red Hat" (originally aired on CBS on November 30, 1950).

For Halloween, “Stars On Suspense” presents two of the biggest names in horror cinema – Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff starring in “radio’s outstanding theater of thrills.” Lugosi plays a psychologist with a murderous theory he plans to test in “The Doctor Prescribed Death” (originally aired on CBS on February 2, 1943). Then, Karloff is a Scotland Yard man who’s new case has strange ties to his own past in “Drury’s Bones” (originally aired on CBS on January 25, 1945).

Fredric March was one of the most celebrated stars of stage and screen, a man whose performances earned him a pair of Oscars and two Tony Awards. Equally at home in comedy and drama, March brought to life characters ranging from Dr. Henry Jekyll and his monstrous alter ego Mr. Hyde to a beleaguered president fighting for peace in Seven Days in May. We’ll hear him in two appearances on Suspense: first as a thespian out to find his daughter’s killer in “Actor’s Blood” (originally aired on CBS on August 24, 1944) and then as a fire inspector whose latest case hits close to home in “The Night Reveals” (originally aired on CBS on May 26, 1949).

With scintillating performances in Gilda and more, Rita Hayworth was a box office draw and a pin-up idol of the 1940s and 1950s. But there was more to Hayworth than her gorgeous looks and her status as a Hollywood “love goddess.” She was an accomplished dancer and a terrific actress, and she had the chance to show off in her lone appearance on Suspense. We’ll hear her as a murderess contending with a blackmailer in “Three Times Murder” (originally aired on October 3, 1946). Then we’ll hear her playing for laughs opposite George Burns and Gracie Allen in an episode from March 21, 1944.

We bid adieu to Peter Lorre as the star of Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, and M makes his final appearances on “radio’s outstanding theater of thrills.” First, he’s a mysterious count who makes a dangerous offer to his niece’s suitor in “The Devil’s Saint” (originally aired on CBS on January 19, 1943). Then, Lorre plays a demented killer recounting his life story to a room full of terrified hostages in “Nobody Loves Me” (originally aired on CBS on August 30, 1945).

When William Bendix visited Suspense, it was anything but a “revoltin’ development.” Best known as bumbling sitcom patriarch Chester A. Riley in The Life of Riley, Bendix could show off the dramatic chops he displayed on the big screen when he appeared on “radio’s outstanding theater of thrills.” We’ll hear him as a job seeker who finds more than he bargained for in “Three Faces at Midnight” (originally aired on CBS on February 27, 1947) and as a safecracker trying to keep his son from a career in crime in “The Gift of Jumbo Brannigan” (originally aired on CBS on March 1, 1951).

Angela Lansbury is a three-time Oscar nominee and a five-time Tony winner, and she’s still going strong. The legend of the stage and screen is known to generations of fans for her memorable film roles in The Manchurian Candidate, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, and Beauty and the Beast, her stage turns in Gypsy, Sweeney Todd, and Mame, and her twelve seasons as mystery writer and amateur sleuth Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote. We’ll hear her one and only appearance on Suspense – “A Thing of Beauty” (originally aired on CBS on May 29, 1947) – and we’ll hear her in a dramatic performance from Stars Over Hollywood (“The Experiment,” originally aired on CBS on May 24, 1952).

In a career that spanned five decades, Glenn Ford brought to tough, masculine characters on screen. Ford was one of the biggest stars in Hollywood in the 1950s with memorable performances in film noirs like Gilda and The Big Heat and westerns like 3:10 to Yuma. He continued to make impressions on screen through the 1970s with his turn as Jonathan Kent in Richard Donner’s Superman. We’ll hear Glenn Ford in two episodes of Suspense – “End of the Road” (originally aired on CBS on February 6, 1947) and “Murder and Aunt Delia” (an AFRTS rebroadcast of an episode from February 17, 1957).

Kirk Douglas played heroes, villains, and morally ambiguous characters in between in a career that spanned six decades. He earned three Oscar nominations and turned in intense and memorable performances in Spartacus, Gunfight at the OK Corral, Seven Days in May, and many more. But in 1947, Kirk Douglas was a rising Hollywood star when he made two visits to “radio’s outstanding theater of thrills.” We’ll hear him as a man plotting to keep a newfound fortune out of his wife’s hands in “Community Property” (originally aired on CBS on April 10, 1947) and as a washed-up writer who hopes to pass off a master’s work as his own in “The Story of Markham’s Death” (originally aired on CBS on October 2, 1947).

In an extra-large edition for our 50th podcast episode, we welcome Orson Welles back to the show for three of his visits to Suspense. In the fall of 1943, Welles starred in several episodes of “radio’s outstanding theater of thrills” in a special engagement. He appeared in some of the best thrillers from literature by some of the best authors of the genre, and this week we’ll hear three shows from that run: Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Lost Special” (an AFRS rebroadcast of an episode from September 30, 1943); Agatha Christie’s “Philomel Cottage” (originally aired on CBS on October 7, 1943); and “Lazarus Walks” (an AFRS rebroadcast of an episode from October 19, 1943).

In a special bonus episode of Stars On Suspense, we salute the late, great Jerry Lewis. Though he never made any visits to “radio’s outstanding theatre of thrills,” Lewis was a radio star in a popular comedy series alongside his longtime partner Dean Martin. As a tribute to the legendary comedian, we’ll hear a pair of programs from The Martin and Lewis Show featuring songs from Dean, madcap antics from Jerry, and special guests Boris Karloff and Jeff Chandler.

Fred MacMurray may be best known to generations of movie and TV fans for his family-friendly roles in classic Disney films and the long-running sitcom My Three Sons. But there was a darker side to his performances - a side MacMurray showed in fantastic performances in Double Indemnity, The Caine Mutiny, The Apartment, and more. We'll hear Fred MacMurray in two "tales well calculated to keep you in Suspense." First, he's a drummer in a Prohibition-era jazz band in "The Windy City Six," a tale of tommy guns and the roaring twenties (originally aired on CBS on February 8, 1951). Then he's in a crippled B-29 bomber over Korea in "The Flight of the Bumblebee" (originally aired on CBS on May 19, 1952).

After making a name for himself in the United Kingdom, James Mason came across the pond to Hollywood. With his silvery voice and leading man looks, Mason was a natural for polished character roles as heroes and villains in movies liike Lolita, A Star is Born, North by Northwest, and more. We'll hear him in two visits to Suspense, beginning with Agatha Christie's "Where There's a Will" (originally aired on CBS on February 24, 1949) and as a Scotland Yard man after a crafty killer in "Banquo's Chair" (originally aired on March 9, 1950).

Despite a tragically short career, Laird Cregar made his mark with several memorable big screen performances in films like This Gun for Hire and The Lodger. With his massive frame, Cregar was a natural fit as “heavies,” but he appeared in a variety of roles in comedies, adventures, and historical dramas. But it was frustration with his size that led him to a dangerous crash diet - one that ultimately took his life. We'll hear Cregar in both of his visits to Suspense - "The Last Letter of Dr. Bronson" (originally aired on CBS on July 27, 1943) and "Narrative About Clarence" (originally aired on CBS on March 9, 1944).

Joan Fontaine earned acclaim for her performances in classic films like Rebecca and Suspicion, and she appeared on the stage and the big and small screens for nearly sixty years. Like her sister, fellow actress, and bitter rival Olivia de Havilland, Joan Fontaine won an Academy Award but also picked up two additional nominations for her dynamic screen work throughout the 1940s. She made only one visit to Suspense - "Lovebirds" (originally aired on CBS on March 3, 1949) an engrossing mystery about a wife who plots to help her invalid husband on his way to the great beyond. We'll also hear her recreate her Oscar-nominated role in a radio version of Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca (originally aired on The Lady Esther Screen Guild Theatre on May 31, 1943).

Perennial Suspense favorite Joseph Cotten is back in two more "tales well calculated." The popular star of Shadow of a Doubt appears first as a man tormented by the sight of a corpse that no one else can see in "The Thing in the Window" (originally aired on CBS on December 19, 1946). Then, he's a lawyer who's presumed dead with a scheme to collect his own life insurance in "The Day I Died" (originally aired on CBS on June 30, 1949.

Ray Milland's screen career stretched from the 1930s to the 1970s, earning him an Oscar and leaving a series of memorable performances in The Lost Weekend, Dial 'M' for Murder, and more. A talented director as well as an actor, Milland continued to work on both sides of the camera for movies and television. In two of his five visits to Suspense, we'll hear him as a cop trying to cover up a murder in "Night Cry" (originally aired on CBS on October 7, 1948) and as a man whose empty pockets land him in jail in "Chicken Feed" (originally aired on CBS on September 8, 1949).

A real-life hero in Hollywood, Herbert Marshall lost a leg in World War I before he went on to a long career on the stage and screen. The handsome, debonair actor made a name for himself as a romantic lead and later as a character actor. In addition to twenty appearances on Suspense, Marshall starred on radio as a globetrotting secret agent in The Man Called X and made the rounds on radio comedies. We’ll hear him as a writer out for revenge against his son’s killer in “The Beast Must Die” (originally aired on CBS on July 13, 1944) and in a real-life story of a solider blackmailed into treason in “Betrayal in Vienna” (originally aired on CBS on October 8, 1951).

Olivia de Havilland won two Oscars during her six decade screen career, and she's still making news today. The star of Gone With the Wind and The Adventures of Robin Hood was a true legend of old Hollywood, but she only made one visit to "radio's outstanding theater of thrills." We'll hear her in a shipboard thriller in "Voyage Through Darkness" (originally aired on CBS on September 7, 1944) and in a radio creation of one of her award-nominated roles in Hold Back the Dawn from Academy Award (originally aired on CBS on July 31, 1946).

Some of the twentieth century's best singers made visits to "radio's outstanding theater of thrills" during the twenty year run of Suspense. This week, we'll hear two of them in uncharacteristic dark and dramatic roles. First, Frank Sinatra is a deranged madman tormenting Agnes Moorehead in "To Find Help" (an Armed Forces Radio Service rebroadcast of an episode from January 18, 1945). Then, Rosemary Clooney stars and sings in "St. James Infirmary Blues" (originally aired on CBS on February 23, 1953), a tale of crime and love in the Roaring Twenties.