Episodes
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Before we sign off for the year, it's time for our annual presentation of a classic Christmas film recreated for radio. This year, it's the holiday romantic comedy Remember the Night, recreated with original stars Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray in a broadcast from The Lux Radio Theatre (originally aired on CBS on March 25, 1940).
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Christmastime is here, and to celebrate I've got five Suspense seasonal stories that - in a departure from the usual fare on this podcast - all have happy endings! Eddie Cantor stars in a tale of clerical crime at Christmastime in "Double Entry" (originally aired on CBS on December 22, 1949), and Greer Garson joins a little girl in her long wait in "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" (originally aired on CBS on December 21, 1953). Jack Kruschen plans to rub out a rival gangster with an explosive Christmas gift in "A Present for Benny" (originally aired on CBS on December 13, 1955). A little girl wants a dog for Christmas and gets one in the strangest way possible in "Dog Star" (originally aired on CBS on December 22, 1957), and a soldier gives a buddy a ride to remember in "A Korean Christmas Carol" (originally aired on CBS on December 20, 1959).
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Herbert Marshall is back for Christmas! He stars in John Collier's tale of holly jolly homicide "Holiday Story" (originally aired on CBS on December 23, 1948), and he plays a naval officer whose fast thinking changes the course of history in "The Man Who Won the War" (originally aired on CBS on October 5, 1958). Plus, we'll hear him in an episode of his own radio spy adventure series The Man Called X. It's a holiday tale known as "From a Starlit Hill" (originally aired on NBC on December 23, 1950).
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Best known as the kindly attorney who takes on Kris Kringle's case in Miracle on 34th Street, John Payne starred in crime dramas, westerns, and adventures on the big screen and as a TV gunslinger in The Restless Gun. We'll hear him as a small town police chief with a big-time mystery on his hands in Dashiell Hammett's "Two Sharp Knives" (originally aired on CBS on June 7, 1945). Plus, he recreates his celebrated movie role as the Lux Radio Theatre presents "Miracle on 34th Street," also featuring Maureen O'Hara and Edmund Gwenn (originally aired on CBS on December 20, 1948).
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It's another TV-radio crossover as we hear four Suspense stars who also played murderers on the classic detective series Columbo: Anne Baxter ("Requiem for a Fallen Star") in "The Death of Barbara Allen" (originally aired on CBS on October 20, 1952); Richard Basehart ("Dagger of the Mind") in "The Perfectionist" (originally aired on CBS on January 21, 1952); Jose Ferrer ("Mind Over Mayhem") in "The Pit and the Pendulum" (originally aired on CBS on November 27, 1947); and two-time Columbo guest star Ray Milland (killer in "The Greenhouse Jungle" and the victim's husband in "Death Lends a Hand") in "Chicken Feed" (originally aired on CBS on September 8, 1949) and "After the Movies" (originally aired on CBS on December 7, 1950).
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Ruth Hussey picked up an Oscar nomination for her performance as a cyncial photographer in The Philadelphia Story, and she had a long career on the big and small screens, as well as on the Broadway stage. We'll hear as the wife of a pilot who's moments away from a catastrophe in the sky in "Firing Run" (AFRS rebroadcast from November 3, 1957). Plus, she recreates her Philadelphia Story role with many of her co-stars in a special "Victory Theatre" war bond fundraiser from The Lux Radio Theatre (originally aired on CBS on July 20, 1942).
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Character actress Eve McVeagh was a regular presence on the Broadway stage, the big screen, and on TV for over five decades, and during her career she starred in everything from High Noon to Petticoat Junction. We'll hear her as a woman whose auction purchase comes loaded with trouble in "Going, Going, Gone" (originally aired on CBS on May 10, 1955) and as part of a film crew who discovers real-life outlaws in a western ghost town in "Hollywood Hostages" (originally aired on CBS on February 21, 1956). Plus, we'll hear her as one of history's most infamous poisoners in "The Seven-Layered Cake of Madame Lafarge" from Crime Classics (originally aired on CBS on October 14, 1953).
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In this bonus episode, I'm sharing my favorite Suspense shows starring the great James Mason. The smooth, polished star of Lolita, North by Northwest, and The Veil plays crooks, cops, and a man whose guilt or innocence may never be known for sure. We'll hear "Where There's a Will" (originally aired on CBS on February 24, 1949), "Banquo's Chair" (originally aired on CBS on March 9, 1950), "The Greatest Thief in the World" (originally aired on CBS on June 21, 1951), and "Odd Man Out" (originally aired on CBS on February 11, 1952).
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Herbert Marshall returns to the podcast in two old time radio thrillers - a pair of shows where he plays a coward and a man unafraid of death who find their worldviews challenged in critical moments. He stars in an adaptation of Graham Greene's "The Man Within" (originally aired on CBS on April 27, 1953) and in "Action" (originally aired on CBS on October 5, 1953). Plus, we'll hear him as globe-trotting secret agent Ken Thurston, aka The Man Called X (originally aired on NBC on May 4, 1951).
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Just in time for trick-or-treating, here are my picks for the scariest stories to ever air on "radio's outstanding theater of thrills." Orson Welles takes a long drive with an uninvited guest in "The Hitch-hiker" (originally aired on CBS on September 2, 1942), and Robert Taylor soon regrets moving into "The House in Cypress Canyon" (originally aired on CBS on December 5, 1946). Ralph Edwards goes on a "Ghost Hunt" (originally aired on CBS on June 23, 1949) and Cary Grant picks a bad spot to run out of gas in "On a Country Road" (originally aired on CBS on November 16, 1950). Finally, Vincent Price faces off against an army of rats in "Three Skeleton Key" (originally aired on CBS on November 11, 1956).
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With Halloween right around the corner, I'm sharing some classic episodes of Suspense featuring some of the biggest stars of classic Hollywood horror: Peter Lorre in "Till Death Do Us Part" (originally aired on CBS on December 15, 1942); Bela Lugosi in "The Doctor Prescribed Death" (originally aired on CBS on February 16, 1943); Boris Karloff in "Drury's Bones" (originally aired on CBS on January 25, 1945); Claude Rains and Vincent Price in "The Hands of Mr. Ottermole" (originally aired on CBS on December 2, 1948); and Price again in "The Pit and the Pendulum" (originally aired on CBS on November 19, 1957).
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Best known as the "Control Voice" that opened each episode of The Outer Limits, Vic Perrin was all over the dial during the golden age of radio. He was a regular resident of Dodge City on Gunsmoke, he frequently encountered Sgt. Joe Friday on Dragnet, and he co-starred with Raymond Burr on Fort Laramie. We'll hear him as a reporter who has a rendezvous with a killer in "The Lady in the Red Hat" (originally aired on CBS on August 30, 1955). Then, he's a trapeze artist with love and murder on his mind in "Gallardo" (originally aired on CBS on March 20, 1956). And he's a postmaster who has to intercept a time-bomb sent through the mail in "Fragile - Contents Death" (originally aired on CBS on May 22, 1956). Plus, we'll hear him in "Sergeant Gorse's Baby," an episode of Fort Laramie (originally aired on CBS on May 29, 1956).
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Character actor John McIntire - who rode the range on Wagon Train and the mean streets of the city in a squad car on Naked City - returns to the podcast for his third starring appearance. McIntire plays a car enthusiast who takes his antique on a 500 mile tour in "The Big Day" (originally aired on CBS on May 26, 1957) and a convict who's crafted a seemingly perfect plan to escape from prison in "Rain Tonight" (originally aired on CBS on June 29, 1958). Plus, he's the host and emcee of "Report on E.S.P." - a docudrama from The CBS Radio Workshop (originally aired on CBS on March 9, 1956).
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Eva Le Gallienne was a legend of the American stage - not only for her performances on Broadway but for her support of the development of off-Broadway and regional theatrical companies across the country. She made only one appearance on Suspense in "Phobia" (originally aired on CBS on June 26, 1947), where she played a wealthy wheelchair-bound woman with a fear of metal, a kleptomaniac sister, and a corpse in the house. Then she plays one of theatre's richest and most complex villainesses as Lady MacBeth in "MacBeth" from Great Plays (originally aired on NBC on July 12, 1953).
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June Havoc - actress, singer, and younger sister of Gypsy Rose Lee - returns to the podcast in a sixty-minute adaptation of Cornell Woolrich's "The Black Angel" (originally aired on CBS on January 24, 1948). She plays a woman who plays detective to clear her husband of murder, only to get close to the man who may be the real killer. Then, she recreates one of her big screen roles opposite George Raft in a Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of "Intrigue" (originally aired on CBS on May 10, 1948).
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We'll turn on the TV this week with three radio thrillers featuring future television stars. Before he was Bart Maverick, Jack Kelly led the frantic search for a deadly snake on a boat in "A Shipment of Mute Fate" (originally aired on CBS on January 6, 1957). Beloved TV mom June Lockhart of Lassie and Lost in Space is an actress who's had enough poor treatment at the hands of a producer in "Shooting Star" (originally aired on CBS on March 24, 1957). And Richard Anderson, who'd later give orders to the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman, plays an inexperienced cavalry officer who's too eager for action in "Command" (originally aired on CBS on September 14, 1958).
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To the Batcave! In this bonus episode, we'll hear five Suspense stars who played Gotham City bad guys opposite Adam West and Burt Ward on Batman. We'll hear Vincent Price (Egghead) and Ida Lupino (Dr. Cassandra Spellcraft) in "Fugue in C Minor" (originally aired on CBS on June 1, 1944), Roddy McDowall (Bookworm) in "One Way Street" (originally aired on CBS on January 23, 1947), Anne Baxter (Zelda the Great, and Olga, Queen of the Cossacks) in "Always Room at the Top" (originally aired on CBS on February 20, 1947), Van Johnson (The Minstrel) in "The Defense Rests" (originally aired on CBS on October 6, 1949), and Milton Berle (Louie the Lilac) in "Rave Notice" (originally aired on CBS on October 25, 1950).
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John Dickson Carr - one of the giants of the golden age of mystery fiction - penned dozens of scripts in the early years of Suspense with stories ranging from historical crime drama to international espionage to good old fashioned murders. We'll hear a tale of spies and sorcery in "The Lord of the Witch Doctors" (originally aired on CBS on October 27, 1942) and of a sabotage plot exposed in Madame Toussaud's in "Menace in Wax" (originally aired on CBS on November 17, 1942). Carr takes us back to London in the early 1800s when you could earn a living robbing graves in "The Body Snatchers" (originally aired on CBS on November 24, 1942), and an Italian honeymoon could turn into a funeral in "The Bride Vanishes" (originally aired on CBS on December 1, 1942).
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In this bonus episode, we salute some of the singers who stepped up to the Suspense microphone and traded trills for thrills. Lena Horne is caught up in wartime espionage in "You Were Wonderful" (originally aired on CBS on November 9, 1944), and Frank Sinatra is the handyman from hell in "To Find Help" (AFRS rebroadcast from January 18, 1945). Ezio Pinza is an opera singer who leaves them dead in the aisles in "Aria from Murder" (originally aired on CBS on January 25, 1951), and Dinah Shore sings and stars in the tale of "Frankie and Johnny" (originally aired on CBS on May 5, 1952). Rosemary Clooney headlines a bloody tale of the Roaring Twenties in "St. James Infirmary Blues" (originally aired on CBS on February 23, 1953) and Ethel Merman is a cabaret singer who takes the wrong newcomer under her wing in "Never Follow a Banjo Act" (originally aired on CBS on February 1, 1954). Finally, Margaret Whiting is a sharp dressed woman with murder on her mind in "The Well-Dressed Corpse" (AFRS rebroadcast from October 13, 1957).
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Best known to radio fans as Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve's on again/off again fiancee, Shirley Mitchell had a long career on the air and the big and small screens. We'll hear her meet a man and his knife in "Blind Date" (originally aired on CBS on November 18, 1954). Plus, she's Leila Ransom opposite Harold Peary in The Great Gildersleeve (originally aired on NBC on September 26, 1943).
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