Stars on Suspense (Old Time Radio)

Vivi Janiss was one of the radio era's most versatile and talented actresses, and she lent her voice to roles in comedies, westerns, thrillers, and everything in between. We'll hear her on a long car ride with her husband and an armed fugitive in "Backseat Driver" (originally aired on CBS on July 19, 1955), and she plays the wife of a man about to be executed in "Waiting" (originally aired on CBS on October 2, 1956). Plus, she appears in a dual role as a pair of twin sisters at the center of a mystery in "The Dancing Hands" from The Adventures of Philip Marlowe (originally aired on CBS on March 19, 1949).

We bid a fond farewell to actor, director, and occasional Suspense host Robert Montgomery. In addition to acting as emcee and narrator, Montgomery plays a man who may (or may not) be the homicidal maniac stalking the streets of London in "The Lodger" (originally aired on CBS on February 14, 1948). Plus, he recreates his big screen role of Philip Marlowe in "Lady in the Lake" from The Lux Radio Theatre (originally aired on CBS on February 9, 1948).

Character Walter Abel began his career in Eugene O'Neill stage dramas in the 1920s and he worked steadily on the big and small screens all the way through the 1980s. We'll hear him as a bank employee who wants to add some fun - and some ill-gotten gains - to his life in "Quiet Desperation" (originally aired on CBS on August 7, 1947). Plus, he co-stars in a radio version of "Double Indemnity" from The Lady Esther Screen Guild Theatre (originally aired on CBS on March 5, 1945) and "I Spy Sister Sarri," a drama from Theatre 5 (originally aired on ABC on July 27, 1965).

We bid goodbye to the "First Lady of Suspense" as Agnes Moorehead stars in three old time radio thrillers. First, she plays a high school teacher who tries to save her student from a grisly end behind the wheel of a hot rod in "The Empty Chair" (originally aired on CBS on September 21, 1953). Then, Ms. Moorehead plays a mother who's a little too close to her adult son and who grows very upset when he introduces her to his fiancee in "Don't Call Me Mother" (originally aired on CBS on January 4, 1959). And - in the final episode of Suspense produced in Hollywood - she plays a patient who plans to end her relationship with her psychiatrist with a bullet in "Headshrinker" (originally aired on CBS on August 23, 1959).

In this bonus episode, I'm sharing my favorite Suspense shows from the 18 appearances Joseph Cotten made on the program. The star of Shadow of a Doubt and The Third Man plays both heroes and villains across these six episodes. First, he's searching for his missing wife in "You'll Never See Me Again" (originally aired on CBS on September 14, 1944), and he's hunted by J. Carrol Naish in "The Most Dangerous Game" (originally aired on CBS on February 1, 1945). After an impulsive murder, Cotten has to reverse engineer an alibi in "Crime Without Passion" (originally aired on CBS on May 2, 1946), and he's haunted by a corpse no one else can see in "The Thing in the Window" (originally aired on CBS on December 19, 1946). A case of mistaken identity and a long-suffering wife have Cotten in the vise in "The Day I Died" (originally aired on June 30, 1949), and he's got to clear his name after he confesses to a murder he didn't commit in "Fly By Night" (originally aired on CBS on September 28, 1950).

As a contract player for Warner Brothers and Fox, Mark Stevens starred in film noir and dramas alongside the likes of Lucille Ball and Richard Widmark. But even though he was hailed as one of the most promising new stars of Hollywood, his career never really took off. We'll hear Stevens in his one and only appearance on Suspense; he plays a man who walks into the wrong house and into a murder in "Tree of Life" (originally aired on CBS on January 2, 1947). Plus, he recreates one of his screen roles as The Lux Radio Theatre presents The Dark Corner (originally aired on CBS on November 10, 1947).

Suspense takes some rare trips into the otherworldly realms of science fiction in this bonus episode. John McIntire is a mad scientist with an equally mad experiment in "Donovan's Brain" (originally aired on CBS on Februay 7, 1948), and Jack Benny is a one-man welcoming committee on Mars in "Plan X" (originally aired aired on CBS on February 2, 1953). Two Ray Bradbury stories come to radio life in "Zero Hour" (originally aired on CBS on April 5, 1955) and "Kaleidoscope" (originally aired on CBS on July 12, 1955). A test pilot returns with a warning from space in "The Outer Limit" (originally aired on CBS on March 17, 1957), and an average Joe has to convince aliens not to destroy Earth in "You Died Last Night" (originally aired on CBS on April 1, 1962).

Helen Walker's Hollywood career was short and marked by an offscreen tragedy, but she made memorable appearances in comedies and dramas opposite co-stars like Fred MacMurray and Tyrone Power. We'll hear her opposite John Beal in "Deadline at Dawn" - the final hour-long episode of Suspense (originally aired on CBS on May 15, 1948). Then she reprises her big screen role as The Old Gold Comedy Theatre presents Brewster's Millions (originally aired on NBC on March 25, 1945).

In this bonus episode, I'm sharing my favorite Suspense shows starring Gene Kelly. The star of Singin' in the Rain doesn't sing or dance, but instead he shows off his dramatic chops in three radio thrillers. First, he's stalked on the highway in "Death Went Along For the Ride" (originally aired on CBS on April 27, 1944), and then he's a man whose sudden lucky streak just may help him get away with murder in "The Man Who Couldn't Lose" (originally aired on CBS on September 28, 1944). And finally, he's a deranged man who menaces an old woman who made the mistake of hiring him as a handyman in "To Find Help" (originally aired on CBS on January 6, 1949).

Before he was Rambo's commanding officer, Richard Crenna was a squeaky-voiced teenager on radio in Our Miss Brooks and A Date with Judy. His career began on the air and stretched into the early 2000s, and it included an Emmy win and starring roles on multiple TV shows. We'll hear him in a pair of radio thrillers: first, he's a young crook whose life of crime finally catches up with him in "The Prophecy of Bertha Abbott" (originally aired on CBS on October 16, 1956). Then, he's a man whose past life is about to catch up with him in "Night on Red Mountain" (originally aired on September 15, 1957). Plus, Crenna plays Walter Denton in "Stretch and Walter's Grudge Match" from Our Miss Brooks (originally aired on CBS on May 1, 1949).