Suspense - Radio’s Outstanding Theater of Thrills

Originally Aired: October 13, 1949

Suspense #354, "Account Payable," stars Edward Arnold as Timothy Baker, a long-suffering head bookkeeper who has endured 22 years of humiliation from his tyrannical boss, John Waterberry. Baker's life outside the office revolves around his beloved 20-year-old daughter Jessie, whose happiness means everything to him. When Jessie falls in love with a young medical student named Bill, her joy suddenly turns to despair upon discovering that Bill's father is none other than Waterberry himself. The boss considers Baker's daughter beneath his son's social standing and demands that the relationship end immediately, declaring that a future doctor needs to marry into position and society, not the working class.

The confrontation between Baker and Waterberry escalates dangerously as the boss works himself into a rage over the romance. Waterberry suffers from severe asthma and requires emergency adrenaline injections during his attacks. As Baker waits anxiously in the present moment, watching Waterberry's office door, he reveals that inside lies a dead man's body waiting to be discovered, leaving listeners to wonder what transpired during that fateful confrontation and whether Baker finally stood up to his tormentor with deadly consequences.

Originally Aired: October 6, 1949

Suspense #353, "The Defense Rests," stars Van Johnson as Robert Tasker, an ex-convict on trial for murder. As his defense attorney Max Krager addresses the court, Robert reflects on the twisted irony of his situation: Krager is the only friend he's ever had, yet without him, Robert wouldn't be in this courtroom at all. The story flashes back to Robert's release from San Quentin, where he served time after being prosecuted by district attorney Arthur Hines. Krager, who befriended Robert after reading a story he wrote in prison, secures his parole and offers him a job as a clerk in his law office. Robert accepts, grateful for the opportunity and growing close to Peggy, the office secretary who encourages his writing.

The fragile new beginning shatters when Robert learns that Arthur Hines, the man he blames for his imprisonment, is now Krager's law partner. When Hines returns to the office, tensions explode immediately. A confrontation erupts involving a suspicious ex-convict named Marvin who claims Hines stole fifty thousand dollars from him, leading to a violent clash between Robert and Hines that sets the stage for the murder charge Robert now faces.

Originally Aired: September 29, 1949

Suspense #352, "Blind Date," finds vaudeville performer Gloria LaFay preparing to leave Chicago after closing night when a mysterious stranger named Vincent Hawthorne arrives at her dressing room. The cultured, poetry-quoting Vincent has arranged a blind date with the young acrobatic dancer, bringing wine and roses for what he insists should be an intimate evening in her dressing room. Gloria, who inherited her act from her late mother Diane, is eager to leave for a proper dinner at Gregory's restaurant, but Vincent seems determined to keep her there, his intentions growing increasingly unclear and unsettling.

As Vincent's behavior becomes more strange and controlling, the evening takes a darker turn. His melancholy musings about loneliness and his peculiar fascination with Gloria's back-bending act hint at something sinister beneath his refined exterior. When he produces a large trick knife to open the wine bottle, Gloria's unease intensifies. Vincent's cryptic comments about knives being "a friend" and "the only fri—" suggest that this blind date may be leading somewhere far more dangerous than a simple midnight supper.

Originally Aired: September 22, 1949

Suspense #351, "Experiment 6-R," Morris Brandt has spent twelve long years as assistant manager at the Carlton Plaza Hotel, enduring daily humiliation at the hands of his boss, Paul Koblenz. Each afternoon at precisely 3:15, Brandt must perform a degrading ritual: delivering coffee, unlocking the liquor cabinet with Koblenz's key, and serving brandy while being reminded of his subordinate position. When Koblenz coldly informs Brandt that advancement is impossible as long as he's alive, and that he's a very healthy man who plans to live a long time, something inside Brandt begins to change. The grinding frustration of being capable yet trapped, of being too successful for his own good, builds to a breaking point.

As Brandt addresses a distinguished gathering of scientists from a special clinic, he hints at the dark irony of his situation and promises to reveal his role in the mysterious Experiment 6-R. The tension mounts as he recounts his story, suggesting that desperate ambition and years of suppressed rage may have led him down an extraordinary and possibly sinister path.

Originally Aired: September 15, 1949

Suspense #350, "Last Confession," Jesse, a young woman living with her roommate Edna, becomes increasingly disturbed by newspaper reports of a brutal murder. Thomas L. Howard has been found stabbed to death in Woodland Grove, and Jesse's overactive imagination begins to spiral. As she pores over the details, she's struck by the victim's resemblance to Henry Hackett, a former boyfriend she abruptly rejected. Jesse recalls their final conversation when Henry warned her she'd be responsible if something terrible happened to him. When she realizes the murder occurred on Tuesday, July 12th between 5 and 7 PM, Jesse makes an unsettling discovery: she cannot remember where she was during those crucial hours.

While Edna easily recalls her own whereabouts that evening, Jesse's mounting anxiety grows more intense. She becomes obsessed with the black glove found at the scene, her own size five, and wrestles with disturbing questions about conscience, guilt, and whether anyone is truly incapable of murder. As Jesse's memories blur and her imagination takes hold, she begins to wonder if the unthinkable could be possible.

Originally Aired: September 8, 1949

Suspense #349, "Chicken Feed," stars Ray Milland as Ralph Clark, a San Francisco attorney whose marriage spat over a nickel spirals into a nightmare. After storming out of his house following an argument with his wife Mary about giving their son Junior a nickel, Ralph drives fifty miles to cool off. He stops in Lansing, California—a notorious speed-trap town—for a cup of coffee, only to discover he's left his wallet at home when he tries to make a phone call to apologize to Mary.

What begins as an embarrassing situation quickly escalates when Officer Brady grows suspicious of Ralph's lack of identification or money. Taken to the police station to make his call, Ralph watches helplessly as Mary refuses to accept the collect charges, still angry from their fight. With no way to prove his identity and the station's regular phone out of order, Ralph finds himself locked in a cell on suspicion of fraud and car theft. All for the want of a single nickel—the very thing that started the argument in the first place.

Originally Aired: September 1, 1949

Suspense #348, "Nightmare," stars Gregory Peck as Ben, a family man whose tranquil Fourth of July fishing trip turns into a harrowing tragedy. After a near-miss with children playing baseball the previous evening leaves him shaken, Ben drives his wife Elsa, who is recovering from a nervous breakdown, and their young son Stevie into the trout country. When the car runs out of gas on a winding mountain road, Ben walks to find fuel, leaving Elsa and Stevie behind. A local gas station attendant warns him about reckless drivers heading to a roadhouse called the Royal Coachman, and Ben witnesses a speeding car tearing dangerously up the road.

When Ben returns to his family, he finds his fishing rod broken in the road and discovers that Stevie has been killed by a hit-and-run driver. Elsa, traumatized and barely able to speak, describes how a speeding car came around the bend and struck their son while he practiced casting. As Ben tries to comfort his wife and process the devastating loss, Elsa reveals a chilling detail about the driver who killed their child and then returned to the scene.

Originally Aired: June 30, 1949

Suspense #347, "The Day I Died," stars Joseph Cotten as Wells Galloway, a wealthy lawyer whose life has crumbled around him. Having embezzled bonds from an estate he was entrusted to manage, Wells retreats to his isolated cabin at Lake Latima to contemplate his desperate situation. His wife Leslie has fallen in love with another man, Norman Vale, and his money is gone. When his red-haired law partner Red Tuttle arrives demanding that Wells return the stolen bonds or face exposure to the police, a violent confrontation erupts. In a moment of rage and panic, Wells shoots Red dead, then flees into the dark woods in terror.

The next morning, a truck driver gives Wells a ride and shares shocking news: a cabin burned to the ground at Lake Latima, and the murderer has been identified through a ring and watch found at the scene. But the authorities believe the killer is Red Tuttle and the victim is Wells Galloway. Now legally dead, Wells returns to discover what it means to be a man with no identity, no authority, and no power over his own life or even his widow.

Originally Aired: June 23, 1949

Suspense #346, "Ghost Hunt," disc jockey Smiley Smith embarks on a publicity stunt that goes terribly wrong. Looking to boost ratings and help property owner Mr. Thorpe sell a notorious house known as "the death trap," where four people have committed suicide since 1939, Smiley plans to spend the night there with psychic investigator Dr. Clarence Reed. Using walkie-talkies connected to his wire recorder, Smiley intends to broadcast proof that the house isn't haunted. The next morning, when Thorpe and real estate agent McDonald arrive to collect the two men, they find the house seemingly deserted except for the wire recorder still running. A frantic search leads to a horrifying discovery: Dr. Reed lying unconscious and covered in blood, while Smiley Smith has mysteriously vanished.

As Reed receives emergency medical treatment and the radio station searches for the missing disc jockey, McDonald and Thorpe prepare to play back the wire recording from the fateful night, hoping it will reveal what supernatural or sinister events unfolded in the haunted house.

Originally Aired: June 16, 1949

In Suspense #345, "The Trap," Agnes Moorhead stars as Helen Crane, a physician's secretary living alone in a large, labyrinthine house. Helen becomes convinced that someone is secretly living in her home when she's awakened in the middle of the night by whistling echoing through the empty rooms. The police find no signs of forced entry or burglary, dismissing her concerns, but Helen insists that small, disturbing details prove an intruder's presence: a missing muffin from her bread box, a stopped clock mysteriously wound and ticking again, and most alarming of all, a change of address card filled out on her own typewriter, with its distinctive defects, requesting her mail be forwarded to Paris, France.

When Helen shares her fears with her employer, Dr. Perry, he too dismisses her claims as neurotic delusions born from exhaustion and an overactive imagination. But Helen knows what she heard and saw. As she returns home each day, she becomes increasingly aware that someone is moving through her honeycomb of rooms and closets, staying just out of sight, planning something she cannot yet fathom.