Stars on Suspense (Old Time Radio)

Though she never found the fame of her sister Margaret, Barbara Whiting had a run in Hollywood as a Fox contract player. We'll hear her in "The Rim of Terror" (originally aired on CBS on December 2, 1956) as a woman who picks up a hitchhiking defector and in "One Way Trip," a story from Romance (originally aired on CBS on December 17, 1955). Plus, she reprises her breakout big screen role in Junior Miss on Hollywood Star Time (originally aired on CBS on March 24, 1946).

We've got two stars for the price of one in each of these Suspense shows! For this bonus episode, I'm sharing my favorite installments of "radio's outstanding theater of thrills" that featured a pair of big name stars at the microphone. J. Carrol Naish and Joseph Cotten are hunter and hunted in "The Most Dangerous Game" (originally aired on CBS on February 1, 1945) and Hume Cronyn and Keenan Wynn hope a big bet will bail them out of trouble in "Double Entry" (originally aired on CBS on December 20, 1945). Vincent Price joins Lloyd Nolan on a "Hunting Trip" (originally aired on CBS on September 12, 1946) and walks the streets of London with Claude Rains in "The Hands of Mr. Ottermole" (originally aired on CBS on December 2, 1948). Finally, Fibber McGee and Molly are joined by an armed and unwelcome passenger in "Backseat Driver" (originally aired on CBS on February 3, 1949), and Phil Harris and Alice Faye try to escape a small town's harsh justice in "Death on My Hands" (originally aired on CBS on May 10, 1951).

Virginia Gregg was one of the radio era's busiest and best performers. The versatile and talented actress could be heard on everything from detective dramas to westerns, often playing multiple characters in the same episode. We'll hear her as a woman held captive by a maniac in "Goodnight, Mrs. Russell" (originally aired on CBS on August 3, 1954) and as half of a murderous pair of newlyweds in "When the Bough Breaks" (originally aired on CBS on December 6, 1955). Plus, we'll hear her in a thriller from the typewriter of the great Arch Oboler - "Come to the Bank With Me" (originally aired on NBC on October 31, 1964).

To celebrate St. Patrick's Day, we've got a line-up of Irish-American stars making appearances on "radio's outstanding theater of thrills." Maureen O'Hara is an amateur sleuth hunting a killer in "The White Rose Murders" (originally aired on CBS on July 6, 1943) and Thomas Mitchell is a railroad magnate plagued by nightmares in "Case History of Edgar Lowndes" (originally aired on CBS on June 8, 1944). Edmond O'Brien plays a reporter chasing a story worth killing for in "The Argyle Album" (originally aired on CBS on September 4, 1947) and James Cagney takes a deadly trip behind the wheel in "No Escape" (originally aired on CBS on December 16, 1948). Pat O'Brien is a cop who finds a suspect close to home in "True Report" (originally aired on CBS on August 31, 1950) and Dennis Day is a beatnik - you read that right - in "Like Man, Somebody Dig Me" (AFRS rebroadcast from August 16, 1959).

We bid farewell to Joseph Cotten - an institution on Suspense. The star of The Third Man made 18 appearances on "radio's outstanding theater of thrills," and we'll hear his final shows, including an adaptation of Ambrose Bierce's "An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge" (originally aired on CBS on December 15, 1957). In his last starring role on Suspense, Cotten plays a man trying to save one of his former soldiers from prisons both mental and physical in "Red Cloud Mesa" (originally aired on CBS on August 2, 1959). Plus, he recreates his role from Shadow of a Doubt on Academy Award (originally aired on CBS on September 11, 1946) and he pinch hits as a secret agent in The Man Called X (originally aired on NBC on July 6, 1951).

Though never considered a bankable star by the studios, Martha Scott worked steadily on the big and small screens for fifty years. She earned an Oscar nomination for her performance in the film version of Our Town and she set baby Moses in the basket in The Ten Commandments. She stars in a very odd episode of Suspense as a mother who experiences a frightening vision of her child's future in "Crisis" (originally aired on CBS on August 19, 1948). Plus she recreates one of her film roles in "Cheers for Miss Bishop" on The Lux Radio Theatre (originally aired on CBS on March 17, 1941).

For this bonus episode, we're saddling up with the best Suspense stories of the old west. Alan Ladd hunts for his brother's murderer in "A Killing in Abilene" (originally aired on CBS on December 14, 1950). Then, Richard Widmark fights a bloody feud in "The Hunting of Bob Lee" (originally aired on CBS on October 29, 1951) and he tracks a deadly panther through the snow in "The Track of the Cat" (originally aired on CBS on February 18, 1952). Frank Lovejoy stars as one of the west's most infamous gunslingers in "The Shooting of Billy the Kid" (originally aired on CBS on April 28, 1952) and Richard Widmark returns - this time as another notorious outlaw - in "The Spencer Brothers" (originally aired on CBS on January 26, 1953). Finally, Victor Mature stars as a legendary bandit in "The Love and Death of Joaquin Murietta" (originally aired on CBS on February 16, 1953).

Whether he was keeping the peace in Dodge City or playing a villain on Suspense, William Conrad was one of radio's all-time greatest performers. We'll hear the man with one of Hollywood's best voices in three old time radio thrillers. First, he's a hired killer whose plans never quite pan out in "A Matter of Timing" (originally aired on CBS on June 12, 1956). Then, he's on a cross-country drive that gets detoured when he and his friend are wrongfully accused of murder in "Two for the Road" (originally aired on CBS on November 9, 1958). Finally, Conrad narrates a tense tale of an effort to fix an active atomic bomb at a test site in "Misfire" (AFRS rebroadcast from November 30, 1958). And as a bonus, we'll hear him in his signature radio role as Matt Dillon in "The Buffalo Hunter" from Gunsmoke (originally aired on CBS on May 9, 1953).

In this bonus podcast episode, a collection of characters makes the St. Valentine's Day massacre look like a picnic. We'll hear five Suspense stories about romances gone wrong with husbands and wives at each other's throats. Peter Lorre plots to get rid of an unfaithful wife in "Till Death Do Us Part" (originally aired on CBS on December 15, 1942), and even though his wife isn't real, Edward G. Robinson still winds up accused of her murder in "My Wife Geraldine" (originally aired on CBS on March 1, 1945). Robert Young's wife vanishes into the night in "You'll Never See Me Again" (originally aired on CBS on September 5, 1946) and Kirk Douglas plans to bump off his wife instead of sharing an inheritance in "Community Property" (originally aired on CBS on April 10, 1947). Finally, Joan Fontaine is a Mrs. planning to do away with her Mr. in "The Lovebirds" (originally aired on CBS on March 3, 1949).

In this bonus episode, I'm sharing my favorite installments of Suspense starring Oscar-winner Van Heflin. First, he's an executive with a murderous plan to climb the corporate ladder in "Three Blind Mice" (originally aired on CBS on January 30, 1947) and he's a man caught by his own trap for his unfaithful wife in "Three O'Clock" (originally aired on CBS on March 10, 1949). Heflin plays a hitchhiker who plots to take the place of the man who gives him a lift in "Murder of Aunt Delia" (originally aired on CBS on November 10, 1949) and he plays a reporter invited to a midnight meeting with a serial killer in "The Lady in the Red Hat" (originally aired on CBS on November 30, 1950). Finally, Heflin stars as America's first Public Enemy Number One in "The Last Days of John Dillinger" (originally aired on CBS on May 10, 1954).

Parley Baer may be best known to old time radio fans for his many years in Dodge City as Deputy Chester Proudfoot on Gunsmoke, but he lent his voice to hundreds of radio shows across nearly every genre on the air. We'll hear him in a Suspense western as a man hunting his brother's murderer in "A Killing in Abilene" (originally aired on CBS on February 3, 1955). Then, he's a husband planning a deadly summer getaway for his wife in "Variations on a Theme" (originally aired on CBS on February 7, 1956). Finally, we'll hear Baer in his signature radio role in "Westbound" from Gunsmoke (originally aired on CBS on January 3, 1953).

Dan Dailey shed his musical comedy persona for his two appearances on Suspense. The Oscar nominee and Golden Globe winner starred as a pair of men caught in deadly love triangles, First, he's a carnival performer who spends his days buried alive in a glass coffin while his wife and his barker get closer in "Six Feet Under" (originally aired on CBS on April 13, 1950). Then, he boards a chartered fishing boat only to discover his wife and the captain have plans for a surprise burial at sea in "Over the Bounding Main" (originally aired on CBS on September 14, 1950).

In addition to being an amazing actress, Lillian Gish pioneered the craft of film acting - the more nuanced performance choices that a camera could capture vs. the broad techniques designed to reach the back of a theatre. Her career stretched from the silent era all the way to the late 1980s, and along the way she starred in films made by D.W. Griffith and stared down Robert Mitchum in The Night of the Hunter. We'll hear her in "Marry for Murder" (originally aired on CBS on September 9, 1943). Then, we'll hear her as a guest panelist in two episodes of Information Please (a partial recording of an episode from October 25, 1938 and another show from July 4, 1939).

We close out 2023 with a break from radio thrillers. Instead, it's our annual showcase of a classic Christmas film recreated for radio. This year, it's one of the best as James Stewart and Donna read recreate their roles as George and Mary Bailey in a Lux Radio Theatre recreation of It's a Wonderful Life (originally aired on CBS on March 10, 1947).

Jack Kruschen earned an Oscar nod for his performance as Jack Lemmon's kindly and concerned neighbor in The Apartment, but before that he was a busy and very versatile radio performer. With a knack for accents and dialects, it wasn't uncommon for Kruschen to play multiple roles in the same thirty minutes. We'll hear him as a gangster who prepares an explosive Christmas gift for a rival in "A Present for Benny" (originally aired on CBS on December 14, 1955). Then, he's a nightclub mind reader who tries to use his powers to find the man who killed his wife in "With Murder in Mind" (originally aired on CBS on June 24, 1962). Plus, as a holiday bonus, we'll hear an adaptation of "Back for Christmas" from Escape (originally aired on CBS on December 24, 1947).

We're back! And with Christmas right around the corner, I'm sharing my favorite holiday stories from "radio's outstanding theater of thrills." Peter Lorre has a killer idea for a present for his wife in "Back for Christmas" (originally aired on CBS on December 23, 1943) and Dennis Day turns to crime on Christmas Eve to save his family in "Christmas for Carol" (originally aired on CBS on December 21, 1950). Two boys share a Christmas adventure when they explore "The Cave" (originally aired on CBS on December 20, 1955), and Raymond Burr is a Santa Claus looking for revenge on the man who sent him to prison in "Out for Christmas" (originally aired on CBS on December 21, 1958). Finally, a ghost is on the scene to help an ex-con keep a Christmas promise to a dying man in "Yuletide Miracle" (originally aired on CBS on December 17, 1961).

Frank Lovejoy joins our five-timer's club and flies the unfriendly skies in a pair of thrillers involving pilots and their dangerous flight plants. First, he's overseeing the first flight of an experimental plane whose pilot returns with a warning from beyond the stars in "The Outer Limit" (originally aired on CBS on March 17, 1957). Then, Lovejoy plays a pilot who commits a cross-country murder and plans a perfect alibi with a fast flight home in "Jet Stream" (originally aired on CBS on December 1, 1957). Finally, we'll hear him in an outing from Escape where he's offered a fortune in exchange for a murder in "A Letter from Jason" (originally aired on CBS on November 29, 1949). Note: Still no intro - fingers crossed I'll be back on the air next time!

Alan Baxter made a name for himself playing dangerous characters on screen - moody men on the wrong side of the law. He turned to television as film roles dried up in the postwar years, and he was busy on the small screen up through the 1970s. In his one and only visit to Suspense, Baxter played a bank teller with an elaborate plan to get away with robbery in "Money Talks" (originally aired on CBS on July 3, 1947). We'll also hear Mr. Baxter in two more thrillers: "Make No Mistake" from The Mollé Mystery Theatre (originally aired on NBC on April 30, 1948) and "Law of the Jungle" from the syndicated series Crime Does Not Pay. Note: No intro this week; allergy season claimed my voice again but hopefully I'll be back soon!

Veteran character actor John McIntire is back in the spotlight in two episodes of Suspense. First, he's a promising poet who suddenly becomes a killer in the sixty-minute production of "House by the River" (originally aired on CBS on February 28, 1948). Then, McIntire is a father desperate to keep his son out of an institution in "John Barbie and Son" (AFRS rebroadcast, originally aired on CBS on March 29, 1959).

It's a radio short story collection with four tales from the great Ray Bradbury - including one of his terrifying tales that became one of the scariest episodes of Suspense. Agnes Moorehead stars in "The Whole Town's Sleeping" (originally aired on CBS on August 31, 1958). Next, Richard Widmark stars in Bradbury's crime drama "Killer, Come Back to Me" from The Mollé Mystery Theatre (originally aired on NBC on May 17, 1946). Nelson Olmstead reads Bradbury's "The Night" (originally aired on NBC on August 20, 1947), and Radio City Playhouse presents "The Lake" (originally aired on NBC on October 16, 1949). Plus - after "The Lake," an adaptation of Roald Dahl's suspenseful classic "Man from the South" - presented on Radio City Playhouse as "Collector's Item."

Antony Ellis wrote and starred in episodes of Suspense before he became the show's director. From 1954 to 1958, Ellis had the reins of "radio's outstanding theater of thrills" and steered the program into the realm of science fiction with adaptations of stories by Ray Bradbury as well as his own stories of fantasy and horror. We'll hear him starring in "Telling," the story of a man desperate to confess to murder (originally aired on CBS on July 20, 1954). Then, he's writer, producer, and director of "I Saw Myself Running," a surreal thriller about a woman haunted by nightmares even when she's awake (originally aired on CBS on May 24, 1955). Finally, we'll hear an episode of Frontier Gentleman - Ellis' outstanding drama about an English newspaper reporter covering the wild west. John Dehner stars as J.B. Kendall in "Aces and Eights" (originally aired on CBS on April 20, 1958).

It's been a crazy month, and the Halloween Haunts countdown of bonus episodes suffered as a result. To make it up to you after a lengthy delay, I'm sharing a trilogy of terror - three scary old time radio shows to enjoy in the days before Halloween. First, Frank Lovejoy learns about the consequences of defying a voodoo curse in "Papa Benjamin," a Cornell Woolrich adapted for Escape (originally aired on CBS on January 24, 1948). Next, Peter Lorre stars in "The Black Cat," Edgar Allan Poe's tale of cruelty, rage, and a killer undone by the strangest of circumstances from Mystery in the Air (originally aired on NBC on September 18, 1947). Finally, Ida Lupino and Vincent Price co-star in Lucille Fletcher's Victorian era horror story "Fugue in C-Minor" from Suspense (originally aired on CBS on June 1, 1944).

Paula Winslowe, aka the long-suffering Mrs. Riley on The Life of Riley, returns to the podcast in two more radio thrillers. First, she's in a frantic race against the clock to find a woman in danger in "The Death Parade" (originally aired on CBS on May 15, 1956). Then, she's a florist who may be the only person who can identify a murderer in "The Twelfth Rose" (originally aired on CBS on June 5, 1956). Plus, we'll hear Ms. Winslowe and William Bendix in a baking contest on The Life of Riley (originally aired on NBC on October 27, 1950).

Our annual countdown to Halloween kicks off with one of the biggest names in Hollywood horror. Boris Karloff plays a scientist who thinks he can bring the dead back to life, and he wants to test his theories on his late wife. Lurene Tuttle co-stars in "Death Robbery," a chilling tale from Lights Out (originally aired on ABC on July 16, 1947).

British actor Ben Wright's natural voice made him a perfect fit for characters like Sherlock Holmes and Scotland Yard men, but his affinity for accents and dialects allowed him to play all sorts of parts - sometimes even multiple characters in the same radio episode. We'll hear him as a wounded man on the run in a radio adaptation of the classic film Odd Man Out (originally aired on CBS on December 30, 1954) and as a detective investigating a murder in a coal mine in "The Cave-In" (originally aired on CBS on July 5, 1955). Plus, Wright shows off his versatility by playing two roles in "The Englishman" from Have Gun, Will Travel (originally aired on CBS on January 11, 1959).

Big screen tough guy Sheldon Leonard went from cutting a menacing figure in To Have and Have Not and It's a Wonderful Life to producing classic TV sitcoms like The Andy Griffith Show and The Dick Van Dyke Show. In three old time radio thrillers, he'll show off his acting chops, first as a hired killer who's looking for a friend in "Feast of the Furies" (originally aired on CBS on July 11, 1946). We'll also hear him co-starring with Rosalind Russell in "When the Bough Breaks" (originally aired on CBS on May 3, 1951) and Jack Benny in "The Face is Familiar" (originally aired on CBS on January 18, 1954). Plus he shows off his lighter side as a proud papa of a safecracker in "Butch Minds the Baby" from The Damon Runyon Theatre.

Cathy and Elliott Lewis were two of the busiest - and best - performers of the radio era. Both could get laughs (Cathy on My Friend Irma and Elliott on The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show) and could be heard on mysteries, including "radio's outstanding theater of thrills." Cathy co-starred in several of the show's best episodes, and Elliott directed the program during some of its most innovative years. We'll hear the couple starring together in the story of a comedian who turns to murder in order to be taken seriously in "Joker Wild" (originally aired on CBS on December 3, 1952) and in the tale of a man who picks up a hitch-hiker and ends up on a dangerous drive in "Run, Sheep, Run" (AFRS rebroadcast from July 13, 1954). Plus, the Lewises co-star in "Statement of Fact," a thriller from their own anthology show On Stage (originally aired on CBS on May 14, 1953).

His star in Hollywood didn't burn bright for long, but Zachary Scott made memorable impressions as mysterious villains in movies like Mildred Pierce. In his one and only appearance on Suspense, Scott plays a man accused of bumping off an annoying neighbor in "Murder Off Key" (originally aired on CBS on November 15, 1945). Plus, he stars as the infamous Dr. Samuel Mudd - the man who treated John Wilkes Booth when the assassin was on the lam and later stood trial as a co-conspirator - in "The Prisoner of Shark Island" from Encore Theatre (originally aired on CBS on August 13, 1946).

Joseph Kearns - the longtime voice of "The Man in Black" - makes his final starring appearance on Suspense as a trigger-happy store owner who learns a tragic lesson in vigilante justice in "Hold-Up" (originally aired on CBS on August 29, 1956). Then, he stars in a pair of thrillers from The Whistler - "Final Returns" (originally aired on CBS on October 29, 1945) and "Murder in Haste" (originally aired on CBS on February 25, 1946).

In this bonus show, I'm sharing my favorite Suspense shows starring Robert Young. Before he made rounds as kindly old Marcus Welby or showed how Father Knows Best, Young made several memorable appearances on "radio's outstanding theater of thrills." First, he's tormented by dreams of one of history's most infamous duels in "A Friend to Alexander" (originally aired on CBS on August 3, 1943). Next, he's an arson investigator who finds a firebug close to home in "The Night Reveals" (originally aired on CBS on December 9, 1943). Finally, he's on a frantic search for his missing wife in "You'll Never See Me Again" (originally aired on CBS on September 5, 1946).

Whitfield Connor broke out on the Broadway stage in the 1940s, and he returned to the theatre in the 1960s as a manager and producer. In between, he made two starring turns on Suspense. First, he's an editor who finds a perfect murder plot in a manuscript in "Sequel to Murder" (originally aired on CBS on June 22, 1954). Then he's a prosecutor investigating a death that could be a heart attack or murder in "The Thimble" (originally aired on CBS on November 22, 1959). Plus, we'll hear him face off with Jack Webb in "The Big Try" from Dragnet (originally aired on NBC on September 29, 1953).

Lucille Fletcher penned some of the best old time radio thrillers of all time - stories that can still keep listeners on the edge of their seats over eighty years later. She wrote "Sorry, Wrong Number," "The Hitch-hiker," and many more episodes that rank among the best of Suspense. We'll hear Mildred Natwick starring in a tale of a boarding house with a ghostly new tenant in "The Furnished Floor" (originally aired on CBS on September 13, 1945). Then, a woman is convinced her mother's killer has escaped prison and is out to kill her next in "The Night Man" (originally aired on CBS on October 23, 1960). Plus, we'll hear some of her non-Suspense shows: "Carmilla," an adaptation of a pre-Dracula vampire tale from The Columbia Workshop (originally aired on CBS on July 28, 1940), and "Bela Boczniak's Bad Dreams," a story of a man haunted by nightmares in his waking life from The Clock (originally aired on ABC on April 25, 1948).

It's our annual (belated) birthday tribute to the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. This year, it's a double feature of Hitchcock pictures recreated for radio. Joseph Cotten stars in adaptations of Foreign Correspondent and Shadow of a Doubt from Academy Award (originally aired on CBS on July 24 and September 11, 1946).

For the 350th episode of Stars of Suspense, we'll hear a recreation of the film noir classic Crossfire for "radio's outstanding theater of thrills" with its original stars Robert Young, Robert Mitchum, and Robert Ryan. A man is murdered, and a homicide detective and an Army sergeant conduct parallel investigations to figure out whodunnit. This sixty-minute adaptation originally aired on CBS on April 5, 1948.

The "First Lady of Suspense" is back, and she becomes the inaugural member of our "ten-timer's club." We'll hear her as an artist haunted by the same gruesome image in "Death and Miss Turner" (originally aired on CBS on May 19, 1957). Then she's a woman plagued by a sinister unseen force in an adaptation of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" (originally aired on CBS on June 30, 1957). And finally, she selects the wrong recipient for a chain letter - with deadly results - in "The Chain" (originally aired on CBS on March 9, 1958).

NOTE: Due to some technical issues, this episode meant for July 28th isn't being uploaded until today. Sorry for the delay! In this bonus episode, I'm sharing my favorite Suspense shows starring Academy Award-winner Charles Laughton. One of the most frequent guests on "radio's outstanding theater of thrills," Laughton made ten visits to the program and his appearances rank among some of the series' best. First, he co-stars with his wife Elsa Lanchester in an adaptation of Agatha Christie's "The ABC Murders" (originally aired on CBS on May 18, 1943). Next, in "Wet Saturday," he's a wealthy patriarch whose weekend is ruined when his daughter bashes her ex-lover's head in (originally aired on CBS on December 16, 1943). Laughton meets a man who may have invented a way to get away with murder in "The Man Who Knew How" (originally aired on CBS on August 10, 1944) and he plays one of history's most notorious killers in "Neil Cream, Doctor of Poison" (originally aired on CBS on September 17, 1951).

In this special bonus show, we salute the late, great Tony Bennett with one of the legendary crooner's old time radio appearances. In this May 9, 1954 episode of Guest Star, Bennett promotes savings bonds and sings "Cheek to Cheek" and Hank Williams' "There'll Be No Teardrops Tonight."

Stage star, screen actor, and train imitator - no, really - Reginald Gardiner was an in-demand comedy star in the 1940s. He appeared alongside Charlie Chaplin and Barbara Stanwyck, and he memorably impersonated train engines for a royal audience at Buckingham Palace. We'll hear him in a murder mystery on an ocean liner with Olivia de Havilland in "Voyage Through Darkness" (originally aired on CBS on September 7, 1944). Then, he's haunted by music and plagued by deadly delusions of grandeur in "The Merry Widower" (originally aired on CBS on October 12, 1944). Plus, Gardiner plays a debonair detective in the audition recording for the comedy-mystery The Gentleman.

Veteran radio actor and superb character actor John Dehner returns to the podcast to star in a pair of thrillers. First, he's a doctor who arrogantly believes he cannot be murdered and devises an experiment to put his theories to the ultimate test in "The Last Letter of Dr. Bronson" (originally aired on CBS on November 4, 1954). Then, Dehner is plagued by recurring dreams of Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamilton, and their infamous duel in "A Friend to Alexander" (originally aired on CBS on August 15, 1956). Finally, we'll hear Dehner as Paladin in the radio version of the hit TV western Have Gun - Will Travel. He plays the cultured gunfighter in "A Matter of Ethics" (originally aired on CBS on February 1, 1959).

In this bonus episode, we're celebrating the return of one of the greatest heroes of the movies with a film that inspired his creation. Charlton Heston - who unfortunately never made it to Suspense - recreates his role as rogue adventurer Harry Steele (a direct inspiration for the character of Indiana Jones) in Secret of the Incas on The Lux Radio Theatre (originally aired on NBC on December 14, 1954).

George Murphy went from singing and dancing in movie musicals to the floor of the US Senate. Murphy retired from Hollywood in 1952 and was elected to a single term as one of California's senators in 1964. We'll hear two of his pre-politics performances from Suspense; first, he's a hit and run driver with an uncooperative eyewitness in "Death on Highway 99" (originally aired on CBS on October 4, 1945). Then, Murphy is a lumberjack who may be marked for death in the remote woods in "The Death of Me" (originally aired on CBS on May 26, 1952).

John Hodiak battles fire and ice in his final appearances on Suspense. First, he's battling the wind, the cold, and a rival climber in order to stay alive to reach the top of an unclimbed peak in "The Mountain" (originally aired on CBS on March 16, 1953). Then he's an oil driller fighting the flames that threaten to consume his well and his livelihood in "Hellfire" (originally aired on CBS on September 28, 1953).

Some of the era's best comedians left the jokes at home when they stepped up to the Suspense microphone. In this bonus episode, we'll hear these funny men and women play effectively against type in five radio thrillers. First, Danny Kaye schemes to bump off a rival and steal his girl in "The Too-Perfect Alibi" (originally aired on CBS on January 13, 1949). Then, Fibber McGee and Molly take a car trip with an uninvited passenger in "Backseat Driver" (originally aired on CBS on February 3, 1949) and Bob Hope tries to talk his way out of a date with a killer in "Death Has a Shadow" (originally aired on CBS on May 5, 1949). Finally, Milton Berle tries method acting as a way to beat a murder rap in "Rave Notice" (originally aired on CBS on October 12, 1950) and Eve Arden is a jilted woman with murder on her mind in "The Well-Dressed Corpse" (originally aired on CBS on January 18, 1951).

For years on Suspense, Cathy Lewis delivered strong supporting performances alongside stars like Cary Grant, James Stewart, and Kirk Douglas. But in the late 1950s, she stepped into the spotlight and began to star in "radio's outstanding theater of thrills." We'll hear her in "A Statement of Fact" (AFRS rebroadcast from November 23, 1958) and "Everything Will Be Different" (AFRS rebroadcast from August 9, 1959). Plus, she co-stars with Marie Wilson in the comedy My Friend Irma (originally aired on CBS on February 2, 1948).

Ray Noble composed beloved standards like "The Very Thought of You," and he led great jazz bands in his native England and in the United States. He also had a successful career on radio as a musical director and as a comedic foil for Charlie McCarthy. We'll hear him as a gentleman adventurer in "The Star of Thessaly" (AFRS rebroadcast from November 24, 1957) and as half of a murderous newlywed couple in "Just One Happy Little Family" (AFRS rebroadcast from April 6, 1958). Plus we'll hear him lead the band and woo Lucille Ball on The Charlie McCarthy Show (originally aired on NBC on January 11, 1948).

Self-described "Joe Average" Dane Clark plays criminals both amateur and professional in his final appearances on Suspense. First, he's an actor who tries to play a murderer in real life in "Spoils for Victor" (AFRS rebroadcast from May 23, 1946). Then, Clark kills his doppleganger in an armed robbery in "Till the Day I Die" (originally aired on CBS on September 19, 1946). Plus we'll hear him as a private eye in Crime and Peter Chambers (originally aired on NBC on April 6, 1954).

Miriam Hopkins jumped from the Broadway stage to the silver screen with well-received performances in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Trouble in Paradise. But her film roles began to decline in the 1940s, and she embraced the new medium of television. We'll hear her as a woman who incurs the wrath of a demented housemate in "The Rose Garden" (originally aired on CBS on October 5, 1950). Plus, she co-stars with William Powell in a Campbell Playhouse production of "It Happened One Night" (originally aired on CBS on January 28, 1940).

Silver-haired star Jeff Chandler takes his final bow on Suspense in "A Good Neighbor" (originally aired on CBS on March 31, 1957). Chandler stars as a thief who's trying to lay low after a heist, but a nosy neighbor may discover his secret. Plus we'll hear Chandler in his two signature radio roles. First he's the bashful biology teacher Mr. Boynton in Our Miss Brooks (originally aired on CBS on February 20, 1949), and then as private eye Michael Shayne he solves "The Case of the Model Murder."

In this month's bonus spotlight episode, I'm sharing my favorite Suspense shows starring Gregory Peck. The star of To Kill a Mockingbird, Gentleman's Agreement, and Roman Holiday plays a variety of characters - some good, some bad, but all starring in tales well calculated to keep you in Suspense. First, he's a man plotting to murder his wife so he can run away with a beautiful young woman in "The Lonely Road" (originally aired on CBS on March 21, 1946), and then he's a hitch-hiker who thumbs a ride with a demented killer in "Hitch-Hike Poker" (originally aired on CBS on September 16, 1948). Peck plays a man who may have a murderous alternate personality in "Murder Through the Looking Glass" (originally aired on CBS on March 17, 1949), and finally he's out for revenge on a hit and run driver in "Nightmare" (originally aired on CBS on September 1, 1949).

Raymond Burr was a year into his iconic run as Perry Mason on television when he starred in his final episodes of Suspense. He's hunting for a pirate's loot in "The Treasure Chest of Don Jose" (AFRS rebroadcast from October 12, 1958); then he tries to survive the tortures of the Spanish Inquisition in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Pit and the Pendulum" (AFRS rebroadcast from June 7, 1959). We'll also hear Burr in the first episode of his western cavalry drama Fort Laramie (originally aired on CBS on January 22, 1956).