Stars On Suspense (old Time Radio)

We couldn't let 2018 end without one more Star On Suspense, and our final leading lady of the year is the great Judy Garland. She doesn't sing in her one and only visit to Suspense but she delivers a terrific dramatic performance in "Drive-In" (originally aired on CBS on November 21, 1946). Then, she recreates her iconic film role of Dorothy Gale as The Lux Radio Theatre presents "The Wizard of Oz" (originally aired on CBS on December 25, 1950).

Dapper British leading man Herbert Marshall returns to the Suspense microphone in two radio thrillers - including a chiller of a Christmas story. The star of Foreign Correspondent and The Little Foxes stars in "My Own Murderer" (originally aired on CBS on May 24, 1945) and in "Holiday Story" - an adaptation of John Collier's "Back for Christmas" - (originally aired on CBS on December 23, 1948).

Oscar-winning actress Mary Astor started in the silent era, transitioned to the talkies, and worked on stage, screen, and television even as she struggled with tragedies and trials off screen. We'll hear her in the only visit she made to Suspense - "In Fear and Trembling" (originally aired on February 16, 1943). Then, Mary Astor recreates her screen role of Brigid O'Shaughnessy in a Screen Guild Theatre production of "The Maltese Falcon" (originally aired on CBS on September 20, 1943).

For Gene Kelly's final performances on Suspense, he headlined two stories as a pair of dangerous, desperate men - characters who were miles from the men he played in musicals like Anchors Away and Singing in the Rain. Kelly trades song and dance for sinister scares in "The Man Who Couldn't Lose" (originally aired on CBS on September 28, 1944) and "To Find Help" (originally aired on CBS on January 4, 1949).

Gregory Peck stars in a "ripped from the headlines" tale of teenage drug addiction in his fifth and final appearance on Suspense. Peck plays a juvenile investigator in "The Truth About Jerry Baxter" (originally aired on CBS on June 14, 1951). Then, he recreates his screen role in a radio adaptation of Yellow Sky from the Screen Director's Playhouse (originally aired on NBC on July 15, 1949).

Jane Wyman won as Oscar for her performance as a deaf-mute woman in Johnny Belinda, but this week we'll hear her put her voice to excellent use acting and singing. She stars in "Catch Me If You Can" (originally aired on CBS on February 17, 1949) and visits Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in an episode of their comedy show from November 30, 1951.

Edmund Gwenn may be best known as Kris Kringle in Miracle on 34th Street, but in his two visits to Suspense no one would mistake him for Santa Claus. We'll hear the Oscar-winning English actor in Dorothy L. Sayers' "The Fountain Plays" (originally aired on CBS on August 10, 1943) and in "Murder in Black and White" (originally aired on CBS on April 14, 1949).

Gloria Swanson is ready for her close-up. The silent movie star and box office sensation ruled Hollywood in the 1920s and returned with a vengeance with a sensational turn in Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard. We'll hear Swanson recreate her Oscar-nominated role of Norma Desmond in a Lux Radio Theatre adaptation (originally aired on CBS on September 17, 1951). We'll also hear her one and only visit to Suspense - "Murder by the Book" (originally aired on CBS on July 10, 1947).

Edward G. Robinson - one of the great big screen gangsters, begins and ends his run on Suspense with these two old time radio thrillers. We'll hear him as a man with an imaginary wife in "My Wife, Geraldine" (originally aired on CBS on March 1, 1945) and as a man who wants his actual wife to disappear in "A Case of Nerves" (originally aired on CBS on June 1, 1950).

"The man with the perfect profile" enjoyed great success as a Hollywood leading man, but Robert Taylor explored darker, more complex roles as his career went on. We'll hear the star in a pair of radio thrillers - "Four Hours to Kill" (originally aired on CBS on January 12, 1950) and - just in time for Halloween - the classic chiller "The House in Cypress Canyon" (originally aired on CBS on December 5, 1946).

It's the 100th episode of well-calculated tales from Stars On Suspense, and we're marking the occasion with the first and last episodes of "radio's outstanding theater of thrills" - "The Burning Court" (originally aired on CBS on June 17, 1942) and "Devilstone" (originally aired on CBS on September 30, 1962). Plus - we'll hear "The Lodger," the Forecast episode that served as a sort of audition for the program (originally aired on CBS on July 22, 1940).

One of the screen's brightest stars, Myrna Loy broke out with her wry and sophisticated comedy turn as Nora Charles in The Thin Man and grew so popular she earned the nickname "Queen of the Movies." Her one and only appearance on Suspense played to her talents with both comedy and drama. It's a tale of a librarian on a quest to find a vandal in "Library Book" (originally aired on CBS on September 20, 1945). We'll also hear her recreate her big screen role in The Best Years of Our Lives from Screen Guild Players (originally aired on CBS on November 24, 1947).

Equally effective as weary heroes and psychotic villains, Robert Mitchum had a screen presence that few actors could replicate. Best known for his turns in film noir and thrillers, Mitchum gave Hollywood some of its most iconic baddies and toughest antiheroes. We'll hear him as a man plotting a murder in "Death at Live Oak" (originally aired on CBS on May 15, 1947) and as Washington Irving in a biographical drama from The Cavalcade of America (originally aired on NBC on May 3, 1948).

The great William Conrad lends his booming voice to two outstanding "tales well calculated to keep you in Suspense." One of the all-time legends of the medium, Conrad was best known as US Marshal Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke, and he made these visits to Suspense during his run in one of radio's best westerns. We'll hear him in a terrifying one-man show in "The Waxwork" (originally aired on CBS on May 1, 1956) and in an amazing radio tale of high adventure in "Leningen vs. the Ants" (originally aired on CBS August 25, 1957).

Actor, writer, and director Cornel Wilde was a gifted mimic with a talent for languages. It served him well in his screen career, and it especially helped in his five appearances on Suspense, where Wilde could play characters both good and bad from all corners of the world. He's a man plotting a dangerous insurance fraud in "A Ring for Marya" (originally aired on CBS on December 28, 1950), and then he's a southern lawyer in the Big Apple in "Allen in Wonderland" (originally aired on CBS on October 27, 1952).

In his second and final appearance on Suspense, Jimmy Cagney stars in "No Escape," a cautionary tale of distracted (and deadly) driving (originally aired on CBS on December 16, 1948). Then we'll hear the star of Angels with Dirty Faces and Yankee Doodle Dandy in an adaptation of "Night Must Fall" from the Lady Esther Screen Guild Theater (originally aired on CBS on July 24, 1944).

Claire Trevor - the "queen of film noir" - returns to the Suspense microphone in two more old time radio thrillers. We'll hear Trevor as a woman scorned out for revenge against a cheating husband in "The Light Switch" (originally aired on CBS on May 12, 1949). Then, she stars in a story from Cornell Woolrich - the master of noir fiction - in "Angel Face" (originally aired on CBS on May 18, 1950).

Despite his long career in Hollywood (and his fantastic voice), Roddy McDowall made only one visit to Suspense. We'll hear the star of Planet of the Apes in "One Way Street" (originally aired on CBS on January 23, 1947). Then he's in lighter fare in an adaptation of Mark Twain's "The Prince and the Pauper" from Family Theater (originally aired on the Mutual Network on March 8, 1950).

Oscar-nominated actress and singer Ava Gardner turned in sensational performances in The Killers, Seven Days in May, and more, and her off-screen romances with Mickey Rooney and Frank Sinatra made for memorable chapters in Hollywood history. We'll hear Ms. Gardner in her one and only Suspense appearance - "Lady in Distress" (originally aired on CBS on May 1, 1947). Then we'll hear her as she makes a visit to Edwards Air Force Base with Bob Hope in an episode from the comedian's radio show from March 6, 1951.

The "First Lady of Suspense" is back! Agnes Moorehead stars in a pair of eerie thrillers that will keep you on the edge of your seat: "Uncle Henry's Rosebush" (originally aired on CBS on June 23, 1943) and an adaptation of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" (originally aired on CBS on July 29, 1948).