Stars On Suspense (old Time Radio)

A comedian's ability to keep audiences in stitches didn't mean he couldn't deliver a strong dramatic performance, and our stars this week prove that to be the case in their appearances on Suspense. Ed "Archie" Gardner of Duffy's Tavern is a crook hiding out among the ranks of the Spanish Civil War in "The Palmer Method" (originally aired on CBS on April 20, 1944). Then, Red Skelton isn't clowning around - he's a man obsessed with a mystery woman in "The Search for Isabel" (originally aired on CBS on November 3, 1949).

Alan Ladd returns to the podcast for the end of his run on Suspense. Ladd's big break came in film noir classics like This Gun for Hire, and his characters in these two radio thrillers are cut from the same cloth as the hard-boiled residents of those movies. We'll hear "One Way Ride to Nowhere" (originally aired on CBS on January 6, 1944) and "Motive for Murder" (originally aired on CBS on March 17, 1950).

Oscar and Emmy winner William Holden was one of Hollywood's biggest stars for decades, with his performances as cynical, conflicted men winning acclaim and awards. Whether he was the washed up screenwriter of Sunset Boulevard or the reluctant hero of The Bridge on the River Kwai, Holden kept audiences engrossed. We'll hear two of his visits to Suspense, beginning with the New Orleans jazz murder mystery "Blood on the Trumpet" (originally aired on CBS on November 9, 1950). Then he stars in a cautionary tale about the hell on wheels that are hot rods in "Report on the Jolly Death Riders" (originally aired on CBS on August 27, 1951).

For her final appearances on Suspense, Lucille Ball was joined by her then-husband Desi Arnaz. But unlike I Love Lucy, where they played for laughs, Lucy and Desi were cast in radio thrillers: tales of greed and menace. We’ll hear one of those shows – “The Red-Headed Woman,” originally aired on CBS on November 17, 1949. Then, we’ll hear an episode of My Favorite Husband, the Lucille Ball radio sitcom that led to the creation of I Love Lucy (originally aired on CBS on January 28, 1949).

Best known for crooning and comedy, Dennis Day shows off his dramatic side in a pair of thrillers from Suspense. The longtime cast member of The Jack Benny Program plays a beatnik who thinks a murder wrap is a gas in "Like, Man, Somebody Dig Me" (an Armed Forces Radio Service rebroadcast of an episode from August 16, 1959). Then, in a story just in time for the holidays, Day is a man who turns to crime for the money he desperately needs to care for his family in "Christmas for Carol" (originally aired on CBS on December 21, 1950). And as a special holiday bonus, we'll hear Dennis Day in his natural element in a Christmas episode of A Day in the Life of Dennis Day (originally aired on NBC on December 25, 1946).

Generations of viewers knew Lloyd Nolan from B-movies of the 1940s and later in television appearances through the 1980s. The Emmy winning star worked steadily in a fifty-six year career, always elevating material with his performances, whether he was playing heroes (like private eye Michael Shayne) or heavies. He had the opportunity to play bad guys of varying levels of villainy in his appearances on Suspense. We'll hear Nolan in "Heart's Desire" (originally aired on CBS on March 22, 1945) and "Murder for Myra" (originally aired on CBS on August 9, 1945).

Horror icon Vincent Price is back on Suspense in two more old time radio thrillers - including one of the scariest the medium ever produced. We'll hear Price as an artist with a dangerous muse in "The Name of the Beast" (originally aired on CBS on April 11, 1946). Then, you'll want to leave the lights on for "Three Skeleton Key" (originally aired on CBS on November 11, 1956). In this classic chiller, Price narrates the story of a lighthouse under siege from thousands of ravenous rats.

You'd never guess J. Carrol Naish hailed from New York. Celebrated as "Hollywood's one-man U.N.", Naish could convincingly play characters from all around the world. He played Italian immigrant Luigi Basco in the delightful radio comedy Life with Luigi, and he earned two Oscar nominations over his career. In his appearances on Suspense, Naish put his talents for accents and dialects to good use. We'll hear him in "Footfalls" (originally aired on July 12, 1945) and "Commuter's Ticket" (originally aired on CBS on August 1, 1946).

Tough big screen leading man Dana Andrews made four visits to “radio’s outstanding theater of thrills,” and the star of Laura, Where the Sidewalk Ends, and The Best Years of Our Lives made memorable impressions as both heroes and villains. We’ll hear him as a writer plotting the perfect murder in “Two Birds With One Stone” (originally aired on CBS on May 17, 1945) and as a cop pursuing a psychotic killer in an adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s “The Crowd” (originally aired on CBS on September 21, 1950).

With her glamorous looks and her mellifluous accent, Marlene Dietrich kept audiences captivated on stage and screen in her native Germany and later in Hollywood. She was one of the biggest stars of the World War II era, and she would go on to deliver indelible performances in Touch of Evil and Witness for the Prosecution. We'll hear Marlene Dietrich in her only Suspense appearance: "Murder Strikes Three Times" (originally aired on CBS on February 16, 1950). Then, she stars as a singer and spy in an episode of the international adventure drama Time for Love.

The "first lady of Suspense" returns to the podcast as Agnes Moorehead stars in two more old time radio thrillers. In these two shows - one a blend of comedy and crime and the other a tense psychological drama - Ms. Moorehead demonstrates why she made more appearances on the program than any other guest star. We'll hear "Post Mortem" (originally aired on CBS on April 4, 1946) and "The Thirteenth Sound" (originally aired on CBS on February 13, 1947).

Oscar winner Van Heflin made memorable appearances in Johnny Eager, 3:10 to Yuma and Shane, and he lent his powerful presence to the radio role of Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe. In nine visits to Suspense, he played complex heroes and despicable heels, and sometimes his characters were blends of both. We'll hear him in "Three Blind Mice" (originally aired on CBS on January 30, 1947) and "The Lady in the Red Hat" (originally aired on CBS on November 30, 1950).

For Halloween, “Stars On Suspense” presents two of the biggest names in horror cinema – Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff starring in “radio’s outstanding theater of thrills.” Lugosi plays a psychologist with a murderous theory he plans to test in “The Doctor Prescribed Death” (originally aired on CBS on February 2, 1943). Then, Karloff is a Scotland Yard man who’s new case has strange ties to his own past in “Drury’s Bones” (originally aired on CBS on January 25, 1945).

Fredric March was one of the most celebrated stars of stage and screen, a man whose performances earned him a pair of Oscars and two Tony Awards. Equally at home in comedy and drama, March brought to life characters ranging from Dr. Henry Jekyll and his monstrous alter ego Mr. Hyde to a beleaguered president fighting for peace in Seven Days in May. We’ll hear him in two appearances on Suspense: first as a thespian out to find his daughter’s killer in “Actor’s Blood” (originally aired on CBS on August 24, 1944) and then as a fire inspector whose latest case hits close to home in “The Night Reveals” (originally aired on CBS on May 26, 1949).

With scintillating performances in Gilda and more, Rita Hayworth was a box office draw and a pin-up idol of the 1940s and 1950s. But there was more to Hayworth than her gorgeous looks and her status as a Hollywood “love goddess.” She was an accomplished dancer and a terrific actress, and she had the chance to show off in her lone appearance on Suspense. We’ll hear her as a murderess contending with a blackmailer in “Three Times Murder” (originally aired on October 3, 1946). Then we’ll hear her playing for laughs opposite George Burns and Gracie Allen in an episode from March 21, 1944.

We bid adieu to Peter Lorre as the star of Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, and M makes his final appearances on “radio’s outstanding theater of thrills.” First, he’s a mysterious count who makes a dangerous offer to his niece’s suitor in “The Devil’s Saint” (originally aired on CBS on January 19, 1943). Then, Lorre plays a demented killer recounting his life story to a room full of terrified hostages in “Nobody Loves Me” (originally aired on CBS on August 30, 1945).

When William Bendix visited Suspense, it was anything but a “revoltin’ development.” Best known as bumbling sitcom patriarch Chester A. Riley in The Life of Riley, Bendix could show off the dramatic chops he displayed on the big screen when he appeared on “radio’s outstanding theater of thrills.” We’ll hear him as a job seeker who finds more than he bargained for in “Three Faces at Midnight” (originally aired on CBS on February 27, 1947) and as a safecracker trying to keep his son from a career in crime in “The Gift of Jumbo Brannigan” (originally aired on CBS on March 1, 1951).

Angela Lansbury is a three-time Oscar nominee and a five-time Tony winner, and she’s still going strong. The legend of the stage and screen is known to generations of fans for her memorable film roles in The Manchurian Candidate, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, and Beauty and the Beast, her stage turns in Gypsy, Sweeney Todd, and Mame, and her twelve seasons as mystery writer and amateur sleuth Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote. We’ll hear her one and only appearance on Suspense – “A Thing of Beauty” (originally aired on CBS on May 29, 1947) – and we’ll hear her in a dramatic performance from Stars Over Hollywood (“The Experiment,” originally aired on CBS on May 24, 1952).

In a career that spanned five decades, Glenn Ford brought to tough, masculine characters on screen. Ford was one of the biggest stars in Hollywood in the 1950s with memorable performances in film noirs like Gilda and The Big Heat and westerns like 3:10 to Yuma. He continued to make impressions on screen through the 1970s with his turn as Jonathan Kent in Richard Donner’s Superman. We’ll hear Glenn Ford in two episodes of Suspense – “End of the Road” (originally aired on CBS on February 6, 1947) and “Murder and Aunt Delia” (an AFRTS rebroadcast of an episode from February 17, 1957).

Kirk Douglas played heroes, villains, and morally ambiguous characters in between in a career that spanned six decades. He earned three Oscar nominations and turned in intense and memorable performances in Spartacus, Gunfight at the OK Corral, Seven Days in May, and many more. But in 1947, Kirk Douglas was a rising Hollywood star when he made two visits to “radio’s outstanding theater of thrills.” We’ll hear him as a man plotting to keep a newfound fortune out of his wife’s hands in “Community Property” (originally aired on CBS on April 10, 1947) and as a washed-up writer who hopes to pass off a master’s work as his own in “The Story of Markham’s Death” (originally aired on CBS on October 2, 1947).