Tough Guys on Suspense

Suspense … Radio’s Outstanding Theater of Thrills! Suspense mixed mystery, suspicion, and dangerous adventure like no other. Featuring the biggest names in Hollywood, it stirred your nerves to offer you a precarious situation and then withhold the solution … until the last possible moment!

Conceived as a potential radio vehicle for Alfred Hitchcock to direct, Suspense was a radio series of epic proportions. It aired on CBS from 1942 to 1962 and is considered by many to be the best mystery/drama series of the golden age. Known as Radio’s Outstanding Theater of Thrills, it focused on suspenseful stories starring the biggest names in Hollywood. Early in the run, episodes were hosted by the “Man In Black” who, from an omniscient perch, narrated stories of people thrown into dangerous or bizarre situations with plots that usually had an unseen twist or two. Running more than twenty years, Suspense aired nearly one thousand radio broadcasts. It made the transition to television in 1949, but it was much better suited for radio where the theater of the mind could run free. Enjoy sixteen episodes from this incredible mystery series.

2/9/50 - “The Butcher’s Wife” with Kirk Douglas

3/16/50 - “Motive for Murder” with Alan Ladd

6/1/50 - “A Case of Nerves” with Edward G. Robinson

9/21/50 - “The Crowd” with Dana Andrews

11/30/50 - “The Lady in the Red Hat” with Van Heflin

12/7/50 - “After the Movies” with Ray Milland

12/28/50 - “A Ring for Marya” with Cornel Wilde

5/31/51 - “Over Drawn” with Dick Powell

6/7/51 - “Tell Ya Why I Shouldn’t Die” with Richard Widmark

8/27/51 - “The Report on the Jolly Death Riders” with William Holden

10/29/51 - “The Hunting of Bob Lee” with Richard Widmark and William Conrad

12/3/51 - “A Murderous Revision” with Richard Widmark

12/10/51 - “Blackjack to Kill” with Victor Mature

12/31/51 - “Rogue Male” with Herbert Marshall

1/21/52 - “The Perfectionist” with Richard Basehart

1/28/52 - “Carnival” with Joseph Cotten