Suspense - Radio’s Outstanding Theater of Thrills

Originally Aired: November 4, 1956
Suspense #672, "The Signalman," stars Sarah Churchill in this adaptation of Charles Dickens' chilling tale. Amy Sayr, a writer returning to her childhood village after twenty years, seeks to interview the mysterious signalman who works at a desolate railway cutting near a dark tunnel. When she calls down to him from above, her words "Hello, below there" provoke a strange, fearful reaction. The signalman seems to dread her presence, acting as though he has seen her before—standing by the red signal light at the tunnel's mouth. As Amy settles into his small, book-filled shack by the tracks, she discovers this educated, philosophical man has spent thirty-four years in isolation, having given up on life after squandering his youthful promise.
The tension deepens as the signalman probes Amy's reasons for visiting at this particular time, suggesting she may have been drawn there by forces beyond her understanding. He speaks cryptically of premonitions and the possibility that the future can intrude upon memory. As trains scream past like wounded monsters and disappear into the ominous tunnel, both the signalman's dread and the reason for Amy's childhood terror begin to reveal themselves.

Originally Aired: October 30, 1956
Suspense #671, "Red Cloud Mesa," George Bowman operates the Red Cloud Trading Post on a remote Navajo reservation, where he considers the Indians his people and himself their friend. His isolation is shattered when Four Thumbs, a Navajo veteran who once served under him in France, arrives seeking sanctuary. Four Thumbs has escaped from the psychiatric ward of a Veterans Hospital after shooting a guard, and state trooper Arturo Fojillo is already searching the area for him. Bowman faces an agonizing choice between his duty as a law-abiding citizen and his loyalty to a man he once commanded—a soldier whose mind was shattered defending a position long after his platoon had been wiped out.
As Fojillo arrives at the trading post to investigate, Bowman must decide whether to turn in Four Thumbs or help him evade capture. The tension mounts as the trooper searches the premises while the elder Yellow Salt and other Navajos watch, their loyalties unclear. Caught between two worlds and two codes of honor, Bowman struggles with what it means to truly help a tormented warrior who has no place left to die.

Originally Aired: October 23, 1956
In Suspense #670, "The Doll," young Valerie faces her seventh birthday overshadowed by her father George's new wife, Paula. When George forgets the occasion entirely, Paula produces a special doll as a gift—one with blonde hair like Valerie's deceased mother, whom the girl insists on naming Henny. The doll contains an unusual feature: a wind-up heart that beats like a real person's. Valerie becomes obsessed with keeping the mechanical heart running, believing that if she winds it carefully enough and never lets it stop, the doll won't die like her mother did. Her fixation grows increasingly disturbing as she refuses to leave the doll alone and retreats to her secret hiding place in the garden.
When Valerie overhears Paula and George plotting to destroy the doll while she sleeps, the child's fragile grip on reality threatens to shatter completely. She flees with Henny into the woods, determined never to sleep and to keep the doll's heart beating forever. As Valerie's desperation intensifies, her inability to accept her mother's death manifests in a dangerous devotion to her mechanical companion, leading toward a chilling confrontation between childhood grief and adult intervention.

Originally Aired: October 16, 1956
Suspense #669, "The Prophecy of Bertha Abbott," young Ernie finds himself fleeing into the night aboard a freight train with his friend Whitey, running from a crime that has turned deadly. As the two frightened boys huddle in a dark boxcar, hungry and uncertain of their destination, Ernie's mind drifts back to a terrifying childhood memory. Years earlier, he and Whitey attempted to steal peaches from the yard of Bertha Abbott, a strange old woman the neighborhood children believed to be a witch. When she caught young Ernie, she cursed him with a chilling prophecy: bad boys like him would end up dying in the gas chamber like rats.
Now, that prophecy seems to be coming true. What began as a simple robbery of a local establishment has spiraled out of control when Whitey shot the proprietor, Goofy, during their escape. As police swarm the railroad yards and the boys desperately seek a train out of town, Ernie wrestles with whether Bertha Abbott's dark prediction is finally catching up with him, wondering if fate has already sealed his doom.

Originally Aired: October 9, 1956
In Suspense #668, "The Digger," Carton tracks down Roger Fabian, a disgraced mining engineer known as "the Digger," to a squalid rooming house in the native quarter. Two years earlier, Fabian led thirty men into the Tabora mine during a cave-in, and only he made it back alive. Now drinking himself to death and haunted by nightmares of the men he left behind, Fabian has become a shadow of his former self. Carton brings him a job offer from Sandy McGregor: five thousand pounds to return to the very mine where the tragedy occurred. The mine has been reopened, and McGregor has found traces of a new vein. Despite his terror and the natives' taboo on the cursed mine, Fabian reluctantly agrees, seeing it as his last chance to escape his desperate circumstances.
The journey back to Tabora proves torturous for the alcoholic Fabian, but he arrives to find McGregor waiting with news of rich ore samples. As Fabian prepares to descend once again into the mine that destroyed his life and reputation, he must confront both the physical dangers below and the ghosts of thirty dead men who haunt his conscience.

Originally Aired: October 2, 1956
Suspense #667, "Waiting," presents a tense vigil as three women count down the final hours before Norman Landon's scheduled execution for the murder of Sheila Warren. His wife Aline, his sister Harriet, and his mother-in-law Mrs. Martinson gather in agonizing suspense as attorney Mr. Mailer makes desperate last-minute attempts to reach the governor with new evidence: a witness who claims to have seen a woman fleeing the victim's apartment that night. As the clock ticks toward eleven o'clock, tensions mount between the women, revealing painful secrets about Norman's troubled marriage and a diary that detailed his affair with the murdered woman.
While Harriet maintains unwavering faith in her brother's innocence and Aline insists she loves him regardless of his guilt, Mrs. Martinson's cold acceptance that divine judgment has already been rendered creates bitter conflict. The women's vigil becomes not just a wait for news of a reprieve, but an emotional reckoning with loyalty, doubt, and the devastating question of whether Norman Landon is truly innocent or guilty of murder.

Originally Aired: September 25, 1956
Suspense #666, "A Case of Identity," Harry Burton and his wife Edna have hatched an elaborate scheme to collect $100,000 in life insurance. After Harry secures a large policy from the skeptical Mr. Croyd, he picks up a down-on-his-luck drifter named Wallace from the park—a man who bears an uncanny resemblance to Harry. The plan seems foolproof: stage an accident in the mountains, leave Wallace's body to be mistaken for Harry's, and disappear with the insurance money. Harry drugs Wallace, switches clothes and identification with him, and sets up a fiery car crash on a remote mountain highway while Edna waits nearby to pick him up.
But things quickly go wrong when Edna's getaway car runs out of gas on the isolated mountain road. Desperate, they coast to a rundown gas station, only to find the surly attendant unwilling to help. With Edna hiding in the back seat and the unconscious Wallace still unaccounted for, Harry must convince the hostile station owner to give them fuel before their carefully constructed plan unravels completely.

Originally Aired: September 5, 1956
Suspense #665, "The Security Agent," presents a gripping tale of desperate men plotting an audacious escape from behind the Iron Curtain. In 1956 Poland, two middle-aged friends face a life-changing decision: Joseph Ostrovsky, a bus works superintendent, and Frederick Zilonko, a radio broadcasting executive, meet for their regular Saturday chess game when Frederick reveals a startling plan. When Frederick learns he'll be traveling to a mechanical exhibition in Prague by plane, he sees an opportunity to flee to freedom in Austria by hijacking the aircraft. Though Joseph initially dismisses the idea as madness, Frederick is deadly serious and claims to have found a mysterious third man willing to join their conspiracy.
As Frederick's travel plans solidify through his meeting with radio manager Comrade Kozun, the stakes become real. Frederick must convince his reluctant friend Joseph to take the terrifying leap with him, risking execution for a chance at freedom. The tension builds as the plotters prepare to transform a routine business trip into a daring flight to the West, knowing that one misstep could mean their deaths.

Originally Aired: August 29, 1956
Suspense #664, "Hold-Up," stars Joseph Kearns as Tim Chase, a grocery store owner with a deadly reputation. When a nervous young man enters his store and attempts a robbery, Tim doesn't hesitate—he shoots to kill, claiming self-defense even though the supposed weapon turns out to be only a fountain pen. This marks the third time Tim has killed a would-be holdup man, and he shows no remorse. His wife Hazel watches helplessly as her husband's quick trigger finger claims another life, this one a boy barely out of his teens.
Captain Runyon tries to reason with the cold, confident war veteran, warning him that someday he'll face a gunman faster than himself and urging him to leave the shooting to the police. But Tim remains unmoved, insisting that thieves deserve what they get and boasting about his understanding with guns. As reporters gather and questions mount about whether the killings are truly justified, Tim's chilling lack of sympathy raises troubling questions about a man who seems to relish his legal right to kill.

Originally Aired: August 8, 1956
Suspense #662, "Double Identity," stars Victor Perrin as George Lockman, a seemingly mild-mannered office worker who has spent five years patiently planning the perfect crime. Lockman works alongside Baker, a trusting colleague who shares the combination to the company safe with him. When their boss, J.T. Kraft, leaves town, Lockman seizes his opportunity. Using a clever ruse while Baker admires his own biceps, Lockman secretly keeps the safe unlocked, then steals fifty thousand dollars in cash. With a briefcase full of money and a plane ticket under the assumed name Robert Gelder, he begins his carefully plotted escape to Paris via New York.
However, Lockman's meticulous plan starts to unravel almost immediately. A chatty fellow passenger, Mrs. Lee, notices how nervously he clutches his briefcase. When the plane makes an unexpected stop in Chicago, Lockman's worst nightmare materializes: he encounters his drunken boss, Mr. Kraft, at the airport coffee shop. As Lockman watches Kraft board the same plane where he's left the stolen money, everything he's planned for five years hangs in the balance.