Suspense - Radio’s Outstanding Theater of Thrills

Originally Aired: January 20, 1957
Suspense #682, "Second Class Passenger," follows Ronald A. Dawson, a department store employee on a cruise around the world. When the ship docks at Mozambique, Dawson goes ashore with the charming Miss Patterson and two fellow passengers, Jones and Twitchell. After Miss Patterson accidentally leaves behind a bronze idol she purchased, Dawson gallantly volunteers to retrieve it from a Greek restaurant, assuring everyone he has plenty of time before the ship departs.
As he races back through the unfamiliar port city, the African twilight descends rapidly and a sudden rainstorm traps him in the maze-like alleys. Lost and disoriented in the darkness, Dawson stumbles upon a mysterious door with voices behind it. When he knocks seeking help, he's admitted by strangers who seem to be expecting someone else. The ominous revelation that they're waiting for "friends" and the police to arrive suggests that Dawson's simple errand has led him into something far more dangerous than getting lost in the rain.

Originally Aired: January 13, 1957
In Suspense #681, "Russian New Year," a revolutionary named Boris reflects on his legacy in what he claims are the last hours of his life. Obsessed with being remembered for his role in the revolutionary movement, Boris seethes over how bourgeois journalists have supposedly minimized his importance while exaggerating the role of Olga Karolska, a woman he dismisses as a political ignoramus and mere puppet. Through flashbacks, Boris recounts how he manipulated Olga, a servant in Prince Ogareff's household who believes herself in love with him, to arrange a fateful meeting with the prince.
When Olga reveals that Prince Ogareff's wife has left him for the Tsar and that the prince has been muttering about killing Russia's ruler, Boris sees his opportunity. He pressures Olga to bring the prince to his room near the university, where Boris presents an audacious plan: to destroy St. Basil's Cathedral during the New Year's Eve midnight mass, when the Tsar and the entire court will be gathered inside. As Boris coldly explains his scheme to use sixty pounds of melanite explosive, he reveals his nihilistic philosophy that revolutions are born from hate, not love, while the superstitious Olga fears for his very soul.

Originally Aired: January 6, 1957
In Suspense #680, "A Shipment of Mute Fate," Christopher Warner boards the ocean liner Chanquei in Venezuela with a dangerous cargo: a live bushmaster snake destined for a museum in New York. Captain Wood initially refuses to transport the deadly serpent, citing his responsibility to the passengers' safety, but orders from the head office force him to relent. The snake is secured in a reinforced sea chest in the captain's cabin, where Warner visits it obsessively, always finding it motionless and watching with beady, unblinking eyes.
As the ship sails into the Caribbean with deceptively calm seas, Warner develops an increasingly morbid dread of the creature. He cannot shake the feeling that the bushmaster is waiting for something. Meanwhile, stewardess Mother Willis harbors her own secret aboard ship, smuggling her pregnant cat Clara in defiance of the new chief steward's orders. When a heavy swell rocks the vessel, Warner's foreboding intensifies, and the question haunts him: what is the deadly serpent waiting for?

Originally Aired: December 23, 1956
In Suspense #679, "Back for Christmas," Professor Herbert Carpenter has endured twenty years of marriage to his dominating wife Hermione, who manages every detail of his life down to which necktie he wears. But the mousy professor has found unexpected romance with Marion Markham, a bookshop proprietor who shares his love of botany, and he's made careful plans to change his circumstances. As Hermione busily prepares for their lecture tour to America, insisting they'll be "back for Christmas," Herbert works on a peculiar project in the cellar—a wine bin that his wife ominously notes looks more like a grave.
While Hermione dismisses the cook and draws her bath upstairs, Herbert secretly phones Marion to confirm their rendezvous at the aerodrome. His cryptic words suggest that only one Mrs. Carpenter will be boarding that flight to America. As the professor puts the finishing touches on his carefully constructed plan, the question becomes whether his scheme for freedom is as foolproof as he believes, or if something will go terribly wrong before the plane takes off.

Originally Aired: December 16, 1956
Suspense #678, "Eyewitness," journalist Kelly arrives at the state prison for what should be a routine assignment—gathering background for an article about life behind bars. The warden makes clear that everything must be cleared through him, and Captain Wolf, his guide, warns him not to speak to any inmates. As Kelly tours the facility, he feels increasingly suffocated by the oppressive atmosphere. But his visit takes a terrifying turn when he and Captain Wolf enter the old cell block, a fortress-like structure built in 1847 to house the prison's most dangerous inmates. Within moments, they're ambushed and taken hostage by prisoners led by the calculating J. Conrad Allen, who insists his name be spelled with one L.
With thirty-two inmates now in control of the old block and holding five hostages, including Kelly, tensions rise as the convicts debate their next move. Some want to attempt a desperate breakout, while others fear the futility of such action. Conrad has a different plan—he intends to use the hostages, especially the journalist, as leverage to demand better treatment and conditions. Kelly finds himself an unwilling participant in a prison mutiny where the outcome remains dangerously uncertain.

Originally Aired: December 9, 1956
Suspense #677, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," presents Ambrose Bierce's haunting Civil War tale starring Victor Jory. Peyton Farquhar, an Alabama planter and Confederate sympathizer, stands on a railroad bridge in northern Alabama with a noose around his neck, awaiting execution by Union forces. As he balances at the edge of death, his mind races with desperate thoughts of escape. Just days earlier, a Confederate soldier had visited Farquhar's home, sharing intelligence about the vulnerable Owl Creek Bridge and suggesting that a civilian might slip past Union sentries to destroy it, potentially halting the enemy's advance toward Atlanta.
The episode unfolds with meticulous detail as Farquhar faces his fate, surrounded by the captain's company standing at rigid attention and a Union lieutenant with drawn saber. When the sergeant steps aside and the plank tips forward, Farquhar plunges between the bridge timbers. In those final moments, the story explores the vivid sensations of a condemned man, the choices that brought him to this precipice, and the thin line between duty and folly in wartime.

Originally Aired: December 2, 1956
In Suspense #676, "The Rim of Terror," a young woman from Vermont driving a powerful Mercedes through the Nevada desert makes a fateful decision to pick up a hitchhiker in the rain. The man, later identifying himself as Peter Whittlesey, appears bedraggled and desperate. When she approaches what seems to be a routine traffic survey checkpoint, the situation turns sinister. The interviewers become threatening, and with her dog Torko beside her, she makes a daring escape, roaring past the fake officials in their van.
Peter reveals a shocking story: he claims to be an American-born spy who infiltrated a foreign intelligence operation and is now fleeing from his former handlers who want him dead. The men at the roadblock are hunting him, not her. A bullet hole in her windshield confirms the deadly danger. As Peter pleads to be taken to the police so he can turn himself in and escape his pursuers, the woman must decide whether to believe his incredible tale or abandon him on the desolate road, knowing ruthless killers are closing in.

Originally Aired: November 25, 1956
Suspense #675, "The Man Who Stole the Bible," Mr. Cummings finds himself trapped in a stuffy New Orleans hotel room during Mardi Gras, waiting for a call from his boss. Bored and unable to get any reading material from the inattentive hotel staff, he discovers a Gideon Bible in his room and begins reading the story of David. What starts as idle curiosity turns sinister when a house detective appears looking for a lost pocketbook, followed by a mysterious woman from the next room who claims she needs help opening a stuck window.
After taking a phone call from his boss, Cummings discovers his room has been searched and his briefcase ransacked. The woman has suddenly checked out, and peculiar events begin piling up around room 302. When Cummings impulsively pockets the Bible and leaves his room, he finds himself caught in an increasingly dangerous web of deception. The stolen Bible—something he never meant to take—becomes a weight in his pocket as he realizes the night of terror has only just begun.

Originally Aired: November 18, 1956
Suspense #674, "The Long Night," finds air traffic controller Ken on the night watch at Rockford Tower when a desperate call comes in from a novice pilot in a Beechcraft Bonanza. The pilot, a businessman flying from Indianapolis to Minneapolis, is hopelessly lost somewhere over the Midwest after his automatic direction finder malfunctioned. He's been circling for over an hour and has less than 45 minutes of fuel remaining. The situation grows more dire when Ken learns the pilot has no instrument training and is trapped on top of a solid cloud layer at 5,000 feet, while below him lies a thick overcast with visibility of just one mile in smoke and haze.
Ken clears all other traffic from the frequency and begins the race against time to locate the lost aircraft, guide it to Rockford Field, and somehow talk an inexperienced pilot down through dense clouds using instruments he doesn't know how to read. With the clock ticking and fuel running out, Ken must remain calm and resourceful as he attempts to save a stranger's life during one very long night.

Originally Aired: November 11, 1956
Suspense #673, "Three Skeleton Key," stars Vincent Price as a lighthouse keeper stationed with two companions on a desolate rock rising from shark-infested waters. The narrator works alongside Louis, a taciturn head keeper from the Basque Country, and Auguste, a garrulous former Parisian actor. Their isolated routine is shattered when they spot a mysterious three-masted ship sailing directly toward their dangerous reef. Through their telescopes, they discover why the beautiful vessel was abandoned: its decks are swarming with thousands of enormous, ravenous ship rats.
As the derelict vessel runs aground on the rocks at low tide, the nightmare begins. The rats, desperate and starving, swim toward the lighthouse in a churning brown carpet across the water. The three men race to secure the bronze door at the base of their tower, but one monstrous rat gets inside before they can seal it shut. As they fight off the creature and flee upward through the winding staircase, they discover rats covering every window, their wild red eyes and yellow teeth visible through the glass, trapping the keepers in their cylindrical prison.