Suspense - Radio’s Outstanding Theater of Thrills

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.

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.