If the Dead Could Talk

Originally Aired: January 20, 1949

Suspense #324, "If the Dead Could Talk," stars Dana Andrews as Joe, a trapeze artist caught in a tortured love triangle. Joe is hopelessly in love with Fran, his partner in a three-person circus act, but she chooses to marry Tommy, Joe's best friend and roommate. Unable to accept losing Fran to his closest companion, Joe spirals into drinking and sleepless nights, haunted by visions of the couple together. His anguish builds until one desperate night when he purchases a gun from an all-night pawn shop, determined to eliminate his rival.

Joe returns to the hotel where the circus troupe is staying and climbs the fire escape to the room he shares with Tommy, smashing through the locked window with bloody determination. Gun in hand, he waits in the darkness for Tommy to return, ready to commit murder. But when the door finally opens and Tommy appears framed in the hallway light, Joe must confront the terrible choice before him. The episode explores whether friendship, jealousy, or desperation will ultimately guide his hand in this tense thriller of passion and betrayal.