Gallardo
Starring: Vic Perrin
Originally aired: 20 March 1956
Plot synopsis: Two circus trapeze artists fall for the same woman, with the jealousy between them leading to dramatic consequences.
Favourite line: 'Have you noticed her eyes? They are big and yellow, like the eyes of a cat. And you look into them for a deepness that should be there and see only that they are big and yellow … You wonder if maybe the deepness is not for you to see.'
Review: The greatest strength of this episode is the way it presents what feels like an authentic depiction of circus life, with an accumulation of small details helping to create a convincing portrayal. As for the plot, this is sufficiently interesting to hold the listener's attention for thirty minutes, though aside from the circus setting, there's not much here that is terribly original, as it is otherwise a relatively familiar story centred on a love triangle. Some listeners, too, may be disappointed that the episode is essentially a straight drama, with only a few 'thriller' elements qualifying it as the sort of tale one would normally expect on Suspense. Still, there is some solid characterization, especially of the protagonist, so that by the end, there is a definite emotional impact to the story's conclusion, when we discover the different hands fate deals to the three main characters. (Another episode with a circus setting, which also centres on the relationships between a trio of performers, is If the Dead Could Talk.)
Rating: * * *
Game Hunt
Starring: Everett Sloane
Originally aired: 3 April 1956
[Another version of this story, also starring Everett Sloane, aired 16 March 1958]
Plot synopsis: A safari guide leads a client on a hunting expedition in the Kenyan savannah, but their party is plunged into danger when they find themselves facing a ferocious lion.
Favourite line: 'Courage is defined as that quality of mind which enables one to meet danger and difficulties with firmness. The call for it had suddenly come - and there was a lack of it.'
Review: This is a much more tense and absorbing episode than I thought it would be at the start. To begin with, it seems as if it is going to be a fairly humdrum story about a hunting trip on the plains of Africa. Yet as it develops, it becomes increasingly compelling, as a character study of a man - a safari guide - who has grown weary of the life he is leading, chaperoning privileged Americans and Europeans so that they might take home trophies of their kills. It certainly isn't an 'anti-hunting' story, but it does offer a critique of those who treat hunting merely as a means of acquiring exotic souvenirs, without any deeper appreciation of its meaning and purpose. Besides this, the story can also simply be enjoyed as an exciting adventure tale. Overall, a strong, thoughtful episode. (For those interested in hunting-themed stories, another episode well worth listening to is The Track of the Cat.)
Rating: * * *
Favourite line: 'Courage is defined as that quality of mind which enables one to meet danger and difficulties with firmness. The call for it had suddenly come - and there was a lack of it.'
Review: This is a much more tense and absorbing episode than I thought it would be at the start. To begin with, it seems as if it is going to be a fairly humdrum story about a hunting trip on the plains of Africa. Yet as it develops, it becomes increasingly compelling, as a character study of a man - a safari guide - who has grown weary of the life he is leading, chaperoning privileged Americans and Europeans so that they might take home trophies of their kills. It certainly isn't an 'anti-hunting' story, but it does offer a critique of those who treat hunting merely as a means of acquiring exotic souvenirs, without any deeper appreciation of its meaning and purpose. Besides this, the story can also simply be enjoyed as an exciting adventure tale. Overall, a strong, thoughtful episode. (For those interested in hunting-themed stories, another episode well worth listening to is The Track of the Cat.)
Rating: * * *
Ghost Hunt
Starring: Ralph Edwards
Originally aired: 23 June 1949
Plot synopsis: A radio disc jockey and a paranormal investigator spend a night in a supposedly haunted house, where four people have previously committed suicide. Based on a short story by Herbert Russell Wakefield, first published in Weird Tales magazine, in March 1948; and later in his short-story collection Strayers from Sheol, in 1961.
Favourite line: 'I have no desire to hurt their feelings. Where ghosts are concerned, I say live and let live!'
Review: Modern filmgoers will be familiar with so-called 'found footage' films, like The Blair Witch Project, but this is what might be called a 'found recording' radio play. The bulk of the episode is taken up with the playback of a recording made by the central character, a radio disc jockey who has mysteriously disappeared, and this method of presenting the story helps in building an atmosphere of suspense and foreboding as the audience knows that something must have gone amiss if he cannot be found, even though to begin with we don't know why. I won't reveal too much about what has happened to him, but I will say that this is a classic haunted house story, in a similar vein to films like The Haunting. Indeed, it is an extremely good, highly effective episode, one of the best supernatural tales Suspense ever presented. At the start, the main character cracks jokes and doesn't take seriously the idea that the house he is staying in overnight may be haunted. Yet as the story develops, his personality undergoes a gradual transformation in parallel with the increasingly disturbing goings on around him. In this respect, the episode reminded me somewhat of (the film version of) The Shining, a psychological horror story in which it is never entirely certain whether the protagonist's experiences are 'real' or merely taking place in his own mind. Ralph Edwards gives an excellent performance as the disc jockey, portraying very convincingly the character's journey from seemingly glib, superficial radio presenter to someone who reveals much more interesting depths and insecurities. There is, too, a very chilling conclusion to the audio recording. This is a genuinely creepy, sincerely unsettling episode, which is probably best listened to with the lights on ...
Rating: * * * * *
The Giant of Thermopylae
Starring: Frank Lovejoy
Originally aired: 3 May 1954
Plot synopsis: A man seeking revenge on the person with whom he had been in a fight the night before finds himself trapped in an amusement park funhouse battling against a giant mechanical creature.
Favourite line: 'After a while, it seemed there were two of me. The one, sitting on the floor sort-of whimpering and crying and looking at the giant, the other one sitting there and saying things to himself, things about giants and funhouses made of wood and metal and rags and a couple of gears. Well, that one didn't whimper.'
Review: My four-star rating for this episode is essentially for the first 25 minutes - if you listen to the last five, you may want to knock off a star. Sprinkled throughout its long run, Suspense produced some decidedly odd stories, and this is one of them (or, to be precise, it is until the final scene). The initial set-up doesn't appear especially promising, as it seems as if the story is going to be a fairly routine revenge thriller. However, when the protagonist's quest leads him to an amusement park, it takes a turn for the surreal. Here, he must battle a mechanical giant which, defying all reason, appears to be alive - it even bleeds! This part of the episode is fantastic: exciting, bizarre and very well-realized as audio drama. Even immediately afterwards, the strangeness continues, as the main character attempts to make sense of what he has experienced. Yet then comes the closing scene - to discuss this, let me offer a SPOILER ALERT! The problem with the ending is that it provides a perfectly rational, logical explanation for the giant's behaviour (there was a man inside!), which thereby robs the story of its mystery and ambiguity. I would have preferred it if the episode had concluded with the protagonist left in a state of uncertainty as to what had truly taken place, and unsure whether he might be losing his mind. A pity the writer (or producer?) didn't have the courage to leave the story more open-ended, though the episode is still a very good one.
Rating: * * * *
The Gift of Jumbo Brannigan
Starring: William Bendix
Originally aired: 1 March 1951
Plot synopsis: A habitual criminal who has just been released from prison is given responsibility for his estranged fourteen-year-old son, but as he returns to his old ways, he is surprised to discover that his son wants to follow in his footsteps.
Favourite line: 'It was the first time I'd ever been paid to case a joint by the very people I was gonna knock off.'
Review: This episode very much belongs to its time (the 1950s) when crime stories on radio and in film began to focus as much on understanding the criminals as the police hunting them, and to take more sophisticated, psychological approaches in explaining their motives and behaviour - think films like The Asphalt Jungle or The Killing. The story here certainly isn't in the same league as those two films, but it is very good, with its depiction of the central relationship between father and son being deftly sketched. The transformative effect the main character's new-found responsibility in being forced to look after a son he barely knows is especially well-handled, and leads to a powerful conclusion. I won't give away full details of the ending - though I'll offer a SPOILER ALERT! nonetheless, for those who don't want to read any hints - but there are shades of Angels with Dirty Faces in the protagonist's final actions in the way he attempts to steer his son in a different direction to the one he has followed all his life. There are some missteps along the way - for example, the way the son is only ever referred to as 'the kid', even by himself, rings a false note as an attempt to create a greater sense of profundity in the father-son relationship than there really is - but otherwise, this is a strong story well told.
Rating: * * * *
The Girl in Car Thirty-Two
Starring: Victor Mature
Originally aired: 15 March 1954
Plot synopsis: Travelling aboard a train, a plainclothes police officer begins falling in love with the suspected girlfriend of a criminal he is attempting to catch. Based on a short story by Thomas Walsh, first published in The Saturday Evening Post, on 7 November 1953.
Favourite line: 'You're a nice big New York copper, Mahoney. You got the jaw and you got the shoulders ... I'm just a beefy blob working out of LA's Central Division.'
Review: In truth, this episode probably falls somewhere between three and four stars, but since I don't give half stars, I've decided upon four as the fairest rating. There are, indeed, many positives, which lift the story above average. For one, the performances of the three main cast members - Victor Mature, Cathy Lewis and William Conrad - are all very accomplished. Another strength is that the episode manages to keep the listener guessing until very near the end as to whether the woman the protagonist is investigating is in fact the girlfriend of a wanted criminal. My only real gripe is - SPOILER ALERT! - with the conclusion. After putting the woman through a harrowing ordeal of arrest and interrogation, but then discovering that she is in fact innocent, our 'hero' pretty much forces himself upon her (not literally, but figuratively). When she explains that she is going to leave the city, he simply tells her that he is going with her, without seeming to give her any choice in the matter. Previously, yes, there had clearly been a mutual attraction between them, but by this stage, any chance of a romantic relationship has surely been destroyed. Still, I enjoyed the episode up until this somewhat forced happy ending.
Rating: * * * *
[Other adaptations: TV - Suspense (1954)]
Give Me Liberty
Starring: William Powell
Originally aired: 21 October 1948
[Another version of this story, starring Tony Barrett, aired 29 March 1955]
Plot synopsis: A convicted criminal being transported to prison by train escapes when the train crashes, but in order to remain free and to recover the stolen $250 000 he has hidden he must find a way to remove his handcuffs.
Favourite line: 'No, no, no - don't order me around, chum. If you're a corpse, I won't take it from you. And if you're not a corpse, I'll poke you in the eye!'
Review: 'Give me liberty, or give me death!' is the famous line from the speech given by Patrick Henry in 1775 in support of American independence. Yet here, the first part of this quotation is being used in the title ironically: the protagonist is not motivated by any high-minded idealism, but purely by greed and self-interest. In any case, this is a tense, exciting and well-crafted episode. In many thrillers, escaping from a set of handcuffs is a minor, and fairly easy, obstacle for the hero to overcome, but this story offers a more realistic depiction, showing just how difficult this must in truth be for a man on the run. There's also some good sparring between the main character and the homeless woman he encounters who becomes drawn into his scheme to retrieve his stolen money. The episode is pretty tough-minded, too, with little room for compassion or sentimentality when it comes to any of the characters' fates. One of those episodes I would have welcomed being a little longer than the standard thirty minutes, and the story is one that would work well as a TV drama or a film.
Rating: * * * *
