Suspense
Suspense is an American television anthology series that ran on CBS Television from 1949 to 1954. It was adapted from the radio program of the same name which ran from 1942 to 1962. Like many early television programs, the show was broadcast live from New York City. It was sponsored by the Auto-Lite corporation, and each episode was introduced by host Rex Marshall, who promoted Auto-Lite spark plugs, car batteries, headlights, and other car parts. Some of the early scripts were adapted from Suspense radio scripts, while others were original for television. Like the radio program, many scripts were adaptations of literary classics by well-known authors. Classic authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, Agatha Christie, and Charles Dickens all had stories adapted for the series, while contemporary authors such as Roald Dahl and Gore Vidal also contributed. Many notable actors appeared on the program, including Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Franchot Tone, Robert Emhardt, Leslie Nielsen, Lloyd Bridges, and many more. The program was a live television series, but most episodes were recorded on kinescope. However, only about 90 of the 260 episodes survive today.
- 1949-1954
- 6 seasons
- CBS
- Drama, Horror, Suspense
Suspense is an American television anthology series that ran on CBS Television from 1949 to 1954. It was adapted from the radio program of the same name which ran from 1942 to 1962. Like many early television programs, the show was broadcast live from New York City. It was sponsored by the Auto-Lite corporation, and each episode was introduced by host Rex Marshall, who promoted Auto-Lite spark plugs, car batteries, headlights, and other car parts. Some of the early scripts were adapted from Suspense radio scripts, while others were original for television. Like the radio program, many scripts were adaptations of literary classics by well-known authors. Classic authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, Agatha Christie, and Charles Dickens all had stories adapted for the series, while contemporary authors such as Roald Dahl and Gore Vidal also contributed. Many notable actors appeared on the program, including Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Franchot Tone, Robert Emhardt, Leslie Nielsen, Lloyd Bridges, and many more. The program was a live television series, but most episodes were recorded on kinescope. However, only about 90 of the 260 episodes survive today.
Season 6 Episode Guide
47 Episodes 1953 - 1954
Episode 1
The Sister
Tue, Sep 29, 1953 30 mins
The tragic tale of a pair of recluses whose lives are brought into focus for the first time after years of frustration and jealousy.
Episode 2
Death at Skirkerud Pond
Tue, Oct 6, 1953 30 mins
The story of a tense trial in Norway when a jury was asked to remember what it was like in their homeland during the war. The actual verdict is revealed at the end of the program.
Episode 3
The Accounting
Tue, Oct 13, 1953 30 mins
The story of a corrupt supply captain, son of an illustrious military hero, and a fiercely loyal major who challenges him to a duel to preserve the family's honor.
Episode 4
The Valley of the Kings
Tue, Oct 20, 1953 30 mins
The tense story of an archaeological expedition searching for the tomb of King Tutmose. They finally find it and its treasures untouched; but then the curse of the Pharaoh on anyone defiling his tomb's sacred precincts begin to strike.
Episode 5
The Others
Tue, Oct 27, 1953 30 mins
Episode 6
The Interruption
Tue, Nov 3, 1953 30 mins
An English gentleman gloats over the murder of his wife only to learn that his evil housekeeper knows his secret.
Episode 7
Needle in a Haystack
Tue, Nov 10, 1953 30 mins
The behind-the-scenes story of how the U. S. Navy ferreted out the secret of Communist minefields in Wonsan Harbor, enabling minesweepers to clear the way for the safe landing of 22,000 Marines.
Episode 8
The Newcomer
Tue, Nov 17, 1953 30 mins
A story of a brash stranger in a small Western town who changes his ways when arrested for the murder of a local belle.
Episode 9
My Short Walk to Freedom
Tue, Nov 24, 1953 30 mins
When a fugitive from a Russian concentration camp is cornered in his Budapest home, he disguises himself and his brother to try a get beyond the Iron Curtain.
Episode 10
Laugh It Off
Tue, Dec 1, 1953
A kindly young man believes a girl's story that she is marked for murder and risks his life to save her, despite warnings from friends that she is a habitual liar and thrill-seeker.
Episode 11
The Dance
Tue, Dec 8, 1953 30 mins
A woman reminisces about the first time she saw someone dance the Charleston - a party marred by infidelity and murder. Based on a story by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Episode 12
Cagliostro and the Chess Player
Tue, Dec 15, 1953 30 mins
A dramatization based on the life of the 18th Century Italian magician, Count Alessandro di Cagliostro. The cunning magician inveigles King Stanislaus into a chess game with his mechanical genius. That, in the end, becomes his downfall.
Episode 13
The Gift of Fear
Tue, Dec 22, 1953 30 mins
A little boy in a department store and a night watchman who likes toys better than people are featured in this odd Christmas tale.
Episode 14
Mr. Nobody
Tue, Dec 29, 1953 30 mins
A wealthy, vicious woman turns a goodhearted but naive tramp into a pawn in her evil plans.
Episode 15
Diamonds in the Sky
Tue, Jan 5, 1954 30 mins
A gang of smugglers, diamonds and a beautiful woman add up to trouble for the pilot on a trans-Atlantic flight.
Episode 16
The Scrap Iron Curtain
Tue, Jan 12, 1954 30 mins
The true story of Baclav Uhlik, a Czech machinist who built an armored car and last July transported his wife, two children and four friends 40 miles through the Bohemian forests to the town of Waldmeunchen in the western zone of Germany.
Episode 17
The Haunted
Tue, Jan 19, 1954 30 mins
The second wife of a ski-lodge owner suspects her husband of the murder of his first wife.
Episode 18
An Affair with a Ghost
Tue, Jan 26, 1954 30 mins
A dead French underground leader returns to save a band of hostages when a Nazi collaborator goes back on his promise.
Episode 19
The Man Who Wouldn't Talk
Tue, Feb 2, 1954 30 mins
A drama based on the hoax of Canadian George DuPre, who claimed service in the French underground as a British intelligence officer during World War II.
Episode 20
The Moonstone
Tue, Feb 9, 1954 30 mins
A precious stone taken from India is coveted by many parties.
Episode 21
The Execution
Tue, Feb 16, 1954 30 mins
Her son's heroic death in battle unseals the lips of a mother about a 10-year-old tragedy involving her brutal husband.
Episode 22
Death on the Screen
Tue, Feb 23, 1954 30 mins
A frantic wife sits by her TV set, watching a public dinner where a deranged man is getting ready to kill her husband.
Episode 23
I Do Solemnly Swear
Tue, Mar 2, 1954 30 mins
The story of the first woman juror in the United States, in 1870 in Laramie, Wyoming.
Episode 24
Before the Act
Tue, Mar 9, 1954 30 mins
A young bank official is the intended scapegoat of a carefully designed plan to rob the vault of $100,000.
Episode 25
The Fourth Degree
Tue, Mar 16, 1954 30 mins
A psychiatrist makes a weird experiment in a last ditch attempt to get a key witness in a homicide case to talk.
Episode 26
The Tenth Reunion
Tue, Mar 23, 1954 30 mins
A college reunion crowd discover that one of the gang has been missing since graduation. Those present have had reasons to do away with her.
Episode 27
Torment
Tue, Mar 30, 1954 30 mins
Behind the Iron Curtain, a condemned prisoner's wife tries to save him by appealing to an old friend, the police chief.
Episode 28
Open Transom
Tue, Apr 6, 1954
Episode 29
Operation: Barracuda
Tue, Apr 13, 1954 30 mins
A German U-Boat Captain crashes his vessel along the Atlantic coast at the end of World War II. He and his lieutenant escape the sinking vessel, which contains the personal fortune of Nazi leader Herman Goering. An attempted salvage years later turns into a blood fest.
Episode 30
The Return Journey
Tue, Apr 20, 1954 30 mins
A window washer is tempted by an unguarded amount of money and realizes the error in his judgment all too soon.
Episode 31
The Terror Begins
Tue, Apr 27, 1954 30 mins
The story of how Stalin held a grip on the Russian people after assassinating S.M. Kirov.
Episode 32
Smoke
Tue, May 4, 1954 30 mins
The two sons of a disgusting and destructive old man stand to benefit as a result of his violent death.
Episode 33
Operation Nightmare
Tue, May 11, 1954 30 mins
A dramatization of the heroics of nurse Ann Bernatitus during the Battle of Bataan.
Episode 34
Breakout
Tue, May 18, 1954 30 mins
A prison riot breaks out and a guard is taken hostage. The inmates want the keys to the main gate in exchange for the guard.
Episode 35
Fingerprints
Tue, May 25, 1954 30 mins
A true story taken from the cases of Alfonse Bertillon, chief of the Identification Bureau of the Paris Police in the early 1900's. Bertillon invented the first system of crime detection through the use of physical features.
Episode 36
Race Against Murder
Tue, Jun 1, 1954 30 mins
A young doctor leaves his practice to find a cure for polio after watching his patients suffer.
Episode 37
North Side
Tue, Jun 8, 1954 30 mins
The true story of the workings of a New York homicide squad as it goes about the solution of a brutal murder.
Episode 38
The Pistol Shot
Tue, Jun 15, 1954 30 mins
An Army Captain wants revenge on a fellow officer in 19th century Russia. The young Captain has bested him in cards and love.
Episode 39
String
Tue, Jun 22, 1954 30 mins
Thirty men in a secret unit, started by President Roosevelt during World War II, are captured and tortured at the Belsen concentration camp before escaping.
Episode 40
The Hunted
Tue, Jun 29, 1954 30 mins
An unethical hunter is caught shooting a tame animal on a wildlife preserve. The game warden delivers an unexpected punishment: three bullets and a ten minute head start.
Episode 41
The Girl in Car Thirty-two
Tue, Jul 6, 1954 30 mins
An investigator puts his life in danger after he falls for the woman he is tailing.
Episode 42
Conversation at an Inn
Tue, Jul 13, 1954 30 mins
A bicyclist makes up fantastic tales of murder on "clues" she finds along her rides. When she finds a shoe and a lighter, she tells an elaborate tale that turns out to be very close to the truth.
Episode 43
Once a Killer
Tue, Jul 20, 1954 30 mins
A woman's faith in a hoodlum is destroyed when the police prevail upon her to get him to surrender.
Episode 44
Main Feature: Death
Tue, Jul 27, 1954 30 mins
A woman gets locked in movie theater by mistake and encounters a pair of killers who break in to rob the safe.
Episode 45
The Last Stand
Tue, Aug 3, 1954 30 mins
A would-be recluse's best friend discovers gold on his land. He realizes his only security is his friend's death, but he is thwarted in the effort of murder by some fast-traveling news.
Episode 46
The Iron Cop
Tue, Aug 10, 1954 30 mins
A policeman's niece is murdered. He resolves to find the killer but has to pit his wits against an "electronic brain" to do so.
Episode 47
Barn Burning
Tue, Aug 17, 1954 30 mins
A mentally incapacitated war hero seeks revenge against society.