Suspense Sundays! (5)

Suspense Sundays

Suspense was a radio series from 1942 to 1962, claiming to be "radio's outstanding theater of thrills."  I have a fondness for "Old Time Radio" as we call it now, and Suspense is my favorite show.  It sets up weird, dark, scary, or intriguing stories with a plot twist in the end, and all in half an hour.  And many of them had very famous stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood.  I love the old-fashion story-telling and I thought it would be fun to give a short review of an episode every Sunday.  I'll have some fun with it too, since the stories can be silly and over-the-top to modern audiences, but I hope you, dear Reader, will give it a listen sometime if the story seems interesting.

"The Bride Vanishes"

Air date: December 1, 1942

>>Episodes here<<

A newlywed couple arrive in Italy to spend their honeymoon in a rented villa, but people stare at the young bride, Lucy, because she looks exactly like a young woman who died mysteriously in that same villa earlier. The young woman who died, Josephine, was standing on the balcony and just disappeared one day, and no one heard a splash like they should have if she had fallen, and her mother and sister were just inside the house, right in front of the door to the balcony so she couldn't have left.  So what happened to her?  And could it happen to Lucy as well?

Well, of course it does happen to Lucy, and as in most cases, the way it happens is much more interesting than scary ghosts or other supernatural intervention.  Lucy is spirited away cleverly, though it is surprising how quickly her husband figures it out.  Good for the wife though.  This story is a little predictable in the end though, and explaining the technical aspect of how the bride is vanished was complicated and didn't really seem feasible to me.   A case of a fantastic set-up with a less than fantastic resolution.