Suspense Sundays (46) The Last Letter of Doctor Bronson

Suspense was a radio series from 1942 to 1962.  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.  For Suspense Sundays I'll give a short review of an episode.   {My archive list of episodes}

"The Last Letter of Doctor Bronson"

Air date: July 27, 1943
Starring Laird Cregar and George Colouris

>>Episodes here<<

Dr. Bronson is obsessed with death and murder and has decided to conduct an experiment to explore what keeps people from murdering other people.  His hypothesis is that there are five blocks so he gets five subjects and eliminates all but one block for them, also giving them the motive and opportunity to kill him.  Of course he didn't take everything into account.

This episode has a very interesting idea behind it and it was fun to discover each of Dr. Bronson's blocks as he presented each experiment.  I really enjoyed the suspense and ingenuity of this story and yet it did seem obvious that there had to be a problem if you encountered someone with no blocks.  Yet I would like to think some people wouldn't kill just because they have no right to take another person's life - just because it's wrong.

And in case you are curious, here are Dr. Bronson's five blocks:
Fear of punishment, Religious belief, Owing a debt of gratitude, Loss of reputation, Squeamishness