Suspense Sundays (71) Neil Cream Doctor of Poison

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}

"Neil Cream Doctor of Poison"

Air date: September 17, 1951
Starring Charles Laughton

>>Episodes here<<

Neil Cream is devastated that his wife has passed on.  Just kidding, he's been poisoning her slowly and he's really a bit miffed that it took her so long to die.  Then, for some reason Dr. Cream writes a scientific paper on the resistance his wife had to the poison and of course the police are alerted to the fact that a crazy murderer is loose.  Dr. Cream moves to London and becomes interested in his landlady's daughter and it's very clear that someone is going to die again soon.  Will he get caught?  Or will this smart man make a fatal mistake?  Other than writing a paper on how to poison people.

This is actually based on a real-life murderer (who also confessed to being Jack the Ripper but it's unlikely that he was) and while the real story is much more disturbing and sordid, this poisoner is still scary in his ruthless determination to get rid of people he thinks are in his way.  The episode itself was only okay for me though - there's definitely no reason to have any sympathy for the Doc, and the way in which he is caught isn't terribly exciting.