Suspense Sundays (112) The Man Who Couldn't Lose

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.

"The Man Who Couldn't Lose"

Air date: September 28, 1944
Starring Gene Kelly

>>Episodes here<<

Leonard Snell needs some money to pay off his debts, but his nagging wife is not about to give him any of her savings since he'd mostly likely squander it at the races.  So Leonard has no choice but to strangle her.  Leonard has a plan though - write a suicide note to the police confessing to the murder, and then find a homeless man, whose body would be identified as his, when he crashes his car.  Leonard goes through with his plan, but then starts getting extremely lucky.   A client wants to buy insurance annuities from him and the bet he placed on a horse wins big.  But that bet was in his name, and Leonard Snell is supposed to be dead.

This twists in this episodes are relentless!  You keep thinking Leonard can't get any luckier and he does... until the very end of course.  It wouldn't do for him to get away with murder.  The irony of the last few minutes when Leonard finds a way to to claim his winnings from the horse race was actually delightful to me - it was so outrageously lucky and it's really not til the very last second is the final twist revealed.  This was a great episode with the added bonus of Gene Kelly as Leonard.  He's such a nice guy in his films, it's fun to hear him so devious.