Suspense Sundays (160) An Honest Man

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.

"An Honest Man"

Air date: August 5, 1948
Starring Charles Laughton

>>Episodes here<<

Freddie's mother has just passed away, and Freddie is finally free from her overbearing ways.  Being over forty now, he is thinking of getting married and has an eye on his beautiful co-worker Dora.  While walking her home one night, Dora lightly talks of her ideal man being intelligent, hard-working and with a little money put away for a rainy day.  How much money? Freddie is eager to know, since he matches her ideal in every point but that one.  She says $1000.  Freddie doesn't have the money, and loathes to do anything dishonest to get it, since his mother always taught him that stealing is the very worst thing any one could do.

Freddie seems like a nice guy, so it's unfortunate the path his story takes in this episode.  It's a little upsetting though that his mother's attempt to educate him, turned out so wrongly!  This was just a so-so episode though, since it seemed obvious that things would go badly for poor Freddie.  Charles Laughton - who is a very talented actor I believe, was a bit strange in this episode though - there were moments when his reading of his lines came out awkwardly - like he was about to flub them.