Suspense Sundays (172) The Clock and the Rope

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 Clock and the Rope"

Air date: May 9, 1946
Starring Jackie Cooper

>>Episodes here<<

Henry meets a nice girl and makes a date to go out with her later.  When he goes to pick her up, she's having an altercation with a brutish man who doesn't want her to go out with anyone.  The man starts to beat up on Henry because he's his rival, but Henry fights back and ends up killing him.  He only finds out about that later though when he's picked up by the police for murder.  Henry claims self-defense, but Henry's witness - the nice girl - is no where to be found, and Henry realizes he didn't even know her name.  Henry is convicted of murder and his only hope is the girl.

This is a pretty straightforward suspenseful story about whether or not Henry will be saved from execution in time.  There are multiple moments when things looked bad for Henry, including the very unlikely instance of the warden having a stroke at just the wrong time, but there were no real twists to the story to make this one stand out.  For me, I felt this was just an ok story.