Suspense was a radio series from 1942 to 1962, claiming to be "radio's outstanding theater of thrills." 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. I love the old-fashion story-telling and I thought it would be fun to give a short review of an episode every Sunday.
"Christmas for Carol"
Air date: December 21, 1951
Starring Dennis Day and Elliott Lewis
The episode begins with a rather nice sounding man named Paul, having just pulled off a house burglary with a rough sounding fellow and wanting to leave. The other fellow, Rocky, doesn't want to leave just yet because the owners might have more money. Paul is starting to regret his choice to rob this house and we hear what happened backstory style. Paul's wife is pregnant and will need special care, but Paul doesn't make enough money, so when a man withdraws his life savings from his bank account, Paul decides to rob him. He gets Rocky to help him because he's a criminal and knows how to manage these things. Then Paul has a change of heart.I wanted to listen to a Suspense episode, and I only had this Christmas story on my iPhone, so this one is a bit out of season, but still very enjoyable. Suspense doesn't often have feel good stories - the endings are usually happy, but the story is so dark that it's hard to see the whole episode as positive. This story sets up likable characters and a very sympathetic predicament. And wraps up what could be a bad ending nicely with a very neat twist. And then Dennis Day (who was a singer I believe) sings a bit of "The First Noel".
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