Stars on Suspense [Audio CD]

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2000

Suspense - this theater of thrills became radio's outstanding and longest running mystery-anthology in the history of network radio. Sit back and enjoy Hollywood's greatest stars of film and radio in tales well calculated to keep you in...Suspense! includes a 64-page booklet.

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Radio Spirits (September 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570193533
• ISBN-13: 978-1570193538
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 7.2 x 2.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,155,868 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 60 "Suspense" Programs On 30 CDs .... A Terrific Set, September 28, 2006

By 

David Von Pein (Mooresville, Indiana; USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stars on Suspense (Audio CD)

"Suspense" was an incredibly-popular mystery radio program that was on the air for 22 years (1940 through 1962). Dubbed as "Radio's outstanding theater of thrills", the show was/is the longest-running "mystery/anthology" series in network radio history.

A large number of Hollywood's greatest stars put in time behind the microphone on the "Suspense" soundstage, and this large 60-show collection highlights many of these popular stars' appearances on the mystery program.

The eerie series was hosted/narrated by a person known as "The Man in Black". Several different individuals served as "The Man in Black" over the years, including Joseph Kearns, who would later play "Mr. Wilson" on the TV series "Dennis The Menace". (He wasn't quite so "manacing" on "Menace", was he?) :)

Each of these thirty Compact Discs contains two full-length "Suspense" broadcasts. My two favorite episodes included in this sixty-program collection are "Drive-In" and "Sorry, Wrong Number". .............

1.) "Drive-In" stars a 24-year-old Judy Garland and was originally aired on November 21, 1946. Judy plays a waitress at a drive-in restaurant, and accepts a ride home with a stranger. She will later regret that decision. This is a dandy "Suspense" classic, with Judy utterly believable as the young woman in peril.

2.) Agnes Moorehead is the star of "Sorry, Wrong Number" (which aired November 18, 1948). .... "Sorry" was performed a total of EIGHT times by Miss Moorehead on "Suspense", and is considered the most famous of all the plays in the radio series. Orson Welles, in fact, once called the popular Lucille Fletcher play "the greatest single radio script ever written".

Moorehead is perfect as the woman who overhears the plot to her own murder due to criss-crossed telephone wires. This particular performance, in late 1948, coincided almost exactly with the time period when the movie version of "Sorry" was running in theaters. From data I can gather, the movie (starring Barbara Stanwyck in Miss Moorehead's role) opened in theaters on September 1, 1948, just 2.5 months prior to this "Suspense" radio performance by Moorehead.

Among the various bits of info and trivia that can be accessed via this boxed set's lengthy booklet, we learn that Miss Moorehead -- after each "Sorry, Wrong Number" performance -- was so tense, it took her hours to unwind.

Other chilling/thrilling programs occupying space in this set include: "The Black Curtain" with Cary Grant ... "Hitchhike Poker" with Gregory Peck ... "Night Cry" with Ray Milland ... and "Back For Christmas" with Herbert Marshall.

This deluxe CD set was produced and released by "Radio Spirits" (of Schiller Park, Illinois) in the year 2000. The 7.25" x 7.5" all-plastic, "album"-style packaging securely holds the 30 Compact Discs. A 64-page booklet is included, with tons of facts and photos and backstory information on each of the sixty programs in the set.

The packaging design makes it very easy to pick out which episode you want to listen to with just a quick glance at the back of the plastic case. Every show title is printed on the back, along with air dates, the guest stars, and the corresponding CD number.

In 1998, another excellent batch of top-flight radio programs was produced and released by Radio Spirits. It's a healthy collection of 60 OTR mystery shows on 20 audio cassettes, entitled "Old-Time Radio's Greatest Mysteries". A similar product has recently been re-released on audio cassette and CD by Radio Spirits, bearing the exact same title, that includes a smaller number of total programs (40). But the cassette assortment I own has sixty shows, including three episodes of "Suspense", plus broadcasts from many other radio shows of the same genre -- e.g.: "Inner Sanctum", "Escape", "Lights Out!", "Quiet Please", and "The Shadow"; plus lots of others.

But what makes that "Greatest Mysteries" pack extra special (IMO) is the inclusion on one of the cassette tapes of the 1950 "Suspense" broadcast "On A Country Road" (starring Cary Grant). That particular "Suspense" episode, more than any other I can think of, has the amazing ability to "turn on the television set" in the listener's mind. I can easily, and vividly, envision in my imagination every portion of that chilling radio play.

Cary Grant stars with Cathy Lewis and Jeanette Nolan in "On A Country Road", which originally aired over the U.S. radio airwaves on November 16, 1950. Grant and Lewis play a travelling couple stranded on a deserted country side road in a driving rainstorm after their car runs out of gas. The couple's fears and concerns are heightened and further multiplied by the fact that an escaped mental patient, armed with a hatchet, is on the loose in the very same area.

"On A Country Road" is one of my all-time favorite radio plays, and really quite a remarkable one, that leaves the listener glued to their radio (or cassette player in my case) for its entire thirty-minute duration. It's definitely a mystery program that is well-calculated to keep you in .... ~~spooky organ music goes here~~ .... "SUSPENSE"!

Unfortunately, "On A Country Road" isn't included within this "Stars On Suspense" multi-disc pack. That's a shame, too, for in my view it truly deserves a slot on one of these 30 CDs.

Radio Spirits puts out excellent-quality products --- Remastered and restored radio programs on CD (or audio cassette), along with smart and snazzy packaging with attractive artwork, and highly-researched text info via the booklets that are included with each boxed Old-Time Radio collection. Plus: Rare and "behind-the-mike" photographs that accompany the text in the collectible-style booklets.

High praise goes to RADIO SPIRITS for providing posh collections like this "STARS ON SUSPENSE" CD set to "OTR" fans.