May 29, 2025
Join me on a trip back to 1943 and my favorite episodes of Suspense from that year. It was the year production of the show moved from New York to Hollywood, which meant it was easier for film stars to make appearances, and it picked up a sponsor in the form of Roma Wines. We’ll hear Maureen O’Hara as a debutante turned detective in “The White Rose Murders” (originally aired on CBS on July 6, 1943), and Warren William reprise his big screen role as The Lone Wolf - a reformed jewel thief turned sleuth - in “Murder Goes for a Swim” (originally aired on CBS on July 20, 1943). Agnes Moorehead cements her status as the “first lady of Suspense” in the legendary “Sorry, Wrong Number” (originally aired on CBS on August 21, 1943), and Orson Welles plays a hunter who tracks human prey in “The Most Dangerous Game” (originally aired on CBS on September 23, 1943). Finally, Charles Laughton is a patriarch whose family reputation may be sullied by murder in “Wet Saturday” (originally aired on CBS on December 16, 1943), and Peter Lorre finds his foolproof murder scheme had an unexpected complication in “Back for Christmas” (originally aired on CBS on December 23, 1943).