Stars on Suspense (Old Time Radio‪)‬ Mean Streets Podcasts

As a contract player for Warner Brothers and Fox, Mark Stevens starred in film noir and dramas alongside the likes of Lucille Ball and Richard Widmark. But even though he was hailed as one of the most promising new stars of Hollywood, his career never really took off. We'll hear Stevens in his one and only appearance on Suspense; he plays a man who walks into the wrong house and into a murder in "Tree of Life" (originally aired on CBS on January 2, 1947). Plus, he recreates one of his screen roles as The Lux Radio Theatre presents The Dark Corner (originally aired on CBS on November 10, 1947).

Suspense takes some rare trips into the otherworldly realms of science fiction in this bonus episode. John McIntire is a mad scientist with an equally mad experiment in "Donovan's Brain" (originally aired on CBS on Februay 7, 1948), and Jack Benny is a one-man welcoming committee on Mars in "Plan X" (originally aired aired on CBS on February 2, 1953). Two Ray Bradbury stories come to radio life in "Zero Hour" (originally aired on CBS on April 5, 1955) and "Kaleidoscope" (originally aired on CBS on July 12, 1955). A test pilot returns with a warning from space in "The Outer Limit" (originally aired on CBS on March 17, 1957), and an average Joe has to convince aliens not to destroy Earth in "You Died Last Night" (originally aired on CBS on April 1, 1962).

Helen Walker's Hollywood career was short and marked by an offscreen tragedy, but she made memorable appearances in comedies and dramas opposite co-stars like Fred MacMurray and Tyrone Power. We'll hear her opposite John Beal in "Deadline at Dawn" - the final hour-long episode of Suspense (originally aired on CBS on May 15, 1948). Then she reprises her big screen role as The Old Gold Comedy Theatre presents Brewster's Millions (originally aired on NBC on March 25, 1945).

In this bonus episode, I'm sharing my favorite Suspense shows starring Gene Kelly. The star of Singin' in the Rain doesn't sing or dance, but instead he shows off his dramatic chops in three radio thrillers. First, he's stalked on the highway in "Death Went Along For the Ride" (originally aired on CBS on April 27, 1944), and then he's a man whose sudden lucky streak just may help him get away with murder in "The Man Who Couldn't Lose" (originally aired on CBS on September 28, 1944). And finally, he's a deranged man who menaces an old woman who made the mistake of hiring him as a handyman in "To Find Help" (originally aired on CBS on January 6, 1949).

Before he was Rambo's commanding officer, Richard Crenna was a squeaky-voiced teenager on radio in Our Miss Brooks and A Date with Judy. His career began on the air and stretched into the early 2000s, and it included an Emmy win and starring roles on multiple TV shows. We'll hear him in a pair of radio thrillers: first, he's a young crook whose life of crime finally catches up with him in "The Prophecy of Bertha Abbott" (originally aired on CBS on October 16, 1956). Then, he's a man whose past life is about to catch up with him in "Night on Red Mountain" (originally aired on September 15, 1957). Plus, Crenna plays Walter Denton in "Stretch and Walter's Grudge Match" from Our Miss Brooks (originally aired on CBS on May 1, 1949).

Norman Lloyd began his career on stage with Orson Welles and on screen under the direction of Alfred Hitchcock. He went on to TV stardom in the 1980s on St. Elsewhere and made his final screen appearance in 2015 at the age of 100. We'll hear Mr. Lloyd as a tyrannical radio producer in "Fury and Sound" (AFRS rebroadcast from July 26, 1945). Plus, he co-stars with Herbert Marshall as a client who finally pushes Marshall's lawyer too far in "My Own Murderer" (originally aired on CBS on May 24, 1945). Finally, Lloyd narrates the true story of survival "Nine Men Against the Arctic" from The Cavalcade of America (originally aired on NBC on August 2, 1943).