Yesterday at work I listened to an episode of the long-running CBS radio show Suspense: "Consequence" starring James Stewart. "Consequence" originally aired on September 13th, 1945. Nothing makes me feel comfortable and nostalgic and dreamy like Jimmy Stewart's voice on a scratchy record. (When I was young, I had a recording of him reading Winnie the Pooh stories, and he always inspires feelings of calm and nostalgia.) What "Consequence" reminded me of though is what a genuinely really strong actor he was. When he says, "Of course she killed her. We both killed her" he sounds broken and heartbreaking.Why you should listen to Suspense:
1. Some of the movies we know and love either started there ("Sorry Wrong Number") or were remade there ("The Lodger"). The popular "Sorry, Wrong Number" is better as a radio story. Agnes Moorehead's portrayal of claustrophobia and desperate aloneness is so real when you only hear her voice, in a story of a bedridden woman desperately seeking help with only the telephone for contact with the outside world.
2. Suspense will inform your experience of more contemporary horror. What television and DVDs are to to us now, these stories were in the 40s.
3. TONS of awesome movie stars. Frank Sinatra's first dramatic role was on Suspense. Off the top of my head: Joseph Cotton, Henry Fonda, Orson Welles, James Steward, Agnes Moorehead.
http://www.archive.org/details/SUSPENSE
I listen to the "Suspense Replay" podcast:
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