Suspense -Three O'Clock

"Three O'Clock" is a Suspense episode adapted from a 1938 short story by Cornell Woolrich. A man named Paul believes that his wife, Francie, is cheating on him. He takes revenge by planting a bomb in the basement of their house, but when he returns upstairs, he finds two burglars. Unaware of the bomb, they tie up Paul and leave him in the basement. He is then trapped, alone and helpless, with the ticking bomb that he had set for his wife.

In the short story, Paul is gagged and can't make any sound. On radio this isn't obvious because we are hearing what he is thinking. There aren't any special sound effects for his thoughts. Suspense's adaptation is close to Woolrich's original work, but the ending is slightly changed. The radioplay was written by Walter Brown Newman, who later went to have three of his screenplays nominated for Academy Awards.

"Three O'Clock" was also done for television in 1949 for an episode of Actor's Studio. It aired on Suspense only once, on March 10, 1949 and starred Van Heflin as Paul.

Download Suspense.1949.03.10.ThreeOClock.mp3

The radio program Sleep No More performed "Three O'Clock" on December 12, 1956. It is different in that it is a dramatic reading of the story performed by Nelson Olmsted.

Download SleepNM.1956.12.12_Three_OClock.mp3

(Photo from Morguefile.com)

Rev. 5/22/07