Escape and Suspense!

The Spider - Suspense Television episode - S.4 Ep. 18

[This post originally appeared on our sister blog site, Suspense Television: Murder, Mystery and Spark Plugs on August 27, 2009. It is being reposted here now because all of the material from that site is being integrated back into our main site in 2024.]

In "The Spider," a woman is captured by a strange old man who wants to use her head for his craft project.

As the episode opens, Bob and Murial Torre are honeymooning in Driftwood Springs, Florida. Both are dedicated scientists. So dedicated, that Bob leaves his new bride to catch the tide and do some marine biology stuff that morning. He puts some jnars in his backpack and prepares to leave. Muriel isn't upset about being alone that day, she has plans to visit the Chipola Swamp to look for the white-billed woodpecker. She is determined to photograph it, but when she reaches for her Icamera....Ahhhhhh! A spider! Muriel is terrified, so Bob goes into the other room and smacks the life out of it. When he returns, Muriel says she is fine. She just has a severe phobia of spiders because of an incident that happened in grade school. She tells him to leave.

Well, their landlady arrives with a machete because she heard that screaming. Muriel explains that a spider brushed her hand and it frightened her. That's all. Now she is off to the Chipola Swamp to hunt that white-billed....uh-oh, now her landlady looks worried. She tells Muriel about the father and son who went up there and disappeared! They were looking for the white-billed woodpecker, too. Muriel doesn't believe there is any reason to be afraid. She knows what she is doing, and she can handle herself.

When we next see Muriel she hopelessly lost in the middle of a swamp. She has been walking in circles for miles and now it is dark. Suddenly, she sees a light. A cabin!

She knocks on the door, and a strange old man admits her into his well appointed cabin. His name is Roger Entwhistle, Ph.d. and he welcomes her with a drink. She is happy to find such a civilized place in the middle of nowhere--until she finds out he doesn't have a phone. How will her husband know where she is? The doctor assures her that in the morning his servant will come and then take her back to town. For the time being, she has no choice but to stay. He asks to feel her face, because he lost his sight many years ago. He finds her face very interesting.

The doctor is a gracious host, but Muriel is still worried. He offers her a wee dram of his "jungle special" to help with her nerves. He then tries to take her mind of her husband by showing Muriel his two most priceless possessions. They are examples of the sort of ceremonial headshrinking done by the Jivaro Indians in South America. Muriel is interested until the doctor tells her that they weren't created by the Jivaro--he created them using their methods! The father and son that were lost in the swamp last year--those were the heads he used. Muriel is horrified, but she suddenly finds she is having trouble moving, expressing, talking...darn that "jungle special!" Now she can't move. Her eyes are open but she is paralyzed. Then, she sees a spider on the ceiling coming down towards her....

Will she be able to escape?

"The Spider" does not contain any of the original credits or Autolite commercials, so the names of the writers aren't given. The ending seems like it may have been clipped, but it also may have been written that way. Olive Deering starred as Muriel, and Arnold Moss as the doctor. Robert Stevens produced.This episode aired on January 15, 1952. This episode is available on disc two of Suspense: The Lost Episodes Collection Three.

Help Wanted - Suspense Television episode - S.1 Ep. 14

[This post originally appeared on our sister blog site, Suspense Television: Murder, Mystery and Spark Plugs on February 7, 2009. It is being reposted here now because all of the material from that site is being integrated back into our main site in 2024.]

"Help Wanted" is an episode that has to be appreciated on its own terms. Is it bad? No. Is it badly done? Yes but that adds to its charm.

Mr. Chester Crabtree is an unemployed accountant who is in trouble. He lives on practically nothing and can't pay his rent. What little money he has goes to the sanitarium that cares for his daughter. His landlady is tired of not getting her money, and she tells him that he has two weeks to pay his rent or leave.

She then reminds him that he wouldn't have to go if he would just send his daughter to a state-run mental facility. If he did, he wouldn't have to pay so much for her care. Mr. Crabtree tells her that he can't do that! He will find a way.

Fortunately, an answer to his problems arrives that same morning. A woman comes to his apartment with a job offer. She won't give him her name or tell him who his employer is, but she offers him $100 a week and an office of his own. It is too good to be true! Mr. Crabtree accepts.

When we next see Mr. Crabtree, he is at his new office for the first time. It is a small office on the very top floor of an office building. There is a huge window overlooking the street, furniture that is bolted down, and a cat in the closet with a note stuck into his collar. 

The note tells him that the cat's name is "Discretion." He is there to keep Mr. Crabtree company, so he won't get lonely and use the phone to make personal calls.

Mr. Crabtree is happy in his new job, and he follows all of his employer's strange rules for six months. When we see him again, he is having a laugh with Discretion about the letter they got in the mail from a charity trying to revive Prohibition. Mr. Crabtree admires their optimism, but he throws the letter in the trash.

Then, he finally meets his employer! Mr. X arrives unexpectedly and dramatically. Now, Mr. Crabtree learns why the furniture is nailed down and the window is so big. Mr. X has set up everything on purpose! He wants Mr. Crabtree to commit a murder for him, and if Mr. Crabtree doesn't, he will take away his job.

Will Mr. Crabtree go through with it? Or will Discretion come to his aid?

"Help Wanted" was based on an original story by Stanley Ellin, and was adapted for television by Mary Orr and Reginald Denham. Robert Stevens produced/directed. Otto Kruger starred as Mr. Crabtree. Also appearing were Douglas Clarke-Smith, Peggy French, George Mathews, and Ruth McDevitt. The name of the cat who portrayed Discretion is not given. This episode aired on June 14, 1949.

"Help Wanted" reappeared during Season 1 of Alfred Hitchcock Presents in 1956. Of course, their version makes much more sense, but it lacks the zaniness of Suspense's version. Alfred Hitchcock Present's teleplay was based on the teleplay written for Suspense by Mary Orr and Reginald Denham. Hitchock calls this episode "a brilliant play, sneaky but brilliant."

John Qualen and Lorne Green star. (Radio actor Parley Baer makes a brief appearance as the detective.)

Night Drive - Suspense Television episode - S. 4 Ep. 24

[This post originally appeared on our sister blog site, Suspense Television: Murder, Mystery and Spark Plugs on May 8, 2009. It is being reposted here now because all of the material from that site is being integrated back into our main site in 2024.]

"Night Drive" has two plot elements that make it a typical Suspense episode. First, it involves driving on a lonely road at night while a killer is on the loose. Second, the passenger going along for the ride may or may not be the killer. In those respects, it has some things in common with the famous Suspense radio episode "On a Country Road." "Night Drive" isn't as scary as "On a Country Road," but it does accidentally create a couple of scary moments.

Neva Patterson plays the central character, Mrs. Haley, and it is her performance that prevents this episode from being a waste. We don't want Mrs. Haley to get hurt, and as long as she is in danger, we are compelled to keep watching, no matter how silly things get.

This episode opens with our substitute host, Terry O'Sullivan. Where is Rex Marshall? They don't tell us. Well, just bear with Terry while he reads his lines off  the cue cards and looks terrified. It will  be difficult to focus on his words because you will be so transfixed by his eyes, as he reads his lines. 

Then, "Night Drive" begins with a slow pan across the shirtless body of Bob the blacksmith. The credits role across his shoulders and are then displayed on his glistening back. He is shoeing a horse for Mrs. Haley because she has to take her carriage on a long drive that night. She has to pick up her husband in the neighboring town of Calumet... ten miles away...at night. She has to drive her carriage through the dark woods alone.  So, she will need lots of kerosene in the carriage lamps...because she will be traveling alone at night. Did everyone catch that?

Bob, the shirtless blacksmith, is her friend. He shoes the horse for free and assures her that everything will be fine. He is a kind-hearted brute of a man who likes to drink out of a bucket. 

When we next see Mrs. Haley, she is at home with her two young boys. They are having fun making faces in the mirror while their mom is trying to get ready to leave. One of them mentions that she got a phone call while she was out. It was from "the man with the wife that was killed." Well, that was what that their granny told them.

"Oh, that must be Dr. Taber..." says their mother. Someone killed Mrs. Taber when she was driving alone to Calumet.  Apparently, Dr. Taber wants a ride to Calumet, but Mrs. Haley doesn't want to spend two hours driving with someone she doesn't know well.

Then, the phone rings. She leaves the room while the boys play with mommy's hats. The call is from Dr. Taber, but he isn't the one who needs a ride, it is his sister. Mrs. Haley agrees to pick her in fifteen minutes.

Mrs. Haley then picks up Dr. Taber's sister, Miss Taber. Wow! She looks a lot like her brother! The similarity is really, really...strong. The two of them start driving and the camera pans across a dark desolate landscape.

Soon, they reach the cut-off. Mrs. Haley hesitates to go into the woods. Dr. Taber's wife was killed in those woods. Mrs. Haley thinks that is creepy, but she should really take a good look at her passenger.

Finally, Mrs. Haley gets around to asking her passenger some questions. Miss Taber says that she never used to come to town, but now that her brother is so "baffled and broody" she has to come more often. "Baffled and broody" about the death of his wife? Yes, he hasn't been the same since.

When they stop to turn up the lamps, Mrs. Haley starts talking about the other woman who was murdered in the woods. That stranger who was just passing through town but ended up being murdered in just the same way as Mrs. Taber. Obviously, it was the same person who killed both!

Well, you have to watch the rest for yourself. Is Miss Taber the killer, or is the killer in the woods waiting for them? Will Mrs. Haley ever get to Calumet to pick up her husband? You'll find out in the second half of the episode. In between, there is an epic commercial for the DeSoto Fire-Dome Eight.

"Night Drive" was based on a story by W.F. Jenkins and written for television Halsted Welles. Neva Patterson, Robert H. Harris, and Brian Keith starred. Robert Stevens produced and directed. This episode aired on February 26, 1952. It is available on disc 2 of Suspense: The Lost Episodes Collection Three.