Suspense is compounded of mystery and suspicion and dangerous adventure. In this series are tales calculated to intrigue you, to stir your nerves, to offer you a precarious situation and then withhold the solution… until the last possible moment when we again hope to keep you in…Suspense!
Suspense (1942-1962) aired “A World of Darkness” on January 20, 1944 as the 75th of its 945 episodes.
As recounted in the introduction to the more than 50 episodes of Suspense we’ve shared over the past thirteen years, it was such a rich goldmine of superior stories that when we found this one we couldn’t resist. Suspense was one of the most well produced, written, acted, and critically acclaimed of all radio shows during the Golden Age of Radio, many a film star jumping at the chance to perform in an episode, among them Cary Grant, Orson Welles, Jimmy Stewart, Susan Hayward, Vincent Price, Charles Laughton, Loretta Young, Peter Lorre, and Rita Hayworth. After many another radio show had gasped its last breath during the 1950s, Suspense (along with Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar) finally closed shop in September of 1962 whereupon radio historians proclaimed the Golden Age of Radio dead, television having become the medium of choice in America.
“A World of Darkness” stars Paul Lukas (1894-1971, photo top right), Best Actor Oscar winner for his performance in 1943’s Watch on the Rhine. His career spanned 50 years, from 1920-1970, and included such influential films as Alfred Hitchcock’s 1938 British film The Lady Vanishes, the picture that got Hitchcock noticed in Hollywood and precipitated his move to the United States to further his directorial career. In this radio drama, Lukas plays a blind man who is the only “witness” to a murder. But as you might imagine it’s not that cut and dried, and involves much piecing together of events and the timeline in which they purportedly occurred. The acting is superb, the tension runs high, and the unsettling ending was made for radio, as we hear the grisly story of a murder recounted from a man who is forced to live in “A World of Darkness.”
(The CD linked at top includes “A World of Darkness” and 19 other superlative episodes of Suspense.)
Play Time: 29:48
{This episode of Suspense aired on a Thursday evening in the dead of a January 1944 winter. The neighborhood gang was restless, all the holidays were over and there were no more for the foreseeable future. To take the edge off the melancholy brought on by the dreary weather, they met first thing after school the next day, a Friday, in hopes of finding some reading material to mirror their mood, but with enough action and adventure to last them through the cold weekend. Black Mask (1920-51), the undisputed king of the detective pulps, was a sure buy, and with a cover proclaiming a “brain for sale” it was a (cough) no-brainer purchase. It was a bi-monthly in 1944. The Phantom Detective (1933-53) had proved a worthwhile investment of their nickels and dimes over the years, especially as it reminded the gang of one of its favorite pulp and radio heroes, the Shadow, upon which the Phantom Detective was modeled. Like Black Mask, it was a bi-monthly in 1944. Thrilling Detective (1931-53), with intriguing covers like the one below, was also a sure-fire winner with the gang and filled the void when all their current science fiction and fantasy pulps had been devoured. It was a monthly in 1944.}
[Left: Black Mask, 1/44 – Center: Phantom Detective, 2/44 – Right: Thrilling Detective, 1/44]
To view the entire list of weekly Old Time Radio episodes at Tangent Online, click here.