Suspense (1942-1962) aired “Two Sharp Knives” on December 22, 1942 as the 22nd of its 945 episodes.
As recounted in the introduction to the more than 50 episodes of Suspense we’ve shared over the past eleven years (the last being in March of this year), it 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 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.
“Two Sharp Knives” was published originally in the January 13, 1934 issue of Colliers magazine. Written by mystery and crime novel master Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961, photo top right) author of, among others, The Maltese Falcon-1930 and The Thin Man-1934, “Two Sharp Knives” tells the tale of a man arrested for murder in a small town who is then found hanged in his jail cell. The plot threads unfold slowly at first, revealing just enough at each turn to keep the story even more intriguing than one might assume the simple premise offers. That said, to reveal any additional details would be giving away more than this brief tease requires. So settle back and listen to this well done radio play of one of Dashiell Hammett’s more famous stories.
Play Time: 29:43
{“Two Sharp Knives” aired on a Tuesday, three long days (if you were a kid) before Christmas. A short vacation from the classroom was in swing for the neighborhood gang and they made the most of it by heading for the corner newsstand the next morning to stock up on their favorite reading material. Astounding SF (1930-present, now Analog) was the first to be snatched from the shelves, and for good reason. This issue featured a certain novelette by A. E. van Vogt, “The Weapons Shop,” one of his now classic stories later turned into a brace of popular and much-beloved novels, The Weapon Makers (1946) and The Weapon Shops of Isher (1951). Reprinted many times over the years, “The Weapons Shop” can be found in Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories 4 (1942), edited by Isaac Asimov & Martin H. Greenberg (DAW, October 1980). Each editor wrote short personal introductions to the stories, Greenberg quoting one of the most memorable lines from Van Vogt’s story, noting its libertarian persuasion: “The right to buy weapons is the right to be free.” Asimov, in his intro following that of Greenberg, took the opposite view being the well known liberal of the pair, when he wrote: “And what of the alternative—when weapons are available to every hood, every nit-wit, every self-proclaimed liberator and guerrilla.” Some arguments never seem to die, do they? Astounding held to its long-standing monthly schedule in 1942. Planet Stories and Startling Stories both began and ended in the same years (1939-55) and both featured, quite successfully, colorful action and plot-oriented adventures where loosey-goosey science more often than not helped fuel the most imaginative stories on, or off, Earth. Not the most high brow or literary offerings were found between their covers, but for pure entertainment value they couldn’t be beat, resulting in some of the most revered, classic tales the pulp era SF/F magazines would ever produce. Planet Stories was a quarterly in 1942 while Startling Stories was a bi-monthly.}
[Left: Astounding, Dec. 1942 – Center: Planet Stories, Winter 1942 – Right: Startling Stories, Nov. 1942]
To view the entire list of weekly Old Time Radio episodes at Tangent Online, click here.