
(YouTube)
AUTO-LITE THEATER PRESENTS
"SUSPENSE" (1949)-"A NIGHT AT THE INN" by Lord
Dunsany. Three mugs (Anthony Ross, Jack Manning, Barry Macollum) who
stole a sacred Jewel from the head of a Hindu idol hide out at an
Irish inn waiting to hear the plan their boss Toff (Boris Karloff)
has for them. They decide to take the jewel by force from Toff and
sell it in London. However Toffee has a plan which seems to work
until something unforeseen happens….
This strange little tale is an
interesting look at an early live TV production (shot in NYC) with a
creepy atmosphere and Karloff giving a great performance.
“Suspense”
ran on the CBS network for 5 seasons starting in 1948. It's the
offshoot of a radio show of the same name that ran for 20 years
beginning in 1942. Auto-lite sponsored the show throughout it's run
and the on screen narrator was Rex Marshall for many of them (around
this time Marshall helped found WPIX TV in NYC. He later did many
other TV announcing jobs and after that owned his own radio
station in Vermont until his death in 2000).
Like many early TV
anthologies it based it's shows on stories written by well known
authors (Edgar Allen Poe e.g.) and many well known stars and
characters are were featured. Bela Lugosi appears in an adaptation of
Poe's “The Cask of Amontillado”. Many episodes are lost but at
least 90 exist. Director Robert Stevens was busy on TV through the
1960's (He directed 44 episodes of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”
and the first episode of “The Twilight Zone”, “Where Is
Everybody?”). He died of cardiac arrest after being beaten and
robbed in his home in 1989. Screenwriter Halstead Welles also later
wrote for “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” and much later “Night
Gallery”.
Thanks for reading!