Suspense is a ten-minute blast from the past that comes to us all the way from 1913.
In this film, the Woman (played by Lois Weber) and her baby are menaced by the Tramp (Sam Kaufman), a sinister figure who cuts her phone lines and breaks into her home. While the Woman tries to protect herself, the Husband (Val Paul) rushes home to save his wife.
Suspense was one of the first thrillers and it introduced many elements that are still used to today, including the cut phone lines and the isolated location. This was also one of the first films to use the split screen as a narrative technique. There are many modern horror films that owe a debt to Suspense, whether the filmmakers realize it or not.
Suspense was written and directed by Lois Weber, who is widely acknowledged as being America’s first female filmmaker.
After Mr. Markheim (Franchot Tone) murders a pawnbroker, he assures himself that he’s not going to do anything more than take some of the man’s possessions and then lead a good life. After all, he’s not really an evil man. He simply did what he did because he was so jealous of the pawnbroker. Why should the pawnbroker have so much while Markheim has so little?
Unfortunately, an otherworldly visitor pops up and suggests that there’s no way that Markheim can lead a good life after doing something so evil. So, why not go out and be evil for a little while more?
This episode originally aired on October 28th, 1952. Truman was still president but not for much longer.
Mrs. Collins (Judith Evelyn) is returning home after a long visit with her mother. There’s storm raging. The power’s dead. Her husband is on a business trip. There’s an escaped killer on the loose. And, as soon as Mrs. Collins arrives at her home, she realizes that she may not be alone….
The episode of Suspense stars Judith Evelyn. Fans of classic films may recognize her as both Miss Lonelyhearts in Hitchcock’s Rear Windowand as the deaf victim from William Castle’s The Tingler. Here, she gives another good performance as someone in trouble.
This episode originally aired on December 4th, 1951.
On tonight’s episode of Suspense, Elaine Court (Felicia Montealegre) just wants to relax. In fact, considering that she’s recovering from a recent heart attack, it’s actually very important that she be allowed to just relax. Too bad there’s a strange man (Stanley Ridges) who keeps mysteriously appearing! One day, when Elaine returns from a trip out, she finds the stranger waiting in her home….
This episode originally aired on December 26th, 1950. Seriously, the day after Christmas!
In this case, the man (Alan Baxter) is an escapee from a psychiatric institution and he’s taken the owner of the house (Ruth McDevit) hostage! Can Emily (Kim Hunter), the daughter of the hostage, maintain her daily routine without letting anyone in on what’s happening back at the house? If she can’t, her mother will pay the consequences!
This suspenseful episode of Suspense originally aired on November 29th, 1949. Two years after appearing on this show, Kim Hunter would appear in the film version of A Streetcar Named Desire. Hunter would go on to win an Oscar for playing Stella Kowalski.
I think it’s fairly safe to say that wax museums are inherently creepy.
I mean, don’t get me wrong. If I see a wax museum off of the side of the road, I’m definitely going to visit it, if just so I can find the Hall of Presidents and give the finger to FDR. (It’s a long story.) But that said, wax museums are definitely not some place where you would want to get accidentally locked in.
Well, in tonight’s episode of Suspense, that’s exactly what happens to one unfortunate college student. AGCK!
This episode originally aired on October 4th, 1949 and it has a very impressive cast that will be familiar to anyone who has ever spent a few hours watching TCM: Anne Francis, Hume Cronyn, Ray Waltson, Evelyn Varden, and Mike Kellin are all featured.
Tonight’s episode of Suspense features Boris Karloff as the mysterious Mr. Bronson, a scientist living in London in 1897. Bronson gives lodging to Hettie (Felicia Montealegre) on the condition that she do the housework, that she never got out alone, and that she never enters his laboratory. However, when Bronson discovers that Hettie has struck up a relationship with Tom (Douglass Watson), Bronson uses his scientific knowledge to seek revenge.
Perhaps not surprisingly, Karloff is the main reason to watch this episode of Suspense. He’s wonderfully creepy here, playing one his more villainous roles.
Suspense was an anthology series that aired from 1949 to 1953. As you can probably guess from the show’s title, each episode was a thriller of some sort. Occasionally, the episodes were also horror-themed. Suspense was also a live production, with each episode essentially functioning as a 30-minute play.
Tonight’s episode of Suspense originally aired on April 26th, 1949 and it features Boris Karloff. It deals with four thieves hiding out in a British Inn, after having stolen a ruby eye from a holy statue in India. Needless to say, that was not a particularly wise decision.
For tonight’s excursion into televised horror, we present to you an episode of Suspense!
What was Suspense? It was an anthology show that ran from 1949 to 1954. Each episode dealt with ordinary people who found themselves in not-so ordinary situations. As well, each episode was broadcast live and the entire show was sponsored by the Autolite Corporation. They make spark plugs.
Out of the over 250 episodes of Suspense, only 90 still survive. Suspicion, the second episode of the first season, originally aired on March 15th, 1949. It details what happens when a doting husband comes to suspect that his housekeeper may be a notorious arsenic poisoner!
And yes, it does start with a commercial for spark plugs.
A horror film from Great Britain came out in 2002 starring Jamie Bell (from Billy Elliott) and Andy Serkis. This was a film which went under the radar of most people, but not horror fans who tend to pick up on little gems such as Michael J. Bassett’s Deathwatch.
Set during the height of the trench warfare in the Western Front during the First World War, the surviving remnants of a British Infantry company stumble upon a nearly deserted set of German trenches as they exit a fog-shrouded battlefield. Except for a couple of terrified German soldiers, the near-deserted trench only has dead German soldiers. As they spend their first night, it’s more than German soldiers they have to worry about, somewhere within the trenches something that’s hunting them down one by one.
Deathwatch does a good job in mixing in themes of horror and paranoia as the British soldiers and their lone German prisoner must try to figure out just who or what has been hunting them in the trenches since their arrival. Signs of this unknown enemy could be seen in the dead German soldiers piled on to of each other and wrapped in barbed wire. Blood flows freely from within the muddy walls of the trench system though no bodies could be seen within these walls. The film does a great job of creating such a claustrophobic atmosphere for the characters that it’s natural to see their progression from being battle-weary but alert to being paranoid to the point that they begin to hallucinate and, at times, turn on each other.
From the sound of it this film shares some similarity to Carpenter’s The Thing. As more and more of the survivors die, paranoia and suspicion grows amongst the rest as to who or what might be hunting them. The performances by the cast is good though nothing to write home about, but enough to convey the dread and paranoia sweeping through the trench. Jamie Belle as the teen British soldier with a conscience gives a understated performance while on the polar opposite is Andy Serkis scene-chewing his way through the bulk of the film as a soldier with sociopathic tendencies.
Deathwatch was a very good horror-suspense film that made great use of it’s World War I setting and borrowing themes and ideas from similar films. Michael J. Bassett’s direction kept the film moving and the film doesn’t skimp on the gore when it needed it to balance out the scenes of suspense throughout the film. It’s not a great film by any means, but it’s one of those little-known gems that one hears about and won’t be disappointed once they give it a try.
Through the Shattered Lens 