31 Days of Suspense: "Return Trip"

In yesterday's entry of "31 Days of Suspense," I noted how contemporary programs often shied away from the supernatural. Another problem I would say mystery shows of the time had were "cheats." Stories where crucial information is withheld from the audience because it would collapse the entire narrative instantly if it were known. Thankfully, Suspense was a program which, more often than not, played fair.

Such a program is "Return Trip," first broadcast June 27, 1946 with star Elliott Reid. This tale concerns four people aboard a bus which has just left an asylum, but a raging snowstorm traps them in the wild; paranoia runs rampant as they wonder whether one of them might be an escaped mental patient. As I've intimated above, the clues are each provided fairly. Better still, each of the four passengers has a distinctive voice and personality so you're never at a loss to understand how the drama is unfolding (something Suspense struggled at in its first year but very quickly conquered). You can download "Return Trip" from archive.org here.

Tomorrow: "Oh, once in a while they dump me in a wheelchair and push me out into the sunshine, wheel me up and down the walk like I was a baby. Only babies can cry."