Editing Suspense (radio drama) (section)

==Alfred Hitchcock==
[[Alfred Hitchcock]] directed its audition show (for the [[CBS]] summer series ''Forecast''). This was an adaptation of ''[[The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog|The Lodger]]''<ref>[http://gaslight.mtroyal.ab.ca/lodger.htm "The Lodger"]</ref> a story Hitchcock had filmed in [[1926 in film|1926]] with [[Ivor Novello]]. [[Martin Grams Jr.]], author of ''Suspense: Twenty Years of Thrills and Chills'', described the ''Forecast'' origin of ''Suspense'':
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On the second presentation of July 22, 1940, ''Forecast'' offered a mystery/horror show titled ''Suspense.'' With the co-operation of his producer, [[Walter Wanger]], Alfred Hitchcock received the honor of directing his first radio show for the American public. The condition agreed upon for Hitchcock's appearance was that CBS make a pitch to the listening audience about his and Wanger's latest film, ''[[Foreign Correspondent (film)|Foreign Correspondent]]''. To add flavor to the deal, Wanger threw in [[Edmund Gwenn]] and [[Herbert Marshall]] as part of the package. All three men (including Hitch) would be seen in the upcoming film, which was due for a theatrical release the next month. Both Marshall and Hitchcock decided on the same story to bring to the airwaves, which happened to be a favorite of both of them: [[Marie Belloc Lowndes]]' "The Lodger." Alfred Hitchcock had filmed this story for Gainsborough in 1926, and since then it had remained as one of his favorites.

Herbert Marshall portrayed the mysterious lodger, and co-starring with him were Edmund Gwenn and character actress Lurene Tuttle as the rooming-house keepers who start to suspect that their new boarder might be the notorious [[Jack the Ripper|Jack-the-Ripper]]. [Gwenn was actually repeating the role taken in the 1926 film by his brother, [[Arthur Chesney]]. And Tuttle would work again with Hitchcock nearly 20 years later, playing Mrs. Al Chambers, the sheriff's wife, in ''[[Psycho (1960 film)|Psycho]].''] Character actor [[Joseph Kearns]] also had a small part in the drama, and [[Wilbur Hatch]], head musician for CBS Radio at the time, composed and conducted the music specially for the program. Adapting the script to radio was not a great technical challenge for Hitchcock, and he cleverly decided to hold back the ending of the story from the listening audience in order to keep them in suspense themselves. This way, if the audience's curiosity got the better of them, they would write in to the network to find out whether the mysterious lodger was in fact Jack the Ripper. For the next few weeks, hundreds of letters came in from faithful listeners asking how the story ended. Actually a few wrote threats claiming that it was "indecent" and "immoral" to present such a production without giving the solution
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