Suspense Sundays (183) Too Many Smiths

Suspense was a radio series from 1942 to 1962.  I have a fondness for "Old Time Radio" as we call it now, and Suspense is my favorite show.  It sets up weird, dark, scary, or intriguing stories with a plot twist in the end, and all in half an hour.  For Suspense Sundays I'll give a short review of an episode.

"Too Many Smiths"

Air date: June 13, 1946
Starring Hume Cronyn

>>Episodes here<<

Charles Wallingford, a porter for the Century Toothpaste company finds a memo announcing "Pat Smith" as the winner of the company's slogan contest.  The prize is $25,000.  Since the winner won't be formally announced for a couple days, Charles gets the idea to "bribe" this Pat Smith to share the prize if he can make sure that his slogan wins *wink wink.  Pat agrees, but Charles gets suspicious about Pat's sense of honor and decides it would be better if he killed Pat, and took over as him.  Which works for about a minute, until Charles finds out that there are two Pat Smiths who live in that apartment building.

Clever (but dastardly) idea to get the big prize for the contest!  Of course it doesn't work out for Charles, but the twists as he tries to figure out who the real winner was, and dodge the complication of Pat Smith's fiancee showing up, made this a great and suspenseful episode to listen to.  It's made even better because the episode starts with Charles caught by the police for murder and mysteriously hysterical...