Death Wears a Lonely Smile: Inner Sanctum Mysteries (April 4, 1949)

Inner Sanctum Mysteries, old-time radio on Stupid Potato

“Death Wears a Lonely Smile” is an episode of Inner Sanctum Mysteries, the old-time radio show, first broadcast April 4, 1949. Listen free on Stupid Potato: no sign-up, no app.

Listen to Inner Sanctum Mysteries free, live around the clock: every episode, in the order it first aired. No sign-up.

What happens

Walter, a large and troubled man with a bandaged forehead, is found in a burial ground waiting for a woman named Lola, whom he insists he promised to meet. Carol Finley, who has been putting flowers on her father's grave, takes him to her mother's rooming house, where he is given a room. Walter becomes fixated on the dead Lola Douglas and grows increasingly agitated when people laugh at him or contradict him. Carol's mother grows suspicious as strange events unfold in the house. This Inner Sanctum Mysteries episode, first broadcast on April 4, 1949, stars Bob Sloan as Walter and Mercedes McCambridge as Carol.

A cemetery and a rooming house on Elm Street in a city, with a shop and a restaurant nearby

Characters: Walter, Carol Finley, Mrs. Finley, Lola Douglas, Gladys

Listen for: Walter's growing agitation and Carol's increasingly uneasy attempts to keep him calm

Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.