What happens
Joe Charles, a Los Angeles detective, drives his wife Ellie home from a Beverly Hills movie on a Saturday night. On the winding road through Coldwater Canyon, a stranger climbs into their car, pressing a gun to Ellie's neck. The man is Lewis Matrick, a killer whom the news has just reported as sighted in Los Angeles after a murder in New Hampshire. Joe must think fast while keeping his wife and the stranger alive as they drive through the San Fernando Valley, where brush fires are burning. This Suspense broadcast is sponsored by AutoLite and stars Fibber McGee and Molly, and it aired on February 3, 1949.
Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley, late on a Saturday night
Characters: Joe Charles, Ellie Charles, Lewis Matrick, Mike Kennedy, Miranda, Bill
Listen for: The tense car ride, in which Joe tries to outwit the gunman while keeping Ellie safe, and the police trap set up along the way.
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.