Donald Crisp took home on Oscar for his powerful performance in How Green Was My Valley, but that was just one notch on his belt during a long Hollywood career that stretched from the silent era to the 1960s and included stints as actor, producer, and director. We'll hear him in "Banquo's Chair" - the story of a Scotland Yard inspector with an ingenious method to catch a killer (originally aired on CBS on June 1, 1943). Then, Crisp is a psychiatrist who tries to discover what haunts a railroad tycoon in "Case History of Edgar Lowndes" (originally aired on CBS on June 8, 1944). Plus, he recreates his Academy Award-winning role in The Screen Guild Theatre (originally aired on CBS on March 22, 1942).

To celebrate 400 episodes of Stars on Suspense, I'm sharing five of my favorites from the first decade of "radio's outstanding theatre of thrills" - a star-studded showcase of classic chillers. First, Orson Welles wishes he only had a brain...and gets one with disasterous results in "Donovan's Brain," a two-part sci-fi/horror epic (originally aired on CBS on May 18 and May 25, 1944). Then, Robert Young isn't a father and he doesn't know best in "You'll Never See Me Again," a classic story from Cornell Woolrich (originally aired on CBS on September 5, 1946). Edward G. Robinson plays himself and "The Man Who Thought He Was Edward G. Robinson" in a comedic thriller (originally aired on CBS on September 30, 1948). Brian Donlevy is a psychiatrist whose new patient is a human lie detector in "Lazarus Walks" (originally aired on CBS on October 31, 1946). And finally, Lucille Ball is a crook who catches a bigger fish - a serial killer - in her trap in "A Little Piece of Rope" (originally aired on CBS on October 14, 1948).

We're ringing in 2025 with the great Frank Lovejoy in three radio thrillers, including a belated New Year's Eve story. First, he tries to talk an amateur pilot safely down to the ground in "The Long Night" (originally aired on CBS on July 13, 1958). Then, an unusual watch leads him to find a lot of time on his hands in "The Thirty-Second of December" (originally aired on CBS on December 28, 1958). Finally, he's a bank teller with the inside track to steal $100,000 from a safe deposit box in "Death in Box 234" (originally aired on CBS on March 15, 1959). Plus, we'll hear Lovejoy in an episode of his own outstanding radio drama Night Beat - a show known as "The Football Player and the Syndicate" (originally aired on NBC on June 12, 1950).

Before we sign off for the year, it's time for our annual presentation of a classic Christmas film recreated for radio. This year, it's the holiday romantic comedy Remember the Night, recreated with original stars Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray in a broadcast from The Lux Radio Theatre (originally aired on CBS on March 25, 1940).

Christmastime is here, and to celebrate I've got five Suspense seasonal stories that - in a departure from the usual fare on this podcast - all have happy endings! Eddie Cantor stars in a tale of clerical crime at Christmastime in "Double Entry" (originally aired on CBS on December 22, 1949), and Greer Garson joins a little girl in her long wait in "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" (originally aired on CBS on December 21, 1953). Jack Kruschen plans to rub out a rival gangster with an explosive Christmas gift in "A Present for Benny" (originally aired on CBS on December 13, 1955). A little girl wants a dog for Christmas and gets one in the strangest way possible in "Dog Star" (originally aired on CBS on December 22, 1957), and a soldier gives a buddy a ride to remember in "A Korean Christmas Carol" (originally aired on CBS on December 20, 1959).

Herbert Marshall is back for Christmas! He stars in John Collier's tale of holly jolly homicide "Holiday Story" (originally aired on CBS on December 23, 1948), and he plays a naval officer whose fast thinking changes the course of history in "The Man Who Won the War" (originally aired on CBS on October 5, 1958). Plus, we'll hear him in an episode of his own radio spy adventure series The Man Called X. It's a holiday tale known as "From a Starlit Hill" (originally aired on NBC on December 23, 1950).

Best known as the kindly attorney who takes on Kris Kringle's case in Miracle on 34th Street, John Payne starred in crime dramas, westerns, and adventures on the big screen and as a TV gunslinger in The Restless Gun. We'll hear him as a small town police chief with a big-time mystery on his hands in Dashiell Hammett's "Two Sharp Knives" (originally aired on CBS on June 7, 1945). Plus, he recreates his celebrated movie role as the Lux Radio Theatre presents "Miracle on 34th Street," also featuring Maureen O'Hara and Edmund Gwenn (originally aired on CBS on December 20, 1948).

It's another TV-radio crossover as we hear four Suspense stars who also played murderers on the classic detective series Columbo: Anne Baxter ("Requiem for a Fallen Star") in "The Death of Barbara Allen" (originally aired on CBS on October 20, 1952); Richard Basehart ("Dagger of the Mind") in "The Perfectionist" (originally aired on CBS on January 21, 1952); Jose Ferrer ("Mind Over Mayhem") in "The Pit and the Pendulum" (originally aired on CBS on November 27, 1947); and two-time Columbo guest star Ray Milland (killer in "The Greenhouse Jungle" and the victim's husband in "Death Lends a Hand") in "Chicken Feed" (originally aired on CBS on September 8, 1949) and "After the Movies" (originally aired on CBS on December 7, 1950).

Ruth Hussey picked up an Oscar nomination for her performance as a cyncial photographer in The Philadelphia Story, and she had a long career on the big and small screens, as well as on the Broadway stage. We'll hear as the wife of a pilot who's moments away from a catastrophe in the sky in "Firing Run" (AFRS rebroadcast from November 3, 1957). Plus, she recreates her Philadelphia Story role with many of her co-stars in a special "Victory Theatre" war bond fundraiser from The Lux Radio Theatre (originally aired on CBS on July 20, 1942).

Character actress Eve McVeagh was a regular presence on the Broadway stage, the big screen, and on TV for over five decades, and during her career she starred in everything from High Noon to Petticoat Junction. We'll hear her as a woman whose auction purchase comes loaded with trouble in "Going, Going, Gone" (originally aired on CBS on May 10, 1955) and as part of a film crew who discovers real-life outlaws in a western ghost town in "Hollywood Hostages" (originally aired on CBS on February 21, 1956). Plus, we'll hear her as one of history's most infamous poisoners in "The Seven-Layered Cake of Madame Lafarge" from Crime Classics (originally aired on CBS on October 14, 1953).

In this bonus episode, I'm sharing my favorite Suspense shows starring the great James Mason. The smooth, polished star of Lolita, North by Northwest, and The Veil plays crooks, cops, and a man whose guilt or innocence may never be known for sure. We'll hear "Where There's a Will" (originally aired on CBS on February 24, 1949), "Banquo's Chair" (originally aired on CBS on March 9, 1950), "The Greatest Thief in the World" (originally aired on CBS on June 21, 1951), and "Odd Man Out" (originally aired on CBS on February 11, 1952).