Life Ends at Midnight

Suspense - Radio’s Outstanding Theater of Thrills · Apr 11, 2026 · 30m

Originally Aired: May 8, 1948

Suspense #295, "Life Ends at Midnight," stars Faye Bainter as Mrs. Bates, a poor, worn woman living in a miserable tenement apartment in the Chicago slums. Her troubled son Walter arrives unexpectedly from Pittsburgh, claiming to visit his mother, but he's really desperate for money. Walter has embezzled $1,500 from his employer and must repay it by midnight or face ten years in prison. He demands the bonds his father left, but Mrs. Bates reveals she already spent them getting him out of his last legal trouble. As Walter grows increasingly frantic and violent…