Suspense (TV Series) The Corsage (1952) User Reviews

Moving and powerful

[expandafter · 8/10 · 27 February 2018]

Let's not talk about electronic organ music, blood types, or the real names of actors.

This episode succeeds where it matters: the story and the characters.

I'm sure that many who have retired and find themselves alone can strongly empathize with the character played by Lawrence Fletcher. Listen to these lines:

"You know, I had three ships sunk under me during the war; I wasn't even afraid. But now that I'm retired---now that there's nothing in the world but to face it.... You know, the worst terror is when you're alone at night in the dead of night in your room, and you reach for a book, but the best book in the world is just waste paper, and you play records---play them over and over again---but all I can hear is the clock ticking time and me away. And that makes me desperate. That's why I watch the kids come and go, laughing and young, every day, and that makes me more desperate. And I want to reach out and grasp. When a man like that is rejected, you know what he can do? He can do terrible things out of loneliness and terror."

Wow....this should have been so much better.

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 9 February 2017]

I've only seen a few episodes of the old "Suspense" television show. However, up until now, all have been from the first season in 1949. So, when they used cheap organ music and the shows looked kinda cheap, I cut it a lot of slack. After all, TV was a new medium and the same organ music was used on radio...and many dramas were STILL radio dramas. However, by 1952, I expected to see an improvement in the show...better production values. Well, sadly, this was not the case with "The Corsage"...it had the same cheap organ music and production values. Considering how much TV had improved on other shows, you have to consider this in the ratings. Also, the plot in this one didn't do much for me.

The show is about a cop (Brian Keith, billed here as Robert Keith Jr.*) who is investigating a senseless murder that MIGHT be the work of a serial killer. The solution is that the killer has 'type H' blood...something that simply does NOT exist! Blood MUST be A, AB, B or O (with negative or positive rh factor)...and the writer simply wasn't doing their homework here. And, the writer simply didn't write a story worthy of some of the actors...who were generally quite good, though I wonder why they had Celia Johnson play a high school age character when she was 44!! Overall, just not very good....and I hope future episodes I watch are better.

*Robert Keith was a wonderful, gaunt actor and I didn't realize that his son was Brian Keith. Brian't real name WAS Robert Keith Jr. and I am not sure why he changed his name. Perhaps it was because his father was such a ubiquitous and famous character actor.