Originally Aired: October 20, 1949
Suspense #355, "Good Night Mrs Russell," stars Betty Davis as a middle-aged widow who becomes an unwitting target of danger. Mrs. Russell is a regular customer at Henry's Cafe, a small, pleasant lunch spot near her office in the Hillmar Building. Henry, the cafe's polite and solitary proprietor, seems particularly attentive to her, inviting her to try one of his dinners. When Mrs. Russell works late one evening and stops by the cafe alone at night, she notices Henry acting strangely—suspicious, nervous, listening for something unseen. Despite her unease, she returns weeks later for another late-night meal, this time ordering the number four dinner again.
As Mrs. Russell chatters about her late husband Leonard and her son killed in the war, Henry grows ominously quiet, watching her with a blank expression. Then, without warning, she becomes dizzy and ill, realizing too late that something is terribly wrong. Now trapped with dawn approaching, Mrs. Russell knows Henry plans to kill her, and argument and reasoning have proven useless. The episode builds to a chilling confrontation as the trusting widow discovers the deadly intentions of the man she thought she could help.
