The Good evening and welcome to a special bonus episode of Down These Mean Streets coming

your way to celebrate the birthday of the Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. Born August 13, 1899, Hitchcock remains one of the most influential and celebrated filmmakers of all time,

and were saluting him today with one of his big screen classics recreated for radio.

Hitchcock's films still top Best Of lists. In fact, his vertigo recently dethroned Orson Well Citizen Kane for the number one spot on site and

sounds greatest films of all-time list.

His body of work speaks for itself, classics like Rear Window, Shadow of a Doubt,

The 39 Steps, Psycho, and North by Northwest, and thanks to his years as the on-camera host of television's

Alfred Hitchcock presents audiences forever associate him with a dry wit and a

macabre sense of humor. Like other directors working in the 30s, 40s

and 50s, Hitchcock's work was often translated to radio on programs like Academy Award

Screen Directors Playhouse, and the Lux Radio Theater.

These programs would reunite the cast of the film to present an abridged version of the story for radio audiences.

But Hitchcock has another old-time radio connection beyond the on-air restaging of his films.

In 1940, he acted as guest director for the audition program of what would become

suspense with an adaptation of The Lodger, a story he'd filmed in England in 1927.

There are so many great Hitchcock radio adaptations.

You can check some of them out over at down these main streets podcast

dot tumbler.com but the one I've selected for the show today is a version of one of my personal favorite Hitchcock films, Strangers on a Train.

And while this version doesn't feature as many of the film's original cast members,

the production and adaptation are top-notch, and the cast is rounded out by some great Hollywood

radio actors.

The film was adapted from the novel by Patricia Highsmith

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