The Cellar Door

Originally Aired: January 24, 1956 Suspense #634, "The Cellar Door," presents a parent's worst nightmare in this taut domestic thriller. Joe and Anne are enjoying a quiet Sunday at home with their precocious toddler Sandy, who isn't quite two years old. While Anne prepares to give Sandy his bath, Joe heads down to the basement to drain the water heater. When Anne comes partway down the cellar stairs to hand Joe a pair of pliers, disaster strikes: the cellar door swings shut and locks behind her, trapping both parents in the basement. Upstairs, little Sandy is alone in a house filled with dangers - a bathtub running with water, a flame burning on the stove, and an unlocked screen door leading to the street. As Joe frantically tries to break through the locked door with only a screwdriver and pliers, Anne calls desperately to Sandy through the door, trying to keep track of him and guide him to safety. The parents' terror mounts as sounds from upstairs suggest the child is moving around the house, and ominous silence alternates with the splash of water. Their only hope is to somehow coach the toddler into turning the doorknob and releasing them before tragedy strikes.