Here's the full list of episodes:
- March 30: Jezebel with Bette Davis
- April 6: Kitty Foyle with Ginger Rogers
- April 13: The Story of Louis Pasteur with Paul Muni
- April 20: The Great McGinty with Brian Donlevy
- April 27: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
- May 4: Stagecoach with Claire Trevor and Randolph Scott
- May 11: If I Were King with Ronald Colman
- May 18: My Sister Eileen with Rosalind Russell
- May 25: The Informer with Victor McLaughlin
- June 1: Arise, My Love with Ray Milland
- June 8: Ruggles of Red Gap with Charles Laughton and Charlie Ruggles
- June 15: Pride of the Marines with John Garfield
- June 22: The Front Page with Adolphe Menjou and Pat O'Brien
- June 29: A Star Is Born with Fredric March
- July 3: The Maltese Falcon with Humphrey Bogart, Sydney Greenstreet and Mary Astor
- July 10: Young Mr. Lincoln with Henry Fonda
- July 17: The Prisoner of Zenda with Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
- July 24: Foreign Correspondent with Joseph Cotten (I blogged about this adaptation here.
- July 31: Hold Back the Dawn with Olivia de Havilland
- August 7: Watch on the Rhine with Paul Lukas
- August 14: Vivacious Lady with Lana Turner
- August 21: The Keys of the Kingdom with Gregory Peck
- August 28: One Sunday Afternoon with James Stewart
- September 4: Pinocchio
- September 11: Shadow of a Doubt with Joseph Cotten (I blogged about this adaptation here)
- September 18: The White Cliffs of Dover with Irene Dunne
- September 25: Guest in the House with Kirk Douglas
- October 2: My Man Godfrey with William Powell
- October 9: It Happened Tomorrow with Eddie Bracken
- October 16: Blood on the Sun with John Garfield
- October 23: The Devil and Miss Jones with Charles Coburn
- October 30: Suspicion with Cary Grant (I blogged about this adaptation here)
- November 6: Cheers for Miss Bishop with Olivia de Havilland
- November 13: Night Train to Munich with Rex Harrison
- November 20: Brief Encounter with Greer Garson
- November 27: Lost Horizon with Ronald Colman
- December 4: Portrait of Jennie with Joan Fontaine and John Lund
- December 11: The Enchanted Cottage with Peter Lawford
- December 18: Lost Angel with Margaret O'Brien
Some of the above featured the original stars; others most certainly did not. As I noted in my review of Foreign Correspondent, some adaptations changed the story. But the biggest thing that should surprise you about the list above is that some of the film titles never won or were even nominated for an Academy Award (notably the wonderful film Night Train to Munich and the final broadcast, Lost Angel).
But more than that we have an adaptation of Portrait of Jennie more than 2 years before the actual film was released! It hadn't even been filmed at the time! The announcer lamely ties the adaptation to the series by reminding audiences that Joan Fontaine had been nominated for an Academy Award once. Portrait of Jennie was produced by the tempermental David O. Selznick; I see its appearance on Academy Award Theater as the Academy simply bowing to his pressure to promote what he was certain would be his next great triumph. In fact, I might do a separate blog post about this adaptation because it's such a glaring exception.
Academy Award Theater boasted excellent production values and terrific casts. I think the extent to which a person enjoys the series will depend on their interest in the film being adapted. But I certainly recall that when I first heard the Informer it was more than a decade before I ever saw the film, but I still found the adaptation to be a very good piece of radio drama. I'm also very fond of the Maltese Falcon adaptation, the comedy/drama Ruggles of Red Gap and the excellent British thriller Night Train to Munich.
You can hear Academy Award Theater's entire show run on this YouTube playlist.
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