Sunday, October 3, 2021

Lights Out Month Day 3: "The Devil's Due"

I said this month I'd be looking at Arch Oboler's Lights Out, although this episode is an outlier. "The Devil's Due" (April 26, 1939) won a contest where fans competed to write their own Lights Out story. Although this is from the Arch Oboler era it was written by Fred France and adapted by Hobart Donovan.

You can tell this isn't Oboler before the credits run; it has plenty of gore as two hardened criminals review their history with their "silent partner." That makes up most of the program and it certainly fits the sort of audio gore which Oboler made famous, but the identity of the "silent partner" is a little more obvious than Oboler would have treated such a reveal; I mean, heck, his name's in the title! It's good radio horror, although it lacks that extra terror which Oboler brought to his scripts.

You can stream or download this episode from the Internet Archive here.

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3 comments:

  1. TerryOctober 3, 2021 at 7:15 PM

    I'm so glad you're finding time to give Lights Out the kind of quality attention it deserves. It's such a remarkably entertaining radio series, whether directed by Arch Oboler or Wyllis Cooper. It's a real service to your readers to lift up some of the best episodes. Also, in the future, if you should ever be casting about for other OTR series to review, there's always Cooper's great Quiet Please and also Arch Oboler's Plays, not to mention Inner Sanctum and two other horror shows that get very little attention, but I feel are very worthwhile: Mysterious Traveler and The Witch's Tale. Thanks for shining a light on Lights Out.
    Best, Terry

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  2. Michael HoskinOctober 5, 2021 at 12:10 AM

    Thank you Terry! I've highlighted Inner Sanctum before; I'm sure I will cover Quiet Please in the future. The Witch's Tale, though, maybe not -- I don't think there are 31 episodes with decent audio quality.

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  3. UnknownOctober 6, 2024 at 5:00 PM

    Hobart Donovan married June Foray. In "The Pumpkin Who Couldn't Smile" June voiced Raggedy Ann, and Aunt Agatha (the villain in the story), but was credited as "Mrs. Hobart Donovan as Aunt Agatha".

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