OTR Halloween Day 5: Creeps by Night

Creeps by Night seems to have been a very good horror series - but it was extremely short-lived. The series lasted only 6 months in 1944 and even then, we only seem to have 6 episodes still existing today. Still, those surviving episodes are as good as anything found in the OTR horror genre. This same year, Dashiell Hammett's 1931 prose anthology of horror titled Creeps by Night was re-released but I haven't found evidence that they were related. It would have been good brand synergy, regardless.

A major aid to the series is that Boris Karloff was very involved in the program, probably the most involvement he had in OTR (moreso than his better-known Lights Out and Inner Sanctum appearances). And that's what I'd like to share today - "Those Who Walk in Darkness" from June 20, 1944 and starring Karloff!

In "Those Who Walk in Darkness," a physician is treating the husband of his ex-girlfriend. The ex isn't certain how much she should trust him when he insists her husband may lose his eyesight, especially when he insists that they replace her husband's eyes with those of a dead man. Remember yesterday's Grand Guignol story? This is very much like a Grand Guignol plot, isn't it?

Unfortunately, this episode is preserved as an episode of the Mystery Playhouse. It's hosted by Peter Lorre, so the original host segments are missing. As well, the ending is a bit abrupt, so I think some minutes were shaved off the climax. But we don't have much of Creeps by Night and this is very good!

You can hear "Those Who Walk in Darkness" on the Internet Archive!