- #11: "The Fall of the House of Usher" (October 22, 1947) Starring: Paul Frees. Story: Edgar Allan Poe. Script: Les Crutchfield. Director: William N. Robson. Setting: USA.
Plot: Amid the death of his sister, Roderick Usher seems to succumb to madness.
Review: The only instance where Escape adapted Poe! It's a very faithful adaptation so if you love the short story you'll be very pleased. Paul Frees could make reading a telephone directory engaging, so much the better when he's given some Poe. A classic of horror and easily the best radio adaptation of the text. My Rating: 4/5 stars. - #12: "Pollack and the Porroh Man" (October 29, 1947) Starring: Barton Yarborough. Story: H. G. Wells. Script: John Dunkel. Director: William N. Robson. Setting: Sierra Leone.
Plot: After insulting Africans a British man causes a cycle of vengeance that leaves himself under a supernatural curse where he beholds an upside-down head wherever he looks.
Review: This is a lightly-flavoured supernatural story with room to assume the curse is all in the protagonist's mind if you wish; of course, the supernatural makes it more interesting to me. Barton Yarborough was a great radio actor but here he showed off his range in a way I haven't heard anywhere else. Heck, this is probably your only chance to hear William Conrad play a Portuguese man, too. My Rating: 5/5 stars. - #13: "Evening Primrose" (1st version November 5, 1947) Starring: Elliott Lewis. Story: John Collier. Script: John Dunkel. Director: William N. Robson. Setting: USA.
Plot: A poet conceals himself in a department store to escape the world but finds a terrifying civilization already sharing his living space.
Review: This odd dark comedy might not be to all tastes but I find it very effective; initially the concept of a civilization hidden inside department stores is simply bemusing but as it goes on it becomes more and more chilling. I also have to praise Elliott Lewis' acting here - he often spoke dismissively of his acting career but I think this is among his best performances, featuring a warmth and earnestness that enhances the situation. My Rating: 5/5 stars. - #14: "The Young Man with the Cream Tarts" (November 12, 1947) Starring: Paul Frees. Story: Robert Louis Stevenson. Script/Director: William N. Robson. Setting: England.
Plot: A prince and his bodyguard go slumming and find themselves in the "suicide club" where men gamble their lives while playing cards. The prince can't resist testing his luck.
Review: A phenomenal story; certainly the protagonist causes his own problems by refusing to simply avoid the Suicide Club but it's a tense thriller and wonderfully well-acted. William Conrad is as good as ever as the club president. My Rating: 5/5 stars. - #15: "Casting the Runes" (November 19, 1947) Starring: John McIntire. Story: M. R. James. Script: Irving Ravetch/John Dunkel. Director: William N. Robson. Setting: England.
Plot: After mocking the supernatural a professor finds himself cursed and only a slim chance to save his life from a conjured monstrosity.
Review: I'm a huge fan of M. R. James now; this Escape production was my introduction to his work. The imagery this story conjures up is such perfect radio - a dread of the unseen, the sense of a figure who is always behind you. Good scary fun. My Rating: 5/5 stars. - #16: "The Country of the Blind" (1st version November 26, 1947) Starring: Paul Frees. Story: H. G. Wells. Script: John Dunkel. Director: William N. Robson. Setting: Ecuador.
Plot: A lost mountain guide discovers an isolated valley where blind men live. He wrongly assumes his sense of sight will make him their superior.
Review: "In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king." Wells' story disproves the old proverb as the guide finds himself treated as an inferior at best, a maniac at his worst. Frees is excellent as the guide as he swerves from bemusement to hostility then acceptance of his inability to adjust to life among the blind. A perfect production. My Rating: 5/5 stars. - #17: "Taboo" (December 3, 1947) Starring: Paul Frees. Story: Geoffrey Household. Script: John Dunkel. Director: William N. Robson. Setting: Hungary.
Plot: A series of disappearances convince Hungarian villagers that a werewolf is on the loose. Two hunters go looking for the real culprit.
Review: Even though there are no supernatural terrors to be found in this story, the actual menace is so horrible that the script can only hint at it. Unseen dread permeates this story, it's one of Escape's finest. My Rating: 5/5 stars. - #18: "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" (December 10, 1947) Starring: Harry Bartell. Story: Ambrose Bierce. Script/Director: William N. Robson. Setting: USA.
Plot: As he faces death by hanging on a bridge a man imagines his means of escape.
Review: Ingenuously, Robson tells this story with dueling narrators as Bill Johnstone and William Conrad contrast reality with fantasy; the climax might have been obtuse to listeners if not for that storytelling device, which instead renders this an excellent piece of radio production. Even though it lacked the budget of Suspense, at times Escape proved there were many creative opportunities within their modest scope. My Rating: 5/5 stars. - #19: "Wild Oranges" (1st version December 17, 1947) Starring: Paul Frees. Story: Joseph Hergesheimer. Script: John Dunkel. Director: William N. Robson. Setting: USA.
Plot: A sailor meets a beautiful woman on a remote estate who is menaced by her hired hand.
Review: Here we have the first episode of Escape that I'm lukewarm on. This story was a popular melodrama in its day but even with all of Escape's best creative personnel (from Frees to William Conrad) it never quite clicks for me. I just never get invested in the romance between Frees' captain and the plantation waif, nor do I ever find Nicholas the possessive laborer the least bit menacing. It's well-done but not engaging. My Rating: 3/5 stars. - #20: "Back for Christmas" (December 24, 1947) Starring: Paul Frees. Story: John Collier. Script: Robert Tallman. Director: William N. Robson. Setting: England.
Plot: A professor plots to murder his wife and flee to the USA with his new lover but his plans are unexpectedly undone.
Review: A very morbid and whimsical John Collier story - which is to say, a fairly typical Collier story. Escape reused a script originally produced on Suspense; Paul Frees is extremely pleasing as the protagonist-murderer and I think he carries what would otherwise be a pretty typical crime script. My Rating: 4/5 stars.
You can listen to episodes of Escape at the Internet Archive! I'll be back with more next week!
It's very interesting to observe the overlap between Suspense and Escape as the shows shared directors and many key actors. With some of these great episodes you can find various incidences of the same script but often with different actors. Sorry Wrong Number had a few versions and at least one, without Agnes Moorhead. Many of the Moorhead Suspense shows feature other actresses such as Sarah Churchill.
ReplyDeleteThere are several Poe stories both on radio and film where I struggle to even understand what is going on. House of Usher is one. Pit and the Pendulum is somewhat opaque to me but I might have some sort of block. Poe's stories are disturbing after all. It's hard not to conflate Vincent Price and the various Poe protagonists. There are a few different versions of the Naked Jungle/Leinigen story which is usually considered an all-time great episode. On Escape, I give it 6-5. Three Skelton Key is pretty amazing. I just listened to that on Suspense and Price's performance is amazing. I am listening to Owl Creek right now from 12-9-56.
It's possible that so much OTR has been lost to history that we notice this more but between Suspense, Escape, Gunsmoke and Dragnet, you have the greatest of the greatest in terms of actors and show runners. Suspense became more and more uneven as time went on and they had multiple sponsors. Escape never went through a decline. Fwiw, Dimension X and X Minus One might be Escape's equal. These shows have basically zero poor scripts since they were often taken from famous sci fi works. As Dimension X and X Minus One came fairly late, they have far superior audio and especially X Minus One, has great sound effects. X Minus One and Escape sort of tie in terms of opening themes as both are thrilling to listen to.
You helped get me interested in checking out the different versions of Lux Radio Theater episodes with different players. It's still amazing to hear Ronald Reagan on Lux and Suspense, as well as Cary Grant and Clark Gable over and over. I mostly avoid the one hour shows on Suspense and as you more or less mentioned, many of them are overwrought if not trite in some ways.
I look forward to listening again to many of these episodes. Two Came Back is another amazing episode and it might have been on Suspense and Escape both as well.
It's interesting that you don't seem to like/mention 70's Otr or Canadian Otr as much as the pre-1963 shows. I grew up with CBSRMT and Sears/General Mills (less so) and although it has a different feel, Canadian Otr (or is the term radio plays preferable here) is of the highest quality and especially Nightfall which is a truly disturbing show and the Vanishing Point is pretty good too. I have found a few CBC shows from the sixties and seventies like Wendigo which are excellent but the audio is far too muddy to enjoy. I notice that the next episode of Suspense on my archive.org feed is Back for Christmas. So that's two out of the last four episodes that I have listened to that featured in both Suspense/Escape. There's also a decent fan site called Suspense/Escape by a big female Otr fan but as happens to the best of us, she does not appear to be posting any longer.
The other thing that you might know if you live east of Detroit is that there's a high power AM radio station in Ontario in the 700's where they at least used to play various Otr shows nightly. I have lost most of my interest in AM/SW because there's not much on either and AM is cluttered with horrible promos.
Best