- #21: "Confession" (December 31, 1947) Starring: William Conrad. Story: Algernon Blackwood. Script: John Dunkel. Director: William N. Robson. Setting: England.
Plot: A shellshocked veteran tries to maintain his sanity during a terrifying journey through the London fog.
Review: We'll be looking at 2 stories by Algernon Blackwood in today's post but sadly they're the only instances Escape adapted from him. This is a rare non-supernatural story by Blackwood yet still an intensely unsettling experience; William Conrad is excellent as the nervous veteran and the climax is amazing. The episode puts you into the head of the veteran, uncertain of what's real and what might be imagined. My Rating: 5/5 stars. - #22: "The Second Class Passenger" (1st version January 7, 1948) Starring: Harry Bartell. Story: Percival Gibbon. Script/Director: William N. Robson. Setting: Mozambique.
Plot: A tourist who steps in out of the rain finds himself among hardened criminals then in an adventurous flight across the city.
Review: This is peak Escape, the type of story few other anthologies could feature. Here the high seas are the point of departure as our protagonist leaves his boat to find adventure ashore. It's amusing, adventurous, romantic and even heartbreaking. It's decidedly offbeat and maybe isn't to your tastes but this to me epitomizes what Escape does better than anyone. Kudos as well to Bartell, who portrays the right amount of naivete for the role. My Rating: 5/5 stars. - #23: "Leiningen versus the Ants" (1st version January 14, 1948) Starring: William Conrad. Story: Carl Stephenson. Script: Robert Ryf. Director: William N. Robson. Setting: Brazil.
Plot: The owner of a plantation refuses to flee from ravenous ants - not while he can still fight them!
Review: A phenomenal piece of radio and another of the shows to highlight how great Escape can be. There are many "man vs. nature" stories but this is the most visceral of them all as Conrad's Leiningen matches wits with insects and finds them adept at thwarting his plans. The use of musical cues to represent the marching ants is strangely effective. My Rating: 5/5 stars. - #24: "Papa Benjamin" (January 21, 1948) Starring: Frank Lovejoy. Story: Cornell Woolrich. Script: John Dunkel. Director: William N. Robson. Setting: USA.
Plot: A New Orleans jazz musician seeks out a "voodoo chant" to bring himself success, earning the ire of true believers.
Review: Atypical for Woolrich, this is a tale of the supernatural. Lovejoy is terrific as the skeptical bandlander who knowingly insults the voodoo cult then pays the price; the jazz music sounds pretty good, too. I find the most effective scenes are those set in the New Orleans alleyways leading to Papa Benjamin's home, the woman warning, "don't go back there, honey." Eerie, especially if you listen late at night. My Rating: 5/5 stars. - #25: "Three Good Witnesses" (January 28, 1948) Starring: Morgan Farley. Story: Harold Lamb. Script: John Dunkel. Director: William N. Robson. Setting: Turkey.
Plot: An engineer leaving Turkey aboard a train is dragged into an espionage plot.
Review: There are many episodes of Escape that feature common folk drawn into espionage through circumstances but I think this might be the best, primarily because Morgan Farley delivers a note-perfect milquetoast performance. Jack Webb is great as ever as the American agent. My Rating: 4.5/5 stars. - #26: "The Vanishing Lady" (1st version February 1, 1948) Starring: Joan Banks. Story: Alexander Woollcott. Script/Director: William N. Robson. Setting: France.
Plot: A woman goes to fetch a doctor for her sick mother then finds herself tangled in a conspiracy to deny her mother's existence.
Review: A rare Escape episode with a female lead; it's a familiar story but I think Escape tells it better than any other variant. The woman's growing alarm at her mother's fate has just the right amount of desperation. My Rating: 4/5 stars. - #27: "Snake Doctor" (1st version February 8, 1948) Starring: William Conrad. Story: Irvin S. Cobb. Script: Fred Howard. Director: William N. Robson. Setting: USA.
Plot: A man who hates snakes - and hates the "snake doctor" who tends them - schemes to commit a murder.
Review: Cobb isn't a remembered author today but this is one fine story, carried primarily by William Conrad's outstanding performance as the bigoted, cowardly, white trash farmer. The murder sequence in which the "snake doctor" seems to have survived being shot is delivered in a perfectly nightmarish fashion, to say nothing of the climax. Special kudos to Paul Frees for his performance as the simpleton good-for-nothing son and a shout-out to Escape Snake #2: the cottonmouth! My Rating: 5/5 stars. - #28: "Ancient Sorceries" (February 15, 1948) Starring: Paul Frees. Story: Algernon Blackwood. Script: Les Crutchfield. Director: William N. Robson. Setting: England.
Plot: A visitor to a remote village finds himself expected - even anticipated - by the population. They seem very catty...
Review: And here's the other great Blackwood story, the supernatural kind of tale he mastered. Paul Frees is terrific as the lead who reacts to the unsettling behaviour of the locals and the fascination he seems unable to resist; the inescapable pull of paganism was a recurring theme in Blackwood's fiction. I still can't believe the "next week" message at the end of "Snake Doctor" gave away that this would be an episode about cat people! My Rating: 5/5 stars. - #29: "How Love Came to Professor Guildea" (February 22, 1948) Starring: Luis Van Rooten. Story: Robert Hichens. Script: Les Crutchfield. Director: William N. Robson. Setting: England.
Plot: An unloved atheist encounters an invisible creature that adores him.
Review: An offbeat tale of the supernatural wherein the ghost isn't so much frightening as affectionate and how that can be intolerable to a man unable to accept its adoration. The concept of a parrot mimicking a ghost is particularly odd and effective. My Rating: 4/5 stars. - #30: "The Grove of Ashtaroth" (February 29, 1948) Starring: Paul Frees. Story: John Buchan. Script: Les Crutchfield. Director: Norman Macdonnell. Setting: South Africa.
Plot: An Englishman settles in South Africa to assume worship of the ancient goddess Ashtaroth.
Review: Strangely, this is the one time Buchan was adapted on Escape despite his many stories of hunting or espionage being perfect for the series. This one is more supernatural than his stories usually are - and oddly I find it least compelling at the climax when the supernatural influence becomes strongest but I do enjoy this tale quite a bit. The episode is at its most effective when concerning the mystery of what's going on in the grove; the more that's left to your imagination, the more unsettling it feels. My Rating: 4.5/5 stars.
You can listen to episodes of Escape at the Internet Archive! I'll be back with more next week!
2nd Class Passenger is aces especially if you speak Portuguese! The actors don't seem to get the nasals right but then again, I have not been to Portuguese speaking Africa. This is a lot of fun with a milquetoast fellowing living the dream of adventures with an exciting woman. I must have listened to this 20 times. Not sure if it's on Suspense too. Some of the cross-overs are so similar it's hard to tell.
ReplyDeleteIt's always hard to come up with a rating system that differentiates among "great" episodes but it's doubtful any episode from pre-1963 OTR is more well received than Leningen vs. the Ants. Many of us discovered/re-discovered OTR via an incredibly well-done and chosen overview on CD done by Walter Cronkite. This was on there and nobody doubts that it should have been on there. It's thrilling always. The movie version with Charleton Heston is thrilling and even things like the Germans in Brazil and mail-order brides are spot-on from different days. Ultimate male conquers nature episode There's. nothing better in the history of Otr to my knowledge. The Suspense versions are excellent too. I wish I knew more about the author but this seems to have been his one claim to fame via Esquire magazine, if I recall correctly. This is the Casablanca of Otr.
Papa Benjamin was not featured on the Cronkite disc and probably due to its controversial content. This is the greatest non-musical episode of Otr that I have ever heard in terms of the musical content. It is a type of soaring jazz so sublime that eh, it was probably all worth the voodoo curse. Archive.org has all escape episodes that are repeats run together so I can't delineate all of the differences but having lived in a nation where voodoo is featured prominently (see Orfeu Negro) this is chilling and almost perfect, even with the police at the end who desperately try to protect the jazz thieve. This is up there with the great great horror pics. I put it equal to Leningen.
The Vanishing Lady is a step below but I do enjoy it for the parts spoken in French. It also appears on Suspense and I am a bit sick of it but again I listen to Escape, Suspense and the X sci-fi shows from NBC again and again as they lull me to sleep. I hear different parts of different episode but lately I have been using them more as background ambiance as I practice law. Being from the South, Snack Doctor is too creepy and Southern for me. Definitely frightening. Ancient Sorceries is excellent.
I give the Groves of Asteraoh five stars. Note that the spelling tends to vary in archaeology circles and there are two other somewhat similar goddesses with names that are very close to this. One of them was the consort of Yahweh. Interestingly, the title is almost a pun in that in Hebrew it would be the Groves of the Groves as famine goddess tended to be worshipped in forests and nature One of the foremost deconstructive things happening to the Old Testament is the revelation of Asherhah who has been there in plain site for 3000 years. How? The Biblical translators always translate this name as grove or groves. Hey, it worked for 3,000 to hide the fact that Hebrews actually thought that "females" were equally worthy of worship like the neighboring nations. Very, very creepy and as in many such stories, OCD leads to the destruction of the protagonist.
The others I either favor less or probably fall asleep during, lol. The best thing about Escape is that they don't have 36 different episodes about spouses poisoning each other as per Suspense and some of the similar shows. What turns me off most about Suspense is that every other episode involves extreme spousal conflict. Today shows do not feature this. Perhaps mortuary science has made poison a venture with a poor pay-off although I saw a story today on google news straight out of this context with a new mistress, etc.
Hello Jane!
ReplyDeleteThe Portuguese in "Second Class Passenger" is nothing short of miraculous - in that other OTR shows that attempted to use Portuguese instead have their characters speaking in Spanish. So kudos to William N. Robson who was aware Portuguese is a different language!
There is a point to be made about how often spouses murdering each other is the plot in Suspense. At times it's the same plot but through different means for at least 2 weeks in a row. Throw in shows like the Whistler which also frequently use that plot and it gets tiresome. Escape has just a few of those stories ("Back for Christmas" being the most obvious) and otherwise offers a terrific amount of variety!