Welcome back to my episode guide to the wonderful radio series Escape! The final two episodes sponsored by Richfield Oil open up this batch of episodes! Series creator William N. Robson has also departed the program, this time for good (he'd later resurface as producer/director of Suspense). For now, Norman Macdonnell once again takes command of Escape!
- #121: "The Footprint" (August 18, 1950) Starring: William Conrad. Story: Gouverneur Morris. Script: Richard Chandlee. Director: Norman Macdonnell. Setting: Mexico.
Plot: A band of hired men venture to a Chinese pagoda in the Mexican desert where they observe strange religious rites - and a hidden fortune!
Review: This episode is a bit nuts, like a desert version of "Bloodbath" but with a secret cult who practice ritual sacrifice for good measure. I think it all comes together well - the story is tense, especially as the thieves flee across the desert and perceive the green silk costumes of their pursuers. Also, meet Escape Snake #7: the gray snake! My Rating: 4.5/5 stars. - #122: "Crossing Paris" (August 25, 1950) Starring: Jay Novello. Story: Marcel Ayme. Script: John Meston. Director: Norman Macdonnell. Setting: France.
Plot: A black market smuggler tries to meekly carry his wares through the darkened streets but his somewhat unwelcome ally insists on drawing people's attention to him.
Review: This is all over the place, isn't it? William Conrad is outstanding as the drunkard who keeps endangering the protagonist but I'm not as sold on Novello's restrained performance in the lead or the violent climax. My Rating: 3.5/5 stars. - #123: "A Sleeping Draught" (1st version October 1, 1950) Starring: Ben Wright. Story: Weston Martyr. Script: Antony Ellis. Director: Norman Macdonnell. Setting: Atlantic Ocean/Australia.
Plot: A ship ferrying convicts to Australia breaks into violence, first against the prisoners, then directed at the crew.
Review: We're back on the high seas for a decent production about the difficulty men have trusting each other (a recurring Escape trope) but I find the prisoners' voice so irritating that I don't really enjoy going back to this episode. Still, Ben Wright is very good and I want to highlight him because I am sometimes critical of him in other episodes. My Rating: 4/5 stars. - #124: "Roulette" (October 8, 1950) Starring: Terry Kilburn. Story/Script: Antony Ellis. Director: Norman Macdonnell. Setting: France.
Plot: A naive young man agrees to help a woman who claims her life is in danger.
Review: This doesn't quite work; it's trying to be an Eric Ambler drama with a protagonist who doesn't comprehend the world of espionage. Unfortunately, the protagonist is so simple-minded, the spy is so obvious and the plot has no particular twists or humorous moments to make up for it. It's rare for me to say I don't recommend an episode of Escape, but this is another instance. My Rating: 2/5 stars. - #125: "The Power of Hammer" (October 15, 1950) Starring: Harry Bartell. Story: Antony Ellis. Script: Gil Doud. Director: Norman Macdonnell. Setting: Belgian Congo.
Plot: The Belgians want to arrest a madman who has set up his own private fortress in the jungle; the guide they hire has a history with the would-be king.
Review: Bartell is good in the lead role but I find the villain way, way too over-played and over-hyped (no one dares shoot the villain because his loyal natives will bring down his killer - or so goes the theory). Overall, it's good high adventure. My Rating: 3.5/5 stars. - #126: "The Time Machine" (2nd version October 22, 1950) Starring: John Dehner. Story: H. G. Wells. Script: Irving Ravetch. Director: Norman Macdonnell. Setting: England.
Plot: Two men test their time machine by journeying into the future where they find humans have evolved along two very different paths.
Review: This production is just slightly better than the previous attempt (episode #40), I think, simply because John Dehner had such a great presence. I still find the dialogue between the two leads a bit stilted but it remains a great adventure tale. My Rating: 4/5 stars. - #127: "Seven Hours to Freedom" (October 29, 1950) Starring: Stan Waxman. Story/Script: Bud A. Nelson. Director: Norman Macdonnell. Setting: Pacific Ocean.
Plot: A fisherman's boat is commandeered by escaping criminals en route to Mexico.
Review: Back on the high seas and the situation is a good, tense one, but the execution is disappointing - merely a Key Largo wannabe. My Rating: 3.5/5 stars. - #128: "Earth Abides" Part 1. (November 5, 1950) Starring: John Dehner. Story: George R. Stewart. Script: David Ellis. Director: Norman Macdonnell. Setting: USA.
Plot: After most of mankind is wiped out a survivor seeks his path amidst the debris.
Review: I owe Escape for making me aware of this story - one of the godfathers of the "post-apocalypse" fictions that have since become their own cottage industry. Author Stewart put a lot of thought into what would become of the Earth with a greatly reduced human population and those points - narrated by Larry Dobkin - are effectively rendered while Dehner is a great protagonist, who owes his life to Escape Snake #8: another rattlesnake! My Rating: 5/5 stars. - #129: "Earth Abides" Part 2. (November 12, 1950) Starring: John Dehner. Story: George R. Stewart. Script: David Ellis. Director: Norman Macdonnell. Setting: USA.
Plot: The remains of human society continue to struggle and are put to the test when a murderer appears.
Review: I feel the second half of this story fumbles it a bit; it tries to swerve away from the bittersweet ending of the novel into something more optimistic that doesn't really fit the rest of the series. But the main drama of the story, involving William Conrad as a brutish intruder, is very well dramatized. My Rating: 4.5/5 stars. - #130: "Journey into Fear" (November 19, 1950) Starring: Wilms Herbert. Story: Eric Ambler. Script: Antony Ellis. Director: Norman Macdonnell. Setting: Turkey.
Plot: An engineer in Turkey is targeted for assassination and flees on the high seas.
Review: Speaking of Eric Ambler, here's his best-known work! The novel is a bit much to fit into a half-hour and I don't think it's helped by Herbert's performance - here, Terry Kilburn would have had hit the right note (or Harry Bartell - see #22, "Second Class Passenger" or Morgan Farley - see #25, "Three Good Witnesses"). Escape has done better jobs with this kind of story, the average man who is thrust into danger. Herbert just sounds a little too capable for the role. My Rating: 4/5 stars.
You can listen to episodes of Escape at the Internet Archive! I'll be back with more next week!
2 comments:
You are in line with most OTR authority on Earth Abides. To me though, it just goes on and on and then to another episode with a predictable ending. There are similar episodes covering this sort of material and in a more interesting fashion, in my view, on Dimension X and X-Minus One. The same goes for me with Donavan's Brain from Suspense. Eh. Too long.
I would give the Power of Hammer a five based upon the strength of the story and "the horror". This is very similar to Heart of Darkness which I think has a Lux Radio Theater version. Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now are very similar to the Power of Hamer. Some perhaps do think that Marlon Brando overacted in that movie. I know it was a concern of the director and producers but it ended up being incredibly compelling, dark and creep, just like the book. What does it mean for any of us, psychologically, if we are willing to accept goddess-like behavior and devotion?
The rest of the episodes are decent, like pretty much all Escape episodes but after Shipment of Mute Fate and Leinegen and Two Came Back and those with Vincent Price and some of the others you mentioned, those are high standards to meet. William Conrad is good in every single show he appears on. Strange that I eschewed all of his television characters. He was visually not right for Gunsmoke unfortunately.
I am currently listening to Broadway is my Beat, the Australian-version made for South African consumption and to Squad Cars, both of which are very, very good. "British OTR" always comes across as foreign but the media extant from South Africa, especially but also Australia is very high and it is fun to hear the actors do their American accents, which are overwhelmingly acceptable. Squad Cars just uses educated English-speaking South African accents and vocabulary which is charming. Except for a quote here or there which you can find in American OTR still deemed acceptable, there's nothing right-wing about these South African shows or racist (they do use the term "darkies" a couple of times but then again colored was fine in North American until the 70's and still is for multiple shades among races, i.e. "people of color".
Squad Cars, like Dragnet does mention the death penalty a lot at the end of the show but it's far more charming, less foreboding and less preachy and way less over the top. One episode is called Reporters and Dagga (marijuana) but they aren't fixated on marijuana the way that Dragnet was in both versions. South African OTR pound for pound, might be better than American OTR. SF68 has terrible audio quality but arguably is better than any other Sci Fi OTR show and it's scripts were deep. General Motors on Safari is amazing. Carling Challenge is good.
They also had big sponsors down there in GM, Goodyear and Carling Black Label, Mabel. Carling Black Label used to be the most dissed beer in existence when I was growing up in the U.S. Who knew that it was considered top quality in Britain and South Africa and presumably, Canada. I don't think this beer can be found any longer in the U.S. but it still is one of the top beers in Britain. Not getting television until the 1980's undoubtedly also help promote OTR in South Africa 20 to 30 years past its American leveling off.
There are some good Canadian shows from this 1960's through early 70's era but they tend to have horrible audio to the point that you struggle to understand the plot. The Wendigo is an example of this high quality/bad audio and there are others but Canada had a radio monopoly more or less and with most of the population able to receive American broadcasts, Canada OTR is largely absent currently.
This is not to disclaim how great Vanishing Point and Night Fall are but I doubt that you would consider them OTR. Honestly, to me, OTR is meant to have commercials. That's how it generally aired with the exception of sponsored Network shows but even they often have adverts or public information of some sort within the broadcasts. With the exception of the Harlow-era Suspense shows, I love the ads. Suspense the last five years had very, very interesting time capsule sorts of ads by Pepsi, Parliament, other cigarettes, hair products, cars and ad after ad for US Savings Bonds which paid terrible rates but the ads were good and a series of public interest adverts with the announcer from Jack Benny highlighting different aspects of American folklore. I enjoy beer and smoking ads. Does that make me bad or am I just drawn that way?
Thanks for all of your hardworking on this. You will be a resource for the future because it's very hard to find reviews of the quality that you do related to OTR and rarely of someone with your field of perspective.
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