Halloween Week, Day 1: "Dead Man"

I have an annual tradition on this blog of revisiting some scary old-time radio shows around Halloween, and I try to keep from spotlighting shows that have appeared on the blog in previous years. This year I'm going to look at 7 programs in the week leading up to Halloween.

We begin with the drama "Dead Man" starring Humphrey Bogart, which was created as a pilot for a radio series that was never picked up. It's not technically a horror program, but it has a unearthly vibe; it concerns a drifter named Lucky who accidentally causes the death of a railroad detective. Thereafter, Lucky is "haunted" by the dead man - or, rather, his conscience causes him to imagine the dead man's voice in his mind.

"Dead Man" was a 1936 short story written by James M. Cain. Bogart had already had some success with Cain on the radio - he starred in an adaptation of Cain's novel Love's Lovely Counterfeit on Suspense. Post-war, Cain's books were becoming hot properties as successful movies such as the Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Indemnity and Mildred Pierce had already been in cinemas prior to Bogart's version of "Dead Man."

Although this very impressive pilot did not result in a series, two years later Bogart would launch his own syndicated radio adventure series - Bold Venture - which he starred in with his wife, Lauren Bacall.

"Dead Man" was recorded as an audition program on September 17, 1949. You can download it from the Internet Archive here.

Tomorrow: "By the time they arrive my people will have prepared something quite shocking!"