Inner Sanctum Halloween Month, day 26 of 31: "Terror by Night"

Compared to the likes of Suspense, Inner Sanctum seldom had many big-name talents starring in their programs, but "Terror by Night" is one of the happy exceptions. This episode, first broadcast on June 29th, 1952, stars one of Suspense's top stars, Agnes Moorehead! Like yesterday's episode, we have a plot in which a lone driver travelling at night runs into a dangerous situation. In this instance, Moorehead ends up meeting a man who has a body in the trunk of his car. It has a great pay-off at the climax!

"Terror by Night" was hosted by Paul McGrath and starred Agnes Moorehead. You can listen to this episode at archive.org by clicking here.

OTR Holiday Month Day 31: The Shadow

Here we are - the end of 2018 and the end of my OTR holiday theme month. What better way to end the year than with our friend The Shadow! In the January 1, 1939 episode "The Man Who Murdered Time", Lamong (Bill Johnstone) and Margo (Agnes Moorehead) are taught in a temporal loop as New Year's Eve repeats itself again and again. Lamont's great mental powers allow him to avoid repeating the same events over and over, but it's a strain on his mind; can he find the person responsible for replaying the day's events before his resolve fades?

You can hear "The Man Who Murdered Time" on archive.org here.

I hope you enjoy your New Year's Eve celebrations today and I look forward to interactions on the blog in the New Year. 2019 will definitely see some changes in how this blog functions...

31 Days of Suspense: "The Whole Town's Sleeping"

For my fourth-favourite episode of Suspense I'm very pleased to revisit my personal favourite author: Ray Bradbury!

Bradbury was a bit of an odd duck; the contrast between his stories which expressed his deep love of nature, small towns and children and those stories which explored the horrors of nature, small towns and children leave an interesting edge to his work. One can discuss the concept of "Bradburyesque" stories, but the first time you hear one of his tales you might not foresee quite where the story is going to end up.

Suspense adapted Bradbury's story "The Whole Town's Sleeping" on two occasions, but I prefer the second from August 31, 1958, appearing during William N. Robson's tenure as producer-director. The so-called "First Lady of Suspense" Agnes Moorehead (so named largely on the strength of her performance in "Sorry, Wrong Number") stars as a spinster who goes for a nice long walk one evening... through a dark ravine... while a killer is on the loose. Check it out by downloading the episode from archive.org here.

In the world of bleak endings, this story wears a heavy crown. In fact, I've noticed online that some people are truly offended by this story mainly because of what their imagination tells them, rather than the text itself. If you'd prefer Bradbury to hold your hand and tell you everything turns out okay, then go read the altered version of this story in his book Dandelion Wine. If you'd rather let him scare your wig off, then stick with the original.

Tomorrow: "No, Ellen, you-you didn't even wake up..."