Boris Karloff Month Day 1: The Tell-Tale Heart

Once again I'm celebrating the month of October - leading up to Halloween on the 31st - by spotlighting some horror-themed old-time radio programs!

This month my theme is actor Boris Karloff, one of the all-time greatest performers in horror films! Karloff had a huge presence on old-time radio shows and his velvety-smooth accent made him a lot of fun to listen to. Radio also gave him a few opportunities to cut loose and tackle the kinds of roles he wasn't getting on the silver screen, so I'll feature a few examples of those during the month.

First, let's visit Inner Sanctum Mysteries and the episode "The Tell-Tale Heart" from August 3, 1941. It's based on the short story by Edgar Allan Poe but only in the absolutely slightest sense of the word; Karloff plays a man with superhuman hearing who befriends a man with superhuman eyesight. Eventually it becomes a little like the Poe story. It earns a zero in terms of fidelity, but it's a pretty good Karloff performance! You can hear it at archive.org by clicking here!

All images this month from IMDB.

Unearthed: Mysterious Traveler Comics #1

Recently on this blog I've been looking back over various old-time radio horror programs which were adapted into comic books during the 1940s; I looked at Inner Sanctum Mysteries, Lights Out and Suspense. The biggest name in old-time radio horror which I haven't looked at yet is The Mysterious Traveler... so let's do that right now!

Published in November, 1948, Mysterious Traveler Comics #1 was the only issue of its series published and it was likewise evidently the only comic book published by Trans-World Publications! It's quite a little oddity in comics history, but also something of historical importance in comic book horror - after all, it predates the more famous horror comics published by EC Comics by one year.

The principal feature in this book is titled "Five Feet Down", drawn by Bob Powell. It's based on an episode of The Mysterious Traveler which had aired on February 9, 1947 and again on July 4, 1950. Unfortunately, both broadcasts are lost, but that just makes this comic an even greater collector's item for fans of the show. Powell depicts the Mysterious Traveler himself as a blank-faced figure (different from the later Ditko visualization, instead reminiscent of Ditko's Question!). The story concerns scientist Professor Dale, miner Tom and geologist Crane, who drill five miles deep into the Earth and discover a subterranean world inhabited by unseen creatures who apparently feed on humans! It's interesting that Powell never depicts the creatures beyond sets of eyes seen watching in the backgrounds. The text describes creatures with wings... it would have been neat to see Powell draw them, but leaving it to the reader's imagination seems appropriate, given the story's radio roots. It's also very interesting how much this story is reminiscent of the still-existing Mysterious Traveler episode "Behind the Locked Door" (first aired May 24, 1949), particularly the scene where the explorers find a pile of fish bones.

The second story is an adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart", evidently drawn by Alan Mendel. This story is a reprint from a 1945 issue of Yellowjacket Comics. It's an extremely faithful adaptation with text taken directly from Poe, but the art is quite stiff - it's more like an illustrated story than a real work of comic book art. It's a pity that The Mysterious Traveler radio show didn't do adaptations of Poe the way other horror programs did.

The last full-length story is "Raw Deal", again by artist Bob Powell. This time, strangely, the story is an adaptation of the 1948 crime film. The story draws attention to its roots by listing the cast of the film and Powell does a great job rendering the likenesses of the actors to this comic. It does feel rather odd for The Mysterious Traveler, however - this comic is already a piece of licensing from a radio program, why is it also licensing a major motion picture? The best reason for a comic book to adapt a film is to draw the attention of the film's audience, but the cover doesn't promote the inclusion of "Raw Deal" at all. Also, The Mysterious Traveler was a New York radio show which featured only radio professionals in the lead roles - Hollywood movies aren't an obvious fit for the brand.

This comic also has three short featurse: a two-page story printed in black & white on the inside front & inside back covers called "The Grand Vizier's Reward" in which an Indian vizier invents the game of chess and tricks his patron into giving him a great reward; there's a two-page text story called "The Mystery of the Five Fingers" which is told by the Mysterious Traveler character; finally, there's an odd three-page feature called "Take a Trip to India" in which the Mysterious Traveler journeys around India, revealing various facts about the country to his readers. Comic books of the time had plenty of non-fiction features like this, but it's strange to see the horror host introducing these facts.

Although this proved to be the only issue of its series (and publisher), a few years later - once the Mysterious Traveler radio series was off the air - Charlton Comics started their own Tales of the Mysterious Traveler comic book series. That series has a following of its own because it featured some of the best 1950s work by the legendary Steve Ditko. Between OTR fandom and Ditko fandom, the Mysterious Traveler still has an audience; I'm lucky enough to belong to both fandoms. I've even blogged about Moonstone's attempt to create a new Mysterious Traveler series in the 2000s and in the more recent Tales of the Mysterious Traveler revival by Ditko, just prior to his death.

You can read this comic for yourself at The Digital Comics Museum.

What is funny? (1,000th post!)

Do you like to laugh? Sure, we all do. When people discuss what makes them laugh the word "subjective" tends to appear, as though comedy were the most subjective of all forms of entertainment. We don't all agree on what is sad, frightening or thrilling either, but comedy is the whipping boy. Perhaps this is because if you don't believe that, say, a ghost story is scary you might still be entertained by it in some other way; but when comedy is not funny it is considered less than worthless.

I have come to realize I am a particularly prickly person where comedy is concerned. I like what I like; I don't put much effort into discovering new comedies, whereas I do place some effort into exploring new horror stories, adventure stories, etc. I have seen maybe 1.5 episodes of Saturday Night Live; I've never gone to a live comedy show; I haven't watched sitcoms for a decade; I very seldom watch comedy films in the cinema.

Recently I was browsing Netflix to find something to watch - I wanted something light and enjoyable, so I browsed through comedy. I couldn't find anything that I thought I would enjoy except for those shows I had seen before. That got me thinking: what about all the things I do like? What do they have in common? Come with me and we'll see.

Self-Deprecation

I've mentioned before that when I first became interested in old-time radio I listened for the science fiction/horror shows and skipped over the comedies, believing they would be old-fashioned and unfunny. And yet, I soon found one program which made me laugh: The Jack Benny Program. Jack Benny was a comic who knew his limitations - he couldn't master snappy patter. Thus, Jack's character was the schmuck instead of the wit; Jack's program constantly featured his supporting characters puncturing his ego, frequently to observe he was not as handsome, smart, funny or likeable as he believed himself to be - and I laughed because it seemed as though it were true and Jack deserved to be humiliated.

The wonderful, intangible part of Jack's routine was that his audience knew he was putting on an act, that "Jack Benny" was a false persona, yet he didn't break character (even Jack's ad-libs were very much on-point). I have found few other comedians so willing to put themselves down; to some extent, this is also what I enjoy about Robert Benchley's articles and short films; he would project an image of a dignified, urbane gentleman, but really he was another schmuck.

The Non Sequitur

How best to describe it... I like the snappy, witty remark, particularly when it is in stark contrast to the other party's statement ("the stooge"), and especially when it's surprising, totally unexpected; "non sequitur" seems to be the term which best describes it. I enjoy how authors such as P. G. Wodehouse & Damon Runyon would subvert genre expectations through clever dialogue and situations. I see this humour in my love for Groucho Marx's retorts:

This kind of humour tends to be heavily sarcastic or sardonic. The first party has come to play chess, but the second party arrives to play tennis - with a pogo stick - and demands the first party explain why he isn't similarly prepared. I was late in discovering Mystery Science Theater 3000, but its format of witty remarks and put-downs mixed with affectionate chiding truly spoke to me.

I've since come to learn, however, that one should not abuse their "witty" humour in public as it quickly becomes intolerable to friends. I've also learned how my idol Alfred Hitchcock used such remarks to disguise his own shyness; these remarks are basically a form of self-defense.

Satire

Over time I've learned I have low tolerance for the all-encompassing statement. I am the one who picks holes in every broad remark, noting the exceptions to each and every rule. I am similarly quick to note the cliches which infuse popular culture and when a masterpiece of satire appears - say, Stan Freberg, Cerebus, Monty Python, the Tick, Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker, Batton Lash - I nod in approval. The object being satirized need not be obvious; some of Bob & Ray's satire is best enjoyed when you are aware of their target (listen to at least one episode of Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy before listening to one of their "Jack Headstrong, the All-American American" skits) and yet, even in this instance, a parody of a children's science show which I'm not familiar with, I recognize they were satirizing a particular format and style of programming; the satire is specific in its target but broad in its humour:

I've never read a Nancy Drew book in my life, but Kate Beaton has had great fun writing her own comics based on the covers of Nancy Drew novels:

Edgar Wright is perhaps the best currently-working film satirist, mocking the sitcom (Spaced), zombie genre (Shaun of the Dead) and crime story (Hot Fuzz).

Returning to self-deprecation, some satirists would satirize themselves; witness Edgar Allan Poe and his connected stories "How to Write a Blackwood's Article" & "A Predicament," or Michael Kupperman sending up the entire genre of comics:

Self-deprecation works well with satire - however, I'm not confident that simply doing the opposite of the source material is sufficiently funny. "Dracula, but stupid" is not a solid basis for a film. Great satire digs deeper than the surface and exposes the tired tropes and cliches behind the entire genre; it's Poe making fun of morality tales in "Never Bet the Devil Your Head"; it's Stan Freberg making fun of lawn mower commercials while selling lawn mowers; it's Bob and Ray selling you a suit that will not only save you money, but make you money!

Laugh, won't you?

Old-Time Radio Theme Month, Day 15: "The Black Cat"

Let's turn today to one of literature's classics: Edgar Allan Poe's short story "the Black Cat," as it was dramatized on Mystery in the Air September 18, 1947 with Peter Lorre.

Personally, I find Lorre one of the most fascinating actors of his era; here, he's perfectly cast in the lead role of a man who's inclined to violent rages which he takes out on his pets and his wife. Like most episodes of Mystery in the Air, the highlight is hearing Lorre dramatize the rantings of a frantic madman.

You can download a copy of this radio show from archive.org here.

Great Short Stories: #1-10

In my school days I was exposed to short stories in English classes as part of my course material, but I didn't really develop an interest in the format until I became obsessed with old-time radio. Many of the radio dramas I enjoyed - notably those used on Escape - utilized short stories to great effect as they were well suited to the half-hour format of most programs. As the programs exposed me to certain stories and authors I began searching out the print versions of those works, then finding more stories by my favorite of those authors and then seeking out additional authors who were said to be similar to them. I love that the format gets through the plots quickly and often with a deft sense of economy.

I've read an especially large amount of short stories since delving into the University's collections, grabbing thick anthologies here and there. I've read so much that I felt the need to share my recommendations for great short stories. Beginning today and over the next nine days, I'll list my 100 favorite short stories, including information on where to buy or read online where able. This list will be in chronological order and won't have much beyond the 1950s.

1. "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" (1837) by Nathaniel Hawthorne. This is the prototype of "fountain of youth" stories, demonstrating the yearning to be young again outwardly, but that inward youth is not so easily obtained. Like so many stories of its sort, the miracle which grants youth is lost by the story's end, but it leads to a final paragraph that is quite funny.

"Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" can be found in Twice-Told Tales. You can read the text online here.

2. "A Predicament" (1838) by Edgar Allan Poe. This story is best enjoyed when read alongside "How to Write a Blackwood's Article," but I think the absurdism stands well on its own. This is one of Poe's best humourous stories and pokes fun at some of the conventions he later adopted himself!

"A Predicament" can be found in Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales and Poems. You can read the text online here.

3. "The Fall of the House of Usher" (1839) by Edgar Allan Poe. This is one of the great Poe stories and is likely familiar to many; the story of a woman buried alive by her brother and highlighted by an unforgettable climax where the protagonist reads from The Mad Trist as unusual sounds in the house seem to mirror every passage of the text.

"The Fall of the House of Usher" can be found in Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales and Poems. You can read the text online here.

4. "The Man That Was Used Up" (1839) by Edgar Allan Poe. This is another of Poe's humourous tales, featuring a general who is well regarded by everyone the protagonist meets, and yet they seem simultaneously evasive on the subject. When the protagonist finally meets the general he learns the great man's secret: most of his body has been replaced with prosthetics. He has, in brief, been "used up."

"The Man That Was Used Up" can be found in Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales and Poems. You can read the text online here.

5. "Never Bet the Devil Your Head" (1841) by Edgar Allan Poe. This is easily Poe's funniest story, the tale of a gambling man whose ultimate wager is to bet the Devil his head. When the Devil accepts his terms, he has to put his money where his mouth is...that is, if he still had a mouth...

"Never Bet the Devil Your Head" can be found in Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales and Poems. You can read the text online here.

6. "The Pit and the Pendulum" (1842) by Edgar Allan Poe. Another of Poe's best-known tales, this is the story of the man imprisoned by the Spanish Inquisition and left in a darkened prison to face two dilemmas: first, an immense pit which he's expected to blindly stumble into and second, an immense bladed pendulum which descends from the ceiling, drawing ever closer to his body.

"The Pit and the Pendulum" can be found in Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales and Poems. You can read the text online here.

7. "The Black Cat" (1843) by Edgar Allan Poe. For my money, this was Poe's most disturbing story. The narrator is a drunk who kills his cat in a fit; later, he obtains a new cat but begins to fear it's the old cat reincarnated. When he kills his wife in another fit he tries desperately to conceal his crime, but the cat isn't through with him yet and his own pride brings about his fall.

"The Black Cat" can be found in Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales and Poems. You can read the text online here.

8. "The Gold Bug" (1843) by Edgar Allan Poe. This is Poe's great treasure hunt story, featuring a cipher and the fortune of Captain Kidd hidden beneath a skull. What maintains interest is that the treasure hunter seems to be a madman, but is actually following the seemingly-insane directions to the treasure.

"The Gold Bug" can be found in Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales and Poems. You can read the text online here.

9. "The Telltale Heart" (1843) by Edgar Allan Poe. If "the Black Cat" was Poe's most disturbing, I think this was Poe's single best work. This is the classic story of a murderer whose guilty conscience manifests as the sound of a heartbeat emanating from the place where he buried his victim. Adaptations to other media try too hard to delve into the narrator's motivation, making it about the killer's need for money or want of love; the actual story is stripped bare - it's a killer's confession and everything from the murder scene to the tormented imaginations of the killer are suspenseful and thrilling.

"The Telltale Heart" can be found in Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales and Poems. You can read the text online here.

10. "The Cask of Amontillado" (1846) by Edgar Allan Poe. And this is the last tale by Poe to make it on my list; this is another of his great stories and I encourage anyone who thinks they know the story to sit down and read it for themselves. The flashes of grim humour are really engaging and the climax - Fortunato being sealed up inside a wall by Montressor - is some of Poe's best work.

"The Cask of Amontillado" can be found in Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales and Poems. You can read the text online here.

Edgar Allan Poe on the Weird Circle

I recently had the pleasure of taking down my copy of the Complete Tales & Poems of Edgar Allan Poe and reading (mostly re-reading) all of his stories. I was most interested to read his lesser-known works and it gave me a new appreciation for the versatility of his craft. It's particularly fun to check out his humourous works; if you haven't read How to Write a Blackwood Article and A Predicament (in that order), do so.

But perhaps the most interesting part of the collection is Poe's only novel, the Narrative of A. Gordon Pym. It tells of a young man who goes to sea one night with his (unfortunately) drunken friend. Surviving this, he decides to go to sea again, this time smuggled in the ship his friend serves on with the intent of emerging later on. Unfortunately, the crew fall into mutiny, Pym helps retake the ship and the remaining crew succumb to starvation, sharks and cannibalism before another ship takes the last two men aboard. Pym travels with this ship toward the South Pole and they encounter a race of hostile natives with black skin (and black teeth). The story ends abruptly.

As a fan of the Old-Time Radio program the Weird Circle, my previous exposure to the Narrative of A. Gordon Pym was their dramatization. The Weird Circle was not the greatest OTR program in terms of acting or production, but the entire series was adapted from classic fiction, often from obscure authors and I enjoyed discovering these long-forgotten tales.

But their adaptation of the Narrative of A. Gordon Pym has little to do with the story I outlined above. Both have a protagonist with the same name, but in the radio version Pym is shanghaied aboard a ship; the crew mutiny against their captain but the ship is lost at sea, Pym survives and encounters the captain when he returns to land. I have to wonder, was this actually another story entirely whose title was replaced (by accident?).

So, I started to wonder how the rest of the Poe adaptations on the Weird Circle stack up. Here are my findings:

THE TELL-TALE HEART

Poe: A young man murders an elderly man because he cannot bear his milky eye; he buries him beneath the floorboards but hallucinates that he can hear his heart beating and confesses everything.

Weird Circle: A young man murders his uncle because he's constantly nagging him, he has a milky eye and he hears voices in his head compelling him to murder. He buries him beneath the floorboards but is still haunted by the (annoying) phantom voices, hallucinates that he can hear his heart beating and confesses everything.

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER

Poe: A man goes to visit his old friend whose sister has passed away. The brother is visibly unnerved about something and on an eerie evening as terrible noises are heard in the house confesses that he buried his sister alive; his sister bursts in and they die in a struggle; the house of Usher collapses.

Weird Circle: The respective lovers of the two Usher siblings come to visit them as the lady Usher passes away, accompanied by red rain. The sinister, scheming brother insists his sister was a witch. She finally rises from the dead to reclaim her soul from her brother; the two lovers escape, the house of Usher collapses.

WILLIAM WILSON

Poe: William Wilson meets another man named William Wilson who follows him in everything he does. He finally attacks and kills the other Wilson only to find that there is only one William Wilson - he has killed himself.

Weird Circle: William Wilson meets another man named William Wilson who follows him in everything he does. He finally attacks and kills the other Wilson only to find that there is only one William Wilson - he has killed himself.

THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE

Poe: Detective Auguste Dupin investigates the murder of a woman and her daughter inside a sealed room. He ultimately proves that an orangutang who accidentally learned to wield a razor is responsible.

Weird Circle: Detective Auguste Dupin investigates the murder of a woman and her daughter inside a sealed room. He ultimately proves that an orangutang who accidentally learned to wield a razor is responsible.

THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO

Poe: Montressor leads his hated rival Fortunato down into his catacombs for some amontillado; in actuality, there is no wine and it is a trap. He seals Fortunato up behind a wall; the murder is never discovered.

Weird Circle: Fortunato sells Montressor into slavery so that he can claim the woman Montressor loves. Montressor eventually regains his family fortune and leads Fortunato down into his catacombs for some amontillado; in actuality, there is no wine and it is a trap. He closes Fortunato behind a door; the murder is never discovered, but Montressor is haunted by his actions for the rest of his life.

METZENGERSTEIN

Poe: Two families have feuded for ages. When one of the family's home burns down a horse (possibly the same one from a tapestry) appears. Metzengerstein takes it as his steed, believing it to be the reincarnation of his family's rival, but the horse ultimately leads him to his death.

Weird Circle (as "The Tapestry Horse"): Two families have feuded for ages. When one of the family's home burns down a horse (possibly the same one from a tapestry) appears. Luren takes it as his steed, believing it to be the reincarnation of his family's rival, conquers the horse and weds a daughter of the rival family, ending the feud.

LIGEIA

Poe: A man loses his wife Ligeia. He marries another woman, but she dies of a fever too, then transforms into Ligeia, returned to life.

Weird Circle (as "The Returned"): The woman Ligeia is dead and immediately begins haunting her husband's home. When he marries another woman and brings her home the hauntings increase. The second wife seems to succumb to a fever Ligeia's spirit caused. Ligeia's spirit inhabits the second wife's body, the husband kills himself, Ligeia mourns him and returns to death.

THE OBLONG BOX

Poe: An artist carries an unusual oblong box with him aboard a ship. He has also brought his wife who does not seem to be the beauty everyone heard she was. When the ship goes down, the artist goes with it as he chases after the oblong box. It turns out that his wife is dead and was being impersonated by his maid; he kept his wife's body in the box because he could not transport a corpse otherwise.

Weird Circle: An artist carries an unusual oblong box with him aboard a ship. He has also brought his wife who does not seem to be the beauty everyone heard she was. When the ship goes down, the artist goes with it as he chases after the oblong box. It turns out that he murdered his wife aboard the ship and kept her in the oblong box, then had his maid impersonate his wife.

THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF M. VALDEMAR

Poe: A mesmerist places a dying man into a trance at the moment of death and he continues to exist in a state of unlife for seven months until the mesmerist breaks the trance; the subject crumbles into gore.

Weird Circle: A sinister mesmerist places a dying woman into a trance at the moment of death and she continues to exist in a state of unlife for seven months until the woman's husband demands she be released; the subject simply dies and the mesmerist is hung for her death; the mesmerist places himself in a trance at the moment of his own death.

A parting thought on the differences: although Poe had a reputation for horror, the Weird Circle generally seemed determined to increase the amount of bloodshed in his stories.