Radio Recap: Mystery in the Air

One of my absolute favourite radio series is the short-lived mystery/horror anthology program Mystery in the Air, starring Peter Lorre. It was an NBC summer 1947 replacement series sponsored by Camel cigarettes while their usual clients Abbott and Costello took a break.

Now, there was also a 1945 summer series Camel produced called Mystery in the Air and a lot of radio logs treat the two as the same show. Scholarship performed by the Digital Deli determined they were very different shows - the 1945 program was a detective show starring Jackson Beck as detective Stonewall Scott.

Lorre's Mystery in the Air lasted just 13 episodes; the first five are now lost programs: "The Tell Tale Heart," "Leiningen vs. the Ants," "the Touch of Your Hand," "the Interruption" and "Nobody Loves Me." Those are definitely some tantalizing titles - "Nobody Loves Me" was also performed by Lorre on Suspense, which we still have; and Lorre's "Leiningen vs. the Ants" aired half a year before the first adaptation performed on Escape; one wonders if they used the same script on Escape.

But let's consider the remaining 8 episodes:

1. "The Marvelous Barastro" (by Ben Hecht) in which Lorre portrays a famous magician who married a blind woman, then encountered another magician who was determined to learn Barastro's tricks and destroy his happiness.
2. "The Lodger" (by Marie Belloc Lowndes) in which Lorre is the man believed to be a serial killer dubbed 'the Avenger'; however, he's not the point-of-view character as that role falls to Agnes Moorehead as the landlady.
3. "The Horla" (by Guy de Maupassant) in which Lorre portrays the hapless man who becomes haunted by an invisible presence.
4. "Beyond Good and Evil" (by Ben Hecht) in which Lorre portrays an escaped criminal who masquerades as the new minister to a small town, challenging his own sense of right and wrong.
5. "The Mask of Medusa" (by Nelson S. Bond) in which Lorre portrays an escaped criminal who hides in a wax museum where the statues are very much alive.
6. "The Queen of Spades" (by Alexander Pushkin) in which Lorre portrays a gambler who learns the secret to win every time at cards.
7. "The Black Cat" (by Edgar Allan Poe) in which Lorre portrays the brute who murders a cat and soon becomes a killer.
8. "Crime and Punishment" (by Fyodor Dostoevsky) explicitly an adaptation of the 1935 motion picture, with Lorre reprising his role as the murderer, Raskolnikov.

The adaptations take some liberties - for instance, there isn't a single radio adaptation of "The Lodger" that uses the novel's ending and Mystery in the Air came up with its own as other shows did; "the Mask of Medusa" is a fairly brief short story and Mystery in the Air adapted it all by the 15-minute mark - their expansion is very good.

Many of these stories were heard on other radio shows (Suspense adapted both of the Ben Hect stories - Mystery in the Air used the same scripts). However, some are very seldom heard on the radio, such as "the Horla." "The Horla" was the first episode of Mystery in the Air I heard and it won me over immediately because of Lorre's intense performance as his character grows increasingly unhinged across the half-hour, until the show ends with him breaking character to assure the audience he's not really insane! This episode made me fascinated with Guy de Maupassant's fiction; I later read all of his short stories. I also recently reviewed a graphic novel adaptation of this story, le Horla.

I like all 8 episodes; "the Queen of Spades" is a terrific supernatural tale and "the Black Cat" came across very well. Perhaps "the Lodger" is the least interesting but only because the emphasis on Moorehead's point-of-view reduces the amount of time for Lorre to be heard.

Lorre was a terrific actor whose abilities seemed to be taken for granted by Hollywood for much of his career. Mystery in the Air demonstrated he was as capable as Boris Karloff in headlining his own anthology series; too bad the summer series didn't result in a regular radio series. He did later host Nightmare but hosting isn't the same as leading the production.

I should also mention that the cast of Mystery in the Air included announcer Henry Morgan -- no, not the star of the Henry Morgan Show. This is the same performer who would later make his professional name "Harry Morgan," serving as Joe Friday's sidekick in the 1960s Dragnet TV show and performing as Colonel Potter on M*A*S*H. It's interesting to hear him back in the 40s - his voice never seemed to age.

Here's a YouTube playlist created by a fan of the remaining episodes of Mystery in the Air.

Review: Le Horla

Guy de Maupassant's 1887 short story "The Horla" was my introduction to the author; I heard a production of the radio series Mystery in the Air with Peter Lorre in the lead role of a man being haunted by an invisible presence (here) and it made an immediate impression. Certainly the adaptation featured Lorre at the top of his range, closing with him in the midst of a ranting breakdown to beat all breakdowns.

I read a lot of Maupassant's short stories (possibly all of them, I haven't found a decent bibliography that takes into account all the variant English titles his stories have had). "The Horla" wasn't Maupassant's only supernatural tale but such themes are rare in his work. "The Horla" remains his most famous work.

The concept of an invisible presence isn't necessarily ideal for adaptation in a visual medium - perhaps why radio suited it so well - but it has been done. You might recall that in 2012 I reviewed an adaptation of "the Horla" in Ernie Colon's Inner Sanctum graphic novel. But that adaptation played pretty loose with the original work.

Perhaps Maupassant's work requires a fellow Frenchman to do it justice. Guillaume Sorel adapted the short story in a full-length 2014 graphic novel. I've looked at a few French graphic novels on the blog recently and I suppose I should reiterate - I don't read French. My Portuguese helps a little; exposure to French in my bilingual homeland helps a little; but what helped me the most in Sorel's Le Horla is that dialogue isn't what drives his adaptation of this familiar story. Most of the atmosphere and terror is visual in nature.

Sorel has a few means to make the invisible menace visible. One is by demonstrating the effects of the creature's presence upon the hapless protagonist, such as in this scene where it simply breaks a flower by the stem. It's eerie and suspenseful, taking good advantage of the Horla's unseen nature.

Sorel's second means is to simply depict the Horla; it appears as an outline of a figure when it hovers over the protagonist at night. I'm not sure how I feel about those scenes - Sorel's Horla is terrifying, but giving the creature even an outline makes it somewhat comprehensible. I feel some of the terror of the story is in the creature's unreality.

Maupassant suffered from mental illlness (namely, syphilis) and it's hard to avoid seeing that in the story of the Horla - that the protagonist's increasingly unhinged rants were coming from a place that Maupassant knew all to well. Sorel's interpretation of the protagonist is a bit more restrained and keeps the ranting to a minimum. Still, Sorel's Le Horla is the most faithful adaptation I have found of Maupassant's story and I do strongly recommend it to fans of Maupassant.

Radio Recap: Nightmare

The first time I heard an episode of Nightmare I wasn't quite certain what it was. Obviously my ears immediately recognized the familiar voice of Peter Lorre hosting and narrating the program - but how could it be that he had an entire series I hadn't heard about before? Given that Nightmare is a horror-mystery anthology with one of the all-time great horror-mystery stars hosting, it is a little mystifying that it's seldom brought up among old-time radio fans.

Nightmare was a late entry in radio, airing on Mutual from fall 1953 to spring 1954. It lasted a full calendar year, yet a mere 7 episodes still exist. All the commercials have been cut from the programs, leaving them very trim (about 23 minutes each). The seven episodes are:

• "The Purple Cloud" (November 19, 1953) Two men fear a nuclear assault has occurred.
• "Coincidence" (November 26, 1953) A schmoe has the bad luck to find the murder weapon that recently killed his girlfriend's father.
• "High Wire Lady" (December 24, 1953) A woman afraid of heights is forced to face her fears.
• "The Hollow Footsteps" (February 3, 1954) A man seems to be haunted by a ghost that only he can hear.
• "The Chance of a Ghost" (March 31, 1954) A medium fears she has truly made contact with the spirit world.
• "The Leech" (April 7, 1954) An unfaithful wife and her lover murder her husband but are prevented from making a getaway.
• "The Hybrid" (April 14, 1954) A new hothouse plant has a thirst for blood.

As my brief descriptions show, the content was very similar to Inner Sanctum Mysteries, but the style was more restrained. The exception to the rule is "the Hybrid," a menacing story with some gruesome moments and extremely effective sound effects. By the declining standards of 1953-1954 radio, Nightmare is pretty good. Stories such as "Coincidence" are contrived, but in that instance the intent of the plot is to create a contrived situation to endanger the protagonist.

It's a pity that Lorre didn't perform in these programs as we know from Mystery in the Air that no one could energize a script like he - but Nightmare did at least boast a lot of solid radio professionals who turned in good work. Lorre's hosting permitted him to be a bit light-hearted, often speaking in rhyme. Lorre is always delightful.

The Digital Deli has a great article on the series.

OTR Halloween Day 19: Mystery in the Air

Mystery in the Air was one of the absolute best mystery/horror anthology series in all of old-time radio - but it was very short-lived! Sponsored by Camel Cigarettes as a summer replaacement for Abbott and Costello, it aired July-September, 1947... and never again. There were only 13 episodes of Mystery in the Air and we have 8 of them still in existence.

What makes me think Mystery in the Air stands out? Simple: Peter Lorre. Lorre was the star of the show and appeared as the lead performer each week in a great mystery/horror story. Lorre always brought 110% more intensity to his roles than any other actor and the highlight of each episode is the moment(moments) in which Lorre breaks out his loudest, most deranged outburst!

The episode I'd like to feature is titled "the Mask of Medusa" from September 4, 1947. It's based on a short story from 1945 by writer Nelson S. Bond. An escaped criminal hides in a waxworks and discovers the curator possesses Medusa's head. And those figures aren't wax...

Bond's original story is covered in the first half of the radio drama. The rest of the drama was written to fill the half hour but it's a pretty great expansion of what Bond set up in his tale. You can hear "The Mask of Medusa" at the Internet Archive.

Inner Sanctum Halloween Month, day 3 of 31: "The Colorblind Formula"

Today I'm featuring the Inner Sanctum Mystery titled "The Color Blind Formula", which was first broadcast December 6, 1944. This episode involves a scientist who has a created a solution to cure color-blindness. However, it seems the scientist has been murdered and a blackmailer has figured out what's happened. This was a wartime story, which becomes relevant near the end of the episode. This is one of several episodes featuring Richard Widmark, who had a terrific radio voice!

The surviving copy of this episode is version from the Mystery Playhouse hosted by Peter Lorre. The actual program is hosted by Raymond Edward Johnson and the lead role belongs to Richard Widmark. You can listen to this episode at archive.org by clicking here.

Inner Sanctum Halloween Month, day 2 of 31: "The Black Sea Gull"

Today I'm looking at the Inner Sanctum Mystery episode "The Black Sea Gull", which was first broadcast March 7, 1943. This episode stars Peter Lorre as a man whose wife dies while promising she will return from death itself. A black sea gull seems to confirm her promise. Peter Lorre always gave 110% on the radio and this program is no exception!

This episode features Raymond Edward Johnson as the host; Peter Lorre stars. You can listen to this episode at archive.org by clicking here.

The Men Who Knew Too Much

I was a teenager when I first became a fan of Alfred Hitchcock. My parents, bless their hearts, did their best to support my newfound interest. One amazing Christmas, they gifted me with a 4-VHS tape collection of (public domain) Alfred Hitchcock movies and the book The Films of Alfred Hitchcock by Neil Sinyard. At the time I had seen fewer than 10 Hitchcock movies so Sinyard's book did a lot to inform me about those films I had yet to see.

Sinyard's book was something of a 'coffee table book' - an oversized hardcover with big glossy pages of photos from Hitchcock's movies. And yet, it was also full of opinions from the author - not satisfied with merely describing the movies' plots, but frequently subject to the author's own preferences. The coverage was also noticeably skewed in favour of the author's favourite Hitchcock films and to the detriment of those which were not. I liked that book, but I don't know if it was a very good 'first' Hitchcock book; like, the author's opinions about Shadow of a Doubt (which I had not seen when I read the book) seriously interfered with my later enjoyment of the film.

Which brings me to The Man Who Knew Too Much. This is the only time Hitchcock made one of his films twice - first in 1934, again in 1956. As I've learned, this wasn't uncommon among Hitchcock's peers - certainly Cecil B. DeMille, Howard Hawks & Raoul Walsh had no problem remaking their own pictures. But Sinyard's book favoured the 1956 remake and had little to say about the 1934 original. In fact, he devoted only 2 paragraphs to the 1934 movie (and one of those paragraphs was devoted to his opinions on why the 1956 version was better) but gave the 1956 version 2 pages!

The 1934 version came in the VHS set my parents gave me so I had seen that picture and enjoyed it, but it would be several years before I could find a video store where I could rent the 1956 one. When I finally did, I decided I didn't like the 1956 version as much as the original. Over the decades I've now read numerous books about Hitchcock's films and I find that many which were written through the 1990s were convinced the 1956 version was superior; perhaps they simply didn't want to dissent from Hitchcock's own opinion, which, as he informed Francois Truffaut was "the first version is the work of a talented amateur and the second was made by a professional." But I've found in the internet age there is a pretty even split between critics who prefer the original and critics who prefer the later version.

Recently I watched the two versions again and I have a few thoughts I'd like to share about them -- and why I prefer the 1934 version.

THE FILMS

1934: A British couple the Lawrences (Leslie Banks & Edna Best) are on vacation in Switzerland so Mrs. Lawrence can compete in a sharpshooting contest when they meet a secret agent, whom Mrs. Lawrence flirts with to tease her husband. When the agent is killed, the dying man leaves them with information about his case. To silence the couple, enemy agents kidnap the Lawrences' daughter and bring her to England where they are plotting to assassinate a diplomat during a concert at the Royal Albert Hall. Unwilling to share what they know with the police, the Lawrences try to rescue their daughter from the enemy agents.

1956: An Americna couple the McKennas (James Stewart & Doris Day) are on vacation in Morocco when they meet a secret agent, whom Mr. McKenna befreinds. When the agent is killed, the dying man leaves them with information about his case. To silence the couple, enemy agents kidnap the McKennas' son and bring him to England where they are plotting to assassinate a diplomat during a concert at the Royal Albert Hall. Unwilling to share what they know with the police, the McKennas try to rescue their son from the enemy agents.

There are many differences between the two films - the original is in black & white, the remake in Technicolor and VistaVision. The original has a very 'small' feeling with tight sets; the remake has a very 'wide' feeling with immense sets. Even the copies I own have their differences - my copy of the original is on a cheap public domain DVD with spotty quality; my copy of the remake is on a beautiful blu-ray with crisp picture and audio.

The first difference I noticed between the films is in the antagonists: the original film has Peter Lorre as the leader of the enemy agents; Lorre was great! My favourite scene occurs after Lorre has bluffed his way past the police when they come close to finding his hideout. Returning to the hideout, Lorre finds his nervous followers have their guns drawn on him as he opens the door. Amused, Lorre mockingly raises his hands as if to surrender. It's a subtle piece of acting with no dialogue and there's simply nothing comparable in the remake. The leader of the spies in the remake was played by Bernard Miles and he made no real impression on me.

But the biggest differences can be found in comparing the female leads - Edna Best in the original, Doris Day in the remake. Both women fade into the background during the middle of the picture, then help thwart the assassination in the Royal Albert Hall by screaming at an opportune pause in the music, and help save their child in the climax by using their unique skillset.

Of course, the two women's skillsets are quite different; Edna Best portrays a sharpshooter and she employs that skill in the climax by killing a man in order to save her daughter. Doris Day portrays a retired singer who performs a song within an embassy where she and her husband think the kidnappers may be holding their son; when she begins singing 'Que Sera' her son whistles in response, proving he's there (it's still up to her husband to save their son), but this only works because the villains help them out - the female kidnapper has had a change of heart and encourages the son to reveal his presence.

There's so much to say about these two women; Edna Best has an interesting role to play in the plot - the man she competes against in the contest at the opening is the same man who will later attempt to assassainte the diplomat - which she thwarts - and he's also the man who menaces her daughter in the climax. The assassin wins the sharpshooting contest in the opening because Peter Lorre throws off Best's aim; she later proves her prowess by shooting the assassin when the police are afraid of hitting her daughter. The competition in Switzerland also helps get the Lawrences into the locale for foreign intrigue.

Doris Day's character is so very different; she gave up her singing career for the sake of her physician husband and doesn't really seem to mind that she gave it up. Both women are startled when their child is kidnapped, but while Best appears weak (she faints), Day is given a sedative by her husband before he tells her, a decision which makes James Stewart's character feel alienating to me as a viewer.

But Doris Day's Mrs. McKenna is simply so passive and helpless in the film. At one point, Mr. McKenna heads off to find 'Ambrose Chapel', whom he assumes is a person. McKenna leaves his wife with four of her friends (3 women, 1 man) who want to throw an impromptu welcoming party at their hotel. After he's gone on this wild goose chase, Day realizes 'Ambrose Chapel' could be a place and asks her male friend to look it up in the directory. She runs off to find Ambrose Chapel. When Mr. McKenna returns and learns about the other Ambrose Chapel he gets the address and prepares to follow her, but then his wife phones him to inform him she's at Ambrose Chapel. She waits outside until he gets there, then they both go in and confirm the two people who kidnapped their son are inside. Mr. McKenna sends his wife out of the church to notify the police.

There are so many strange decisions about the events I described in the paragraph above, especially where Mrs. McKenna's decisions are concerned. Not only is she unable to look up an address in a phone directory without a man's help, once she reaches her destination she doesn't do anything until her husband arrives. The only great moment in that series of events -- one which takes advantage of casting Doris Day -- comes when they enter the church and try to blend in by singing along to a hymn. The scene is a redo of one from the original, but this time because Day is such an accomplished vocalist, her voice is so distinctive that she accidentally draws attention when she begins singing.

But considering Mrs. McKenna does nothing until Mr. McKenna arrives, why didn't they arrive together to begin with? Why couldn't he have encountered her in the hallway on his way back to the hotel and accompanied her to Ambrose Chapel? Or if she had to go there ahead of him, why not have her enter the church and recognize the kidnappers but remain inside, afraid to risk losing sight of them; when Mr. McKenna arrives (remember, he was headed there before she called him anyway) he could then take over monitoring the kidnappers while she exits to call the police. It would have been a little more suspenseful, less languid.

The Royal Albert Hall scene in the remake is the one the critics lauded the most in the books I grew up reading, but I really have to say, it doesn't do much for me. The music is great, but there's so little of interest going on in that scene. Heading into it, we in the audience have been told who the assassin is and at what point in the music he will fire at his target. We're a bit fuzzy about who the target will be, and that's about all the suspense that's involved. When the assassin sees Mrs. McKenna at the hall he reveals his presence to her, threatening her son's life. Then he heads off to make his assassination attempt. Once again, the heroes gain a leg up on the villains because of choices the villains make (here, the assassin giving away his identity so that he can deliver a threat). Compare to the original, where the wife knows who the killer is because he's someone she knows and even has a grudge against!

As in the original film, the woman screams at just the right time to throw off the assassin's aim; unlike the original, where the assassin escapes (to be later killed by Edna Best's character), this time the husband is present as well (instead of being held captive for most of the film as the husband in the original was); Mr. McKenna wrestles with the would-be assassin, who falls over a balcony to his death.

Since the setup for the Royal Albert Hall sequence is "assassin is targeting someone in the audience; woman must somehow thwart him" I think it was a bad call for Hitchcock to tell the audience - and Mrs. McKenna - who the assassin was. A much more suspenseful sequence could have been fabricated if the killer's face hadn't been previously established. Then the scene could have been composed of shots of Mrs. McKenna glancing around the room, trembling each time she sees someone in the audience make a sudden movement. Those watching at home would be in her character's mindset -- where is the killer? How can he be stopped? -- and that would have made the sequence thrilling.

I suppose when I get right down to it, I'm most disappointed in the 1956 version because it is not terribly thrilling or suspenseful. Although both movies are of their time and dated by today's standards, I think the surprisingly-adept female protagonist in the earlier film gives the original movie an edge over the remake. And again, the original has Peter Lorre, against whom there is no competition.

Young Fears 7: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Each October I like to run a series of Halloween-themed posts on this blog. All this month, I'll be telling anecdotes about things which frightened me while growing up.

I've already spoken of a couple of animated Disney films which gave me the shivers. Of course, Disney also had a formidable presence in live action pictures. In the 1980s, I was constantly disappointed when Disney's anthology shows (Wonderful World of Disney, Magical World of Disney) would air a live action movie instead of an animated one; however, there were a few live action Disney films as scarily effective as their animated movies - notably, their adaptation of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Of course, when I say I found it scary, I'm speaking primarily of the giant squid attack. The tentacles everywhere, the creature latched on to the side of the Nautilus - it is the single most significant image of the film. What do you see on the video box? The squid. On the cover of the children's read-long book adaptation? The squid. The squid easily became the most fantastic thing about the picture, making the Nautilus itself seem passe. The squid looms so large in the film's identity that if it were made today the giant squid would be given his own prequel trilogy.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea introduced me to the idea of sea monsters, the notion that when you go swimming in a lake or ocean there could be unseen terrors lurking beneath you. What a splendid sensation that is! Let's hear it for that giant squid, perhaps the only time Peter Lorre wasn't the creepiest character in a film.

Old-Time Radio Theme Month, Day 17: "the Horla"

Returning to Peter Lorre's program Mystery in the Air, we have an episode from August 21, 1947: an adaptation of Guy de Maupassant's "the Horla." You may recall this as one of the tales Ernie Colon adapted into comic book format in his Inner Sanctum graphic novel, as I blogged here.

This episode's story of a man haunted by an invisible presence was my first exposure to Maupassant and led to my reading two collections of his short fiction; he didn't write much in the supernatural vein and I found his cynicism to be overwhelming at times, but I was fascinated by the notion of a man who wrote tales of madness, then ultimately succumbed to madness himself. Many of his stories are quite clever, like a subdued Saki. I recommend investigating his bibliography.

There's an anecdote about how during one broadcast of Mystery in the Air, Lorre's performance became so intense that he accidentally flung his script away and had to ad-lib the rest of the program; I don't know which episode it would be, but based on the intensity of this program's finale and his sudden closing apology, this may be the show in question.

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

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.