CBS Radio Mystery Theater
was a multi-genre anthology. It aired over the CBS network almost daily from 1974 to 1982 and included 1.399 episodes. Episodes shared a time slot with the top-of-the-hour news summary. After subtracting the news and commercials, CBSRMT was left with a 45-minute format.
The series was hosted, for the most part, by the late E.G. Marshall. The series creator and producer Himan Brown oversaw scripts and, though the daily format restricted the depth of sound effects, each show averaged 45 minutes. The writing was intelligent and the stories were thought-provoking. CBSRMT presented a bit of everything—science fiction, historical drama, ghost stories, horror—but the majority of episodes were murder mysteries, often with a supernatural bent. Because of the enormous volume of episodes, this archive could take up a LOT of time, to the detriment of other areas of this site. Therefore, I've decided to limit the archive to shows which best fit into the Plot Spot's chosen venue of sci-fi, horror, etc.
Sources used to create my own log and double-check titles, dates and cast members:
Mousetrap's very excellent website (alas, long dead), CBS Radio Mystery Theater, Radio Horror Hosts, Nightkey's OTR Errors, Internet Speculative Fiction Database, IMDb, and Project Gutenberg.
Currently this archive contains 159 of 1399 plotlines and 39 reviews
Webmaster Recommends:
1974 - A Very Old Man | I Warn You Three Times | Mirror for Murder | The Fall of the House of Usher
Jeff Dickson Recommends:
Prisoner of the Machines | Resident Killer | The Captain of the Pole-Star
Aaron Burr Murder Case, The
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Murder; Humour
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Sam Dann
On a misty morning in early July, high atop the palisade above the Hudson river, movie director Max Perrodien stages a duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr with authentic costumes and fake pistols. Predictably, Hamilton falls to the ground. Unexpectedly, he is found to have been shot with a real pistol engraved with the name Aaron Burr. Clearly, that is not possible.
Reviews:
A lighthearted story with excellent acting (the portrayal of the movie director cracks me up every time I listen). Well-produced, but slightly predictable. [8/10] --- zM
Abraham Lincoln Murder Trial, The
aka: "The Graysons: A Story of Illinois"
Year: 1982
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Historical Fiction
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: James Agate, Jr
Story by:
Edward Eggleston, 1887
Reading Link: "The Graysons: A Story of Illinois", by Edward Eggleston, available at The Project Gutenberg.
Reviews:
Absent-Minded League, The
aka: "The Absent-Minded Coterie"
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Crime
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Gerald Keane
Story by:
Robert Barr, 1906
See also "The Midas of Castle Hill".
Reading Link: "The Triumphs of Eugène Valmont", by Robert Barr, available at The Project Gutenberg.
Reviews:
Adam's Astral Self
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Occult
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Elspeth Eric
A woman breaks up with a spiritualist who threatens to use his telepathic powers to kill her new lover.
Reviews:
Adventure of the Beryl Coronet, The
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Murray Burnett
Story by:
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
A Sherlock Holmes mystery.
Reviews:
Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle, The
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Murray Burnett
Story by:
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
A Sherlock Holmes mystery.
Reviews:
Adventure of the Red-Headed League, The
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Murray Burnett
Story by:
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
A Sherlock Holmes mystery.
Reviews:
Adventure of the Speckled Band, The
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Murray Burnett
Story by:
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
A Sherlock Holmes mystery.
Reviews:
Adventures of Don Quixote, The
aka: "The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote de La Mancha"
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Arnold Moss
Story by:
Miguel de Cervantes
Reviews:
Afterward
Year: 1976
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Murray Burnett
Story by:
Edith Wharton
Reviews:
A.L.I.C.E.
Year: 1981
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Humour
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: G. Frederic Lewis
A programmer builds an A.I. computer, and soon has the Russians and the FBI hot on his tail. However, compared to dealing with A.L.I.C.E., those are the least of his problems.
Reviews:
Alien Presences
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Aliens
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Ian Martin
A couple follow a crashed meteor and find a baby. They decide to raise it without considering that its parents may one day want the child back.
Reviews:
Aliens, The
Year: 1976
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Sam Dann
Reviews:
All Things Are Possible
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Frederic G. Lewis
Story by:
Leo Tolstoy
Reviews:
Arctic Encounter
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Sci-Fi
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Sam Dann
Two American pilots on an Arctic patrol sight a downed Soviet plane; suddenly their own aircraft mysteriously loses power and they too are forced down onto the ice. Just what—or who—is responsible for this 'Bermuda Triangle of the North'?
Reviews:
Artist, The
Year: 1976
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Sam Dann
Story by:
Guy de Maupassant
Reviews:
Assassination, The
aka: "The Tragedy of Julius Caesar"
Year: 1976
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Historical
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Ian Martin
Story by:
William Shakespeare
An adaptation of William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, with much of the dialogue modernized, but following the original story line of the conspiracy to murder the Roman statesman and general who 'bestrides the narrow world like a Colossus'.
See also "The Murder of Caesar" (CBS Radio Mystery Theater)
Reviews:
At the End of the Passage
Year: 1979
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Roy Winsor
Story by:
Rudyard Kipling
Reviews:
Beach of Falesá, The
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Ian Martin
Story by:
Robert Louis Stevenson
Reviews:
Beast, The
aka: "The Blond Beast" ??
Year: 1979
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: James Agate, Jr
Story by:
Edith Wharton
Reviews:
Berenice
Year: 1975
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Horror
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: George Lowthar
Story by:
Edgar Allan Poe
The classic story of a man driven mad by his fascination with a woman’s smile.
Reviews:
Between These Worlds
Year: 1979
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Aliens
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Ian Martin
An alien political prisoner on the planet Kronek is offered a pardon if he will spearhead the invasion of an insignificant little world called Earth.
Reviews:
Birthmark, The
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Elspeth Eric
Story by:
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Reviews:
Bisara of Pooree, The
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Sam Dann
Story by:
Rudyard Kipling
Reviews:
Black Cat, The
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Murder
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Sam Dann
Story by:
Edgar Allan Poe
Reviews:
Black Door, The
aka: "The Sealed Room"
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: G. Frederic Lewis
Story by:
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Reviews:
Black Sheep and the Captain, The
aka: "The Winning Shot"
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: G. Frederic Lewis
Story by:
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Reviews:
Blood, Thunder, and a Woman in Green
Year:
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by:
Reviews:
Boatman and the Devil, The
Year: 1982
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: James Agate, Jr
Story by:
Anton Chekhov
Reviews:
Body Snatchers, The
aka: "The Body Snatcher"
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Ian Martin
Story by:
Robert Louis Stevenson
Reviews:
Boscombe Pool Mystery, The
aka: "The Boscombe Valley Mystery"
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Murray Burnett
Story by:
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Reviews:
Bottom of the World
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Super Science
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Arnold Moss
With the world on the brink of global war, scientists attempt to access the planet's last energy source beneath the South Polar ice cap. The other side sabotages the project, and the resulting ecological catastrophe threatens to make an end of the world as effectively as any war.
Reviews:
SPOILER: This was actually pretty cool in setting up the suspense. Very interesting idea and well written however I didn't quite understand why they mentioned the Earth at the end like they did other than to explain to us that we had been listening to an alien story. Still a good story. --- Barry Howell
This was the first episode of RMT I'd ever heard, and got me interested in the series as a whole. Lucky for me it was a good episode, or I would not have investigated further. --- Ed Corbeil
Boy Wonder, The
Year: 1976
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by:
Alfred Bester
Reviews:
Brain Drain
Year: 1976
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Super Science
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Ralph Goodman
When an eminent space scientist dies suddenly, a friend's investigation leads to a series of unexplained deaths among scientists around the world, a strange hypnotic woman and her even stranger friend.
Reviews:
Brooch, The
aka: "An Upheaval"
Year: 1982
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: G. Frederic Lewis
Story by:
Anton Chekhov
Based on the story "An Upheaval"?
Reviews:
By Word of Mouth
Year: 1979
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Sam Dann
Story by:
Rudyard Kipling
Reviews:
Cabinet of the Unsolved, The
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: G. Frederic Lewis
Story by:
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Reviews:
Canterville Ghost, The
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: George Lowthar
Story by:
Oscar Wilde
Reviews:
Captain of the Pole-Star, The
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Ghosts
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Murray Burnett
Story by:
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
A doctor hires out to a whaling vessel bound for the Arctic, where the ship becomes icebound. Strange moanings are soon heard on the Polar wind, and ghostly apparitions appear out on the ice. The ship's senior officers are convinced they have something to do with the Captain's mysterious past, but who can say for sure, since he appears to be slowly going insane?
See also "Arctic Rescue" (Suspense)
Reviews:
A creepy episode that leaves one with the sense that they had better leave the blinds shut on a cold winter's night for fear of what might appear out on the snow beyond the bedroom window. You'll never see another blowing drift of snow quite the same ever again. Unfortunately, the limited time frame RMT had for its daily productions did not often allow for much depth or sophistication in sound effects, but the keening of the wind and the groaning of the ship under pressure from the ice does much to bring this show to life. Highly recommended. --- Jeff Dickson
Carmilla
Year: 1975
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Ian Martin
Story by:
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
Reviews:
Case of Chateau-Margaux, The
aka: "Thou Art the Man"
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: James Agate, Jr
Story by:
Edgar Allan Poe
Reviews:
Case of the Forced Divorce, The
Year: 1979
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Gerald Keane
Story by:
Maurice Leblanc
Adapted from an adventure of Arsène Lupin.
Reviews:
Cask of Amontillado, The
Year: 1975
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: George Lowthar
Story by:
Edgar Allan Poe
Reviews:
Castle Kerfol
aka: "Kerfol"
Year: 1976
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Murray Burnett
Story by:
Edith Wharton
Reviews:
Cezar Curse, The
aka: "Olalla"
Year: 1975
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Murray Burnett
Story by:
Robert Louis Stevenson, 1885
Reading Link: "The Merry Men, and Other Tales and Fables", by Robert Louis Stevenson, available at Project Gutenberg.
Reviews:
Cherchez la Femme
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Sam Dann
Story by:
O. Henry
Reviews:
Children of Death, The
Year: 1976
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Dystopian Future
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Sam Dann
In a post-Apocalyptic future, men and women have split into warring gender-based tribes. One man, however, dares question the 'natural' hatred between the sexes. Then he gets captured by the women for breeding purposes, after which he must be ritually murdered.
Reviews:
Christmas Carol, A
Year: 1975
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Ian Martin
Story by:
Charles Dickens
Reviews:
City of the Dead
aka: "In the Abyss"
Year: 1976
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Creatures
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Arnold Moss
Story by:
H.G. Wells
Two Victorian scientists penetrate the Stygian depths of the Cayman Trough in a submersible, there encountering an exotic undersea race of intelligent amphibians.
Reviews:
Colonel Chabert, The
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Karen Thorson
Story by:
Honoré de Balzac
Reviews:
Colony, The
Year: 1976
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Aliens
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Fielden Farrington
A couple on vacation driving through New Hampshire are waylaid in a small town after an encounter with a UFO on the road. The sheriff claims they must have been drunk and locks them up, but he and the mayor are obviously hiding something...
Reviews:
Confession
aka: "A Guest's Confession" ??
Year: 1980
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: G. Frederic Lewis
Story by:
Henry James
Reviews:
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, A
Year: 1976
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Time Travel
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Sam Dann
Story by:
Mark Twain
Reviews:
Corpse That Would Not Die, The
aka: "Thérèse Raquin"
Year: 1976
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Arnold Moss
Story by:
Émile Zola
Reviews:
Countess, The
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Gerald Keane
Story by:
Honoré de Balzac
Reviews:
Crack in the Wall, The
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Horror
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Sidney Slon
Story by:
W.W. Jacobs
A hopelessly distraught mother agonizing over the death of her daughter becomes obsessed with a crack in the wall of her basement, which defies any attempt to patch it. She claims to hear the call of her daughter coming from the crack, which must be a portal to the next world. Her husband, however, thinks the source of the voice has a far more sinister origin.
Reviews:
This episode is essentially an uncredited theft from W.W. Jacobs' celebrated horror story "The Monkey's Paw." Instead of three wishes, there are only two, but the idea of wishing a loved one back from the dead, failing to take into account the person's mutilated condition after a tragic accident, and wishing that person back to the grave are all much the same. The depressing atmosphere of the episode is well done, and it has some interesting differences from the original tale, but this is really a rewrite of "The Monkey's Paw" and not an original story. --- Anonymous
Crystal Gazer, The
Year: 1980
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: G. Frederic Lewis
Story by:
Jacques Futrelle
Reviews:
Curious Experience, A
Year: 1979
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Sam Dann
Story by:
Mark Twain
Reviews:
Dagger of Almohades, The
aka: "The Brown Hand"
Year: 1980
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Murray Burnett
Story by:
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Reviews:
Damned Thing, The
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Creatures
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Arnold Moss
Story by:
Ambrose Bierce, 1893
Written for the CBS Radio Mystery Theater by Arnold Moss, but inspired by Ambrose Bierce.
A coroner presides over the inquest of recently-deceased Hugh Morgan. Foul play is suspected. Testimony is heard from four witnesses... each with a very different tale to tell and each suggesting a different motive, ranging from jealously to revenge to theft to... something bizarre.
Reading Link: "The Damned Thing", by Ambrose Bierce, available at The Project Gutenberg.
Reviews:
A short story—around 3,500 words—by Ambrose Bierce, which can be read in about 15 minutes. Bierce's descriptive imagery creates a dark and somber mood which resolves quickly around a fairly simple plot. Arnold Moss expands upon the details presented by Bierce and creates a more involved and interconnected story. The original story contains the testimony of William Harker, newspaper reporter, but Moss adds the testimony of three more witnesses. Their testimonies contrast sharply with each other, adding a level of mystery to a suggestion of the supernatural. Solid acting all around. [8/10] --- zM
Dangerous Memory
Year: 1979
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: James Agate, Jr
Story by:
Jacques Futrelle
Reviews:
Darling Deadly Dolores
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Super Science
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Sam Dann
A scientist working on a top secret super-weapon is horrified to discover that the project's computer plans to utilize the weapon to purge the Earth of humans in favor of metal-based life.
Note: This story is often mistitled as "Deadly Darling Dolores".
See also "Nightmare" (Dimension X and X Minus One)
Reviews:
Dead House, The
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Ian Martin
Story by:
Mark Twain
Reviews:
Death by Whose Hands?
Year:
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by:
See also "Crimson Hand, The" (The Hermit's Cave), "Dead Hand, The" (Murder at Midnight), "Death by Whose Hands?" (CBS Radio Mystery Theater), "Gipsy's Hand, The" (The Witch's Tale), "Hand, The" (CBS Radio Mystery Theater), and "Hand of Botar" (Hall of Fantasy).
Reviews:
Death of Halpin Frayser, The
Year: 1975
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Arnold Moss
Story by:
Ambrose Bierce
Reviews:
Death on Project X
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Super Science
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Victoria Dann
A bureaucratic bean counter turned investigator is assigned to assess the validity of a secret government research program to develop an ultimate super-weapon, and is confronted by the suspicion that the head scientist has made a critical error that could result in doomsday.
Reviews:
Demon Spirit, The
aka: "The Dybbuk"
aka: "Between Two Worlds"
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Supernatural
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Milt Wisoff
Story by:
S. Anksy
In a Jewish community, a young student conspires with dark forces to gain the hand of the woman he loves despite fatal opposition from her father.
Reviews:
Departmental Case, A
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Sam Dann
Story by:
O. Henry
Reviews:
Devil-God, The
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Supernatural
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Mary Jane Higby
Reviews:
The Devil-God, surprisingly enjoyable tale of a couple whom learns that the old Gods of Indian lore aren’t to be trifled with. --- Noelle (7/10)
Devil's Bargain, The
aka: "The Dutchess of Wiltshire's Diamonds"
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Crime
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: James Agate, Jr
Story by:
Guy Boothby, 1900
Reading Link: "The Viceroy's Protegé; Or, A Prince of Swindlers", by Guy Boothby, available at Google Books.
Reviews:
Diamond Cut Diamond
based on: "The Episode of the Mexican Seer"
and on: "The Episode of the Diamond Links"
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Mystery
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: G. Frederic Lewis
Story by:
Grant Allen, 1897
While vacationing at the Hôtel des Anglais in Monte Carlo, South African Millionaire Sir Charles Vandrift finds himself the target of an elaborate scam. It seems the infamous Colonel Clay, sharper and confidence man, is lying in wait.
'Diamond Cut Diamond' is an English proverb. The Proverb Hunter notes that "Diamond is the hardest substance known; a diamond can be cut only by another diamond. The phrase refers to opponents who are an equal match in wit, cunning, or strong-mindedness. Any conclusion reached is not without mutual injury."
Based on a couple of short stories: "The Episode of the Mexican Seer" and "The Episode of the Diamond Links" which were published as part of a 12-story collection called An African Millionaire: Episodes in the Life of the Illustrious Colonel Clay, in 1897.
Reading Link: "An African Millionaire", by Grant Allen, available at The Project Gutenberg.
Reviews:
No sci-fi, horror, supernatural, or occult elements in this one. The acting was tolerable; the story, interesting but not intriguing. The general outline of the story and its conclusion were telegraphed, but the details were not, which resulted in a pleasant evening's entertainment. I'm not sure I would listen again... but I would read the rest of the stories in the series. [7/10] -- zM
Diamond Necklace, The
aka: "The Necklace"
Year: 1975
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: George Lowthar
Story by:
Guy de Maupassant
Reviews:
Diary of a Madman, The
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Sam Dann
Story by:
Guy de Maupassant
Reviews:
Diogenes, Inc
Year: 1981
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: James Agate, Jr
Story by:
Jacques Futrelle
Reviews:
Doctor Eduardo
aka: "The Black Doctor"
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Gerald Keane
Story by:
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Reviews:
Don't Die without Me
aka: "The Furnished Room"
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by:
O. Henry
A woman committed suicide in a hotel room. Six days later, a young man took his own life in the same room and in the same manner. A writer, facing writer's block, decides to check into the room to uncover the mystery.
Reviews:
Dr Heidegger's Experiment
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Percy Granger
Story by:
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Reviews:
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Horror
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: George Lowthar
Story by:
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson's classic tale of a scientist whose search for the dual essence of human nature and morality carries a heavy personal price for success. Host E. G. Marshall claims this version is the closest to Stevenson's original.
Versions of this story also appeared on the BBC, Favorite Story, Weird Circle, NBC Short Story, Theater Guild on the Air, the U.S. Steel Hour, and more recently by an independent producer called Monterey Soundworks.
Reviews:
Dracula
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Vampires
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: George Lowthar
Story by:
Bram Stoker
An adaptation of the original novel by Bram Stoker. Professor Van Helsing responds to an appeal from his friend John Seward to investigate his fiancee's strange affliction—she is slowly dying from blood depletion, apparently the victim of a vampire.
Reviews:
Dream-Woman, The
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: George Lowthar
Story by:
Wilkie Collins
Reviews:
Eavesdroppers, The
Year: 1975
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Aliens / Super Science
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Fielden Farrington
Physicist Dwight Addison is on the cusp of solving Einstein's restriction on traveling faster than light, and only needs a quiet retreat to complete his work. Unbeknownst to him, however, there are forces in the universe that do now want Man intruding, and Addison's housekeepers are working on their behalf.
Reviews:
Edmund Orme
aka: "Sir Edmund Orme"
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Roy Winsor
Story by:
Henry James
Reviews:
Eleventh Hour, The
Year: 1975
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Sam Dann
A successful business man suddenly becomes obsessed with a woman he met through a personal ad and claims to be from another world.
Reviews:
Eleventh Plague, The
Year: 1980
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Space Exploration
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by:
Henry Slesar
Forbidden Planet revisited: A rescue mission to planet A-15 discovers their sole rescuee to be not only unwilling to be saved, but somehow capable of bringing down all the plagues of Egypt upon their heads if they don't leave.
See also "Hallucination Orbit" (X Minus One)
Reviews:
Wanted to like this one more than I did. The acting was either lackadaisical or overplayed, and there was no attempt to make us feel we were on a spaceship or another planet save for a weak wind sound effect. --- Jeff Dickson
Enemy From Space
Year: 1979
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Aliens
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Ian Martin
In the year 2029, an alien spacecraft descends to the White House lawn. A voice from within announces their peaceful intentions, but the aliens' first act is to kidnap the President...
Reviews:
Episode of the Terror
aka: "An Episode of the Terror"
Year: 1981
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Historical
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: G. Frederic Lewis
Story by:
Honoré de Balzac
Honore de Balzac's tale of the French Revolution, when Robespierre held Paris in his bloody grip. A priest and his attendant nun hold secret masses for private clients, under threat of the guillotine should they be found out. An enigmatic stranger appears to offer them immunity in return for their services, though he claims he is himself beyond hope of redemption.
See also "The Guillotine" (CBS Radio Mystery Theater) and "The Black Band" (The Hermits Cave)
Reviews:
Fall of the House of Usher, The
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Horror
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: George Lowthar
Story by:
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe's story of a man's descent into madness over a family curse.
Versions of this story also appeared on CBS Radio Mystery Theater, Escape, NBC Presents: Short Story, and The Weird Circle.
Reviews:
Familiar Ghost, The
aka: "The Familiar"
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Ghosts
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Ian Martin
Story by:
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
A retired Victorian sea captain wins the hand of his intended lady, but his fiancee calls upon the services of famed psychic investigator Dr. Martin Hesselius when the captain becomes convinced he is being haunted by a 'familiar'.
Reviews:
Fateful Bell, The
aka: "The Soul of the Great Bell"
Year: 1980
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Ian Martin
Story by:
Lafcadio Hearn
Reviews:
Figure in the Moonlight, The
aka: "The Mezzotint"
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Supernatural
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Roy Winsor
Story by:
M.R. James, 1904
The Department of Fine Arts at Wheeler College, New Hampshire, is bequeathed a collection of mostly worthless art: reproductions, some photographs, an engraving or two. Upon closer inspection, one of the items stands out for its clarity and tone: an engraving of a Victorian mansion with a flagstone path and a wide front porch. A mysterious figure seems to appear and disappear from the engraving, as if re-enacting an earlier encounter.
A tip-of-the-hat to alert listener/reader, Noelle, who noticed that "The Figure in the Moonlight" is based on the M.R. James story "The Mezzotint".
Reading Link: "The Mezzotint" by M.R. James, as part of the collection "Ghost Stories of an Antiquary", available at Project Gutenberg.
Reviews:
Roy Winsor's adaptation moves the action from England to New England (Essex to New Hampshire) and changes the artwork from a mezzotint to an engraving. He also adds a back-story which stretches the telling to 45-min. However, in adding the back-story Winsor eliminates the mystery and telegraphs the ending. Many details are changed (how the artwork was obtained, whether it was obtained by a college or a museum, whether it was bequeathed or obtained through an auction) but (as noted by Noelle) the is essential plot is unmistakably based on the M.R. James story. [6/10] --- zM
First Woman in Space, The
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Victoria Dann
Reviews:
Five Hundred Carats, The
aka: "Five Hundred Carats"
Year: 1981
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: G. Frederic Lewis
Story by:
George Griffith
Reviews:
Flash Point
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: James Agate, Jr
Story by:
H.G. Wells
Reviews:
Flower of Evil
Year:
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by:
Reviews:
Fools, The
Year: 1979
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Gerald Keane
Story by:
Maxim Gorky
Reviews:
Forever Man, The
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Sam Dann
Story by:
H.G. Wells
Possibly inspired by the H.G. Wells short story: "The Story of the Late Mr Elvesham".
Reviews:
Four-Fifteen Express, The
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Elizabeth Pennell
Story by:
Amelia B. Edwards
Reviews:
Fourth Bullet, The
aka: "The Memoirs of Hector Berlioz"
Year: 1981
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Sam Dann
Story by:
Hector Berlioz, 1848
Reviews:
Frankenstein Revisited
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Horror
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Milt Wisoff
A film crew intend to shoot a docudrama about the Frankenstein legend on location, despite the stories of the monster returning from the dead to hunt the flesh of the living.
Reviews:
Frontier of Fear, The
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Horror
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Milt Wisoff
A down and out gambler's fortunes take a turn for the better and the worse when he comes into the possession (literally) of a typewriter that can not only predict the future, but dictate it.
Reviews:
Future Eye
Year: 1976
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Time Travel
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by:
Alfred Bester
Assisted by a cheeky computer link, a temporal investigator returns to the present from the 29th century to retrieve a data crystal containing the future history of the world for the next 800 years.
Reviews:
Gettysburg Address, The
Year: 1979
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Frederic G. Lewis
Story by:
Maurice Leblanc
Based on an adventure of the rascally Arsène Lupin in a series of novels by Maurice Leblanc.
Reviews:
Ghost Driver, The
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Ghosts
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: George Lowthar
Anxious to get away from the city, a couple purchase an old mansion in the Colorado Rockies with the intention of turning it into a ski resort, against the warnings of a former owner who claims that her dead husband's ghost has driven former purchasers off the cliff access road to their deaths.
Reviews:
Ghost Plane, The
Year: 1975
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Ghosts
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Ian Martin
Three people awake to find themselves aboard a strange airliner en route to seemingly nowhere.
Reviews:
Ghost-Grey Bat, The
Year: 1981
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Occult
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Ian Martin
A young American couple rent an idyllic cottage in the Austrian Alps, complete with witches, curses, and an unearthly creature that 'lives' in the deep basement underneath.
Reviews:
Gift of Doom, The
aka: "Medea"
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Arnold Moss
Story by:
Euripides
Reviews:
Gilbert Stuart, The
Year: 1980
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: James Agate, Jr
Story by:
Edith Wharton
Reviews:
Gloria Scott, The
aka: "The Adventure of the Gloria Scott"
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Ralph Goodman
Story by:
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
A Sherlock Holmes mystery.
Reviews:
God Machine, The
Year: 1980
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Dystopian Future
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Sam Dann
In a distant and de-humanized future controlled by a master computer, a man and woman are ordered to marry and produce a child which, genetic calculations indicate, will become a genius mathematician. However, its calculations did not include the two actually falling in love...
Reviews:
God Named Smith, A
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Super Science
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by:
Henry Slesar
An adolescent genius succeeds in designing and constructing a small planet, attracting the world's best minds to emigrate there to work for him—but to what end?
Reviews:
Goddess Caper, The
Year: 1979
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Sam Dann
Story by:
Mark Twain
Reviews:
Goddess of Death
aka: "Rose Rose"
Year: 1982
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Supernatural
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: James Agate, Jr
Story by:
Barry Pain, 1912
Reading Link: "Stories in Grey", by Barry Pain, available at The Internet Archive.
Reviews:
Golden Girl, The
Year: 1979
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Aliens
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Sam Dann
Studying Earth from afar, a race of pacifists feel compelled to intervene in our world by sending an assassin to eliminate a fanatical cult leader.
Reviews:
Graveyard, The
aka: "What Is a Dream?"
aka: "The Dead Girl"
Year: 1976
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Elspeth Eric
Story by:
Guy de Maupassant
Reviews:
Great Brain, The
aka: "The Problem of Cell 13"
Year: 1979
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: James Agate, Jr
Story by:
Jacques Futrelle
One of many Jacques Futrelle stories featuring 'The Thinking Machine'.
Reviews:
Green-Eyed Monster, The
aka: "Othello"
Year: 1976
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Ian Martin
Story by:
William Shakespeare
Reviews:
Guillotine, The
aka: "The Adventure of the German Student"
Year: 1979
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Supernatural
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Elspeth Eric
Story by:
Washington Irving, 1824
Place: Paris. Time: The Reign of Terror. Scene: A Dark and Stormy Night. German student Gottfried Wolfgang, suffering from melancholy and failing health, opts for a change of scene and heads to France where, like a literary ghoul, he feeds, hour-after-hour, in the charnel-house of decayed literature. Returning home late one evening he passes the Place de Grève—the square where public executions are performed—and spies a disconsolate young woman weeping on the steps of the guillotine. Recognizing her as the woman of his dreams, he comforts her and takes her home with him.
A tip-of-the-hat to alert listener/reader, Noelle, who noticed that The Hermit's Cave story "The Black Band" and the CBS Radio Mystery Theater story "The Guillotine" are both largely based on the Washington Irving story "The Adventure of the German Student", which was first published as part of a story arc called "Strange Stories by a Nervous Gentleman" in the collection: Tales of a Traveller, 1824. However, the story may also have been published as "The Lady with the Velvet Collar".
See also "Episode of the Terror" (CBS Radio Mystery Theater) and "The Black Band" (The Hermits Cave)
Reading Link: "The Adventure of the German Student", by Washington Irving, available at Project Gutenberg Australia.
Reviews:
"The Adventure of the German Student" is a short story which can be read in about ten minutes. At first reading I thought it was more of a story idea than a completed work. Upon second reading, however, I realized that Washington Irving selects his words carefully, with great precision and economy. Although the story is short, Irving includes many wonderfully-descriptive passages with plenty of nuance. The shortness is due to the fact that this is a simple tale. The CBS Radio Mystery version expands upon the backstory and provides detail where Irving provides nuance. I think the result makes for better radio drama. The Hermit's Cave version leaves out the back-story but suffers as a result, by being abrupt. [7/10] --- zM
Guilt of the Innocent, The
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: G. Frederic Lewis
Story by:
Maxim Gorky
Reviews:
Guilty
Year: 1980
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: G. Frederic Lewis
Story by:
Edith Wharton
Reviews:
Hand, The
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Occult
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Ian Martin
Story by:
Guy de Maupassant
A Corsican doctor befriends an enigmatic English adventurer who has taken up residence on the island. The Britisher receives the bizarre gift of a severed hand and soon becomes convinced of his own impeding death, despite being as robust as a bull.
See also "Crimson Hand, The" (The Hermit's Cave), "Dead Hand, The" (Murder at Midnight), "Death by Whose Hands?" (CBS Radio Mystery Theater), "Gipsy's Hand, The" (The Witch's Tale), "Hand, The" (CBS Radio Mystery Theater), and "Hand of Botar" (Hall of Fantasy).
Reviews:
Hanging Sheriff, The
Year: 1982
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Murder
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by:
Bryce Walton
A tip-of-the-hat to alert listener Nick who noticed that the Beyond Midnight episode "The Sheriff's Wife" is the same story as the Theatre Five episode "Jailbreak" and the CBS Radio Mystery Theater story "The Hanging Sheriff".
Reviews:
Harry's Taxi and the 'T' Machine
Year: 1981
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Super Science
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: G. Frederic Lewis
A hover-taxi driver invents a teleportation device in his garage, but his grand designs for its use attract the attention of unscrupulous associates.
Reviews:
Haunted Mill, The
aka: "The Corpse Light"
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Ghosts
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: James Agate, Jr
Story by:
Richard Donovan, 1899
A small New England seaside town, a love triangle, murder, and an old abandoned mill which harbors dark secrets, darker spirits, and a plea from beyond the grave.
Reviews:
Meh. This adaptation remarkably improves upon Richard Donovan's original tale, "The Corpse Light", but fails to breathe life into the old ghost story. The original is told in slam-bang fashion with little suspense, no character development, and no emotional involvement. This version remedies that, somewhat, with good pacing and solid acting, but the basic plot is still uninspired. Not a waste of time, but not a story you'll want to listen to multiple times, either. [5/10] --- zM
Headhunters, The
Year: 1981
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Dystopian Future / Super Science
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Sam Dann
The government is transplanting personalities of aging scientists into the bodies of condemned criminals to prolong their lives. Sounds like a great idea—but is it legal, or even moral?
Reviews:
Headless Hessian, The
Year: 1975
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Historical
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Sam Dann
Forestalled at the siege of Trenton, Washington's troops are bewitched by the nightly appearance of a headless horseman in enemy uniform riding through their lines toward the British. Washington is infuriated by the fear that prevents them from bringing the 'apparition' down, and sets out to prove that the headless Hessian is no ghost.
Reviews:
Heart of Boadicea, The
Year: 1982
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Historical
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Sam Dann
Roman Britain, AD 60—Violated and betrayed by her Roman overlords, Boadicea, Queen of the Iceni, stages a bloody uprising to cleanse her land of foreign oppressors, but then finds herself torn between her lust for vengeance and her love for a pacifistic vassal. Loosely based on reality.
Reviews:
This show presents the historical figure of Boadicea (Boudicca) in a relatively positive light. In truth, she was a horrible woman who was responsible for the brutal massacre of tens of thousand of her own countrymen, as well as Romans. Her atrocities are dealt with only in passing, easily missed if you are not listening carefully. Like so much of RMT, there is little in the way of sound effects to bolster the story—no thunder of armies, no clash of sword and shield, only a weak drumbeat beneath the narrated account of the final battle. Still, if you're not a purist, it's well enough written. --- Jeff Dickson
Hole in the Sky, The
Year: 1979
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Space Exploration
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Sam Dann
Roger Thorpe is an interstellar smuggler whose turn of bad luck has cornered him into accepting a commission which would compel him to take passage through a dreaded black hole. He has already made the passage once before and survived, but to tempt fate twice could have 'unfortunate' consequences...
Reviews:
Horla, The
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Supernatural
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Sam Dann
Story by:
Guy de Maupassant
Guy de Maupassant's famous semi-autobiographical story about his obsession with an intangible, malignant force which he is convinced has arrived in his coastal town aboard a mysterious Brazilian cargo ship.
Reviews:
Horror of Dead Lake, The
Year: 1976
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Creatures
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Roy Winsor
A couple inherit an old pirate stronghold in Florida, the dead lake beside it, and the thing that lives in that lake.
Reviews:
Horror Story, A
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Horror
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Elspeth Eric
A diary found in a deserted New Orleans mansion tells a tale of a psychopathic chef who uses human flesh as his secret ingredient.
Reviews:
Horror Within, The
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Occult
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Milt Wisoff
An idealistic young religious fanatic intends to use his God-given psychic powers for good, but you know what they say about good intentions...
Reviews:
Hound of the Baskervilles, The
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Murray Burnett
Story by:
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
A Sherlock Holmes mystery.
Reviews:
House and the Brain, The
Year: 1978
Duration: 30 min
Genre: Supernatural
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Percy Granger
Story by:
Edward George Bulwer-Lytton
A husband and wife are fascinated when they see the 400-year old portrait of the notorious cutthroat Richards. When they hear that his former home in London is rumoured to be haunted, they decide or rent it for a week so they can meet a real ghost.
A version of this story also appeared on The Weird Circle.
House Divided, A
aka: "Electra"
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Arnold Moss
Story by:
Sophocles
Reviews:
House of the Dead Heart, The
Year: 1979
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: James Agate, Jr
Story by:
Edith Wharton
Reviews:
House of the Seven Gables, The
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Ian Martin
Story by:
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Reviews:
House on Chimney Pot Lane, The
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Supernatural
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Bob Juhren
A couple purchase a neglected cottage in a remote area of Virginia despite its troubled past and happily start redecorating. The mural of a jungle scene they mount in the living room soon begins to exhibit signs of a life of its own, however, when faces start appearing in the brush and the animals seem to move.
See also "The Veldt": BBC, Bradbury 13, CBC Playhouse, Dimension X, Mindwebs, and X Minus One
Reviews:
An interesting twist on Ray Bradbury's famous story "The Veldt". Well presented and engaging. Recommended. --- Jeff Dickson
House without Mirrors
aka: "The Compensation House"
Year: 1979
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Elspeth Eric
Story by:
Charles Collins
Reviews:
How Much Land Does a Man Need?
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Sam Dann
Story by:
Leo Tolstoy
Reviews:
Hunted Down
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: James Agate, Jr
Story by:
Charles Dickens
Reviews:
I Warn You Three Times
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Supernatural
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Sam Dann
A woman claims that her husband stepped out of their car at a stop light and disappeared. With E.G. Marshall, Joan Lorring, Mason Adams, Tom Keena, Alarn Manson, and Sam Gray.
Reviews:
Did he jump or was he pushed? Figuratively speaking. This faily predictable story might rate a 6/10 except for a few plot twists and some very fine acting by Joan Lorring. Joan's performance as the innocent and devoted, loving housewife is completely believable and contrasts nicely with the ill fate of those around her. (9/10) --- zM
Ice Palace, The
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Super Science
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Percy Granger
When huge portions of the Arctic ice cap simply disappear without a trace overnight, Canadian authorities fear cataclysmic worldwide flooding is imminent. No natural catastrophe could account for the meltings, so there must be a human effort behind the nightmare.
Reviews:
Identified Flying Objects
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Aliens
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Sam Dann
An alien lands in a big city with a message for Earth: 'Voor e amana'. As he looks like us and doesn't seem able or willing to say anything more, no one takes him seriously. A judge hands him over for psychiatric treatment.
Reviews:
Imp in the Bottle, The
aka: "The Bottle Imp"
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Ian Martin
Story by:
Robert Louis Stevenson
With Joan Lorring.
Reviews:
In the Fog
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Roy Winsor
Story by:
Algernon Henry Blackwood
Reviews:
Intruder, The
Year: 1980
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Sci-Fi
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: James Agate, Jr
Story by:
Jules Verne ??
A physicist and his wife begin to suspect their teenage son recently come home from college is not who he appears to be.
Note: Not to be confused with "The Intruders" (1976) written by Elspeth Eric. E.G. Marshall states this was 'inspired by' a Jules Verne story, but I don't know which one.
Reviews:
Invaders from Atlantis
Year: 1982
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Sci-Fi
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: G. Frederic Lewis
Millenia ago, the Atlanteans left Earth to colonize the galaxy. Recently, they have returned, occupying all the world's large cities. Now they are targeting the small towns, but the citizens of Parson's Corners are not going to stand for it.
Reviews:
Is He Living or Is He Dead?
Year: 1976
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Sam Dann
Story by:
Mark Twain
Reviews:
Is the Lady Dead?
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Supernatural
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Sam Dann
After a wealthy industrialist's newlywed bride fall prey to a sudden fatal illness, he insists that his love has returned her from the dead, and his life begins to unravel as he tries desperately to keep her from slipping back to the Other Side.
Reviews:
Island on Silvertree Lake, The
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Supernatural
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Victoria Dann
Pamela Allen crashes her car into a tree and upon waking finds herself an unwilling guest at an island resort. According to the management, her tenure there is, to put it mildly, permanent.
Reviews:
It's Hell to Pay the Piper
aka: "Wandering Willie's Tale"
Year: 1975
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Ian Martin
Story by:
Sir Walter Scott
"Wandering Willie's Tale" from the novel Redgauntlet.
Reviews:
Jane Eyre
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Elizabeth Pennell
Story by:
Charlotte Brontë
Reviews:
Jimmy Valentine's Gamble
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Sam Dann
Story by:
O. Henry
Reviews:
Jobo
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Aliens
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by:
Henry Slesar
An archaeologist and his daughter suspect a link between the statues on Easter Island and a 'malformed' Tennessee hillbilly who happens to resemble them. Does the association stop there?
Reviews:
Judge's House, The
Year: 1981
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Ghosts
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Bob Juhren
Story by:
Bram Stoker
An aspiring mathematician, looking for a solitary retreat to study for the tripos, rents a house reportedly haunted by the specter of its former occupant, the infamous 'Hanging Judge'.
Loosely based on the Bram Stoker short story. Versions were produced for CBS Radio Mystery Theater, Fear on 4, Hall of Fantasy, and Haunted..
Reviews:
Killer Crab
Year: 1982
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Super Science
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: James Agate, Jr
A warring couple on a mining colony planet indulge in a deadly feud over the husband's invention of a new superweapon, a crab-like all-terrain attack 'tank'.
Reviews:
Fun sci-fi tale here, but the "KC" seems to take a backstage to the foundation for the moral of the story. The ending isn't too surprising, but it is somewhat unlikely given the overall bleak tone to the piece. --- Brian Lane
Kiss of Death, The
aka: "Rappaccini's Daughter" ??
Year: 1975
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Ian Martin
Story by:
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Reviews:
Land of Dreams, The
Year: 1981
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Dystopian Future
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Sam Dann
A morality tale of love versus duty in a Dystopian future where people live their lives through Virtual Reality dream machines while a computer regulates their society.
Reviews:
Land of the Living Dead
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Supernatural
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Arnold Moss
Two anthropologists in search of a mysterious Amazonian tribe run into engine trouble, but are amazed to come upon an ultra-modern airport in the deep jungle, peopled by nothing but missing persons.
Reviews:
Last Days of Pompeii, The
Year: 1980
Duration: 3 hr 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Gerald Keane
Story by:
Edward George Bulwer-Lytton
Reviews:
Last Duel, The
aka: "The Pistol-Shot"
Year: 1982
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: James Agate, Jr
Story by:
Alexander Pushkin
Reviews:
Last Orbit, The
Year: 1982
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Sci-Fi
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Douglas K. Dempsey
Reviews:
Legend of Phoenix Hill, The
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Supernatural
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Ian Martin
An archaeologist planning an expedition into the Chinese interior is reluctant to allow his son to accompany his team, except that the young man seems to have an intimate connection with the ancient Chinese princess whose tomb they intend to excavate.
Reviews:
Leopard Man, The
aka: "The Mark of the Beast"
Year: 1981
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: James Agate, Jr
Story by:
Rudyard Kipling
Reviews:
Les Miserables
Year: 1982
Duration: 3 hr 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Gerald Keane
Story by:
Victor Hugo
Reviews:
Liar, The
Year: 1981
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: James Agate, Jr
Story by:
Henry James
Reviews:
Light That Failed, The
Year: 1975
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Sam Dann
Story by:
Rudyard Kipling
Reviews:
Locked Trunk, The
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Roy Winsor
Story by:
Henry James
Reviews:
Lodger, The
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Mystery
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: George Lowthar
Story by:
Marie Belloc Lowndes
An updated, Americanized version of the horror classic about a town plagued by a phantom serial killer of women, and a boarding house madam who takes in a suspicious boarder. The original story revolved around Jack the Ripper, but this one is set in modern day America.
The original story was made into three films—two of the same name, and one called "The Man in the Attic".
Reviews:
Long Live, The King Is Dead
aka: "Hamlet"
Year: 1976
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Ian Martin
Story by:
William Shakespeare
Reviews:
Long, Long Sleep, The
Year: 1979
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Arnold Moss
Story by:
H.G. Wells
Suggested from a story by H.G. Wells.
Reviews:
Long Way from Home, A
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Arnold Moss
Story by:
Ambrose Bierce
Reviews:
Look Who's Coming
Year: 1979
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Aliens
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Ian Martin
A housewife addicted to soap operas can't understand her husband's fascination with sci-fi TV shows, and is particularly agitated when her television begins broadcasting a warning about an alien invasion fleet on its way to Earth.
Reviews:
Loser Take All
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: ??
Story by:
Ambrose Bierce
Note: not to be confused with "Lose Takes All" (1976), by Ian Martin.
Reviews:
Lost Tomorrows, The
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Occult
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Stella Moss
A scientist and his reluctant daughter ignore the warnings of a local holy man and venture into the sacred Cave of Lost Tomorrows in search of Mayan relics.
Reviews:
Love Song of Death, The
aka: "Romeo and Julliet"
Year: 1976
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Ian Martin
Story by:
William Shakespeare
Reviews:
Mad Monkton
Year: 1975
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Ian Martin
Story by:
Wilkie Collins
Reviews:
Magic Stick of Manitu, The
Year: 1982
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Aliens
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Victoria Dann
Eight hundred years from now, Mankind is extending his influence over the galaxy, negotiating and intimidating other races into trade pacts. A heavy-handed negotiator is assigned to include the remote and peaceful world of Manitu in the galactic hegemony, but his assistant entertains her doubts when a furtive native of the planet tries to warn them away. Stars Keir Dullea and Fred Gwynne.
Reviews:
Man from Ultra, The
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by:
Alfred Bester
Reviews:
Man in the Black Cap, The
Year: 1979
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: James Agate, Jr
Story by:
Edith Wharton
Reviews:
Man of Two Centuries, The
Year: 1981
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Time Travel
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: James Agate, Jr
Jack Carter, a writer researching a book on the history of Canada, befriends Donnacona, a Huron Indian who claims to be a thousand years old and able to travel between the centuries at will. He also claims Carter is the famous explorer Jacques Cartier—not his reincarnation, but Cartier himself, and offers to take him back in time to prove it.
Reviews:
Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg, The
Year: 1976
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Sam Dann
Story by:
Mark Twain
Reviews:
Man Who Could Work Miracles, The
Year: 1976
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Humour
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Arnold Moss
Story by:
H.G. Wells
George Fotheringay has discovered the secret to performing miracles—all he has to do is ask and it is done. the only thing he can't seem to control are the consequences.
Other versions were produced for Escape and the BBC.
Reviews:
Man Who Saw Martians, The
Year: 1981
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Aliens / Humour
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: G. Frederic Lewis
Budding small town news reporter Amos Jones constructs an elaborate hoax about a Martian invasion to impress the girl he wants to marry, but when a real UFO lands, he is forced to confront the value of being true to himself and others.
Reviews:
Man with the Claret Mark, The
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Ian Martin
Story by:
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
Reviews:
Man with the X-Ray Eyes, The
Year: 1982
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by:
Bryce Walton
Reviews:
Man-Size in Marble
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Occult
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Ian Martin
Story by:
E. Nesbit
A man and wife seeking peace and quiet in the Scottish hills instead run afoul of a medieval vengeance enacted by two statues of 12th century knights.
Other versions of this story aired on Beyond Midnight (as "The Marble Knights") and The Hall of Fantasy.
Reviews:
Markheim: Man or Monster?
aka: "Markheim"
Year: 1975
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Ian Martin
Story by:
Robert Louis Stevenson
Suggested by the Robert Louis Stevenson classic.
Reviews:
Masque of the Red Death, The
Year: 1975
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: George Lowthar
Story by:
Edgar Allan Poe
Reviews:
Master Minds, The
Year: 1980
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: G. Frederic Lewis
Story by:
Jacques Futrelle
Reviews:
Matter of Conscience, A
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Arnold Moss
Story by:
Ambrose Bierce
Reviews:
Maud-Evelyn
Year: 1980
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: G. Frederic Lewis
Story by:
Henry James
Reviews:
Message from Space, A
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Aliens
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Ian Martin
An American reporter travels to England to write a story discrediting a group of UFO nuts—or are they nuts?
Reviews:
Meteorite, The
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Aliens
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Roy Winsor
A strange meteor crashes into a farmer's barn—out of which emerges a wounded alien. The farmer and his wife take the alien in and care for him, in defiance of the authorities and in spite of the alien's threat to destroy the Earth.
See also "Meteor Man" (Lights Out) and "Meteor" (The Vanishing Point)
Reviews:
Interesting to compare this show with Lights Outs' "Meteor Man"—one wonders if the writer of this RMT episode was directly inspired by the other. In any case, the two shows illustrate the contrast of the prevailing attitude toward aliens between the paranoia of the 50's and the self-recrimination of the 70's. The former is all menace and evil, as loathsome in appearance as it is in character. Two decades later the alien is no implacable, unstoppable 'thing', but an all too vulnerable, almost unwilling enemy, driven to seek our destruction not because of its rapacious nature, but because of ours. John Wyndham's "Meteor" (Vanishing Point, 1985) completes the circle—now it is the poor defenseless aliens who are menaced by the monsters of Earth. What does it all mean? Not much, really; it's just interesting to note the progression. --- Jeff Dickson
Midas of Castle Hill, The
aka: "Lord Chizelrigg's Missing Fortune"
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Crime
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: James Agate, Jr
Story by:
Robert Barr, 1906
See also "The Absent-Minded League".
Reading Link: "The Triumphs of Eugène Valmont", by Robert Barr, available at The Project Gutenberg.
Reviews:
Mirror for Murder
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Supernatural
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Sam Dann
The wife of an important politician feels increasingly irrelevant as her husband cancels engagements with her in order to further his own career. What's more, she feels insubstantial and invisible, as she slowly loses her reflection.
Reviews:
A humorous, light-hearted look at organized crime, murder, undercover police work and espionage as a woman struggles to find meaning in her life. (9/10) --- zM
Mission from Zython
Year: 1979
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Aliens
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Roy Winsor
An alien lands in a remote Midwestern farming community, claiming to be of no threat, but shows an unsettling interest in the area's nuclear weapons silos.
Reviews:
Whatever drama the story might generate is destroyed whenever the alien opens his mouth—he sounds just like a Conehead. Someone at RMT must have thought Coneheads made believable aliens. --- Jeff Dickson
Monk and the Hangman's Daughter, The
Year: 1976
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Arnold and Stella Moss
Story by:
Ambrose Bierce
Reviews:
Movie Makers, The
Year: 1979
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Sci-Fi
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by:
Henry Slesar
A scientist who conceives a super-weapon capable of destroying the Earth finds himself distracted by a corporation which claims to have made a movie of his life—not just a biography, but a visual record of his day to day life. Why would anyone bother to do such a thing?
Reviews:
Much Too Much
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Gerald Keane
Story by:
Leo Tolstoy
Reviews:
Murder at Troyte's Hill
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Murder
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: G. Frederic Lewis
Story by:
Catherine Louisa Pirkis, 1893
London's first policewoman, Loveday Brooke, is assigned to help Inspector Griffiths of the local Cumberland police solve a case involving the murder of an estate lodge-keeper. Although the lodge-keeper was disliked by most people, there doesn't seem to be a motive for his murder.
"The Murder at Troyte's Hill" was first published in The Ludgate Monthly in 1893. It was later published as part of the collection: The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective in 1894.
Reading Link: "The Murder at Troyte's Hill", by C.L. Pirkis, available at the University of Pennsylvania Digital Library.
Reviews:
A fast-moving detective story which doesn't quite live up to its potential, as poor audio quality and fake British accents obscure the meaning of many key passages. However, the ending was quite good and not what I was expecting. Better audio quality would bump my rating up a notch. [6/10] -- zM
Murder by Proxy
Year: 1975
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Roy Winsor
Based on a story by Sherlock Holmes?
Reviews:
Murder Most Foul
aka: "Macbeth"
Year: 1976
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Ian Martin
Story by:
William Shakespeare
Reviews:
Murder of Caesar, The
Year: 1980
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Historical
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: G. Frederic Lewis
Story by:
Plutarch,
Cicero and
Suetonius
A retelling of the assassination of the Roman dictator, inspired by Shakespeare and narrated by old Julius himself.
See also "The Assassination" (CBS Radio Mystery Theater)
Reviews:
Murder on the Space Shuttle
Year: 1981
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: G. Frederic Lewis
Story by:
Jacques Futrelle
Reviews:
Murders in the Rue Morgue, The
Year: 1975
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: George Lowthar
Story by:
Edgar Allan Poe
Reviews:
Musgrave Ritual, The
Year: 1981
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Murray Burnett
Story by:
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
A Sherlock Holmes mystery.
Reviews:
My First Rogue
Year: 1982
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: James Agate, Jr
Story by:
Maurice Leblanc
Based on an adventure of the rascally Arsène Lupin in a series of novels by Maurice Leblanc.
Reviews:
Mysterious Hanging of Squire Huggins, The
Year: 1980
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: James Agate, Jr
Story by:
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Reviews:
Mysterious Island, The
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Ian Martin
Story by:
Jules Verne
Reviews:
Mysterious Rochdale Special, The
aka: "The Lost Special"
Year: 1980
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: ??
Story by:
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Reviews:
Mysterious Stranger, The
Year: 1976
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Sam Dann
Story by:
Mark Twain
Reviews:
Never Answer an Advertisement
aka: "The Beetle Hunter"
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: James Agate, Jr
Story by:
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Reviews:
Night of the Howling Dog
Year: 1975
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Creatures
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Murray Burnett
Story by:
Algernon Henry Blackwood
A group of people camping on a remote island in the Baltic are tormented by a strange wolf-beast that seems to somehow be tied in with one camper's frustrated love for another.
Reviews:
Interesting premise with an ending that falls flat; disappointing for a series with so many good shows. [3/10] --- Noelle
Night Visitor
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Ghosts
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Elspeth Eric
Ancient Macedonia is the setting for this tale of a dead woman's return from the underworld to be with the man she could never have had when alive.
Reviews:
Nightmare in Gillette Castle
Year: 1980
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Elizabeth Pennell
Reviews:
Ninth Volume, The
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Sci-Fi / Occult
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Percy Granger
Oil drillers stumble upon a subterranean cavern several billion years old that contains modern trappings and a library of great literary works, including eight volumes of a history of the world up to the present time. The ninth volume is missing, but should record the future.
Reviews:
Now You See Them, Now You Don't
Year: 1976
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Dystopian Future / War
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by:
Alfred Bester
In the year 2175, a militaristic America is entrenched in the desperate horrors of World War Five. The key to victory may lie with the patients of a trauma ward, who seem to appear and disappear without a trace.
Reviews:
A lame satirical parable based on an Alfred Bester tale that doubtlessly deserves much better. Marred by overly exaggerated and not very comical comic characterizations, a milked out story line, and a payoff that's only mildly poignant and doesn't really satisfy.. --- Bruce Fisher
Oblong Box, The
Year: 1975
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: George Lowthar
Story by:
Edgar Allan Poe
Reviews:
Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, An
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre: War
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Sam Dann
Story by:
Ambrose Bierce
A Confederate saboteur hanged from a bridge by Union troops gets a reprieve when the rope snaps; can he evade the enemy's pursuit and reach home?
Versions of this story also appeared on Suspense and Escape
Reviews:
Interesting story. I should've figured out what was going on from what the narrator said at the beginning about time. I knew something was up when the main character kept talking about the wind and I thought it odd that everyone he met knew of what he had done as if it had been weeks before. --- Barry Howell
This was a great piece of radio drama. I say that because I had read the short story and knew what was coming, but I never lost interest in this episode. --- Clarence Grigsby
On the Dead of Night
Year:
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by:
Reviews:
Ocean of Emptiness
Year: 1980
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Space Exploration
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Arnold Moss
A couple on a deep space mission to reach Jupiter encounter a strange object hounding their course, and a cryptic message from home announcing their own deaths.
Reviews:
Old Country, The
Year: 1982
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Time Travel
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Sam Dann
A businessman on a trip to Yugoslavia begins to experience flashbacks to WW II wherein he discovers the truth about his father, a hero in the Resistance.
Reviews:
Once upon an Island
Year: 1980
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Elspeth Eric
Story by:
E. Heron and
H. Heron
Reviews:
One Girl in a Million
Year: 1976
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by:
Alfred Bester
Reviews:
One of the Missing
Year: 1976
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Arnold and Stella Moss
Story by:
Ambrose Bierce
Reviews:
Only a Woman
Year: 1982
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Historical
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Sam Dann
The legendary Semiramis, Queen of Assyria, recounts the story of her life—an insatiable quest for love, power, and conquest.
Reviews:
Out of Sight
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Ian Martin
Reviews:
Outsider, The
Year: 1979
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Supernatural
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Bob Juhren
For thirty years the town of Hanover Hills has been cut off from the outside world. There have been no births, no deaths, no one has been able to leave, nor has anyone ever arrived—until Doug Watson somehow stumbles upon the town. The residents quickly come to see him as their savior.
Reviews:
Overcoat, The
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Ian Martin
Story by:
Nikolai Gogol
Reviews:
Overnight to Freedom
Year: 1976
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Espionage
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Sam Dann
An American POW assumes the identity of a French volunteer worker on leave to escape from Nazi Germany on a train to occupied France. Unfortunately, he is accompanied by a troop of German soldiers and several Gestapo agents aboard...
Reviews:
Parasite, The
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: G. Frederic Lewis
Story by:
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Reviews:
Passing of Black Eagle, The
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Sam Dann
Story by:
O. Henry
Reviews:
Permanent Man, The
Year: 1979
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Super Science
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Gerald Keane
Story by:
William Morrow
A futuristic version of 'Frankenstein'—a scientist on the Neptune colony turns a volunteer into a quasi-human 'superman'.
Reviews:
A sort of futuristic version of Frankenstein, though in this case the monster is a cross between corpse and machine. While the story takes place in a pressure dome on Neptune, there didn't seem to be any real reason why it needed to be. The same story could have been told on Earth. The premise could have been interesting, especially if the monster's humanity and regret had resurfaced, but that did not seem to occur to the writer. He thought it more interesting to showcase the mad doctor's efforts to satisfy his creation's insatiable appetite. The whole business builds and then just sort of lies there, inert. Not the series' best effort. --- Jeff Dickson
Phantom House, The
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Ghosts
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Ian Martin
Story by:
Amyas Northcote
Two sisters visit their elderly uncle in Virginia. When out riding, one of the girls sees a red brick house at the bottom of the hill. A house that is said to have burned to the ground twenty years ago...
A tip of the hat to observant listener Noelle who recognized that "The Phantom House", though uncredited, is likely based on (or at least inspired by) the Amyas Northcote short story "Brickett Bottom". Thanks Noelle!
Another version aired on Beyond Midnight (as "The Paxton's House")
Reviews:
The first time I tried listening to this episode, I began to fall asleep! Second time, made it through and appreciated the slow pacing. Though, uncredited this seems to be based on Amyas Northcote's short story "Brickett Bottom". --- Noelle (7/10)
Phantom Lullaby, The
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Ghosts
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Elspeth Eric
A couple rent a luxury condo to make room for their daughter, the victim of an abusive relationship, ignoring the superintendent's warnings about the flat being haunted. Nonsense, they say, until their traumatized daughter begins speaking in foreign tongues...
Reviews:
Phantom of the Opera, The
Year: 1975
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Horror
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: ??
Story by:
Gaston Leroux
The classic tale of a Paris Opera house haunted by an angry spirit.
Reviews:
Pharaoh's Curse, The
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Occult
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Ian Martin
A beautiful female singer is tempted into joining an expedition to penetrate the forbidden tomb of an ancient Egyptian princess, in spite of the curse placed on the tomb against intruders and the strange string of 'accidents' that have befallen precious attempts. Stars Kim Hunter.
Reviews:
Picture of Dorian Gray, The
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: George Lowthar
Story by:
Oscar Wilde
Reviews:
Pit and the Pendulum, The
Year: 1975
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: George Lowthar
Story by:
Edgar Allan Poe
The classic is loosely adapted into a story about a scientist and his wife who are kidnapped and threatened with slow death if he does not reveal a secret formula for a deadly nerve gas.
Versions of the original were produced for Suspense and Appointment with Fear.
Reviews:
Pleading Voice, The
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Ghosts
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Roy Winsor
A man fears for his daughter's sanity when she becomes obsessed with a voice she claims to hear coming from the burned out shell of the gatehouse to their lonely New England manor.
Reviews:
Point in Time, A
Year: 1976
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Mary Jane Higby
Two campers in the Southwest come across a town which seems to be out of the 1930's, and whose inhabitants guard a conspiracy of global proportions.
Reviews:
Point of Time, A
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Future Earth / Time Travel
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Victoria Dann
A 21st century dictator is the target of a small but elaborately calculated plot to not only overthrow his totalitarian regime, but to remove it from history altogether.
Reviews:
Portrait of Memory
Year: 1980
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: James Agate, Jr
Story by:
Henry James
Reviews:
Postmistress of Laurel Run, The
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: G. Frederic Lewis
Story by:
Bret Harte
Reviews:
Power of Zeus
Year: 1980
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Super Science
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: James Agate, Jr
In the year 3000, the Earth is still divided into East and West and faces starvation from the disintegration of the ozone. A husband and wife research team travel to the colony world of Zeus to find a solution to hunger, but instead make a far more volatile discovery, one that could alter the balance of power permanently.
Reviews:
Premature Burial, The
Year: 1975
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: George Lowthar
Story by:
Edgar Allan Poe
Reviews:
Prince of Evil, The
aka: "Richard III"
Year: 1976
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Ian Martin
Story by:
William Shakespeare
Reviews:
Prisoner of the Machines
Year: 1981
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Dystopian Future / War
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by:
Henry Slesar
1400 captured prisoners of a future war are sent to a POW camp on a remote asteroid operated solely by machines. However, nobody bothers to inform their robot jail-keepers when the war ends. Stars John Lithgow.
Reviews:
First rate production—Lithgow is terrific, the story moves at a good pace, and generates some real tension. While I have not heard every episode of RMT, this is my choice for the best of the shows I've heard so far. --- Jeff Dickson
Prisoner of Zenda, The
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Robert Newman
Story by:
Anthony Hope
Reviews:
Queen of Spades, The
Year: 1976
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Sam Dann
Story by:
Alexander Pushkin
Reviews:
Raft, The
Year: 1981
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: G. Frederic Lewis
Story by:
Jacques Futrelle
Reviews:
Reflected Terror
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Supernatural
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Ian Martin
A gothic tale of a young housemaid who takes a job at a spooky old manor replete with a stern housekeeper, a pack of ravening hounds, and an eccentric old codger who has banned mirrors from his household for fear of what they reveal to him about the house's dark secrets.
Reviews:
Reigate Mystery, The
Year: 1982
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Murray Burnett
Story by:
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
A Sherlock Holmes mystery.
Reviews:
Resident Killer
Year: 1982
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Sci-Fi / War
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Sam Dann
What does a society based on pacifism do with those citizens with an inherently violent nature? This society has found a solution—they are shipped off into deep space, where they act as Earth's sole defense in a war against alien invaders.
See also "Soldier Boy" (X Minus One)
Reviews:
One of the best RMT's I've ever heard! It makes you think about what place violence has in a society, how even a peaceful one must rely on it to some degree. Made me think that perhaps the only thing that separates a primitive society from a 'mature' one is the degree to which it will admit that fact. --- Ed Corbeil
Revenge Is Not Sweet
Year: 1980
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: G. Frederic Lewis
Story by:
Jacques Futrelle
Reviews:
Revenge Is Sweet
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: G. Frederic Lewis
Story by:
Guy de Maupassant
Reviews:
Rivalry, The
Year: 1979
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: James Agate, Jr
Story by:
Maurice Leblanc
Based on one of the first Arsène Lupin adventures.
Reviews:
Russian Passport, The
aka: "The Belated Russian Passport"
Year: 1976
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Sam Dann
Story by:
Mark Twain
Reviews:
Sacrifice in Blood, A
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Occult
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Milt Wisoff
Investigating an ancient pre-Toltec cult, a couple discover an abandoned child on a sacrificial altar, and decide to raise it as their own. As he grows up, however, he would appear to be no son born of man and woman.
Reviews:
Safety Match, The
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Percy Granger
Story by:
Anton Chekhov
Reviews:
Saxon Curse, The
Year: 1976
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Sam Dann
Story by:
Oscar Wilde
Reviews:
Scandal in Bohemia, A
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Murry Burnett
Story by:
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
A Sherlock Holmes mystery.
Reviews:
Scenes from a Murder
Year: 1982
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: G. Frederic Lewis
Story by:
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Scenes from the classic novel Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
Reviews:
Schoolmistress, The
Year: 1982
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: James Agate, Jr
Story by:
Anton Chekhov
Reviews:
Sealed Room Murder, The
aka: "The Doomdorf Murder"
Year: 1975
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Ian Martin
Story by:
Melville Davisson Post, 1918
An Uncle Abner mystery.
Reviews:
Search for Eden
aka: "The Country of the Blind"
Year: 1979
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Gerald Keane
Story by:
H.G. Wells
Reviews:
Secret Chamber, The
Year: 1976
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Sam Dann
Reviews:
Secret of the Aztecs, The
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Supernatural
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Percy Granger
A geologist on a field trip in the Arizona desert is kidnapped by an eccentric old man and becomes a pawn in a struggle over the legendary lost Montezuma's gold.
Reviews:
Secret of the Fifth Bell, The
Year: 1980
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: G. Frederic Lewis
Story by:
Jacques Futrelle
Reviews:
Secret Sharer, The
Year: 1976
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Elizabeth Pennell
Story by:
Joseph Conrad
Reviews:
Sending, The
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Occult
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by:
Robert Newman
A college student, infatuated with her professor and his course in occult studies, becomes an unwitting victim when he lends her an ancient bronze mirror which acts as a doorway for evil to enter the world.
Reviews:
Serpent of the Nile, The
aka: "Anthony and Cleopatra"
Year: 1976
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Ian Martin
Story by:
William Shakespeare
Reviews:
Serpent's Tooth, The
Year: 1975
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Historical
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Sam Dann
A couple in pre-WW I Vienna take in an emotionally disturbed young boarder, whose ambitions to become a painter soon give way to more grandiose visions.
Reviews:
Shadow of Love
aka: "How Love Came to Professor Guildea"
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Occult
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: James Agate, Jr
Story by:
Robert S. Hichens
A minister befriends a psychiatrist who despises all forms of human compassion and attachment, yet becomes convinced some invisible, hideous 'thing' is in love with him.
Based on the famous story "How Love Came to Professor Guildea", versions of which also appeared on CBS Radio Mystery Theater (as "Shadow of Love"), Escape , Radio City Playhouse, and The Vanishing Point.
See also "The Thing in the Hall" (Theatre 10:30)
Reviews:
Shadows from the Grave
Year: 1979
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Ghosts
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: James Agate, Jr
Story by:
August Derleth and
Mark Schorer, 1933
A young man inherits the home and fortune of his eccentric uncle, with the bizarre stipulation that he inspect his uncle's mausoleum daily to insure no one was tampering with the locks. Of course, no one would ever want to—but then who is it that is seen lurking in the shadows around the property? Stars Fred Gwynne with Himan Brown as the host.
Note: Although Himan Brown credits the author as Wilkie Collins, he is wrong. This story is based on "The Return of Andrew Bentley", written by August Derleth and Mark Schorer. The story was first published in 1933, but was later included in a collection of stories entitled Colonel Markesan and Less Pleasant People in 1966. "The Return of Andrew Bentley" also aired as a teleplay on Thriller in 1961 (with 74 y/o Boris Karloff as the host), and is available at the Internet Archive. --- zM
Reviews:
A slow-moving tale with an abrupt, shaky ending. I got the feeling that the original story was no more than a sketch and that James Agate Jr stretched it as far as he could without breaking it, but couldn't figure out what to do with the ending. Nevertheless, the acting was good and the sound quality was excellent. I might have bumped my rating up a notch if I hadn't just watched the teleplay; I enjoyed the teleplay more, but I think the story works better as audio drama. [6/10] -- zM
She
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Roy Winsor
Story by:
Sir H. Rider Haggard
Reviews:
Shining Man, The
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Ian Martin
Story by:
E. Heron and
H. Heron
Reviews:
Sign of the Beast, The
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Occult
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Sam Dann
An archaeologist's wife accompanying him on an expedition to a remote South American dig site violates a native taboo and falls victim to an ancient curse that threatens to possess her, body and soul.
Reviews:
Sign of the Four, The
aka: "The Sign of Four"
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Murray Burnett
Story by:
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
A Sherlock Holmes mystery.
Reviews:
Silent Woman, The
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Percy Granger
Story by:
Leopold Kompert
Reviews:
Sire de Malétroit's Door, The
Year: 1975
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Ian Martin
Story by:
Robert Louis Stevenson
A young man is lured into a trap by a noble bent on taking action against him for his advances toward the noble's niece. But does the sire have the right man?
A version of this story also appeared on an Australian series, Playhouse of World Famous Authors, and on Escape
Reviews:
So Shall Ye Reap
aka: "Oedipus the King"
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Tragedy
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Arnold Moss
Story by:
Sophocles
Reviews:
Song of the Sirens, The
Year: 1982
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Horror / Creatures
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Sam Dann
A respected scientist staggers out of the desert, half wasted away and mumbling some nonsense about living, intelligent dinosaurs.
Reviews:
Talky and dull. The bulk of the story centers on a reporter investigating the scientist's ravings, mostly by hitting on some female assoiciate. Not one of the series' more salient efforts. --- Jeff Dickson
Sophia and the Pilgrim
aka: "A Strange Story"
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Occult
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: G. Frederic Lewis
Story by:
Ivan Turgenev, 1869
Ivan visits an old friend he hasn't seen in twenty years and is pleasantly surprised to meet the friend's 18-year-old daughter, Sophia. Ivan is quite taken with Sophia, but Sophia is quite taken with a mystic, Vassily Nikititch, who claims he can show people the dead.
Reading Link: "A Desperate Character and Other Stories", by Ivan Turgenev, available at The Project Gutenberg.
I console myself sometimes in the thought that dear, impetuous, strong-willed Sophia in her own way, lived an entire lifetime -- Ivan
Reviews:
There is a minor occult element in this story which may interest some listeners at the Plot Spot, but the bulk of the story deals with religious obsession... or rather, the obsessive desire to find spiritual leadership which leads some people to religious cults. Much of the plot and dialogue are taken directly from the Ivan Turgenev classic short story "A Strange Story" [1869], but filler has been added to pad the story to 45 minutes. Sound quality is acceptable, but some dialogue is muddy and hard to understand. Solid acting and music. [7/10] --- zM
Spectral Bride, The
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Ghosts
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Ian Martin
A nobleman falls in love with the beautiful daughter of an alchemist, but their marriage ends on tragedy when she suffers a fatal fall from her horse. The bereaved noble eventually ends up remarrying, but the ghost of his deceased love returns to beseech him to employ her father's talents to return her from the grave.
Reviews:
Spectre Bridegroom, The
Year: 1979
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Elspeth Eric
Story by:
Washington Irving
Reviews:
Spy and the Traitor, The
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Adventure
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: G. Frederic Lewis
Revolutionary War hero Benedict Arnold is treated with contempt by his contemporaries, and seduced by his love for a Loyalist woman to betray the country he has fought so valiantly for.
Reviews:
Star Killers, The
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Aliens
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Sam Dann
A female physicist gets involved with a man who claims to be an advance scout for an alien invasion. Ridiculous, of course, until he is found murdered and she is the prime suspect.
Reviews:
Stay Out of Dutchman's Woods
Year: 1975
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Ghosts
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Fielden Farrington
A married couple go exploring in Dutchman's Woods, despite the warnings of the manager of the inn where they are staying. They get lost and the husband finds himself under the spell of a strange woman.
Reviews:
A pretty good ghost story with realistic characters. --- Clarence Grigsby
Stolen White Elephant, The
Year: 1976
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Sam Dann
Story by:
Mark Twain
Reviews:
Storm Breeder, The
aka: "Peter Rugg, the Missing Man"
Year: 1975
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Ghosts
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Ian Martin
Story by:
William Austin, 1824
The residents of 19th century New England are haunted by repeated encounters on the road with an uncanny horse-drawn carriage and rider who are perpetually pursued by black storms and who seem to be eternally lost, incapable of finding their way home. Stars Fred Gwynne.
Reading Link: "Peter Rugg, The Missing Man", by William Austin, available at The Internet Archive.
Reviews:
Shades of two legends, those of the Flying Dutchman and of the Wandering Jew, removed to 1820's New England. It succeeds in inspiring strong imagery in the listener's mind—one can easily picture the carriage and its black steeds hurtling over the lonely windswept roads, the gaunt features of its doomed driver, the black thunderheads in eternal pursuit...
Fred Gwynne puts in a wonderfully deep-throated portrayal of the cursed rider. However, the story is bogged down by its telling of the story through a series of interviews, which quickly wax tedious. That may have been the nature of the original story, but a little artistic license to liven it up might have been in order. --- Jeff Dickson
Stranded
Year: 1981
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Aliens
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Victoria Dann
Astronauts on a deep space survey must abandon their ship following a meteor strike, and find themselves forced down on an alien world, where the natives take them prisoner.
Reviews:
A rather predictable ending does not impede an otherwise intelligent and engaging episode. --- Jeff Dickson
Strange Case of Lucas Lauder, The
Year: 1975
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Occult
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: George Lowthar
A serial killer on Death Row informs the prison warden that he committed the grisly knife murders because he was possessed by the spirit of Jack the Ripper—and that spirit will transfer to the warden following the execution. Ludicrous, except that the warden finds himself developing a strange fixation for knives.
Reviews:
Strange New Tomorrow
Year: 1979
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Future Earth / War
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Ian Martin
A radioactive Earth plunders its interstellar colonies for their uncontaminated DNA; Desperate for manpower, the Earth military undertakes a program to develop robot soldiers, but the scientist in charge has his own plans for their uses...
Reviews:
Stranger Among Us, A
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Aliens
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Bryce Bond
A woman detained by the police for possession of a stolen car relates a bizarre tale of alien abduction, but can't remember the details. A psychologist is called in to get to the truth, but when he hypnotizes her, the story only gets stranger...
Reviews:
Stranger from Nowhere
Year: 1980
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Aliens
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: James Agate, Jr
An alien in human form sent to Earth to clandestinely observe our world encounters a woman who claims to be his estranged wife, and a writer whose latest book seems to be all about his home planet.
Reviews:
Study in Scarlett, A
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Murray Burnett
Story by:
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
A Sherlock Holmes mystery.
Reviews:
Suicide Club, The
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: George Lowthar
Story by:
Robert Louis Stevenson
Classic story of two thrill seekers in Victorian London who get more than they bargained for when they join a secret society and find themselves unwilling members of a murder/suicide club.
A version of this story appeared on ABC Mystery Time; also on Escape under its actual title, "The Young Man with the Cream Tarts".
Reviews:
Summer People, The
Year: 1975
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Horror
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Bob Juhren
A couple seeking a remote summer getaway find the ideal little town on the outskirts of nowhere, where the locals apparently never age and their fellow vacationers seem to be disappearing...
Reviews:
Teddy Bear, The
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Super Science
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: James Agate, Jr
A Cold War story about a disastrous space mission which crashes into the Pacific upon re-entry. The only 'survivor' is a teddy bear, a gift to one of the astronauts from a Russian counterpart. Are those sneaky Soviets up to something?
Reviews:
Tell-Tale Heart, The
Year: 1975
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Horror
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: George Lowthar
Story by:
Edgar Allan Poe
Out-of-work Charlie Daring, accepts the hospitality of his Uncle Jonas and moves his family to Jonas' farm, pledging to earn his keep despite suffering a severe nervous condition. Jonas, however, is a cruel task master and pushes Charlie to his limits.
With Fred Gwynne.
Reviews:
This tale focuses on the hypothetical events which might have lead up to Poe's classic short story. Solid acting. Strong conclusion. Interesting interpretation. Well-done. [8/10] --- zM
That's What Friends Are For
aka: "A Friend's Friend"
Year: 1980
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Sam Dann
Story by:
Rudyard Kipling
Reviews:
There's No Business Like
Year: 1976
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Time Travel / Future Earth
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Sam Dann
A time traveler to the year 2076 finds himself the victim of a future in which convicted criminals are condemned to 'Entertainment', where they serve as actors in all-too Real TV, and their very lives are subject to the whim of scriptwriters who may at any time write them out of the story—permanently. Stars Howard Da Silva.
Reviews:
Thing at Nolan, The
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Ghosts
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Arnold Moss
Story by:
Ambrose Bierce
An abusive father discovers that the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree in this cautionary tale. Hatred breeds hatred, which comes back to bite the farmer on his backside via a disgruntled son. The patricidal son also discovers that no bad deed goes unpunished. Life on the farm can be difficult, especially when you sow what you reap.
Reviews:
It's hard to root for anyone here, save the farmer's wife who is caught in the middle between the father and son. The one saving grace for the show is the description of the farmer at the end of the show when he walks into the general store. Truly eerie! --- Brian Lane
Third Person, The
Year: 1975
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Ghosts
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Arnold Moss
Story by:
Henry James
Two cousins inherit a mansion inhabited by the ghost of a long dead relative who cries for them to help clear his name from the ignominy which followed him into the grave.
Reviews:
I enjoyed this episode quite a bit. Being a fan of ghost stories, usually the spookier the better, however with this one, the result was a slightly humorous, sentimental story with likable characters. 8/10 -- Noelle
Thirty-Sixth Man, The
aka: "The Lamed Wufniks"
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Supernatural
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by:
Legend
Based on the Yiddish legend of the Lamed Wufniks... in which there must always exist on Earth thirty-six righteous men whose purity of heart can dissuade an angry God from destroying the world. In this tale, Satan attempts to divert the latest Lamed Wufnik from the path of righteousness and, in doing so, destroy the world.
Reviews:
This is the only version of this legend I have heard. It is well-written and the acting is solid. Ross Martin does a great job as a newest Lamed Wufnik... a poor Jewish shopkeeper who is trying to please his irritating wife while staying true to his faith. The two goals don't always coincide, which is why he seems like the perfect target for Satan... [8/10] --- zM
This Will Kill You
aka: "Casting the Runes"
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Occult
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Murray Burnett
Story by:
M.R. James
Credit is not given to M.R. James, but this is clearly a re-telling of his classic tale: "Casting the Runes".
Reviews:
Threshold, The
Year: 1980
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Alternate Reality
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: G. Frederic Lewis
The entire population of Dry Lake Montana died from radioactivity 40 years ago. Nobody has dared go near the place since, until it is bought by a strange young couple from out of state, who begin reconstructing it. Suddenly 'residents' begin to appear, apparently out of thin air. Stars Fred Gwynne.
Reviews:
Till Death Do Us Join
Year: 1975
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Ian Martin
Story by:
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
"Based on a Gothic tale by the Irish novelist Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu considered by many an equal to Poe, Stevenson, or de Maupassant" - Schenectady Gazette, Aug 3, 1975
Reviews:
Time and Again
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Occult
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Ian Martin
A clockmaker comes into possession of a strange clock which has the ability to stop time for one hour out of every twelve, as long as it's increasingly voracious taste for human blood is satisfied.
Reviews:
Time Box, The
Year: 1980
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Time Travel
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: G. Frederic Lewis
A strange box uncovered at the site of a 19th-century scientist's laboratory transports a reporter 100 years back in time. The box, it turns out, is something of a booby trap set by the scientist to snare a man from the future with the intent of discovering whether his daughter's fiance is a murderer.
Reviews:
Time Fold, The
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Time Travel
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Ian Martin
A group of passengers aboard a private flight encounter a freak storm which should—but does not—kill them. Instead they find themselves tumbling in orbit about the Moon, a thousand years in the future. Stars Fred Gwynne.
Reviews:
Tiny Drop of Poison, A
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Murder
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Sam Dann
A politician's past suddenly catches up with her when her husband is assigned to investigate a five-year old murder. With E.G. Marshall, Tammy Grimes, Paul Hecht, Robert Dryden, and Earl Hammond.
Reviews:
No supernatural or Sci-Fi elements here, just a straightforward murder mystery. Although the theme—politicians struggling with their conscience—seems a little far fetched, the role is nicely played by Tammy Grimes [8/10] --- zM
Tobin's Palm
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Occult, Humour
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Sam Dann
Story by:
O. Henry, 1906
Desperately looking to locate his missing fiancée, a man follows his best friend's advice to seek help from a palm-reading fortuneteller. The result is a series of mishaps, odd coincidence, and finally a surprising ending.
With Robert Dryden (), Fred Gwynne (Jawn Malone), Jack Grimes (Daniel Tobin), Marian Seldes (Katie Mahorner), and Gilbert Mack ().
Reading Link: "Tobin's Palm", by O. Henry, contained in the collection The Four Million, 1906, available at Project Gutenberg.
Snippet "Ocean, fire, a ship, a fat man, a blonde woman, a man with a silver ornament, a man dressed in black with a hammer, white horses, steam, steel, stone, a red-haired woman, a bald-headed man, and a fellow with a crooked nose." --- Malone
Reviews:
A brilliant adaptation by Sam Dann, who created a story which is much, much funnier than the O. Henry original. What makes this adaptation work is the dialogue between Tobin and Malone (which was mostly created by Mr Dann) and the acting by Fred Gwynne and Jack Grimes. O. Henry's short story can be read in about 10 minutes; Dann expands the story to 45 minutes. It drags a bit at times, but the changes are mostly for the better. [8/10] --- zM
Tom Sawyer, Detective
Year: 1976
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Sam Dann
Story by:
Mark Twain
Reviews:
Tomorrow Is Never
Year: 1980
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: James Agate, Jr
Story by:
Henry James
Reviews:
Tool Shed, The
Year: 1982
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: G. Frederic Lewis
Story by:
Henry James
Reviews:
Toy Death
aka: "The Doll"
Year: 1981
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: James Agate, Jr
Story by:
Algernon Henry Blackwood
Reviews:
Tragedy of Error, A
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: G. Frederic Lewis
Story by:
Henry James
Reviews:
Transformation, The
Year: 1975
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Elspeth Eric
Story by:
Mary Shelley
Reviews:
Trial for Murder
aka: "The Trial for Murder"
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: James Agate, Jr
Story by:
Charles Dickens and
Charles Collins
Reviews:
Triangle, The
Year: 1975
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Alternate Reality
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Sam Dann
Rescued out of the ocean five days after her airliner vanished in the Bermuda Triangle, a woman recounts her experience of being drawn through a gateway to the "City"—a utopian paradise where the inhabitants don't recall their former earthly identities, instead seeing our existence with the same skepticism with which we view the Triangle.
Reviews:
Everyone's looking for an escape sometimes and this episode provides a version of utopia found in the entrance to the Bermuda Triangle. Good ending. --- Noelle (7/10)
Trilby
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: James Agate, Jr
Story by:
George du Maurier
Reviews:
Tunnel Man, The
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Super Science
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Percy Granger
A super-criminal with megalomaniacal ambitions threatens world security with a method of tunneling underground at fantastic speeds.
Reviews:
Two Plus Two Equals Death
Year: 1976
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by:
Alfred Bester
Reviews:
Two Renegades
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Sam Dann
Story by:
O. Henry
Reviews:
Universe Hollow
Year: 1982
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Aliens
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Sam Dann
Haunted by the memory of a dead lover, a discredited reporter travels to a nest of UFO nuts waiting for aliens to land in order to write a story that will remake her career—or are they nuts?
Reviews:
Vanishing Herd, The
Year: 1981
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Murray Burnett
Story by:
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
A Sherlock Holmes mystery.
Reviews:
Vanishing Point, The
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Super Science
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Sam Dann
A physicist attending a conference in Munich looks up the author of a brilliant research paper and instead uncovers a nest of neo-Nazis seeking to develop the ultimate weapon.
Reviews:
Venus d'Ille, The
aka: "The Bronze Venus"
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Supernatural
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Sam Dann
Story by:
Prosper Mérimée
Also adapted for The Witch's Tale as "The Bronze Venus".
Reviews:
Versegy Case, The
aka: "Der Fall Versegy"
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Gerald Keane
Story by:
Karl Rosner, 1905
Reviews:
Very Old Man, A
Year: 1974
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Occult
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Elspeth Eric
An old man living with his daughter and son-in-law seems to have an ability to heal with his touch, to the frustration of his daughter's husband, a medical doctor with no faith in faith healers. The old man takes no credit, however—he attributes his talent to a second daughter, dead for many, many years...
Reviews:
Thoroughly enjoyed this story, but I'm not sure I can say why. Maybe I just like stories about lovable old men. Maybe I just like stories about a faith healer who vigorously denies he is any such thing. He's just a very old man who has nothing to do with any 'cures', so why's everybody making such a fuss? (9/10) --- zM
Victim, The
Year: 1982
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by:
Bryce Walton
Reviews:
Visions of Sir Philip Sydney, The
Year: 1982
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: G. Frederic Lewis
Story by:
M.R. James
Reviews:
Voyage to Intrastar
Year: 1979
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Supernatural
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Roy Winsor
A doctor who lost his wife becomes convinced that her soul survives on a remote planet where the dead await reincarnation, and that he visits her through his dreams.
Reviews:
Walking Dead, The
Year: 1976
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by:
Alfred Bester
Reviews:
Wanted, A Husband
Year: 1980
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: G. Frederic Lewis
Story by:
O. Henry
With Fred Gwynne.
Reviews:
Ward Six
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Percy Granger
Story by:
Anton Chekhov
Reviews:
Warriors from Loanda, The
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Roy Winsor
Story by:
Joseph Conrad
Reviews:
Watchers of the Living
Year: 1979
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: James Agate, Jr
Story by:
H.G. Wells
Reviews:
Way to Dusty Death, The
aka: "Antigone"
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Arnold and Stella Moss
Story by:
Sophocles
Reviews:
What the Shepherd Saw
Year: 1976
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Elizabeth Pennell
Story by:
Thomas Hardy
Based on the story "Far from the Madding Crowd" ??
Reviews:
Whimpering Pond, The
Year: 1982
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Ghosts
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Roy Winsor
A successful writer hears a tale of the mysterious disappearance of a woman who used to reside in the countryside house where he has made a retreat. It isn't long before his creative mind begins to tug at the strings of mystery, hoping to unravel the enigma. What is the mystery of the mournful apparition in the fog of the pond?
Reviews:
I believe this program has suffered due to the changing times. While it may have been exciting and spooky in it's time, the pacing seems to plod along awkwardly towards an unsatisfactory ending. While the idea of a ghost in the pond is promising, I think this episode could have been edited to half it's length without losing anything. --- Brian Lane
White Wolf, The
aka: "The White Wolf of the Hartz Mountains"
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Creatures
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Ian Martin
Story by:
Frederick Marryat
Reviews:
Who Made Me?
Year: 1975
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Future Earth
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Sam Dann
In a distant future dominated by social castes, a high-ranking Navy officer is horrified to discover that his son wants to give up his high birth and join the lower classes in an effort to understand the truth behind existence.
Reviews:
Widow's Auxiliary, The
Year: 1975
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Aliens
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Fielden Farrington
A young upwardly mobile executive is overjoyed at the prospect of being accepted into an elite club of influential businessmen, unaware that the organization is a fifth estate for extraterrestrial powers.
Reviews:
Winds of Time, The
Year: 1978
Duration: 45 min
Genre: Occult
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Ian Martin
A woman plagued by headaches seeks solace from a hypnotist, but her regression to previous lives reveals a deep-seated guilt over incarnations in which she might have changed history for the better, but failed to.
Reviews:
Woman Who Wanted to Live, The
Year: 1982
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by:
Bryce Walton
Reviews:
Wuthering Heights
Year: 1977
Duration: 45 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Elizabeth Pennell
Story by:
Emily Brontë
Reviews: