NBC Presents: Best Plays was "a series of hour-length dramas based on famous theatrical books begun by the late Burns Mantle, now edited by the distinguished drama critic of the New York Daily News, John Chapman." -- from the intro.
Year: 1953
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Comedy?
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Earl Hamner
Story by: Samson Raphaelson, 1934
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Cast
Cyril Ritchard
Steven Gaye
Sally Forrest
Linda Brown
Edwin Jerome
Frank Galloway
Leon Janney
Dickie Reynolds
Helen Claire
Genevieve Lang
Edith Gresham
Miss Darling
Gene Leonard
Flogdell
Reviews:
All My Sons *LOST*
Year: 1952
Duration: 60 min
Available for Listening Booth: N
Story by: Arthur Miller, 1946
Amazing Dr Clitterhouse, The
Year: 1953
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Crime Thriller
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Robert Cenedella
Story by: Barré Lyndon, 1936
Dr Clitterhouse, bored with the day-to-day details of his medical practice, becomes interested in research and stumbles upon a connection between criminal activity, intelligence, and physique. To pursue his research further, he needs biometric data collected from criminals while they are actually working. The only problem is finding a criminal who is willing to participate in such research. The answer, of course, is pretty obvious once you think about it calmly and rationally.
See also: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Cast
Sir Cedric Hardwicke
Dr. Clitterhouse
John Stanley
Benny Kellerman
Alfred Shirley
Sir William
Horace Braham
Inspector Charles
June Peel
Nurse Ann
Ivor Francis
Oakie
Cathleen Cordell
Daisy
Guy Spaull
Pal
Richard Newton
Sergeant Bates
Burford Hampden
the Constable
Snippet:
Clitterhouse: "Nurse, has it ever occurred to you to wonder why criminal activity should actually change a man's face and physique? Gradually change someone who was once quite normal into something furtive and cringing? It does you know, in time."
Nurse: "I'm afraid I've never thought of anything like that."
Clitterhouse: "Now there are medical reasons for these changes. They affect the mentality of the crook and influence his actions. They're the result of the... the fear and excitement of the intense emotions which he works under. I'm going to find out the precise nature of these reactions so I can do it only by studying crooks whilst they are actually at work. Not after [inspector] Charlie has stuck them away behind bars. It's research, and I needed a living subject. So, I started experiments on myself. I observe my reactions: pulse, respiration, blood pressure."
Reviews:
I liked all the characters and thought the acting was very good, especially Sir Cedric Hardwicke and John Stanley, and although I've heard this play described as a melodrama, I thought the acting was deliberate and restrained rather than over-the-top. The plot was a straight-forward crime drama (crime committed/how are the police going to catch the culprit?), but the motivation of the criminal was better explained than in most crime dramas. A plot twist or two with a reasonable conclusion. [7/10] -- zM
Angel Street
aka: "Gas Light"
Year: 1952
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Earl Hamner
Story by: Patrick Hamilton, 1938
London, 1880. Bella Manningham is losing her mind. She misplaces her jewelry and grocery bills; she removes paintings from the walls and forgets where she puts them and can't even remember removing them in the first place; she imagines the gas lights dimming in the evening. Jack, her husband, threatens to lock her in her room--alone and in the dark--if she doesn't straighten herself out. This doesn't seem to help.
Cast
Vincent Price
Jack Manningham
Judith Evelyn
Bella Manningham
Melville Cooper
Detective Rough
Margery Maude
Elizabeth
Elizabeth Eustis
Nancy
Snippet:
Jack: "Yes. Why has it [the picture] been taken down? Why indeed? You alone can answer that, Bella. Now will you please take it from wherever you have hidden it and put it back on the wall again?"
Bella: "But I haven't hidden it, Jack. I haven't hidden it. Someone else must have done it!"
Jack: "Someone else? Are you suggesting that I should play such a fantastic and wicked trick?"
Bella: "Oh, no dear, no, but someone else?"
Jack: "Certainly the servants would not have done so without permission or instruction."
Bella: "I-I didn't touch that picture."
Jack: "You're mad Bella and you don't know what you do. You unhappy wretch. You're stark jibbering mad like your wretched mother before you."
Bella: "Jack, you promised you'd never say that again."
Reviews:
Equal parts psychological suspense and psychological abuse, this gripping tale relies heavily on the performance of the three main characters: Vincent Price, Judith Evelyn, and Melville Cooper. Price and Evelyn reprise their Broadway roles, with Evelyn playing a frail woman slowly sinking into madness while Price plays her husband who may, or may not, be deliberately driving her so. Cooper plays the shrewd and calculating former detective who is looking into 'past irregularities'. Solid acting all around. [8/10] -- zM
Another Language
Year: 1953
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Comedy?
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Brice Disque Jr
Story by: Rose Franken, 1932
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Cast
Faye Emerson
Stella Hallam
Arthur Maitland
Papa
Ethel Wilson
Mama
Ralph Bell
Harry Hallam
Margaret Hamilton
Helen Hallam
Lawson Zerbe
Walter Hallam
Edith Gresham
Grace Hallam
Charles Penman
Paul Hallam
Agnes Young
Etta Hallam
Joseph Curtin
Victor Hallam
Donald Buka
Jerry Hallam
Reviews:
Arsenic and Old Lace
aka: "Bodies in Our Cellar"
Year: 1952, 1953
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Black Comedy
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Ernest Kinoy
Story by: Joseph Kesselring, 1939
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Cast
Boris Karloff
Jonathan Brewster
Donald Cook
Mortimer Brewster
Evelyn Varden
Abby Brewster
Jean Adair
Martha Brewster
Edgar Stehli
Dr Einstein
Wendell Holmes
Teddy Brewster
Joan Tompkins
Elaine Harper
Arthur Matlin
Mr Witherspoon
Ted Osborne
The Reverend Harper
Ed Latimer
Officer Brophy
Reviews:
Autumn Crocus
Year: 1953
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Earl Hamner
Story by: Dodie Smith as C.L. Anthony, 1931
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Cast
Walter Slezak
Andreas Steiner ?
Carmen Matthews
Jenny Grey ?
Elaine Rost
Audrey
Robert Carroll
Alaric
Margery Maude
Miss Mayne
Guy Spaull
Vicar Mayne
Irene Hubbard
Edith
Lily Valente
Lisa
Reviews:
Bell for Adano, A
Year: 1952
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Drama
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Paul Osborne (playwright)
Adapted by: Ernest Kinoy (adaptor)
Story by: John Hersey, 1944
Awards: Pulitzer Prize for the Novel
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Cast
Arthur Kennedy
Maj Victor Joppolo
Myron McCormick
Sgt Leonard Borth, MP
Karl Weber
Cpt Purvis, MP
Joseph Julian
Sgt Frank Trapani, MP
Fred Lightner
Cpl Chuck Schultz, MP
Susan Douglas
Tina
Joe DeSantis
Nasta
Louis Sorin
Tomasino
Tony Randall
Lt Livingston
Roger De Koven
Father Pensovecchio
Luis Van Rooten
Bachevey ?
William Griffis
Gargano
Gilbert Mack
Giovanni Zito
Reviews:
Biography
Year: 1952
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Comedy?
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: S.N. Behrman, 1932
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Cast
Faye Emerson
Marion Froude
Donald Buka
the editor
Reviews:
Blithe Spirit
Year: 1952
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Ghosts, Humour
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Noël Coward, 1941
Charles Condomine is a writer researching material for a mystery novel. As a lark, he invites the eccentric medium, Madame Arcati, to hold a séance. It's great fun, until Madame Arcati inadvertently materializes Charles' first wife, Elvira! Further complications arise when Elvira refuses to return to the 'other side' and seems intent on disrupting Charles' current marriage.
Cast
John Loder
Charles Condomine
Mildred Natwick
Ruth
Haila Stoddard
Elvira
Anne Burr
Madame Arcati
Reviews:
A well-written light comedy with good characterization and dialogue. Humorous and enjoyable. [6/10] -- zM
Bound East for Cardiff *LOST*
Year: 1952
Duration: 30 min ?
Available for Listening Booth: N
Story by: Eugene O'Neill, 1916
aka: "La Dame aux Camélias"
aka: "The Lady of the Camellias"
Year: 1953
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Romantic Drama
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Vincent McConnor
Story by: Alexandre Dumas, fils, 1848
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Cast
Eva Le Gallienne
Marguerite Gautier
Richard Waring
Armand Duval
Edwin Jerome
Duval, père
Betty Garde
Prudence
Karl Weber
Gaston Rieux
Frederik Rolf ???
Baron De Varville
Marian Evanson
Nanine
Bryna Raeburn
Olympe
Gene Leonard
the doctor
Susan Douglas
Nichette
Reviews:
Craig's Wife
Year: 1952
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Drama
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Clarice A. Ross
Story by: George Edward Kelly, 1925
Awards: Pulitzer Prize for Drama
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Cast
Judith Evelyn
Mrs Craig
John Beal
Walter Craig
Irene Hubbard
Mrs Harold
Patricia Hosley
Mazie
Jane Webb
Ethel Landreth
Virginia Payne
Mrs Frazier
Ethel Wilson
Aunt Austen
John Gibson
Billy Birkmire
Ross Martin
Officer Joseph Catelle
William Redfield
Gene Fredericks
Reviews:
Dark of the Moon, The *LOST*
Year: 1952
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Fantasy
Available for Listening Booth: N
Adapted by: Howard Richardson, William Berney
Story by: traditional, 1945
A dramatization of the centuries-old European folk song "The Ballad of Barbara Allen".
See also: "The Death of Barbara Allen", Suspense.
Detective Story
Year: 1953
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Melodrama
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: George Lefferts
Story by: Sidney Kingsley, 1949
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Cast
Wendell Corey
Detective McLeod
James Westerfield
Detective Brody
Charme Allen
Mrs Farragut
William Lally
Mr Sims
Matt Crowley
Detective Callahan
Peter Capell
Kurt
Rolly Bester
Miss Hatch
Ted Osborne
Mr Pritchett
Elspeth Eric
Mary McLeod
Mandel Kramer
Detective Dakis
John McGovern
Lt Monoghan
Elaine Rost
Susan Carmichael
Nat Polen
Charlie
Leon Janney
Arthur Kindred
Alexander Scourby
Tami Giacoppetti
Reviews:
Elizabeth the Queen
Year: 1952
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Historical Drama
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Maxwell Anderson, 1930
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Cast
Eva Le Gallienne
Elizabeth
Richard Waring
Lord Essex
Joan Lorring
Penelope Gray
Horace Braham
unknown
Guy Spaull
unknown
Edwin Jerome
unknown
Phillip Ornoff
unknown
Ivor Francis
unknown
Arthur Hughes
unknown
Lester Fletcher
unknown
Cliff Owen
unknown
Reviews:
Ethan Frome
Year: 1953
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Romantic Tragedy
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Owen Davis (playwright)
Adapted by: Robert Cenedella (adaptor)
Story by: Edith Wharton, 1911
A New England farm in the late 1800s. A poor, yet proud and virtuous, farmer (Ethan), hen-pecked by his hypochondriac wife (Zeena), grudgingly accepts the live-in help of his wife's younger cousin (Mattie). Ethan's gruff and taciturn manner gradually softens around Mattie. Zeena notices. Plans and counter-plans are made.
Cast
Geraldine Page
Mattie Silver
Evelyn Varden
Zenobia (Zeena) Frome
Karl Weber
Ethan Frome
Luis Van Rooten
Harmon Gow
Arthur Maitland
Jotham
Lawson Zerbe
Dennis Eady
Bill Lipton
Ned Hale
Jane Webb
Ruth Varnum
Snippet: "Ethan! Oh, Ethan. It's broke. It's her pickle dish; it's all to pieces. Oh, Ethan, what'll she say? She never meant it was to be used even, not ever. And I had to reach it down from the top shelf, there, and she'll want to know why I did it. Oh, Ethan, what can I say?" -- Mattie
Reviews:
I first read this story 50 years ago for a class in American Literature. I thought it was depressing and emotionally draining and I couldn't understand why anyone would read it, let alone assign it for others to read. A long life has given me a better perspective on this story. Rather than being (as I'd hoped) a story about Romantic Love and optimistic futures, it's a story about how the culture we live in can bind us into ethical knots which leave us feeling trapped with no way out. I can appreciate that. But it's still a depressing and emotionally draining story. Excellent acting and sound quality, though. Just not my thing. [4/10] -- zM
Farmer Takes a Wife, The
aka: "Rome Haul"
Year: 1953
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Romantic Adventure
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Frank B. Elser, Marc Connelly
Story by: Walter D. Edmonds, 1929
A slice-of-life romantic adventure set in a unique time a place in American history: the Erie Canal of the 1850s. Dan Harrow plans to buy a farm near Utica, New York, and signs on as a temporary canal driver to earn the needed funds. His plans are complicated when he meets Molly Larkins, a fiery young woman who has lived her whole life on the canal and can't imagine a better life anywhere.
Historical note: The Erie Canal opened in 1825, linking the Hudson River with Lake Erie and providing a feasible way to move people and goods west of the Appalachian Mountains. It was an exciting time, full of frenetic energy. But by 1842, a mere 17 years later, a competing railroad line had been built which siphoned off nearly all the passenger traffic and much of the freight, and the bright new age that had just begun began drawing to a close. Keep in mind that when the canal opened, there was no navigable water route to the Great Lakes (the first St Lawrence River locks were built shortly thereafter), and the canal's impact was huge.
Cast
John Forsythe
Daniel Harrow
Joan Lorring
Molly Larkins
unknown
Sam Weaver
unknown
Gammy Hennessy
Karl Weber ?
Fortune Friendly
Ken Williams
Jotham Klore
unknown
Sol Tinker
unknown
Lucy Gurget
unknown
Mr Fry, blacksmith
Tom Glazer
music
Snippet:
Dan: "I'm getting a farm. Got it all picked out, up near Uticky. It's fine to have land all your own."
Molly: "The canal's all our own!
Dan: "You ain't got a deed."
Molly: "Well, my part's mine. I'd like to see anybody take it."
Dan: "What about the railroad?"
Molly: "What about them?"
Dan: "The canal ain't the whole of life, you know, ma'am."
Molly: "Oh, ain't it? Well, it is to me! My goodness, there's boats coming, and boats going. And there's all kinds of people. And smells and sounds. Naturally though, you won't like it if you took such a frenzy for the farm."
Reviews:
It's interesting to compare The Farmer Takes a Wife with Ethan Frome: they both take place in the American northeast during the 1800s, they both provide snapshots of small-community life, and they both deal primarily with personal relationships and how those relationships are influenced by the sense-of-life of the characters involved. Ethan Frome presents a gloomy, fatalistic view of human life, where those who strive to better themselves are destined to fail. Ethan is quiet and withdrawn, constantly manipulated by his nagging wife. Mattie's arrival eases Ethan's burden and offers a brief glimpse into possible futures, but both Ethan and Mattie are trapped by the moral constraints placed on them by others. You don't have to wait for the conclusion: you know they're going to fail. The Farmer Takes a Wife, however, presents a more optimistic view, where life is exciting, yet uncertain, and the only requirements for success and happiness are the courage to pursue your own goals, an eagerness to work hard, and a willingness to change when times require it. Molly and Dan also suffer a series of setbacks, and again, you don't have to wait for the conclusion. But this time you know the outcome will be different: you know they're going to succeed. Of the two, I much prefer The Farmer Takes a Wife. [8/10] -- zM
Glass Menagerie, The *LOST*
Year: 1953
Duration: 60 min
Available for Listening Booth: N
Story by: Tennessee Williams, 1944
Hasty Heart, The
Year: 1952
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Romantic Drama
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Ernest Kinoy
Story by: John Patrick, 1945
Burma, 1943. Patients in the convalescent ward of an army field hospital try to make a dying Scot's last days happy and contented, but the hard-headed Scot—who doesn't know his kidney is failing—resists all attempts at friendship.
Cast
John Sylvester
Lachie, soldier
Anne Burr
Margaret, nurse
William Zuckert
Yank
Guy Spaull
Tommy
Victor Chapin
Kiwi
Ivor Francis
Digger
Maurice Ellis
Asooto ?
Don Stanley
the Colonel
William Griffis
the orderly
Snippet:
Colonel: "I'm putting a patient of mine in here. I operated on this man, took a little shrapnel out of him. I had to remove his kidney. He's about recovered. I think you can help him now. He wants to go back to his regiment, but it's out of the question. He has one kidney left, and we've discovered that it's defective."
Yank: "What will happen, sir?"
Colonel: "The kidney will collapse. It begins to poison himself... And that's the end."
Nurse: "Does the patient know this, sir?"
Colonel: "I decided against telling him. He has no family, no ties. Worry won't help him. I'm placing him in here because... Well, it seems to me that a man should have friends around him when he dies."
Reviews:
High Tor
Year: 1952
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Fantasy?
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Maxwell Anderson, 1936
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Cast
Burgess Meredith
Van van Dorn
Maureen Stapleton
Judith /
Edgar Stehli
John, Indian /
Reviews:
Home of the Brave
Year: 1952
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Drama
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: George Lefferts
Story by: Laurents, Arthur, 1946
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Cast
Donald Buka
Coney
Joseph Julian
Sgt Ling Mingo
Peter Capell
the doctor
Bill Lipton
Major Dennid Robinson, Jr.
Russell Hardie
T. J.
William Redfield
Finch
Ray Balderek
other voices
James Stevens
other voices
Jack Lloyd
other voices
Reviews:
John Loves Mary
Year: 1953
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Romantic Comedy?
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Earl Hamner
Story by: Krasna, Norman, 1947
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Cast
Van Johnson
John Lawrence
Nina Foch
Mary McKinley
Lawson Zerbe
Fred Taylor
Wendell Holmes
Gen Harwood Biddle
Vera Allen
Mrs Phyllis McKinley
Bill Lipton
Lt Victor O'Leary
Joseph Boland
George Beechwood
Cathleen Cordell
Lilly Herbish
Luis Van Rooten
Senator James McKinley
Reviews:
Kiss the Boys Goodbye
Year: 1953; 1953
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Comedy?
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Peter Robert Gray
Story by: Clare Boothe Luce, 1938
Year: 1953
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Trajedy
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: William Shakespeare, 1606
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Cast
Eva Le Gallienne
Lady Macbeth, voices
Staats Cotsworth
Macbeth, voices
Paul McGrath
other voices
Horace Braham
other voices
Reviews:
Madwoman Of Chaillot, The
aka: "La Folle de Chaillot"
Year: 1952
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Comedy?
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Maurice Valency (playwright)
Adapted by: Earl Hamner
Story by: Jean Giraudoux, 1943
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Cast
Aline MacMahon
Madwoman of Chaillot
Estelle Winwood
Madwoman of Passy
James Westerfield
the sewer man
Louis Sorin
the president
Agnes Young
Madwoman of St. Sulpice
Raymond Edward Johnson
other voices
Irene Hubbard
Madwoman of La Concorde
Peter Capell
other voices
Edwin Jerome
other voices
Joseph Bolt?
other voices
John McGovern?
other voices
Reviews:
Male Animal, The
Year: 1953
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Comedy?
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Ernest Kinoy
Story by: James Thurber and Elliott Nugent, 1940
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Cast
Elliott Nugent
Tommy Turner
Martha Scott
Ellen Turner
Joseph Julian
Wally Myers
Ralph Bell
Ed Keller
Lawson Zerbe
Joe Ferguson
Edwin Jerome
Dean Frederick Damon
Edith Gresham
Myrtle Keller
Margery Maude
Mrs Blanche Damon
Eulabelle Moore
Cleota
John Gerstad
Michael Barnes
Nancy Nugent
Patricia Stanley
Reviews:
Men in White
Year: 1953
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Hospital Drama
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Ernest Kinoy
Story by: Sidney Kingsley, 1933
Awards: Pulitzer Prize for Drama
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Cast
Richard Basehart
Dr Ferguson
Patricia Weil
Laura Hudson
Santos Ortega
Dr Hochberg
Joan Lorring
Barbara Dennin
Bill Adams
Dr Gordon
John Sylvester
Dr Michaelson
Ann Shephard
Nurse Mary Ryan
Cameron Prud'Homme
Mr Hudson
John McGovern
Dr Levine
Ted Osborne
Dr Cunningham
Matt Crowley
Mr Houghton
Barbara Karen ?
Dorothy Smith
Marion Carr
nurse
Karl Weber
narrator
Reviews:
Missouri Legend
Year: 1952
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Comedy?
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Ernest Kinoy
Story by: Elizabeth Beall Ginty, 1938
A tale about Jesse James.
Cast
John Forsythe
Jesse James
Virginia Payne
unknown
Ken Williams
Billy Gashade
Karl Weber
unknown
Bryna Raeburn
unknown
Wendell Holmes
unknown
Scott Tennyson
unknown
Edwin Jerome
unknown
Lawson Zerbe
unknown
William Redfield
unknown
Tom Glazer
music
Reviews:
Mister Roberts
Year: 1953
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Comedy?
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Joshua Logan (playwright)
Adapded by: Ernest Kinoy
Story by: Thomas Heggen, 1946
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Cast
Arthur Kennedy
Lt (JG) Roberts
Leon Janney
Ensign Pulver
John McGovern
Doc
Wendell Holmes
the Captain
Joseph Julian
Dowdy
Josh Shelley
Insigna
Bill Lipton
Mannion
Elaine Rost
the army nurse
James Stevens
Dolan
Alan Zure ?
Military Policeman
Rusty Lane
Chief Johnson
Steven Hill
Stefanowski
Reviews:
Night Must Fall
Year: 1952
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: George Lefferts
Story by: Emlyn Williams, 1935
Wealthy old Mrs Bramson hires charming young Danny as a companion, but her niece suspects him of being a murderer.
Cast
Alfred Drake
Dan, the bellboy
Mary Boland
Mrs. Bramson
Carmen Matthews
Olivia Grayne
Richard Newton
Hubert Laurie
Mary Michael
Mrs. Terence
Horace Braham
Inspector Belsize
Cathleen Cordell
Dora Parkoe
Reviews:
An arch, unthreatening Alfred Drake isn't nearly as charismatic a psychopath as Robert Montgomery in the Suspense version or James Cagney in the Screen Guild abbreviation; and Mary Boland is no Dame May Whitty (who captured both the monstrousness and the pathos of Mrs. Bramson); and George Lefferts' adaptation is flat, lacks suspense, and shortchanges the ambivalence that gives the niece's character so much interest. On the plus side, Horace Braham plays exactly the same sort of smooth Scotland Yard detective he played on Wyllis Cooper's Whitehall 1212 (a minor treat, if you're a fan of that series). But the 1937 film (with Montgomery, Whitty, and Rosalind Russell) is still better than all the vintage radio versions put together. -- Anonymous
Of Mice and Men
Year: 1953
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Drama
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Robert Tallman
Story by: John Steinbeck, 1937
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Cast
Burgess Meredith
George
Anthony Quinn
Lennie
Luis Van Rooten
unknown
Frank Maxwell
unknown
Joan Lorring
unknown
Karl Weber
unknown
Ralph Bell
unknown
Cameron Prud'Homme
unknown
Frank Wilson
unknown
Reviews:
On Borrowed Time
Year: 1952
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Speculative
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Paul Osborn (playwright)
Adapted by: George Lefferts (adaptor)
Story by: Lawrence Edward Watkin, 1938
Fiercely independent Gramps refuses to accompany Death when he comes calling. Meanwhile, manipulative Aunt Demetria, offended at the way young Pud idolizes Gramps and mimics his uncouth behaviour, manoeuvres to gain custody over Pud so he can be raised as a proper Christian. The result is a battle of wills between Gramps, Aunt Demetria, and Death.
Another version was produced for the Theatre Guild on the Air.
Cast
Parker Fennelly
Julian Northrup, gramps
Mildred Natwick
Nellie, granny
David Anderson
Pud
Agnes Young
Demetria Riffle
Peter Capell
Mr Brink
Teri Keane
Marcia Giles
Luis Van Rooten
Dr Evans
Karl Weber
Sheriff
William Griffis
Mr Grimes
Snippet:
Gramps: "Marcie, come here."
Marcie: "Yes, sir."
Gramps: "Don't you know it's a sin for a girl to kiss men in the park?"
Marcie: "Well, I didn't kiss men. I only kissed one man."
Gramps: "Oh. Well, that's different. Next time you bring him up here and kiss him."
Marcie: "What?"
Gramps: "I say you bring Bill Murdoch up here and kiss him. Time we had a little kissing in this house again. How the blazes is Pud gonna learn about kissing if he don't never seen none?"
Marcie: Laughing, "Oh, Mr Northrop."
Gramps: "You in love with Bill?"
Marcie: "We're engaged."
Gramps: "I kinda thought so. Alright, you best take them groceries in to Miss Nellie."
Reviews:
A slow-moving tale—sad and melancholy in parts, but humorous and tender in others—which dramatizes the necessity for death, without resorting to melodrama or histrionics. Audio quality is superb. The acting is generally good, but what really makes this story work is the interaction between Gramps (abrupt and snappy, yet tender) and his grandson, Pud (impressionable, wide-eyed, and innocent). Gramps clearly cares a lot for Pud, but he's not the type to express such feelings. [8/10] -- zM
Outward Bound
Year: 1952
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Drama
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Ernest Kinoy
Story by: Sutton Vane, 1923
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Cast
Jean Adair
Mrs. Midget
Alexander Scourby
Tom Prior
Chester Stratton
Henry
Susan Douglas
Ann
Leona Powers
Mrs Clivedon-Banks
John Stanley
Mr Lingley
Norman Rose
Rev. William Duke
Wendell Holmes
Rev. Frank Thomson
William Podmore
Scrubby, the steward
Reviews:
Petrified Forest, The
Year: 1953
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Romantic Drama
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Earl Hamner
Story by: Robert E. Sherwood, 1934
A wandering, middle-age writer (Alan Squier) suffering from writer's block drifts into the Black Mesa Bar-B-Q and Filling Station, located at a crossroads in eastern Arizona, and strikes up a conversation with the young and restless caretaker (Gabby). Alan (world-weary, cynical) and Gabby (eager, optimistic, hopeful) feel an immediate emotional attraction due to common goals and values, but are restrained by a skeptical cautiousness born of conflicting visions. Alternately, maybe this isn't a romance at all, but simply one man's search for Meaning: a search that allows his path to obliquely cross Gabby's. Or, maybe it's just a gangster story.
Note: François Villon, whom Gabby admires, is the best-known French poet of the Late Middle Ages, c. 1431-1463. The poem that Gabby partially quotes near the end of the play is:
Ballad Written for a Bridegroom
Thus in your field my seeds of harvestry
will thrive, for the fruit is like me that I set;
God bids me tend it with good husbandry;
This is the end for which we twain are met.
~ François Villon
Cast
Cyril Ritchard
Alan Squier
Joan Lorring
Gabby Maple
Ralph Bell
Duke Mantee, ganster
Joseph Julian
Boze Hertzlinger
Adelaide Klein
Mrs Chisholm
Ted Osborne
Mr Chisholm
Wendell Holmes
Jason Maple, pop
Jim Boles
Legion Commander
Larry Haines
Jackie, henchman
Kenneth Lynch
Ruby, henchman
Edgar Stehli
gramps Maple
Snippet:
Alan: "I'm one of the Intellectuals."
Gabby: "That means you've got brains, and I can see that."
Alan: "Yes, brains. Without purpose. Noise without sound. Shape without substance. Have you ever read 'The Hollow Men'?"
Gabby: "No."
Alan: "Well, don't. It's discouraging, but it's true. It refers to the intellectuals who thought they'd conquered nature. They'd dammed it up and used its waters to irrigate the wastelands. They built stream-lined monstrosities to penetrate its resistance. They wrapped it up in cellophane and sold it in drugstores. They were so certain they had it subdued, and now... Do you realize what it is that's causing world chaos?"
Gabby: "No."
Alan: "It's nature hitting back. Not with the old weapons: floods, plagues, holocausts, we've neutralized them. She's fighting back with strange instruments called neuroses. She's deliberately infecting mankind with the jitters. Nature's proving that she can't be beaten, not by the likes of me. She's taking the world away from the intellectuals and giving it back to the apes."
Reviews:
This story was an odd one: equal parts Romance, Philosophical Reflection, and Action/Gangster. Although the Broadway play was the breakout for a young actor named of Humphrey Bogart (his first tough-guy role), I found myself more interested in the character of Gabby: a young woman with big, BIG dreams who is trapped in a small-town filling station. She wants to Understand, wants to know about Life and Death, wants to go to France and paint beautiful things. And then Squier arrives: a man who checks all the boxes and just might be her ticket out of town, unless his pessimism destroys her first. I wasn't sure which way I wanted the story to go, when the gangster showed up and stirred the pot! Some nice plot twists. Some great dialog. I thoroughly enjoyed this story. I guess the thing I liked best is that radio romances often happen instantly, love at first sight, but in this case we get to see what Gabby wants and why she is attracted to Squire. Some reviews I've read criticize the play for its 'talkiness', but that's the part I liked best. [7/10] -- zM
Philadelphia Story, The
Year: 1952
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Comedy?
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Robert Tallman
Story by: Philip Barry, 1939
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Cast
Joan Alexander
Tracy Lord
Betty Furness
Elizabeth (Liz) Imbrie
Myron McCormick
Macaulay (Mike) Connor
Joseph Curtin
C. K. Dexter Haven
Karl Weber
George Kittredge
William Quinn
Alexander (Sandy) Lord
Denise Alexander
Dinah Lord
Edwin Jerome
Seth Lord
Gene Leonard
Thomas
Vera Allen
Margaret Lord
Reviews:
Rope
aka: "Rope's End"
Year: 1952
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Ernest Kinoy
Story by: Patrick Hamilton, 1929
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Cast
Hurd Hatfield
Wyndham Brandon
Victor Jory
Rupert Cadell
Lloyd Bockner
Charles Granillo
William Podmore
Sabot
Ivor Francis
Kenneth Raglan
Dierdre Owens
Leila Arden
Guy Spaull
Sir Johnstone Kentley
Reviews:
Rose Tattoo, The
Year: 1953
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Drama
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Earl Hamner
Story by: Tennessee Williams, 1949
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Cast
Maureen Stapleton
Serafina Delle Rose
Eli Wallach
Alvaro Mangiacavallo
Jane Webb
Rosa Delle Rose
Luis Van Rooten
unknown
John McGovern
unknown
Agnes Young
unknown
Anne Diamond
unknown
Bob Hastings
unknown
Virginia Payne
unknown
Jane Hoffman
Flora
Augusta Merighi
Assunta
Reviews:
She Loves Me Not
Year: 1952
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Comedy? Farce?
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Howard Lindsay (playwright)
Adapted by: Ernest Kinoy
Story by: Edward Hope, 1933
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Cast
Eddie Bracken
Paul Lawton
Ann Thomas
Curley Flagg
Mason Adams
Buzz Jones
Anne Sargent
Midge Mercer
Cathleen Cordell
Frances Arbuthnot
Edwin Jerome
the dean
Bill Lipton
Henry Broughton
William Zuckert
A. Augustus McNeal
Matt Crowley
Joseph Arkle
Harry Belova
Mugg Schnitzel
Reviews:
Skylark
Year: 1952
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Comedy
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: George Lefferts
Story by: Samson Raphaelson, 1939
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Cast
June Havoc
Lydia Kenyon
Donald Cook
Tony Kenyon
Lawson Zerbe
Bill Blake
Eileen Palmer
Myrtle Valentine
Mary Patton
Charlotte Franklin
Mason Adams
George Gorell
Joseph Boland
Harley Valentine
Edgar Stehli
Theodore
Reviews:
St Helena
Year: 1953
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Biographical Drama
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Earl Hamner
Story by: R.C. Sherriff and Jeanne de Casalis, 1936
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Cast
Dennis King
Napoleon
Alexander Scourby
Count Montholon
Horace Braham
Count Betrand
Philip Bourneuf
Baron Gourgaud
Guy Spaull
Count Las Cases
lescothes
Ralph Bell
Dr. Antommarchi
Lester Fletcher
The Abbe
Guy Repp
Cipriani
June Field
Countess Montholon
John Stanley
Sir Hudson Lowe
Ronald Long
Sir George Cockburn
Ivor Francis
Captain Nicholls
Edwin Jerome
Dr. O'Meara
Reviews:
Summer and Smoke
Year: 1953
Duration: 60 min
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Earl Handler
Story by: Tennessee Williams, 1949
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Cast
Geraldine Page
Alma Winemiller
Richard Kiley
John Buchanan, Jr
Agnes Young
Mrs Bassett
Virginia Payne
Mrs Winemiller
Santos Ortega
Rev Winemiller
Edwin Jerome
Dr John Buchanan, Sr
Jane Webb
Nellie Ewell
Luis Van Rooten
Papa Gonzales
Rolly Bester
Rosa Gonzales
William Griffis
Roger Doremus
Lawson Zerbe
Archie Kramer
Reviews:
Susan and God
Year: 1953
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Comedy
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Robert Tallman
Story by: Rachel Crothers, 1937
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Cast
Judith Evelyn
Susan Trexel
Paul McGrath
Barrie Trexel
Jane Webb
Blossom
Vera Allen
Irene
Staats Cotsworth
Mike
Joan Tompkins
Leonora
Tony Randall
Clyde
John Seymore
Leeds
Lawson Zerbe
Stubby
Fran Carlon
Charlotte
Reviews:
There Shall Be No Night
Year: 1953
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Drama
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: George Lefferts
Story by: Robert E. Sherwood, 1940
Awards: Pulitzer Prize for Drama
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Cast
Fredric March
Dr Kaarlo Valkonen
Florence Eldridge
Miranda Valkonen
Robert Carroll
David Corween
Joan Lorring
Kaatri Alquist
William Redfield
Erik Valkonen
Luis Van Rooten
Uncle Waldemar
Leon Janney
Dr Ziemssen
William Zuckert
Gus Shuman
Bill Lipton
Major Rutkowski
Donald Buka
Joe Burnett
John Sylvester
Ben Gichner
Ivor Francis
Sergeant Gosden
Reviews:
There's Always Juliet
Year: 1953
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Comedy
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: John van Druten, 1931
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Cast
Margaret Phillips
Leonora Perrycoste
Paul McGrath
Dwight Houston
Richard Newton ?
Peter Walmsley
Margery Maude ?
Florence
Reviews:
Tonight at 8.30
Year: 1953
Duration: 20 min / 30 min
Genre: Comedy?
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Earl Hamner
Story by: Noël Coward, 1936
"Two one-act plays. "Ways and Means": a comedy about a husband and wife who have run into debt on the luxurious Riviera and must try to find ways and means of taking it on the lamb gracefully and with dignity. "Still Life": a look at an entirely different set of people: the sturdy, solid, middle-class British. In his affection for them, Noel Coward has found a fragment of drama in the lives of two of them, Laura and Alec." -- John Chapman
Cast - "Ways and Means"
Madeleine Carroll
Stella Cartwright
Jerome Cowan
Toby Cartwright
Tony Randall
Cass
Irene Hubbard
Olive
Helen Ray
Nanny
Horace Braham
Stevens
Cast - "Still Life"
Madeleine Carroll
Laura Jesson
Jerome Cowan
Alec Harvey
Cathleen Cordell
Dolly
Reviews:
Uncle Harry
Year: 1952
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Thriller?
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Thomas Job, 1938
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Cast
Joseph Schildkraut
voices
Agnes Moorehead
voices
Reviews:
Victoria Regina
Year: 1952
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Romantic Drama
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Adapted by: Clarice Watt ?
Story by: Laurence Housman, 1935
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Cast
Helen Hayes
Victoria
Carl Esmond
Prince Albert
Clarence Derwent
Benjamin Disraeli
Norman Rose
narrator
Leona Powers
Duchess of Sutherland
John Stanley
Lord Conyngham
Irene Hubbard
Duchess of Kent
Robert Carroll
Prince Ernest ?
Guy Spaull
Mr Henson ?
Burford Hampden
the footman
Charles Francis
Lord Melbourne
Reviews:
Voice of the Turtle, The
Year: 1952
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Comedy
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: John van Druten, 1943
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Cast
Elliott Nugent
Bill Page
Martha Scott
Sally Middleton
Audrey Christie
Olive Lashbrooke
Reviews:
Winterset
Year: 1952
Duration: 60 min
Genre: Verse Drama / Tragedy
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Story by: Maxwell Anderson, 1935
A young man (Mio) believes his father was wrongly executed for a murder he didn't commit. His search for truth and justice take him to a tenement on New York's East River where he falls in love with a young woman (Miriamne) and discovers her family may know more about the murder than they are willing to admit.
Cast
Burgess Meredith
Mio
Maureen Stapleton
Miriamne
Joe DeSantis
Trock
Edwin Jerome
Judge Gaunt
Roger De Koven
Esdras
Joseph Julian
Garth
Ralph Bell
Shadow
Bill Lipton
Carr
Gilbert Mack
Lucio
Matt Crowley
the policeman
Snippet: "There ya have it! A perfect example of capitalistic oppression. In a land where music should be free as air and the arts should be encouraged, a uniformed minion of the rich steps in a puts a limit to the innocent enjoyment of the poor. Why can't we dance on the riverbank to the strains of a barrel organ?" -- Mio
