OTR Review: X Minus One "Universe"

Series Name: X Minus One
Episode Title: Universe
Original Air Date: 5/15/55
Available On: Relic Radio Thrillers Podcast October 5, 2009
Sound Quality: Good

I was very excited when Jim from Relic Radio announced that he was going to play this episode as it was one of my all-time favorite radio stories back in the 90s when I was listening to a cubic ton of OTR. "Universe" is based on a science fiction novel by the Grandmaster Robert Heinlein.

This story takes place in an enormous space ship that has been drifting in space for ages untold. The people have forgotten that there is any world outside of the ship itself. Their God is Jordan who created the ship and all it's people. When you die your soul takes "the trip" where your soul joins with Centaurus where there is enough food and constant joy.

"Universe" opens with two scientists, Hugh and Alan, traveling 24 decks up to meet with John the Witness, an aged sage from whom the story of Jordan has been passed through the generations. Hugh is at the crossroads of life where he is doubting the spiritual dogma he has been fed and he is hoping that the old man will help quell his crisis of faith. John the Witness' words offer no comfort to Hugh. Rather he gets more and more riled up that the old sage has no story to offer beyond the same basic story that's been told to school children for centuries. Hugh ends up in a scuffle with John the Witness and accidentally kills the man. Alarms are sounded and the Hugh and Alan make their escape to the upper levels, where no sane man would go as these upper levels are the haven to the mutants.

From there the story continues to get more and more interesting. The hideous mutants and their leader Gregory are fantastic characters and the journey that Hugh takes, his spiritual awakening, is a fantastic tale. The story is surprisingly downbeat and holds a dim view of organized religion but throughout that view it also offers a kernel of hope. I gather from reading a wikipedia brief that the actual story by Heinlein differs quite a bit and has a completely different ending. I'm surprised to hear this as the ending is so darned fitting it's hard to imagine it going any other way.

The writing is terrific, the pacing is constant and it feels that far more than thirty minutes of material is fit in here without ever coming across as rushed. There is plenty of action but the action never gets in the way of the philosophical underpinnings. Just as it should be in the best of science fiction.

In addition to the fantastic writing, we are treated to a fantastic cast and wonderful direction. The actor who plays Gregory is of particular note as he captures the mutant's intelligence and nobility perfectly. Truly this story can be held up as a perfect piece of radio science fiction drama and it is one that I recommend everyone listen to!

Obviously 5/5 Golden Masks, this is probably the most 5/5 of any of them so far. Please download this one if you haven't already!


Here's the cover to the magazine where Universe first appeared. Apparently in the future swimming trunks are the outfit of choice for all men, even the two-headed ones!

OTR Review: Inner Sanctum "A Study For Murder"

Series Name: Inner Sanctum Mysteries
Episode Title: A Study For Murder
Original Air Date: 5/3/42
Available On: Relic Radio Thrillers Podcast October 2, 2009
Sound Quality: Fair

Over the course of October Relic Radio is going to be posting numerous Halloween/Horror themed radio shows. Over 30 Halloween themed shows for the discerning OTR lover. Please check out their special site for details: www.relicradio.com/halloween

Every episode of Relic Radio Thrillers in October is going to feature a play starring the ghoulish great, Boris Karloff. We start out with this little gem from Inner Sanctum.

The play opens with Karloff, in the role of Herbert Large, interviewing Sam Edwards, a man moments away from a date with the electric chair. Edwards, in a fit of rage, murdered his wife. Large is a psychiatrist is doing the interview to get material for his new book but it becomes obvious very quickly that Large's obsession goes beyond mere research and that the man is in the thrall of a perverse fascination with murder. He wonders what it is that allows anyone, even the most apparently law-abiding man to murder another human.

Edwards' interview reveals a deep-rooted hatred for all humanity and Edwards is dragged to the electric chair in a fit of sobs. The prison warden has no time for the cold-blooded psychiatrist and turns down his appeal to watch Edwards burn in the electric chair.

Upon arriving home to his wife Margaret we discover the depths of which Large's obsession with murder has taken him. Large has assembled his own "tribe" of underworld associates, and with his gang he hopes to bring himself closer to understanding the essence of murder. His wife pleads with him to give up his research but there's no going back for Herbert.

The story continues to follow the spiraling fate of Herbert Large as he gets himself deeper and deeper inside his obsession. The cast is uniformly excellent here and the script is genuinely creepy in a way that many of these old stories are not. There is a real feeling of perversity in Karloff's morbid performance and it shines especially in comparison to the more empathetic side characters, his wife, the warden and even Whitey his criminal accomplice whose reactions to murder are more human than the draconian psychiatrist.

This is definite 5/5 Golden Masks to me. One of my favorite OTR shows in recent memory, I've listened to it three times so far and still love it.

Our man, the ghoulish Boris Karloff gives a delightfully evil performance as Herbert Large

OTR Review: Lights Out "Lord Marley's Guest"

Series Name: Lights Out Everybody
Episode Title: Lord Marley's Guest
Original Air Date: 9/7/43
Available On: The Horror! Podcast (from relic radio) September 26, 2009
Sound Quality: Good

I have fond memories of Lights Out's classic intro with the spooky voice claiming "It...is...later...than...you...think..." with the sound of an ominous bell tolling in the backgroun. It's been years since I've heard a Lights Out so I was excited to see one come up on this week's The Horror! After the introduction, writer/producer Arch Oboler appears before the microphone to introduce this evening's episode. Oboler has to be one of the most pleasant OTR hosts. His language and delivery is soft but he always comes across as genuine and passionate towards the material.

Thus particular story has the unfortunate setting of England which causes for some very strange British accents. We open with two fishermen whose accents are so completely not resembling British that it's hard to get your head around. They sound more like a bad Southern drawl than they do Brits. This pair of fishermen have come to warn Lord Marley of some oncoming danger though Marley explodes into various accusations of poaching and the like before chasing them out before they can issue their warning.

As the fishermen run off Lady Jane is informed by Lord Charles Marley that an American actress is coming to stay for business. As it turns out Madeline Kaye, the actress is there for business alright, the business of landing a millionaire for a husband! Though this is a surprise to his wife, Marley's affections have already transferred from his wife to his mistress.

The actress and the Lord go for a swim in the ocean when the sky turns black and there comes the sudden sense that there's something in the water with them... From there we move into straight horror territory.

The story is creepy and the pacing and dialog is quite good. The overall production is of high quality but that little issue with those accent drops the story by one point. I'm going with 3/5 Golden Masks.

A picture of Arch Oboler in studio with an actress

OTR Review: SF68 "Survival"

Series Name: SF68
Episode Title: Survival
Original Air Date: 3/8/68
Available On: Relic Radio Sci-Fi Podcast September 21, 2009
Sound Quality: Excellent

Here's an oddity, a South African science fiction radio show from the late 60s. Honestly until I downloaded this podcast I had no idea such a thing existed. That's not where the strangeness ends either. Almost everything from the sound effects to the way it's written to the music to the direction is different than any other radio drama I've heard.

The story is about a young woman, nick-named "Mouse", who goes with her husband and a crew of men on a spaceship voyage to Mars. It takes place in a 1960s sexist-style future so "Mouse" is generally looked at as someone who should have stayed at home knitting rather than joining the expedition. En route to Mars there are complications aboard the flight and the drama plays out from that point.

The drama takes place over the course of relatively short scenes and the play features numerous speaking roles. In fact, there are more speaking roles here than I believe I've heard in any other half hour show. This causes a certain amount of confusion as it becomes difficult to tell characters apart from each other. The script adds to this confusion by flashing forward between certain scenes without much warning. The John Cage style sound effects and the noisy soundtrack add to the truly bizarre feeling of this show.

To be honest, I was rather down on the show much of the time I was listening to it. Early on I had assumed that I knew where the story was going and all the jumping around and multiple voices seemed to make an essentially simple story unnecessarily complex. However "Survival" ended with such a big and unexpected bang that I literally felt a chill through my spine.

It's true that a tighter script, more reigned in music and far fewer characters would have made this an easier listen, however there are times in which easy isn't always best and I'm not convinced the story would have been half so good if it had been presented in a simpler manner.

I'm still not a hundred percent sure about what I thought about this episode. Perhaps after another listen or three I'll be able to settle on it being a 5 or a 3. For right now I'll give it 4/5 Golden Masks and strongly recommend you give it a listen and make up your own mind.

OTR Review: X Minus One "Sea Legs"

Series Name: X Minus One
Episode Title: Sea Legs
Original Air Date: 5/1/56
Available On: Relic Radio Sci-Fi Podcast September 7, 2009
Sound Quality: Good

X Minus One is the successor to the science fiction radio show Dimension X. Both series are favorites of mine, the stories are adapted from Galaxy Magazine and they capture the feel of Atomic Age Sci-Fi. In general the direction, acting and stories are more complex than many of their peers. These shows are the spiritual ancestors to such TV classics as "Outer Limits" and "Twilight Zone".

"Sea Legs" starts out well with a carefully measured script. Robert Craig is a space pilot who's put in for a transfer to Earth. Everyone from the desk clerk to the staff psych officer seems wary about him going back to Earth which irks the man. Why are people trying to keep him off Earth? While taking a hospital stay due to a mishap during his gravity training he meets Charlie Brockman, a dying "space bum" who gives Craig a message tube to open when he's on Earth.

The pacing of the story is really the highlight. Many OTR shows try to cram so much into their half hour that the stories never have time to breathe. The careful unfolding of the events here makes for a welcome change and a very entertaining listen until the over-arching theme of the story takes form. A lot of 50s science fiction falls into the whole "Red Scare" themes of the day and that's what happens in "Sea Legs". The set-up here is so good that it is disappointing to hear things move down that well worn and personally uninteresting path.

The acting, music and direction are all quite good and I feel bad giving the story any less than a 4 but due to the ending I can only give it 3/5 Golden Masks. Worth listening to but I don't imagine it's one I'll re-listen to.

OTR Review: The Avenger "Death in Mid-Air"

Series Name: The Avenger
Episode Title: Death In Mid-Air
Original Air Date: 9/28/45
Available On: ComicWeb Old Time Radio Programs, Sept. 12 2009
Sound Quality: Good

Those of you choosing to listen to The Avenger expecting it to be a version of the Street & Smith Avenger pulp are in for a shock. This is the Avenger in name only, Dick Benson and his agents are nowhere to be seen rather this series features Jim Brandon, a famous biochemist who fights crime using his most remarkable invention, the fusion capsule, to "cloak him in the black light of invisibility". He is aiding in his crime-fighting by his beautiful young assistant Fern Collier. If you've read this far and have even a passing knowledge of OTR it is obvious that this is a straight-up knock-off of the Shadow radio show. Even the tagline "The road to crime ends in a trap that justice sets, crime does not pay" and the slightly tinny, malevolent voice of the Avenger sets this up as a bargain basement Shadow clone.

I wasn't expecting much from this story but I was pleasantly surprised. It was a great little story as good or better than many of the Shadow shows. This, I have since discovered, probably has much to do with the fact that Walter Gibson was responsible for the plots! From the extra material included in the Sanctum Books Avenger reprint I've discovered that this series was offered as a olive branch offered by Street & Smith to the group who used to have syndication rights to the Shadow.

This particular episode involves murder at the bigtop. A trapeze artist falls to his death and he is the third to do so at this small circus. Jim Brandon is sure this isn't just an accident, it's an intentional crime! Most interesting to modern listeners is an appearance by a Liger, Napoleon Dynamite's "pretty much favorite animal".

The story clips by at a regular pace and features solid acting. I'm going to have to remove one "Golden Mask" simply for the derivative nature of the radio "Avenger" so we'll go with 3/5 Golden Masks


Nope, this isn't the Avenger that appears here, but it is a cool Jack Kirby picture of Dick Benson the "real" Avenger.

OTR Review: The Sealed Book "To Have and to Hold"

Series Name: The Sealed Book
Episode Title: To Have and to Hold
Original Air Date: 8/12/45
Available On: Relic Radio Podcast, Sept. 8 2009
Sound Quality: Average

The Sealed Book starts off a total hoot. A gong sounds, an over-eager organist goes to town with the first peels of Capt. Nemo style playing, then a great booming voice tells of The Keeper of the Sealed Book who opens his hideous tome to bring us this evening's story. It's a riotously over the top opening and it quite got me in the mood for some riotously over the top radio suspense. Unfortunately, what I got was "To Have and To Hold"

The story is a young woman drops in on her reclusive wealthy aunt, who no one in the town has seen for over 40 years. Food and various "men's items" (cigars, suits and other such manly items) are left on her front step. The young lady is determined to meet the old woman and meet her she does. Their meeting leads into a drawn-out flashback sequence that is occasionally punctuated by extended sections of wild-eyed organ playing (we're talking a minute or more, I must assume this is where advertisements would be added in, though I can't imagine selling Wheaties over the top of those sounds).

The performances are unmemorable but not offensive. The story is the same and for a suspense drama, inoffensive shouldn't be the best that can be said! You won't be hurt by this show, but I doubt it is going to do much to impress most listeners.

I'll give this one 2/5 Golden Masks.

OTR Review: Theater Five "Incident at Shadow Valley"

Series Name: Theater Five
Episode Title: Incident at Shadow Valley
Original Air Date: 9/8/64
Available On: Relic Radio Podcast, Sept. 8 2009
Sound Quality: Excellent

This is the second episode of Theater Five I've heard and it like the other is tightly written and well acted with solid sound design and direction. I gather that this series was ABC's attempt at radio drama revival from the early 60s and it's a pity that the revival didn't stick.

This episode takes place at The Last Chance Diner, a truck stop in the middle of nowhere. Pop is the lovable old coot who runs the place and it's an evening of troubles for the poor man, his grandson is sick to the point of death and his diner isn't up to code so there are going to be fines.

The police stop by to let the man know that a black truck from Universal Road Freighter just forced a driver off the road and to his death and the police are looking for the driver. After the police leave a pair of regulars stop by for coffee and food as they talk to Pop. Mr. Janus a creepy stranger with a stoney voice enters and unsettles folks with his cold voice, morbid attitude and eerie conversation.

The big surprise of the script isn't hard to guess but it's not the plot that makes this episode so interesting, it's the telling of it that so darned entertaining. The actor who plays Pop does so with warmth and creates a sympathetic portrayal where there could have been cliche. Mr. Janus is pure "radio announcer" in his delivery, but that's what the role demands. His monologs are also vastly entertaining

SPOILERS AHEAD: Janus, unsurprisingly, turns out to be Death himself. I have a soft spot for stories where Death comes and visits and this one does it quite well. END OF SPOILERS

I definitely recommend listening to this one and suspect it'll log more than a single listen from me.

4/5 Golden Masks (close to 5, if the plot had been slightly more unpredictable we'd have a 5/5)

OTR Review: Father Knows Best "A French Teacher"

Series Name: Father Knows Best
Episode Title: A French Teacher
Original Air Date: 1950
Available On: Old Time Radio Comedy Podcast: August 26, 2009
Sound Quality: Above Average

I have to say that old time radio comedy relies a great deal more on actual scripted jokes than most modern comedy and this episode of Father Knows Best offers a great example of the sort of quality gags that happened when OTR comedy was firing on all cylinders. Sure the father is a little smug and patriarchal (as is common back then) but who cares, his delivery is funny and Betty, the older daughter, is a real hoot.

This episode sees Betty mooning over a french speaker at High School. Father gets the fellow over for dinner expecting him to be a young man not realizing that he's not Betty's new boyfriend, rather he's her French Teacher (as you might suspect given the title of the episode). Classic situation comedy set-up the sort of which could go any which way. Fortunately the whole family has good lines, the French Teacher turns out to be a lot of fun and the jokes fly fast and furious. One of the better OTR comedies I've listened to lately.

Worth the time of any OTR comedy fan.

4/5 Golden Masks

Robert Young and Jean Vander Ply of the radio show version of "Father Knows Best"

OTR Review: A Case for Doctor Morelle

Series Name: A Case for Doctor Morelle 

Episode Title: Confession of Guilt

Original Air Date: 4/30/57

Available on: Old Time Radio Mysteries Podcast: Sept. 7, 2009 Episode

Sound Quality: Above Average

This is an interesting find, a BBC British detective fiction show featuring Dr. Morelle, a clinical psychologist who is, depending on your opinion of him, either wonderfully entertaining or a complete gasbag.  Personally, I see him as both, and find his gas-bagginess his most entertaining aspect.  He is aiding by his long suffering yet good natured assistant, Miss Frayle.

This particular episode opens up with Miss Paula Webb, a presumably attractive young lady, shooting Mr. Powers, an ex-lover.  The next scene we discover that the murder is being played as a suicide, a note to the deceased's wife having been left behind.  The only thing mysterious about this is that he shot himself through the heart rather than the head as is common in suicide.  Miss Webb then meets with Dr. Morelle and lets him know that she shot Mr. Powers but hadn't left the note, he must have already planned the suicide!

The story moves along from here with a number of exciting twists and turns.  I haven't heard a mystery quite like this one before and the freshness of the script combined with the arch-smugness of the lead makes this one definitely worth your time.

4/5 Golden Masks

A photograph a Cecil Parker, the actor who played Dr. Morelle in this series.