Blog-o-ween 2022: Escape

 

"Tired of the everyday grind? Ever dream of a life of romantic adventure? Want to get away from it all? We offer you... Escape!"

With those words, a magic portal to a world of excitement opened up to radio listeners in the 1940s and 1950s. Introduced at times by William Conrad and at others by Paul Frees (two of old time radio's all-time great voices), Escape was radio's leading anthology series of high-adventure. Produced and directed by Norman MacDonnell, Escape aired on CBS from July, 1947, to September, 1954. Although it did not have a regular sponsor or even a regular airtime (its schedule was often moved around), Escape drew big audiences and is considered to be in the top tier of all radio shows ever produced.

It seems that a lot of people wanted what was offered...Escape!

Tonight, we have three of some of the best episodes that Escape ever aired. First up is an adaptation of the John Collier short story "Evening Primrose." It concerns a strange story scribbled on a notepad found in a deaprtment store. The story purports to tell the story of a poet fed up with the regular world, who decides to break free by living in and off of a store. Unfortunately, the poet discovers that he isn't the only person with that idea.

Next, we have an adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier’s story "The Birds" -- some ten years before Alfred Hitchock's film. Set on a farm on the southern coast of England, the birds throughout the countryside seem unusually perturbed. Soon, pooping on everyone's freshly washed cars isn't enough for them. As the story progresses, they begin attacking people, causing widespread panic, and cutting the survivors off from each other.

Last up is Escape's version of the M. R. James classic, "Casting the Runes." In it, a man is slipped a piece of paper with strange markings on it. The runes foretell his death. Can he break the curse in time?

It is 25 October. There are 6 days until Halloween.

One of the pleasures of horror is the “I told you so!” moment. This is the scene in just about every short story, novel, and movie when the scales fall from the skeptical main character’s eyes, and they come face-to-face with the horrifying truth of their situation. It’s always fun to see some know-it-all get his/her comeuppance.

Obviously, the reader or viewer has known the truth all along. I don’t think there is a horror junkie alive who goes into a story or movie with an attitude of “Well, let’s wait until all the facts are in.” We know that the house is haunted; we know what lurks out in the moors. The pleasure is in watching the stuffy, obtuse main character’s rational worldview come crashing down around their ears.

Montague Rhodes James wrote stories filled to overflowing with such prissy, unbelieving characters. They are college professors and scholars and antiquarians, people more comfortable reading about things than actually experiencing them. Men (and they are always men) who wouldn’t believe the sun rose every day in the east unless they read about it in a properly researched and footnoted article in a peer-reviewed journal. The existence of curses, ghosts, and demons? Forget about it!

In Escape’s adaptation of M. R. James’s “Casting the Runes,” John Dunning is our skeptic du jour who is forced to reconsider his view of the universe. Snidely dismissing the work of a certain Mr. Karswell, Dunning soon finds himself the victim of a curse. Given only a few months to live, Dunning must put aside his skepticism and discover a way to escape his fate.

This episode of Escape was broadcast on November 19, 1947. It stars one of the greatest radio actors of all time, Sheriff Dillon from Gunsmoke, William Conrad.

There is also an adaptation from the CBS Mystery Theater in 1974 under the title “This Will Kill You.”

You can read James’s original story as you listen to Edward E. French reading it here.

Last but not least, there is Night of the Demon (a.k.a. Curse of the Demon), the excellent film adaptation made in 1957 by Jacques Tourneur. It stars Dana Andrews as skeptic John Holden and Niall MacGinnis as Karswell. Eagle eye viewers may recognize Peggy Cummins from the wonderful noir Gun Crazy (1950). The role of Joanna Harrington in Night of the Demon is quite different from the femme fatale, Annie Laurie Starr.