Otto Kruger

This week a visit with Cornell Woolrich and the radio adaptation of his noirish horror story “After Dinner Story” as heard over the radio series Suspense. Woolrich was the master of creating tension out of the commonplace and while not completely faithful to the original story, this is still a very well done adaptation with script by Robert L. Richards. Otto Kruger (right) starred in the role and is positively scary as the man who holds life and death in his hands.

Music under is Coyote Moon by Ben Tavera King.

Special thanks to Cameron Estepp

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Basil Rathbone

Having decided not to renew his contracts for Sherlock Holmes, Basil Rathbone longed to be on the legitimate stage. He and his wife left Hollywood behind and moved to New York. While he did achieve some success initially, he also began to falter in his career. To supplement his income he starred in a short-lived radio series called Tales of Fatima. In this radio series, he played himself as an actor who gets involved in solving murder mysteries. But the series was coming late to radio and as television was gradually pulling revenues away from radio, the series faltered and left the air by the end of the summer of 1949.

Music under is by Phillip Glass and Michael Riesman.

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The series Inspector Mark Saber is in a sense the grand-child of the original Molle’ Mystery Theater.  In this podcast, you’ll meet Inspector Mark Saber, portrayed on radio by actor Robert Carroll (at right as he appeared as Patrick Henry). Saber is a somewhat aloof, seemingly all-known detective of a large city homicide division. The series appeared on radio in its waning dramatic days and came to the medium in a rather circuitous way from the original Mystery Theater.

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