Vincent Price stars in the production of a challenging and creative script that was first presented on Escape 1950-01-31. Price starred in that broadcast as well. This James Poe story is much like a modern day version of The Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge but the plotline is more complex. The experiences of that main character were rather straightforward. This, however, has a lead character that is obviously mentally ill. There are repeated sequences where circumstances keep changing. It is very disorienting as a listener until it is realized what is going on. [Some may sense elements similar to the 1961-05-05 Twilight Zone episode Shadow Play with Dennis Weaver (season 2, episode 26) or even the beloved 1993 Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day… if it was evil and on hallucinogenics.]
The music is unique to each broadcast. The Escape broadcast has music composed and conducted by Del Castillo. It has a somewhat traditional approach to the story. The Suspense broadcast music was composed and conducted by Amerigo Marino. The show opens with an aggressive jazz interpretation that better fits the wild, frantic, and hallucinating mind of Price’s character. The piano work at the opening is marvelous. The music calms down from there, but it can be startling at times as it punctuates changes of scene and critical plot turns, accompanying the roller coaster of the plotline. They all fit the story well. Marino’s music is much more effective than that used in the Escape production.
Again, this story is creative and challenging, just let the story happen, accept its very strange turns, and enjoy how all the elements of this production coalesce into a fascinating listen.
It begins with a wild ride, a train ride, as Vincent Price’s character is an ex-poet, convicted murderer being transported to his next destination. He is handcuffed to a detective. Like Give Me Liberty, there is a train wreck. Unlike that story, he is able to get the key off the detective’s body, and swaps identification and jewelry to make it seem that he, the prisoner, was killed. He goes back home, and before he enters, he sees his wife. He was convicted for brutally murdering with an axe. He enters the home, kills her with a cleaver, and does the same with her lover. Was this really happening? Is it a dream? He is suddenly on the train again, and the dialogue that opened the story repeats… is this a mistake? Is there something wrong with the recording? No, but it’s time for the program’s first break.
It is now that it is very clear something is wrong, and different with this story. There is no train wreck this time, and he is in his San Quentin prison cell. He has 12 hours to live. He is locked in a cell that guards claim no one has ever escaped. He decides to try, and feigns a severe appendicitis attack. He is put into an ambulance, and overcomes one of the attendants and grabs his gun. He forces the driver to pull over and exchange clothes and robs him of the money. He send the ambulance down an embankment, forcing the driver to walk, and buying time for him to escape.
Suddenly, he is in Mexico. He supports himself by selling poetry to a publisher. They enjoy his work, and will publish a book of them in thirty days. He takes his first payment, and in new clothes, and a beard, and carrying a cane as a disguise, he returns to his home again. His wife is there again… and this time there is another man with her. Yet again, he enters the home, and grabs the cleaver again, repeating his evil act.
He is suddenly back in San Quentin, and being walked to his cell for his gas chamber execution. He decides to draw on his experience working with a yogi who taught him to slow his breathing and his heart rate. He is strapped in the chair, and requests that after he is dead not to have his body to be dissected or embalmed, and after three days, he should be cremated. He stops his breathing. We hear the pellets for the gas start to fill the chamber, but suddenly it is over, and the deadly air is extracted from the chamber. He is declared dead.
He awakens in the morgue, in a drawer, where it is cold. He returns to his state of suspended animation. His body is placed in a coffin and is moved to a funeral home, where it is opened. He awakens and scares the attendant. (It’s a great scene as the funeral director faints). It is four days since his supposed execution, and a newspaper says he is in Indianapolis. (How? It doesn’t matter). He steals money from the funeral home, and begins his return home by train. Everything seems fine at home, just the way he left it when he enjoyed being home most. Suddenly he hears some water and some hissing… his thoughts are so very peaceful. The door to the gas chamber opens once more, and he is declared dead for the truly final time.
James Poe and Vincent Price were friends and had a mutual interest in collecting art masterpieces.
Two recordings have survived, with the network as the better one. The recording is likely from Price’s own tape that was shared with collectors in the 1980s. The other recording is from an Armed Forces Radio Service transcription (AFRS#620). It is a fine recording but has some distortion near the end because of some minor disc damage.
This program was recorded on Monday, February 25, 1957. Rehearsal began at at 1:00pm and ended at 6:30pm.
The 32-year old Amerigo Marino is most known by classic radio enthusiast for his work on Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. He was a superb classical violinist and became a highly regarded arranger, composer, and conductor. After he left CBS, he led the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra of Alabama from 1964 to 1984.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP570303
THE CAST
Vincent Price (Roger), Ellen Morgan (Mary), Daws Butler (Taxi Driver / Doctor / Padre), Peg La Centra (Lucita), Jack Kruschen (Detective on train / Prison Guard), Joe de Santis (Train conductor / Fred Sneed), Charles Hradilac (Paalen), Sam Pierce (Ambulance Driver / Funeral Parlour man), George Walsh (Narrator)
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