Radio veteran and character actor Luis Van Rooten stars in this second Suspense broadcast about “the ants.” The original story was written by Carl Stephenson and was adapted for Escape by Robert Ryf.
The first broadcast on Suspense starred William Conrad. Details about the original short story and its other productions on radio and film are at:
https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2025/04/1957-08-25-leiningen-versus-ants.html
https://archive.org/details/TSP570825 and is where recordings can be downloaded and streamed.
The Escape productions of this classic episode are considered to be the “gold standard” of this story. The 1957 Suspense production is considered to be better than this 1959 one because of the presence of Conrad and the Hollywood sound effects team. The New York production is very competently produced, with its main problem being that the prior productions have such legendary status.
There is some confusion about the title in this New York production. At the show open, it is “Leiningen Versus the Ants,” but in the closing credits, it is “Leiningen and the Ants.” It is not known if the change was made on the script or if announcer Stuart Metz “flubbed.” It is likely the former and not the latter.
Keith Scott notes that in this New York production, “Leiningen” was pronounced with a hard “g.” That pronunciation was likely what director Paul Roberts believed it should be. He also notes that script adapter Robert Ryf had a surname that rhymed with “life,” but Metz pronounces it as “riff.” That is likely a difference in the New York staff not being familiar with CBS staff writer Robert Ryf personally or the pronunciation one would get from knowing him.
No script can be found to identify the program recording date.
For many years, the only copy of this program was a very low quality network aircheck with background noise and very narrow range. Now, there is an Armed Forces Radio Service recording (AFRS#763) is the much better of the two. It has a rich, clean sound. There is some light background disc scratchiness at the beginning of the recording but it is resolved by the time the drama begins, it is resolved. The recording is new to circulation among hobbyists.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP591129
THE CAST
Luis Van Rooten (Leiningen), Martin Blaine (The Commissioner), Ralph Camargo (Blas the Foreman), Ronald Dawson (Vicaru the police officer), Sam Raskyn (Tonayo the worker on horseback)
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