The Perfect Script
A captive writer is forced to create a murder story for an obsessed stranger and gradually realizes the victim in the supposedly perfect script is himself.
A supernatural anthology of eerie fantasy and horror stories, especially associated with writer-producer Richard Thorne.
A supernatural anthology of eerie fantasy and horror stories, especially associated with writer-producer Richard Thorne.
Supernatural, fantasy and horror anthology associated with Richard Thorne.
The run breaks into several distinct periods: KALL local incarnation (1946 to May 4, 1947) on KALL, WGN Chicago local revival (1949 to August 21, 1952) on WGN, Mutual network run (August 22, 1952 to September 28, 1953) on Mutual Broadcasting System, and Later rebroadcast/syndication cycle (October 5, 1953 to March 29, 1954) on Mutual Broadcasting System.
Names that turn up again and again in the surviving run include Richard Thorne (writer, performer, and producer), Harold Turner (music and organist), Leroy Olliger (director), Carl Grayson (performer), Harry Elders (performer), Jim Ameche (performer), and Wayne Dickenson (sound-effects artist).
Across its run, the surviving broadcasts are tied to Mutual Broadcasting System, WGN, Armed Forces Radio and Television Service, and CBS Radio Network.
The stories often return to death, murder and lethal danger, supernatural forces, ghosts and the uncanny, curses, haunted objects and supernatural revenge, classic supernatural and horror literature, occult ritual, idols and dark magic, and monsters, creatures and nonhuman threats.
The show also sits in a wider radio history that includes Regional local-radio anthology development, National Mutual supernatural anthology, Classic supernatural literature on radio, and Post-network rebroadcast and syndication cycle.
If you are following the same actors and creative circles, related programs worth opening next include Gang Busters, Lux Radio Theatre, Suspense, Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, and CBS Radio Mystery Theater.
Search this program or browse in its validated catalog order.
A captive writer is forced to create a murder story for an obsessed stranger and gradually realizes the victim in the supposedly perfect script is himself.
A honeymoon at a remote bayou plantation becomes a deadly ordeal when the bride's rejected former suitor reappears with violent intentions.
A skeptical student rents an isolated old house for quiet study, only to confront a sinister rat-like presence tied to the building's cruel former owner.
A country couple dismisses a local tale about marble figures that can move on their own until the legend begins taking terrifying physical form around them.
After murdering a shopkeeper on Christmas Eve, a desperate gambler is confronted by an uncanny visitor who knows his secrets and forces him toward a final moral choice.
A feud born from a fatal duel follows a man into later life, when an old curse returns to threaten the happiness and wife he thought were safely beyond its…
A curious couple enters an old mausoleum and disturbs something that should have remained buried, unleashing a supernatural pursuer that refuses to let them escape.
An American couple vacationing abroad explores an ominous castle and witnesses a supernatural warning whose implications reach far beyond the haunted estate.
A young woman and her family discover that the shapes gathering in darkness are more than shadows when the unseen beings begin closing in on her life.
After disturbing a grave in an old mausoleum, a couple finds itself stalked by a spectral presence whose footsteps keep following no matter where they flee.
An old legend about a cursed hangman's rope becomes frighteningly real when a circle of friends is struck by a succession of unexplained deaths by hanging.
A man's pride in his knowledge of rare wine gives an enemy the perfect lure, drawing him deep underground into a carefully prepared act of revenge.
Three relatives expecting an inheritance become targets of a deadly mystery involving an ominous black figurine and a series of deaths that seem impossible to explain naturally.
Possession of an ancient silver flask awakens a destructive obsession in an otherwise ordinary man, pushing him toward murder and the curse's grim final consequence.
Two friends on a fishing trip encounter a sinister woman and a set of uncanny dolls, drawing them into a supernatural curse that becomes increasingly dangerous.
A pair of antique masks brings a couple into contact with an ancient figure associated with death, turning an innocent purchase into a struggle against a mythic threat.
Scientists investigating a strange fog discover it conceals unseen creatures capable of drowning victims on dry land, leaving the team trapped against an otherworldly menace.
A physician investigating a patient's story of a red-eyed beast begins to find evidence that the creature is real and that its attention may now be shifting toward him.
A scientist trying to defeat death revives a murdered criminal, only to learn that restoring life can unleash consequences far more dangerous than the death he hoped to conquer.
A stranger's arrival is followed by savage killings in a small community, forcing investigators to consider whether the predator they are hunting is something beyond human.
Military investigators trace rising radioactivity to a mysterious vessel and uncover evidence that the danger is part of a planned invasion from beyond Earth.
Hunters entering a remote wilderness dismiss an old legend until they find themselves pursued by the deadly figure known as the Wild Huntsman.
Friends opening an isolated hunting lodge discover a hidden valley where an ancient Druidic cult still practices its rites and prepares a human sacrifice.
An American heir and his wife take possession of an English castle only to uncover a buried crime and encounter the vengeful spirit bound to the estate.
An experiment meant to enlarge animals produces an enormous, increasingly intelligent tarantula that escapes control and turns the scientists' achievement into a lethal threat.
A young witness reports seeing a murder inside a house abandoned for decades, drawing the sheriff into an old disappearance whose secrets may still be alive.
Obsessed with an old man's unsettling eye, a killer commits murder and conceals the body, but his own guilty mind turns the imagined beating of the victim's heart into an…
A severed hand seems to acquire an independent and murderous will, transforming a medical impossibility into a lethal supernatural threat.
Travelers in India steal sacred rubies from an image of Kali and discover that the treasure carries a curse determined to punish those who disturbed it.
While vacationing in France, a writer investigates an old vampire legend and realizes his own brother has become the focus of the creature's centuries-old hunger.
American prospectors searching the Brazilian interior trust the wrong guide and stumble upon a surviving Aztec cult that intends to use them in its sacrificial rites.
Two friends probing a mysterious death encounter the legend of the Man in Black and soon discover the sinister figure is no legend at all.
Adventurers travel to Persia in search of Kublai Khan's lost treasure, only to find that the legendary hoard still has a dangerous ancient guardian.
A scientist's advanced mechanical man develops awareness and a will of its own, turning an extraordinary invention into a deadly rival to its creator.
Archaeologists disturb an Egyptian queen's tomb and remove a golden bracelet, awakening a curse that makes the ancient discovery increasingly deadly.
A scientist achieves contact with another world but learns the visitor answering his experiment has come to Earth seeking far more than communication.
A stay at an isolated cabin becomes a nightmare when a spirit connected to an old refusal of shelter returns to settle a long-delayed grievance.
Two men renting a house by the sea dismiss tales of a phantom vessel until the ghost ship and its dead crew appear with a purpose of their own.
Treasure seekers enter the Belgian Congo after diamonds hidden in an ancient idol and find that the gems are protected by a curse as deadly as the jungle around them.
A young woman's encounters with figures that exist only in darkness escalate into a desperate fight against the ancient beings known as the Shadow People.
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