[00:00:17] Speaker A: The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society Podcast welcome to the Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society, a podcast dedicated to suspense, crime and horror stories from the Golden Age of radio. I'm Eric.
[00:00:36] Speaker B: I'm Tim.
[00:00:37] Speaker C: And I'm Joshua. We love mysterious old time radio stories, but do they stand the test of time? That's what we're here to find out.
[00:00:45] Speaker A: This week I'm bringing another episode of CBS Radio Mystery Theater, the Fall of the House of Usher. Adapted from the famous story by Edgar Allan POE featuring Kevin McCarthy, CBS Radio.
[00:00:58] Speaker B: Mystery Theater was broadcast on CBS radio affiliates from 1974 to 1982. Created by Golden Age Radio producer Hyman Brown, the series was part of a larger effort to reinvigorate the lost art of radio drama. In addition to CBS Radio Mystery Theater, the network launched the General Mills Radio adventure theater in 1977, also produced by Hyman Brown and Sears radio theater in 1979. Other similar attempts to revive the medium include NPR's EarPlay and Rod Serling's syndicated series the Zero Hour.
[00:01:28] Speaker C: Edgar Allan Poe first published the Fall of the House of usher in 1839 in Burton's Gentleman's Magazine. It was possibly inspired by the Hezekiah Usher House in Boston after it was torn down in 1832. Cadavers were found hidden in the cellar. It may also refer to Mr. And Mrs. Luke Usher, friends of Poe's mother, who took care of him and his siblings during his mother's illness.
[00:01:55] Speaker B: And now let's listen to the Fall of the House of Usher from CBS Radio Mystery theater, first aired March 14, 1974.
[00:02:03] Speaker C: It's late at night and a chill has set in. You're alone, and the only light you see is coming from an antique radio. Listen to the sounds coming from the speaker. Listen to the music, and listen to the voices.
[00:02:21] Speaker D: The CBS Radio Mystery Theater presents.
Come in.
Welcome.
I'm E. G. Marshall.
Welcome to the sounds of suspense, to the fear you can hear horror that makes the flesh crawl as with maggots, terror that turns the brain to jelly.
These mark the work of Edgar Allan Poe. For nearly a century and a half, readers have wondered at the mad creations of his fevered brain, even as their blood ran cold with fear, as shall yours.
[00:03:23] Speaker E: God help us.
[00:03:33] Speaker D: Our mystery drama, the Fall of the House of Ussher was especially adapted from the Edgar Allan Poe classic for the Mystery Theater by George Lowther and stars Kevin McCarthy.
I must warn you that there lies ahead for you a tale so gruesome that when it ends you will know beyond doubt that never in your life before have you experienced such revulsion?
Are you prepared for this?
Come then, to a certain room where a man named Gabriel Mannering sits writing in his diary.
A certain room in the House of Usher.
[00:04:31] Speaker F: I sit here writing this diary, when in truth, were I not a fool, I should have already departed this frightful place.
Already I have sensed such horrors in these first hours of my visit that I tremble at the thought of what may be in store for my friend Roderick Usher and for me.
During the whole of this dull, dark autumn day. I had passed on horseback through a singularly dreary tract of country and at length found myself, as the shades of evening drew on, within a view of this bleak and melancholy house, the House of Usher.
I felt at once an iciness, a sickening of my heart, and wondered what it was that so unnerved me. I was soon to find out.
[00:05:31] Speaker G: You would be Mr. Mannering, sir.
[00:05:34] Speaker F: Yes.
[00:05:35] Speaker G: My master waits you one moment, one moment.
[00:05:37] Speaker F: My horse.
[00:05:38] Speaker G: Oh, we'll be well cared for, sir.
[00:05:41] Speaker F: Oh, that carriage standing there, that black carriage. Is there another visitor?
[00:05:46] Speaker G: Only the doctor. He is attending Miss Madeleine. This way, sir.
[00:05:51] Speaker F: Thank you.
[00:05:54] Speaker G: Follow me. Now, sir, we turn here, the passage on our left.
Now this to the right.
[00:06:06] Speaker F: I had no idea the House of Usher was so vast.
[00:06:11] Speaker G: Ah, yes, vast.
Above and below. Below there are chambers, underground vaults, dungeons that even I have never seen. And I have lived here as servant to Mr. Usher more than 30 years. Here we are, sir.
[00:06:33] Speaker E: Come.
[00:06:34] Speaker G: Mr. Gabriel Mannering, sir.
[00:06:36] Speaker E: Oh, Gabriel, my dear good friend, you've come. You've come at last.
[00:06:40] Speaker F: Roderick. I came immediately on receipt of your letter.
It gave me cause for concern, deep concern. After all, Roderick, not having seen each other in years, nor correspondent even, to receive a letter from you was in itself a surprise. But the contents, Roderick, the contents were a shock.
How ill are you ill?
I'm not ill. Not ill? But in your letter I am not.
[00:07:09] Speaker E: Ill. Oh, I may have mentioned something of a sort in my.
[00:07:14] Speaker F: More than mentioned. You spoke of acute bodily illness, of oppressive mental disorder, of a malady. A malady, dear friend, so strange you could not bear to face it alone.
That is why I am here. That is why I came at once.
A terrible agitation in your letter.
[00:07:32] Speaker E: Oh, mood, mood, mood. It was nothing but mood, mood of the moment, nothing more, nothing more.
[00:07:36] Speaker F: Come now.
[00:07:37] Speaker E: Oh, Cato, the port. Good, good, good. Thank you, thank you. I'll pour, I'll pour. And. Oh, Cato.
[00:07:47] Speaker G: Sir?
[00:07:47] Speaker E: Dr. Wyndham is with my sister still?
[00:07:51] Speaker G: Yes, sir.
[00:07:52] Speaker E: I would speak with him before he takes his leave. If he Feels I can bear to, sir.
Nothing, nothing. Just say I wish to see him.
[00:08:03] Speaker G: Yes, sir.
[00:08:06] Speaker E: Vintage port, Gabriel. You'll enjoy it. Its aroma, its fragrant bouquet will delight your nostrils. Its taste will fall sweet on your tongue. Your health, good friend.
[00:08:20] Speaker F: And yours, Roderick.
[00:08:23] Speaker E: Well, now, tell me about yourself, Gabriel. How has life gone with you all these years?
[00:08:29] Speaker F: As all lives go, I suppose there's been the good, the bad, the indifferent.
[00:08:33] Speaker E: Yes, well, mine has been mostly bad.
[00:08:36] Speaker F: I prospered. My importing business in Baton Rouge.
[00:08:40] Speaker E: Ruination. That's been my lot, my fate. The fate of the House of Usher.
[00:08:45] Speaker F: Well, if. If you are financially in need.
[00:08:50] Speaker E: No, no, no, no, no.
I speak of another kind of ruination. Decadence. I speak of the evil. The evil that molders within my body, my mind, my house.
House?
Oh, no.
No house. This a tomb. A tomb that houses the living dead.
[00:09:13] Speaker F: You are ill.
[00:09:15] Speaker E: Yes. Yes, I lied. I am ill. With what?
[00:09:23] Speaker F: With what?
[00:09:24] Speaker E: With fear.
[00:09:28] Speaker F: Fear of what?
[00:09:31] Speaker E: I know not.
What do we all fear, Each of us? What living thing has not known fear? It lives within us, this fear. It rots within us as I rot within this house. But mark you, good friend. Whereas with others, fear rides like a restless maggot. Only now and again with me. With me it's ever present. A colorless slime growing within me, spreading, engulfing, drowning me. Drowning.
[00:10:02] Speaker F: Roderick.
[00:10:03] Speaker E: No, no, no.
I'm all right now. I'm all right.
You must go.
[00:10:12] Speaker F: Go.
[00:10:13] Speaker E: Well, you shouldn't have come. I shouldn't have asked you. You must leave this house. This house of death, this tomb. Stop it.
[00:10:22] Speaker F: Now, hear me, Roderick. I came a great distance through the foulest time of the year to be with you. And here I shall stay until you are well again.
[00:10:31] Speaker E: You don't understand.
I shall never get well.
[00:10:35] Speaker F: Of course you will.
[00:10:37] Speaker E: No, no, no. She is dying, you see, and I your sister.
[00:10:43] Speaker F: Is it she who is dying?
[00:10:45] Speaker E: Yes, yes, Madeleine.
[00:10:47] Speaker F: But it's she who is dying if it is.
[00:10:50] Speaker E: No, you don't understand. You don't understand.
[00:10:54] Speaker F: Come in.
[00:10:56] Speaker G: Dr. Wyndham.
[00:10:57] Speaker F: Ah, come in, Doctor.
Thank you, Cato. May I introduce myself, Doctor?
Mr. Usher, as you see, is not himself. I'm a friend of his. Gabriel Manning of Baton Rouge.
[00:11:10] Speaker H: Oh, how do you do? Lewis Windham.
[00:11:13] Speaker E: I entreat your partner. Both of you. Shh.
[00:11:16] Speaker H: Now, now, Roderick.
[00:11:17] Speaker E: My nerves. My nerves sometimes.
[00:11:19] Speaker H: Yes, yes, I know. And I'm sure Mr. Mannering understands.
You've been taking the laudanum my prescribed.
[00:11:26] Speaker E: I used the last only yesterday.
[00:11:29] Speaker H: Well, I'll see that you get more.
[00:11:31] Speaker E: Oh, thank you. Thank you.
My sister.
[00:11:36] Speaker H: There's no change.
[00:11:38] Speaker F: How long.
[00:11:40] Speaker E: How long before death?
[00:11:45] Speaker H: I don't know.
Your sister's malady baffles me.
I don't know what is killing her, nor do I know what keeps her alive when, in truth, she's all but dead.
[00:11:56] Speaker F: Oh. Would it be an impertinence, Doctor, for me to ask you what you mean by that?
[00:12:01] Speaker H: Well, no, no, Mr. Mallory. Quite simply, there have been times when Ms. Usher. Madeline has been devoid of all vital signs.
By this I mean, I've been unable at these times to detect a pulse, blood pressure, any respiration whatsoever.
And yet, moments later, she's opened her eyes and returned to the world of the living.
[00:12:23] Speaker F: Strange. Strange?
[00:12:24] Speaker H: Yeah. I've encountered nothing like it in years of practice.
It's not too far from the truth to say that she is dead and yet she lives on.
[00:12:34] Speaker E: Yes. Yes, like the house itself.
[00:12:37] Speaker H: Now, Roderick, you mustn't tell you, we.
[00:12:40] Speaker E: Are like this house, my sister and I. We are this house. The house is us. The house is dead and yet it stands.
[00:12:51] Speaker H: Your aberration about this house, it is no aberration.
[00:12:57] Speaker E: It's the truth. The House of Usher crumbles, yet it will not fall. Madeline is dead, yet she will not die. And as for me.
Oh, heaven, the horror that awaits me.
[00:13:13] Speaker H: I'll send the laudanum as soon as possible, Mr. Mannering.
There's little else I can do. Yes, I have other patients to attend.
Thank heavens. It's a moonlit night. I have many miles to travel. Good night.
[00:13:30] Speaker F: Good night.
Roderick.
Roderick.
[00:13:36] Speaker E: Yes?
[00:13:37] Speaker F: Roderick, I want to help you in every way I can. That's why I'm here. But now you must do your part to help yourself.
[00:13:45] Speaker E: What do you mean?
[00:13:46] Speaker F: Well, I could be wrong, but it seems to me you let yourself go to pieces all too easily. This talk, this wild talk of your sister Madeline being dead and yet alive. Well, now, that's nonsense, you know.
[00:13:59] Speaker E: No, no, no.
[00:14:00] Speaker F: Yes. Well, I. Well, I'll agree with you with one thing and one thing only. In a way, you have become this damnable house. No healthy, sane man could live here for long without beginning to lose his sanity, without serious damage to his nervous system.
I've never seen such gloom, inside as well as out. This very room reeks of dejection, despondency, Undusted cobweb furnishings, black drapes covering the window. Here, let me throw them back and at least get some moonlight, if not sunlight, into this place.
[00:14:37] Speaker E: There. Hutch.
Roderick, what is it?
[00:14:44] Speaker F: There's A graveyard.
I can see it in the moonlight.
[00:14:48] Speaker E: The family graveyard? Yes.
[00:14:51] Speaker G: Who?
[00:14:53] Speaker F: Who would be walking in it at night?
[00:14:55] Speaker E: Well, what do you see?
[00:14:56] Speaker C: Well, where?
[00:14:57] Speaker E: Do you see that? There.
[00:14:58] Speaker F: There amidst the headstones.
[00:15:01] Speaker E: O, it's Madeline.
What is he doing out there?
[00:15:07] Speaker F: We better go and find out.
[00:15:09] Speaker E: Good Lord.
[00:15:11] Speaker F: In the doorway.
What is it.
[00:15:16] Speaker E: Madeline?
Am I that horrifying to look upon, Dear brother?
[00:15:33] Speaker D: Madeline Usher walks among the headstones of the Usher graveyard, yet stands in the doorway at the same time.
Does her spirit walk abroad?
Is she that close to death?
I'll be back shortly.
Again, I must ask if you wish to go on and warn that if you do, you will experience a kind of horror for which I can find no words.
Even Gabriel Mannering, writing in his diary, found it difficult to express his feelings in that moment of first meeting with Madeline Usher.
[00:16:28] Speaker F: I seek and cannot find words to recreate the terror of that moment.
Not a woman, but a corpse stood before us in the doorway of that awful room.
The very woman, or corpse, if you will, that but an instant before Roderick Usher and I had glimpsed in the moonlight. Graveyard beyond the window.
If she is alive, I thought, she should be dead. Fatuously, I said, you are Madeleine Usher?
[00:16:58] Speaker G: Yes.
[00:16:59] Speaker F: How do you do?
I'm Gabriel Mannering.
[00:17:02] Speaker C: I know.
[00:17:04] Speaker E: Ah.
[00:17:05] Speaker G: You winced as you took my hand.
[00:17:08] Speaker F: What?
[00:17:08] Speaker G: You felt its coldness.
[00:17:11] Speaker F: No, no, no, no, I.
[00:17:13] Speaker G: Yes, yes. You need not dissemble with me. Even now you find it hard not to. Stare at the dark patches on my face. The putrescence that lives.
Yes. Thrives in my dying flesh.
[00:17:32] Speaker E: Madeleine, my dearest sister. You should be lying down, resting. You mustn't waste your energy.
[00:17:38] Speaker G: I wanted to meet your friend.
Someone from the world of life outside this house, this tomb.
[00:17:47] Speaker E: I wanted.
Needed.
She's falling. Catcher, get me. Put her on the couch. Gabriel. No, no, no, no, no. Still, we'll carry her to her room.
[00:18:02] Speaker F: There's no pulse, no heartbeat.
[00:18:06] Speaker E: Is she well? Heaven help me. It's impossible to say. Can you carry her alone?
[00:18:13] Speaker F: She weighs nothing.
[00:18:14] Speaker E: Ellen. Follow me, then.
Oh. Evil stalks the House of Usher.
Help us, dear Lord, please help us.
Put her down. Gabriel.
Gabriel.
[00:18:34] Speaker F: In what?
In that.
[00:18:38] Speaker E: It's her bed.
[00:18:40] Speaker F: A coffin?
[00:18:41] Speaker E: When? Nevertheless, it is her bed. It's where she rests and sleeps. And haven't you noticed what she's wearing? Isn't a night dress A shroud? Yes. She's been ready for her burial for nearly a year now.
[00:18:57] Speaker F: Oh, look, look.
[00:18:58] Speaker E: See her eyes? Her eyes are fluttering.
[00:19:00] Speaker F: I'd have taken my oath she was dead.
[00:19:02] Speaker G: Not yet.
[00:19:03] Speaker E: Not yet.
Gabriel, my friend. Come.
[00:19:09] Speaker F: Well, you don't leave her like this alone. No company to cheer when she wakes.
[00:19:13] Speaker E: She may not waken again today. She may not waken again.
Come.
[00:19:19] Speaker F: No. Oh, wait.
There's something. Something about her. Something in her face that reminds me.
Of course. It's you.
[00:19:32] Speaker E: Oh. You see then, the family resemblance.
[00:19:36] Speaker F: Obvious. In spite of what the intimacy of death has done to the face, the resemblance is still there.
[00:19:43] Speaker E: It's more than a resemblance, Gabriel.
[00:19:46] Speaker F: What do you mean?
[00:19:48] Speaker E: We are twins.
[00:19:56] Speaker F: As my friend spoke those words in that chamber of death, a curious change came into his face. It floats before me even now as I write. A complexion gone so suddenly cadaverous. His eyes large, liquid and luminous beyond comparison. Thin and pallid lips gone thinner, paler. For a moment, he seemed scarce human.
I had tried to calm his fevered nerves by telling him it was his sister, not he, who was dying.
[00:20:26] Speaker E: And he had cried out, you don't understand. You don't understand.
[00:20:31] Speaker F: And now, in an instant, I did understand. Or at least the shadow of what he meant touched me and I was filled with a dread, a loathing of what was to come that I cannot fully express. Had I known the full truth of what lay before us, my loathing would have increased a hundredfold. And I should have fled the House of Usher then and there. Certainly I should not have found myself at breakfast with Usher the following morning.
[00:20:59] Speaker G: Another helping, Mr. Mannering?
[00:21:00] Speaker F: No more, Cato.
[00:21:02] Speaker G: Then I can give you the message.
[00:21:05] Speaker F: A message? From whom?
[00:21:07] Speaker G: Miss Madeleine.
She wishes to see you at your convenience.
[00:21:13] Speaker F: Well, then, I'll go to her, of course.
Why do you look at me like that?
And now, why do you turn away? Cato, Face me. Look at me.
What is it, Cato?
[00:21:26] Speaker E: Is it the odor?
[00:21:30] Speaker G: Yes, sir.
[00:21:31] Speaker E: You'd best not go, Gabriel. Or if you do, another time.
[00:21:34] Speaker F: I don't understand.
[00:21:35] Speaker E: The odor. The stench of pewter. Fashion at stronger at times than at others.
[00:21:40] Speaker F: And you mean that she.
Take me to Miss Madeleine at once, Cato.
[00:21:44] Speaker E: No. No. It will sicken you, nauseate you, even infect.
[00:21:48] Speaker F: Well, it can kill me and be damned to it. But I'll not disregard a last wish of a dying woman.
Unlike you, Roderick, I do not fear death.
Miss Usher.
Madeline.
[00:22:07] Speaker E: I the. I.
[00:22:11] Speaker F: Are you too tired to speak now?
Would you prefer I came back another time?
[00:22:17] Speaker G: How good of you to come at all.
[00:22:21] Speaker F: It's a privilege to be of use to you.
[00:22:24] Speaker E: Favor.
I wish a favor.
[00:22:28] Speaker F: Anything in my power.
[00:22:29] Speaker E: I want to die.
I'm in such pain and I want to die.
[00:22:38] Speaker G: But I Cannot.
[00:22:41] Speaker F: Cannot.
[00:22:42] Speaker E: I'm.
I am afraid.
[00:22:45] Speaker F: There's nothing to fear. Death is only sleep. Dreamless sleep. Don't fear death.
[00:22:51] Speaker E: I don't. I fear.
I fear.
[00:22:58] Speaker G: You fear what?
[00:22:59] Speaker C: Burial?
[00:23:00] Speaker E: Alive.
[00:23:03] Speaker F: Why would you have such a fear? What makes you think you might be buried alone?
[00:23:09] Speaker E: My mother.
[00:23:12] Speaker G: She.
[00:23:14] Speaker E: Oh, promise me.
[00:23:15] Speaker F: Spare yourself. Spare yourself. You need say no more. I promise. I promise you that you will not be buried alive.
[00:23:23] Speaker E: Oh, rest.
[00:23:26] Speaker F: Rest now. Rest.
That is what you meant, Roderick, is it not?
Like her, like your twin, you don't fear death so much as you fear being buried alive.
[00:23:42] Speaker E: Well, that's part of my fear, yes.
[00:23:45] Speaker F: Only part.
[00:23:46] Speaker E: Well, I fear.
Oh, God. More than I can tell you. I fear what happens in death.
[00:23:55] Speaker F: Another aberration. As with the house, so with this. You are a man given to aberration.
[00:24:00] Speaker E: And what of that? You make as little sense as Wyndham. You think because you call a thing an aberration it'll go away? That it will cure itself if you but name it.
[00:24:10] Speaker F: Reason. Common sense.
[00:24:12] Speaker E: Reason. Common sense. When you speak to me, to me, an Usher of reason and common sense. Hmm. Do you not know of the madness that has tainted this family through its history? From the beginnings of the House of Usher, this house, this family, until now. Until Madeline and me, the last of the Ushers. From beginning to end. From rise to.
To fall, Roderick.
Rise to fall.
From rise to fall.
I had not thought on it before. But that is what it will be when she and I.
It will be the fall.
The fall of The House of Atra.
Come.
[00:25:09] Speaker F: Yes, Cato?
[00:25:10] Speaker G: The laudanum, sir, from Dr. Windham.
[00:25:13] Speaker E: Oh, thank heaven.
[00:25:14] Speaker F: It has come none too soon.
[00:25:23] Speaker G: Mr. Mannering, sir.
[00:25:26] Speaker F: Mm?
[00:25:28] Speaker G: What?
[00:25:29] Speaker F: Oh, yes. Yes, Cato.
[00:25:31] Speaker G: You've been sitting here in the graveyard for nearly two hours.
[00:25:36] Speaker F: That long?
[00:25:37] Speaker G: Yes, sir.
[00:25:39] Speaker F: Tell me, Cato, how long have you been servant to Mr. Usher?
[00:25:44] Speaker G: More than 30 years, sir.
But I. I thought I told you that the night you arrived, just a week ago.
[00:25:52] Speaker F: Did you? Then I forgot. Were you here when the mother died? The mother of Mr. Roderick and Ms. Madeleine?
[00:26:00] Speaker G: Why do you ask such a question, Miss Mallory?
[00:26:03] Speaker F: I don't know, really. Except I've been dwelling on what Miss Madeline told me about her mother.
Buried alive.
Was she?
[00:26:14] Speaker G: Indeed, sir, don't ask such questions. Don't dwell on such thoughts.
[00:26:19] Speaker F: Why not? It was discovered the mother had been buried alive.
Yes, tell me about it.
[00:26:27] Speaker G: Sir, I entreat you understand you cannot stay in the House of Usher. No one can. Without something I know not what. But something evil taking possession of his Mind, his spirit, his very soul.
It will happen to you.
It is happening to you.
[00:26:48] Speaker F: No.
[00:26:49] Speaker G: You've been drawn here, to this spot. You've been sitting here in the damp and chill for hours because you too have taken the first step toward madness.
[00:27:02] Speaker F: How did they discover she'd been buried alive?
[00:27:05] Speaker G: Sir, I beg you, turn your thoughts away from how, if you must hear it.
A few weeks after she had been buried, the coffin placed in that vault you see under the trees, it was discovered that she had been buried wearing a valuable ring.
[00:27:27] Speaker F: A ring?
[00:27:28] Speaker G: It contained a stone worth a fortune. It had been hers. She had always worn it. And when the undertaker encoffined her, he neglected to remove it. He had no idea of its worth. Or surely he'd have inquired whether the family wished her to wear it to the grave.
And as you will understand, such was Ms. Madeleine's and Mr. Roderick's grief.
They didn't think of the ring until.
[00:27:52] Speaker F: Weeks later and decided to retrieve it.
[00:27:55] Speaker E: Yes.
[00:27:57] Speaker G: We went to the vault. The three of us slid back the slab that covers it and.
Sir, let us go in.
[00:28:05] Speaker F: Finish. Finish what you're telling me.
[00:28:10] Speaker G: There lay the coffin.
The lid was in two parts.
A lower part that covered her body from the waist down. An upper part from the waist up.
This I pried up. And There.
There.
[00:28:28] Speaker F: Go on.
[00:28:30] Speaker G: She lay face down.
Her hands.
Her hands had torn chunks of hair out by the roots. Such was the agony of terror.
Hands. Do I say claws? They had become rigid in the death throes.
[00:28:53] Speaker E: Yes.
[00:28:54] Speaker F: Yes.
[00:28:55] Speaker G: We turned her over.
Her face. I.
Oh, my God. We Willis. Her face. I. I cannot describe. I cannot. I cannot.
[00:29:09] Speaker E: I.
[00:29:11] Speaker F: Enough.
Enough.
This chill is getting to me.
[00:29:18] Speaker E: No. No.
Maverick, quickly.
[00:29:23] Speaker F: Come.
[00:29:26] Speaker G: Herman, help us. What is that?
[00:29:29] Speaker F: They're coming toward us from the house.
[00:29:31] Speaker E: Roderick, help me. What? Help me, Roderick.
[00:29:35] Speaker F: What is it, man?
[00:29:36] Speaker E: A corpse. A corpse. Corpse.
[00:29:38] Speaker G: Madeline.
[00:29:39] Speaker E: Dead. She's dead at last. Dead. But. But what? What is it?
She tried to take me to the grave with her. She tried to drag me into her coffin.
[00:29:52] Speaker G: No. No, no, no.
[00:29:53] Speaker F: Roderick. Roderick, pull yourself together and tell us.
[00:29:57] Speaker E: I went to her chamber to see how she was. I called her.
No answer. I felt for a pulse. Num.
I laid my head against her breast. No heartbeat. And then.
Oh, God. Her arms were entwined around my neck. Her cold arms around my neck. And I tried.
I tried to break free, but I couldn't. I couldn't. I grabbed her wrists and I tore. I tore her arms from around me.
Sir, I've got it.
[00:30:37] Speaker F: Help me carry him inside.
[00:30:47] Speaker G: Oh, no.
[00:30:48] Speaker F: I'LL be calm. K.
When Mr. Usher tore himself free, he must have dragged her half out of the coffin. Come, we must put her back in.
Cato.
[00:31:00] Speaker G: I dare not touch her.
[00:31:02] Speaker F: Very well.
There.
[00:31:10] Speaker G: Is she at last dead?
[00:31:15] Speaker F: She seems so.
Ride for the doctor. Tell him to come at once.
[00:31:20] Speaker G: Yes, sir.
Sir, you mean to stay here? Yes, but I will be gone at least two hours.
Should you change your mind, you'll not be able to find your way back to the library in that maze of cardinals.
[00:31:36] Speaker F: Don't worry about it. I shall stay here. I made her a promise that she'd not be buried alive. And I mean to keep that promise, Cato.
Beginning now.
[00:31:54] Speaker D: Alone in that chamber of death within the House of Usher, Gabriel Mannering seats himself beside the coffin of Madeline Usher to keep his vigil and his promise, and wonders if he himself may not be going mad.
I'll be back shortly with Act Three.
Terror so awful as to shatter the human mind haunts the House of Usher. Hangs like a shroud in the air, Drips on the spirit like the very slime upon the decaying walls.
As Gabriel Mannering sits beside the coffin of Madeline Usher, he feels this terror seeping into him.
[00:32:51] Speaker F: Seeping into me like a rising tide of pollution.
Hado said he would be gone two hours in fetching Dr. Wyndham, but to me it seemed like 20 before I heard his returning footsteps.
[00:33:06] Speaker H: You don't look well.
[00:33:07] Speaker F: I'm all right, sir.
[00:33:09] Speaker H: You deceive yourself.
Well, never mind now. I'm seed. Mass Usher. My bad, kiddo. Thank you.
Heart first.
[00:33:22] Speaker F: Is she?
[00:33:24] Speaker H: No, there's no heartbeat. None whatever. No pulse, no vital signs at all.
[00:33:31] Speaker F: She is gone, then?
[00:33:33] Speaker H: Mr. Mannering, I have attended her in this strange illness for nearly a year.
I've seen her in this state four times before.
[00:33:42] Speaker F: What's to be done?
[00:33:43] Speaker H: What indeed?
Well, I would wait a few days at least. And then I should bury her.
[00:33:53] Speaker F: No, no, she feared to be buried alive.
[00:33:58] Speaker H: Yes, I know her mother.
[00:34:00] Speaker F: You attended her?
[00:34:02] Speaker H: No, no, another man.
From what I've been able to learn, I judge her illness was similar. Just as unaccountable as baffling.
Well, Mr. Mannering, she did indeed fear the same fate her mother suffered. But I think that after, say, three or four days.
[00:34:19] Speaker F: I say no. At least. At least a week? No, no. Two, even three.
[00:34:26] Speaker H: You don't know what you're saying. You can't keep a body for two or three weeks. Especially hers.
[00:34:32] Speaker F: Why especially hers?
[00:34:34] Speaker H: Well, look at her, man.
[00:34:36] Speaker E: Here.
[00:34:37] Speaker H: See under the skin of the cheeks, those gray patches? She's Partially decomposed already.
[00:34:45] Speaker F: I gave her my word, Doctor. I said we would make sure.
[00:34:49] Speaker H: There is an evil in this house. A sinister, malevolent thing that fastened itself on the Ushers years ago and is beginning to fasten itself on you.
[00:35:02] Speaker E: Now, hear me out.
[00:35:05] Speaker H: I have not seen you in some days.
The moment I came into this room, I saw it. I tell you, I saw it. The change in you, the sickening in you, the.
I do not use this word lightly, Mr. Mannering.
The insanity in you.
[00:35:27] Speaker F: You are right.
I, too have sensed. Well, no matter. I am not given easily to fancies either. However, I am given to honoring a promise. I gave Madeline Usher my word she would not be buried alive. And she will not be.
[00:35:44] Speaker H: Now I see that I cannot dissuade you. Very well. Do as you wish.
And may God help you.
[00:36:01] Speaker F: I stayed by her coffin for yet another hour or so, making sure there were no signs of life.
Then I returned to the library, led there, of course, by Cato, for I. Well, I could never have found my own way through that maze of corridors and passages. I found Roderick Usher seated bolt upright in a wing chair, staring at. I know not what I.
Roderick.
Roderick, I must talk to you.
Do you hear me?
[00:36:31] Speaker E: Yes.
[00:36:33] Speaker F: Now, Roderick, as I told you, I promised your sister to take every precaution against her being buried alive.
[00:36:41] Speaker E: She is dead. I know it in my heart, my soul, I know it.
[00:36:47] Speaker F: I believe so, too. But we must be certain.
Now, that presents a problem.
Roderick, are you listening?
[00:36:58] Speaker E: Problem?
[00:36:59] Speaker F: Yes.
Decomposition.
If she is dead, she will decompose.
And after a period of days, well, you could imagine days.
[00:37:13] Speaker E: Days of what?
[00:37:15] Speaker F: Of visiting her coffin at least every 12 hours, say, to make sure she's dead.
[00:37:19] Speaker E: Are you mad?
[00:37:20] Speaker F: We must keep her body one week, two.
And the question is where?
Well, we'll have to leave the coffin open in case she should regain her senses.
On the other hand, if she is.
[00:37:35] Speaker E: Indeed dead, well, there are vaults deep down beneath the house. We could put the coffin in one of those. Good.
[00:37:44] Speaker F: Good.
We'll do that then. Yes, we'll do just that.
Together, Usher and I arranged for the temporary entombment of Madeline, his twin.
The vault so long unopened that our torches were half smothered in its oppressive atmosphere, was small, damp, and entirely without means of admission, of light lying at great depth beneath the house.
[00:38:21] Speaker E: There, there, Gabriel. It is done.
[00:38:26] Speaker F: We must come here again in no more than 12 hours.
[00:38:30] Speaker E: As you say.
As you say.
[00:38:38] Speaker F: Before, he wished only to bury Madeline. Why now did Roderick become so compliant? Agree so Readily with what I said.
If only I'd asked myself that question.
But I did not, and in consequence, faced an unexpected problem.
[00:38:54] Speaker E: Why do you not believe me?
[00:38:56] Speaker F: It isn't that I don't believe you, Roderick, but I wish to see for myself.
[00:38:59] Speaker E: There is no need for you to do it.
I have done it.
[00:39:03] Speaker F: You have?
[00:39:04] Speaker E: I have visited the coffin at least once every 12 hours, sometimes twice. She does not live.
Take my word for it.
[00:39:12] Speaker F: It is my word that concerns me. I gave my word to her, not yours.
[00:39:18] Speaker E: She is dead. I assure you, she is dead.
[00:39:27] Speaker F: It was about that time the sounds began. The strange knockings, creaking. Perhaps it begun before, but I had not heard at first. But I would hear some curious sound from below and say to Roderick, what was that?
[00:39:41] Speaker E: What was what?
[00:39:42] Speaker F: Listen.
What is that?
[00:39:49] Speaker E: Rats, perhaps.
[00:39:51] Speaker F: Rats?
[00:39:52] Speaker E: Well, you know the house is infested with them.
[00:39:55] Speaker F: I've never heard rats make sounds like that. I answered. Time went on, and it seemed to me the sounds grew louder. And I would say to Roderick, listen.
And he would answer.
[00:40:09] Speaker E: A door banging in the wind somewhere.
[00:40:12] Speaker F: And I would say, but there is no wind. And he would answer, well, then it's something else.
[00:40:17] Speaker E: Don't bother me.
[00:40:22] Speaker F: And then on that fatal night, that fatal night as we sat in the library, he just sitting staring vacantly at nothing. I trying to read, but my mind focused on that awful chamber of death far below. And out outside, the wind gathering for a storm. It happened. I became aware of distinct, hollow, metallic, yet muffled reverberation.
Completely unnerved, I leaped to my feet and looked at Usher. His eyes were fixed before him, and throughout his whole countenance there reigned a stony rigidity. I said, roderick, do you not hear it?
[00:40:56] Speaker E: Yes, I hear it. And have heard it as you have.
Long, long, many minutes, many hours, many days have I heard it. Yet I dared not. I dared not speak.
[00:41:11] Speaker F: No.
[00:41:12] Speaker E: No. Touch me not. I am accursed. Accursed. For I heard the sounds as did you, but I dared not speak and dared not go. Not go. My God. Are you telling me not once. Not once have I gone down to sea? I dared not. I dared not.
We put her living in the tomb.
She comes.
She comes for me. Listen. Now listen and know.
We've heard the rending of the coffin, the grating of the iron hinges of her prison, her struggles within the carpet archway of the vault. And now, now she comes for me. In a moment, she'll be here.
I hear her footsteps on the stair.
I hear the horrible beating of her heart. She comes for me. She comes, I tell you, she stands outside the door.
[00:42:19] Speaker F: And as if in the superhuman energy of his utterance there had been found the potency of a spell, the huge antique panels to which he pointed drew slowly back. And outside those doors did stand the towering and enshrouded figure of Ms. Madeleine.
There was blood on her white robes, an evidence of some bitter struggle on every portion of her putrefied frame. For an instant she remained trembling and reeling to and fro upon the threshold, then with a moaning cry fell heavily.
[00:42:57] Speaker E: Inward on her brother, and in her.
[00:43:01] Speaker F: Violent and now final death agonies tore him to the floor.
A corpse, a victim to the terrors of all he had anticipated.
[00:43:22] Speaker D: This is E. G. Marshall, I shall return shortly.
The manuscript of the Fall of the House of Usher ends thus.
I fled from the house, leading all behind me. As I ran, I heard a sound so horrendous it made me stop and turn.
My brain reeled as, looking back, I saw the mighty walls of the burst asunder.
And in a few moments, the moon breaking through the scudding clouds. A blood red moon revealed the end.
[00:44:19] Speaker E: The Fall of the House of Usher.
[00:44:23] Speaker D: Our cast included Kevin McCarthy, Arnold Moss, Marion Seldes and Robert Dryden. The entire production was under the direction of Hyman Brown.
[00:44:33] Speaker F: Welcome.
[00:44:34] Speaker D: This is E G Marshall inviting you to return to our mystery theater for another adventure in the macabre.
Until next time, pleasant dreams.
[00:45:10] Speaker A: That was the Fall of the House of Usher from CBS Radio Mystery Theater here on the mysterious old Radio Listening Society podcast once again. I'm Eric, I'm Tim.
[00:45:21] Speaker C: And I'm Joshua.
[00:45:22] Speaker A: And that was my pick, brought it to the podcast for us. If I was a patreon and not part of this as a host and I was listening to this podcast, this would be the episode I would send to us saying, hey, would you guys possibly consider listening to this? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Also, I have never read the Fall of the House of Usher, nor did I really ever know what the story was. You know, I've heard it of it many times, of course, but that's true of a lot of post stuff that I now know because of this, doing this podcast like I. Oh, that post story. Oh, now that we've done it, someone's done an adaptation of it. I still haven't read it, but I have a better understanding what the story was. So there are two things. One, I'm desperate to find out if this is anywhere true to the actual Fall of the House of Usher by Po. Yeah, I'm looking At Joshua, not you, no.
[00:46:25] Speaker C: And I'm sure Tim knows Poe quite well.
[00:46:28] Speaker A: Do you?
[00:46:29] Speaker B: House of Usher? I do, yeah.
[00:46:30] Speaker A: Oh, cool. And then secondly, what, of course, what you guys thought of it when I first listened to this. And as we know, CBS Radio, Mystery Theaters, as we've done, this podcast has become more evident to me that it is a warm blanket of nostalgia than actually as good as I thought it was when I was younger. We have discovered, ah, they string things out. They're doing one of these a week. They're cramming them in. There's not a lot of production value. They've got the same actors. There's all of these pitfalls that CBS RMT goes through and was, you know, getting disappointed in our eight years of doing this podcast of, oh, I guess wasn't standing the test of time when I was 9, 10, 11, 12, listening to that show, going, oh. And. But when I heard this, I went, there it is. I thought this was just a spectacular piece of radio drama from the standpoint of not knowing anything about the actual written story.
Did I enjoy this story and how it was produced, how it was performed, directed, all of those things? Did it bring me in? Do I feel like I was there? Did it spook me? And the answer to that, all of that was yes. So I can't wait. I haven't made eye contact that entire.
[00:47:53] Speaker F: Time I was talking.
[00:47:55] Speaker A: I can't wait to find out what you guys thought.
[00:48:00] Speaker E: Go.
[00:48:02] Speaker B: I knew going into this that you were very excited about it. I know that I adore the story. I adore po, which is all a recipe for disaster. Like, I don't know if I can like this enough for it to live up. And loved it. It's great. I really, really enjoyed it. I think they made a lot of smart choices in the adaptation, and I think they pulled it off very well.
[00:48:24] Speaker E: Here we go. Here we go.
[00:48:25] Speaker C: Now I feel like an ass. No, no, here's the caveat. For me, I really love the original story of the Fall of the House of Usher. And in my defense, I know you're going to laugh when I say this. I don't think I'm entirely a purist in that it's not that they made changes that bothered me. It's that they made weird changes and mostly followed the story so that the changes seem to me to be somewhat arbitrary as opposed to, for example, another post story. I loved the really weird reframing of the Telltale Heart that Inner Sanctum did, Right? Nothing like the original story, but the intent was There was there. And I really understood it. Hearing you describe this kind of puts me in a different position of like, oh, if you have no idea and have never read the Fall of the House of Usher, or don't, or maybe you've read it, you were made to read it in school and it had no impact on you whatsoever. I understand what's compelling about this production. If you love the Fall of the House of Usher, if it just happens to be one of your favorite Edgar Allan Poe stories ever, then you fall into my camp where you get a little nitpicky, sure about it.
[00:49:43] Speaker A: And you know, and I come from that. Again, as you just said, this is just a story to me that is all brand new. And for me, it's spooky. And with that moment when they're watching her in the graveyard and they turn around and she's in the door. And I was like, cool.
That's cool. I love it. That's spooky. I also. The Mr. Usher, as opposed to Mrs. Usher, I thought the actor playing him, such a fine line of. That's a little too over the top. Right. But he never crossed it. I thought he was just compellingly crazy, horrified, sad, distraught at wit's end. I thought it was an exhausting performance from the standpoint. I kept thinking about that poor actor. Like, that's a lot of work.
I thought the reaction of the protagonist, whatever his name, was the guy that came to the house, Gabriel. Gabriel. That he was adequately okay, calm and okay, this is weird and all right. I thought his reaction was just right. I loved how EG Marshall went. So we didn't have time to tell you the rest of the story.
And he told the end right from.
[00:51:04] Speaker C: The novel was an abridgment of the famous last lines of the story.
[00:51:10] Speaker A: Right.
[00:51:10] Speaker C: So I think it was an homage to the story itself.
[00:51:14] Speaker A: Right.
[00:51:14] Speaker C: We gotta get this in on those famous last lines.
[00:51:18] Speaker B: That was, to me, the biggest thing in the adaptation was I'm gonna give up a lot of Poe's language to make the story move at a pace that is easier on listeners than it is on readers.
So it makes sense to me that, like, we're going to make sure that for this we have pose language.
[00:51:39] Speaker C: Yes. And I totally understand a radio adaptation dropping some of that language and the sheer quantity of it, for sure. I think I struggled more with Roderick's performance. And again, my caveat being it's from the story point of view, because to me, what I love about the Fall of the House of Usher is it's Just too much. The story is just too much language, too much gothic atmosphere, too many weird implications, too many strange meanings without answers. But it's all, like, gorgeously too much. And so what it strikes me with this production is that they were trying to capture some of that too much. And my instinct is a little armchair radio producer would be like, oh, I would work against that too much.
[00:52:31] Speaker A: Right.
[00:52:31] Speaker C: And to me, Roderick should be faded and desiccated and almost an echo of a human.
[00:52:39] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:52:39] Speaker C: So the madness struck me as both a little comical at places, but also demonstrating too much vitality from the character for my nerdiness.
[00:52:50] Speaker A: Right. For what he's been through, he's a little too much energy.
[00:52:53] Speaker C: But it was a choice, and I think it's a fair choice. They, in the adaptation, they swapped those roles and they made that corpse, like character Madeline.
[00:53:06] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:53:07] Speaker C: In the story, Madeline still retains her beauty and that they describe her body in the coffin as still having this, like, flush upon it. There's nothing about her rotting or, like, at breakfast, we're like, do you smell Madeline in that one scene? But so it was a conscious choice on their part. And I think I just brought too much baggage from the story.
[00:53:30] Speaker A: The idea that she just can't die. And yet there are these many moments where no pulse, no heartbeat, but the house or whatever is in the house will not let her die.
Just a fascinating, scary thing for me, from my perspective as a house owner.
[00:53:50] Speaker C: I also. Terrifying.
[00:53:52] Speaker A: I also. Two things. One, from CBS Radio Mystery Theater. This is an A plus in effort.
There was sound effects.
[00:54:05] Speaker C: Yes. The sound effects are one of the best parts of this.
[00:54:09] Speaker A: They sometimes can give you a full 40 minutes of just two people talking and call it a week. And there was sound effects. It was full and lush. I could visualize things that brought me in. And the second thing is how well the performers did. Being assigned exposition narratively. What I mean by that is, instead of acting out, for example, Cato's remembrance of taking the coffin lid off and finding Mother Usher upside down, and they had buried her alive and she was face down. And not only the description of it, but the actor playing Cato's performance of that description, they could have reenacted that. Right. And been almost assured that kind of horror and tension and suspense. Instead, they elected to have him just tell Gabriel.
[00:55:08] Speaker C: It humanizes that butler cliche.
[00:55:11] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:55:11] Speaker B: And you get the. The story of the. His revulsion, his experience of it much more than the gratuitous gore of, like, Right. Being there, seeing her. You get his emotion of it.
[00:55:24] Speaker A: And the actor's ability to convey how affected he was by that and how much damage that did to him I thought was genuinely artistically performance wise. Those are words on a page that he did extremely well. I thought.
[00:55:45] Speaker B: I at one point was going to try to put some more Kevin McCarthy facts in the intro.
[00:55:50] Speaker C: He was the 51st speaker of the United States House of Representatives.
[00:55:54] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:55:55] Speaker A: Was anyone of the Brat Pack.
[00:55:58] Speaker B: He was an invasion of Body snatchers.
[00:56:00] Speaker C: Is who he was.
[00:56:01] Speaker B: And just has this great career of genre acting. And he's great. I just wanted to stop and say Kevin McCarthy, the actor. Great.
[00:56:10] Speaker C: Yeah. He really holds this thing together. He has to be that voice that responds to all the crazy stuff. Try to retain a sense of rationality. And he does a great job.
[00:56:22] Speaker B: That's my favorite thing about this is just the straight line narrative thematic mission of rational character. Out of concern for his friend. Comes into an irrational world.
[00:56:37] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:56:38] Speaker B: And a lot of the story is him is encountering it, bouncing off of it and slowly becoming more and more irrational. Himself. Seeing himself become irrational. Seeing him. Seeing other people see him become more irrational.
[00:56:50] Speaker C: But that was one of the things I got hung up on. I didn't see him become irrational. The Doctor accused him of that. And which is.
[00:56:59] Speaker A: I loved that he didn't get irrational.
[00:57:01] Speaker C: Is that the point of it though? That it's a perception of his commitment to his promise seems irrational from the point of view of the butler and the Doctor who are like, no, you don't know these guys. This house is crazy. It'll make you crazy. And his commitment to stay there.
We as the listeners to his diary understand that it actually makes him virtuous. Yeah. Not irrational. And it took me a moment to catch up with that. But I think that's what we're supposed to go away with.
[00:57:35] Speaker B: I think that's where I plugged into it is that this is.
The Ushers are crazy people. They're rational. And that he is, through virtue and empathy trying to take part in their craziness. That everyone else is the rational. I'm making air quotes. The rational people around them are like, you must abandon these people.
[00:57:57] Speaker A: My first reaction to this was. And you guys know I sent it to you probably a year ago. And I said, I want to do this on stage. I thought it fit us really well as far as actors from Shannon to Tim playing Mr. Usher was in my head. And you and I playing Gabriel, Doctor and the butler. I just thought it was making nice array and a really scary story. I'm going to tell You. It's not often anymore that I'm listening to a radio show and I get that tension of, oh, that's scary. And this thing did it to me.
[00:58:40] Speaker B: Yeah, that's. They really deliver on the final impact of.
I haven't been checking on her.
[00:58:50] Speaker A: Right.
[00:58:51] Speaker B: What that means.
[00:58:52] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
[00:58:52] Speaker B: For me, that was even bigger than. And she's at the door. She's coming. It was.
[00:58:57] Speaker A: Well, just sitting with her for hours, you know, making sure she's dead. Checking on her every 12 hours.
Sisters, silent tension in some moments of this. That.
That I liked.
So all that being said, I totally understand what you're saying, Mr. Scrimshaw. Okay. That's not really the story. So you have to come at it from two standpoints. One, adaptation wise, does it work? And if you don't know that story at all and pretend it's not. They called it, called it Scary House. Instead of Falling House of Usher, would you have liked it?
[00:59:35] Speaker C: I'm just going to throw myself under the bus here because what it does is make me sound like a total snob. It works as a radio play. I just think it's not my idea of what is an interesting version of the House of the Fall of Usher. Because what I love about it is it's just so open to interpretation. There's so many different takes on this show and what all the meaning is. And to me, this is sort of a B horror take on it. And because I've read it a lot and thought about it a lot, I think the interpretations of it are valid, but they are not the ones that. That interest me. And there are moments where I feel like it's so on the nose interpreting it for people. Like, we are the last of the Ushers and we will fall. We will fall with the House of Usher. We are the house. And you know, like a couple of these monologues, like, did you read this in ninth grade? We're going to remind you.
[01:00:29] Speaker F: Right.
[01:00:29] Speaker C: But I also recognize that it is some smart choices, particularly with the fear of being buried alive. Not so much the secret origin. That did drive me nuts. And that's maybe more because I'm tired of the secret origin being the necessity.
[01:00:47] Speaker B: To justify the unreasonable fear of being buried alive.
[01:00:52] Speaker C: I love the idea of him being, I will not let you be buried alive and I'm going to watch over you. That's not from the story, but it's a good piece of radio drama and everything you said about it. But it felt like padding to me to add the backstory of the Mother. I meant like a couple five minutes. Because that's also the scene in which the butler says, I thought I already told you that I'd been here for 30 years. And he's like, oh, maybe you did. I forgot. And I'm like, okay, someone's beefing up the page.
[01:01:23] Speaker A: Or the actors were improvising.
[01:01:24] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:01:25] Speaker A: I thought instead of whispering, we already. You already said that.
[01:01:29] Speaker B: I took that as the fodder for, like, he's losing his rational mind.
[01:01:34] Speaker A: Right.
[01:01:34] Speaker C: That's what I thought. Like, okay, is this going to be an effect of the House?
[01:01:37] Speaker B: But they didn't really.
[01:01:38] Speaker C: Yeah. This was an effective page count if.
[01:01:41] Speaker A: They took out the word Usher and called it the Andersons. And they were. The Andersons.
[01:01:46] Speaker B: Oh, I want to do the follow House of the Andersons.
[01:01:49] Speaker A: And it was.
And it was called Scary House. And there was no reference to follow the Usher at all. And I sent that to you. And those words were taken out.
[01:01:59] Speaker F: Right.
[01:01:59] Speaker C: This is a ripoff of the fall.
[01:02:03] Speaker B: Now follow the House.
[01:02:05] Speaker A: It still wouldn't work.
[01:02:06] Speaker B: You still dead in there.
[01:02:08] Speaker A: So it still wouldn't. Although.
[01:02:09] Speaker C: No, that would be fun. The Andersons. Yeah, I think it works. This is one of those areas where it's weird. This is totally subjective. This is in my wheelhouse. I don't come to this without baggage or my pre knowledge. And it's one where I just totally admit I can't shake it. So I don't want to sit here and say, like, this thing you love is terrible, because I don't think it is objective. If it was, honestly, I would say it.
[01:02:32] Speaker A: Of course you would.
[01:02:32] Speaker C: Because I also. People, to be honest with me. It's not because I enjoy crashing other people's thoughts.
[01:02:38] Speaker A: We've never pulled punches.
[01:02:39] Speaker C: No, it's not fair.
[01:02:40] Speaker A: Frontier Gentleman is terrible.
[01:02:43] Speaker C: See?
[01:02:44] Speaker E: Horrible.
[01:02:46] Speaker A: But let me try one more. I think I can get you to say something really positive. You ready? You ready?
[01:02:51] Speaker C: I love you.
[01:02:55] Speaker A: Oh, gross.
For CBS Radio Mystery Theater. This is really good.
[01:03:02] Speaker C: Yes, I think it is. Here's my problem, too, is I went into this thinking of all of the things I usually don't like about CBS Radio Mystery Theater and how well the things I don't like about it are matched to the fall the House of Usher. I'm like, ooh, there are only two people with speaking parts. There's not a real requirement for sound effects. And, oh, it's really narration heavy. And at 41 minutes, they could practically read the short story out loud and get it all in, you know, and.
[01:03:31] Speaker A: Instead they did A radio show.
[01:03:33] Speaker C: They did a radio show, which they often don't do. And so, damn it, I wanted you to be crappy and true to the story.
[01:03:41] Speaker A: Right.
[01:03:42] Speaker C: I wanted an audiobook.
[01:03:43] Speaker A: Right. So it was the perfect story to match what they normally do, and yet they didn't even do what they normally do. Boy, you got disappointed every turn.
[01:03:51] Speaker C: I really did.
[01:03:53] Speaker B: Followed a lot of the same logic you had and just. Just got off on a different exit, I guess. But, like, just saying, like, this is a viable adaptation of House of Usher. Like, that was my starting point. Like, yeah, that counts. I'm having a good time.
[01:04:05] Speaker C: Yeah, I totally agree. I went, this is viable. I hate it. We just.
[01:04:12] Speaker A: You guys ready to vote?
[01:04:13] Speaker C: Sure.
[01:04:14] Speaker A: Here it is. It's not a classic of radio. It is one. A classic of CBS Radio Mystery Theater, for sure. It's a classic of theirs. I think it's one of their better things they've done, and it filled me with great joy and especially during the season. And I love it a lot.
[01:04:35] Speaker B: I would not call it a classic, but it certainly. Stance test time. I think it is well done.
[01:04:39] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:04:39] Speaker B: Executed very well and enjoyable.
[01:04:42] Speaker C: Yeah, it's not a classic for me.
It knows what it wants out of the story and it successfully gets that. I think there's some clunky moments. I'm going to say it's a little more than subjective. That the Roderick performance, I think, is a bit too much. And I think even you, Eric, if you heard his performance in a more understated mode, I think you would appreciate more. I think he took it too far in a couple spots, but I realized this might have been his one shot at a radio show.
[01:05:12] Speaker B: I can't remember the actor's name, but I think that might have been a casting thing. I think they cast the big voice bass guy.
[01:05:18] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:05:19] Speaker B: That's the performance they wanted.
[01:05:20] Speaker C: Yeah. So for me, subjectively, it's like a boo. Not like a creepy Halloween boo, but a boo. I want my 41 minutes back.
[01:05:31] Speaker A: But they did a nice job of knowing their audience and what they were trying to do.
[01:05:35] Speaker C: It is very coherent. It makes sense. It fleshes out the story in reasonable ways. They just. Not the ways I would do it. This is the most egocentric vote I have ever made.
[01:05:50] Speaker A: But effort was put in to how they adapted.
[01:05:54] Speaker C: Another thing quickly. I'll compliment it before I get done ranking on it or now that I'm done ragging on it. The laudanum was a fun nod toward a lot of the descriptions in the original, which describe Roderick as Looking like he was an opium user. And that's really all laudanum is, just a mix of opium.
[01:06:16] Speaker A: And how do you know that?
[01:06:17] Speaker C: Liquor.
[01:06:18] Speaker A: How do you know that?
[01:06:19] Speaker C: Because I love la.
I'm a laudanum connoisseur. You haven't heard my podcast, have you?
[01:06:27] Speaker A: No.
[01:06:28] Speaker B: Laudanum Monthly.
[01:06:29] Speaker C: Yeah, it's like the Happy Laudanum Listening Society.
[01:06:33] Speaker A: I don't listen to this one, so.
[01:06:36] Speaker C: There'S good stuff in here.
[01:06:37] Speaker A: Tim, tell him stuff, please.
[01:06:39] Speaker C: I hated it.
[01:06:43] Speaker B: Please go visit.
[01:06:46] Speaker C: Go on.
[01:06:48] Speaker B: Please go visit ghoulishdelights.com that is the home of this podcast. We have a lot of other episodes there. You can leave comments, you can vote in polls, let us know what you think. Chime in with your opinion about laudanum.
Also find links to our store if you want to buy some swag, get some T shirts, get some gets the nice stocking stuffers for your holiday pals and you can find a link to our Patreon page.
[01:07:12] Speaker C: Yes, how much laudanum can you get into a stocking?
Yes, you patreon.com themorals and support this podcast, please. We need your money. We need your emotional support, frankly, but mostly your financial, which would take care of a lot of the emotional issues.
So it's all part of the same problem and you listeners are the Solution. Go to patreon.com themorals and become a member. Participate in our Zoom Happy hours in our Zoom book clubs. Listen to all our bonus podcasts. Just gorge yourself on the Mysterious Radio Listening Society.
[01:07:48] Speaker A: The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society Theater company performs once a month, sometimes more than once a month somewhere, doing recreations of classic old time radio shows and a lot of our own original work. We've been on stage together doing radio drama for over eight, nine years, something like that. If you'd like to see us, go to ghoulish delights.com there you'll find out what we're doing, where we're doing, doing it, how to get tickets and we're doing, why we're doing it is not there we.
But come see us and get
[email protected] if you can't see us for whatever reason.
Being a Patreon gets you access to video and or audio recordings of those live performances. But if you can come see us, we'd like to see you. And it's always a great time at our shows with usually some really good food and nice places. We don't do them under bridges, but.
[01:08:46] Speaker C: If they paid us enough.
[01:08:48] Speaker A: Hell, yeah. What's coming up next?
[01:08:50] Speaker C: Next we have another Patreon request. We will be listening to the little old lady from lights out.
[01:08:57] Speaker E: Until then, my sister and I, we are this house. The house is us. The house is dead. And yet it stands.
[01:09:07] Speaker C: Did you read this in ninth grade? We're gonna remind.
