Episode 370: A Shipment of Mute Fate

[00:00:08] Speaker A: The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society, live from the Bryant Lake Bowl. Tired of listening to podcasts in the comfort of your own home? Ever dream of listening with strangers in a bowling alley? We offer you escape designed to free you from the four walls of today for a half hour of high adventure and then another half hour of witty banter and insightful analysis. Welcome to the stage, your mysterious old hosts, Eric, Tim, Joshua, Shannon and Scott. Special guest star Ryan. [00:01:01] Speaker B: Welcome to the Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society Podcast, a podcast dedicated to suspense, crime and horror stories from the golden age of radio. I'm Eric. I'm Tim. [00:01:12] Speaker A: I'm Joshua. [00:01:13] Speaker C: I'm Shannon. [00:01:14] Speaker D: And I'm Ryan. [00:01:15] Speaker B: We love mysterious old time radio stories, but do they stand the test of time? That's what we're here to find out. [00:01:22] Speaker A: Tonight we are joined by special guest and Patreon supporter Ryan. As a member at the highest level, Ryan has earned the rarest of perks. An invite to co host an episode of the podcast in which we listen to and discuss a classic radio program of his choice. Of course, our Patreon supporters receive lots of other great benefits. And you can too, by by going to patreon.com themorals and become a member today. Ryan, what have you chosen? [00:02:01] Speaker D: We are listening to an episode of Escape called A Shipment of Mute Fate. [00:02:08] Speaker C: Escape premiered on CBS Radio July 7, 1947 and ran through September 25, 1954. Much like its sibling series, Suspense, the name of the series told listeners what to expect. While Suspense presented primarily edge of your seat thrillers, Escape told stories of adventure set in strange and exotic lands. [00:02:33] Speaker E: No locale was too exotic, no adventure too dangerous, no escape too narrow. In 1947, Radio Life magazine praised the quality of Escape scripts, declaring these stories all possessed many times the reality that most radio writing conveys. [00:02:47] Speaker A: A Shipment of Mute Fate was adapted by radio scribe Les Crutchfield from a short story by Martin Storm, first published in the July 1, 1934 issue of Esquire magazine. As far as the Internet knows, this was Storm's only published story. And if not for the radio production, it might have been forever lost to time. [00:03:12] Speaker D: Escape's adaptation proved popular with listeners. It was produced four times during the program's run, and once more on suspense. The production you are about to hear was the first aired and the only one to star Jack Webb. [00:03:28] Speaker C: Now, before we get started, we know that there are probably people here who are familiar with the podcast. We know that and what is about to happen. We listen to an episode of Old Radio and then we discuss the merits, and we vote on whether it stands the test of time. [00:03:45] Speaker E: But there may be some people here because they saw the Bryant Lake bowl on Love is Blind and thought that seems like a cool place to have an awkward conversation. If so, you should know that we're about to all sit here together and listen to an episode of Old Radio. [00:04:02] Speaker B: So get ready for some Theater the Mind, where you will collaborate with the writers, actors and technicians from 80 years ago to create the story in your imagination. [00:04:11] Speaker A: Also, please be warned, this particular recording of a shipment of Mute fate has a slight blip about halfway through. Don't worry about it. We'll all get through it together. [00:04:24] Speaker C: Nothing's happening to you. [00:04:26] Speaker A: You're not having a stroke. It's okay. Just keep listening. But it's the only one to feature Jack Webb, so he wanted to use that recording. So, ladies and gentlemen, this is a shipment of Mute Fate from escape, first broadcast Oct. 15, 1947. [00:04:45] Speaker D: 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. [00:05:15] Speaker F: Did you miss out on that big football game last week? Can't get rid of that head cold. Want to get away from it all. [00:05:23] Speaker G: CBS offers you Escape. [00:05:36] Speaker F: You are groping your way slowly through the dark hold of a ship at sea, moving carefully, step by step, searching intently for something you dread to find because you know that this ship carries a cargo of death. The Columbia Broadcasting System and its affiliated. [00:05:53] Speaker G: Stations presents Escape, produced and directed by William N. Robeson and carefully plotted to. [00:05:59] Speaker F: Free you from the four walls of. [00:06:01] Speaker G: Today for a half hour of high adventure. [00:06:10] Speaker F: Tonight we escaped to a harbor front in Venezuela and a grim voyage that started there, as told by Martin Storm and his gripping story, A Shipment of Mute Fate. I stopped on the wharf at La Guayra and looked up the gang plank toward the liner Chan Cave, standing quietly there at her moorings. The day was warm under a bright tropic sun, and the harbor beyond the ship lay drowsy and silent. But all at once, in the midst of these peaceful surroundings, a cold chill gripped me and I shivered with sudden dread. Dread of the thing I was doing and was about to do. But too much had happened to turn back now. I'd gone too far to stop. I set the box down on the edge of the wharf, placed it carefully so as to be in plain sight and within gunshot of the captain's bridge. And then I turned and started up the gang plank. I knew what I was going to do, but I couldn't forget that a certain pair of beady eyes were watching every move I made. Eyes that never blinked and never closed. Just watched and waited. Oh, I beg your pardon. Why, it's Mr. Warner. Hello, Mother. Willis. How's the best looking stewardess on the seven seas? Well, I'm. I'm fine, Mr. Warner. I. I guess better run along now, get on with my chores. Now, wait a minute. That's a fine greeting after two months. Well, it's just that I'm so busy. I don't believe a word of it. Sailing days tomorrow. You're simply avoiding me, that's all. [00:07:52] Speaker G: Oh, no, really, I'm not. [00:07:53] Speaker F: And on the trip down from New York, you said I was your favorite passenger. But I'm only. Here, wait a minute. What's that you're carrying in your apron? Oh, it's nothing. Just supplies. Supplies? Let's have a look. No, please. What do you know? It's a cat. It's Clara, Mr. Warner. Mr. Bowman said I had to leave her ashore and I just couldn't. Who's Mr. Bowman? The new chief steward. Clara's been aboard with me for two years and I just can't leave her here in a foreign country. Especially with her condition. [00:08:21] Speaker G: It's a delicate and all. [00:08:23] Speaker F: Yeah, I see what you mean. Well, I hope you get away with it. You. You won't tell anyone? Not a soul. As a matter of fact, if things don't work out right, we may both end up smuggling. [00:08:41] Speaker G: Most happy to have you on board on the trip down two months ago. Christopher. I'm very glad you're coming along with us on the run back to New York. [00:08:48] Speaker F: Thanks, Captain Wood. There is one thing, though, and having a little trouble with the customs men here, and I wondered if you might. [00:08:54] Speaker G: I can't do it, Christopher. I just cabled your father this morning. Told him I'd done it for you if I possibly could. He sent a request from New York, you know. [00:09:04] Speaker F: Yeah, I thought he would. I wired him from upriver last week. [00:09:07] Speaker G: I hate to refuse, but it's absolutely out of the question. [00:09:10] Speaker F: Well, Captain Wood, I'm afraid I don't follow you there. [00:09:12] Speaker G: Responsibility to the passenger, son. When women children are born on a liner, the safety of the passengers comes ahead of anything. [00:09:20] Speaker F: But with proper precautions, something might happen. [00:09:23] Speaker G: I don't know what, but something might. [00:09:26] Speaker F: You've carried worse things. [00:09:28] Speaker G: There isn't anything worse. And any skipper afloat will bear me out. Now, Christopher, I simply can't take the chance, and that's final. [00:09:43] Speaker F: Final? Well, it wasn't final. If I could do anything about it. I hadn't come down here to spend two months in that stinking backcountry and then be stopped on the edge of the wharf. Two months of it. Heat, rain, insects, malaria. I'd gone clear in past the headwaters of the Orinoco. Traveled through country where every step along the jungle trail might be the last one. Paulo Sanchez. [00:10:04] Speaker G: Si, senor. [00:10:05] Speaker F: Juana. We better start looking for a place to camp. Be dark in a little while. [00:10:08] Speaker G: Si, senor. Very soon we turn to river. Camp on rocks by water. This very bad country. [00:10:14] Speaker F: This very bad country. You've been saying that for 10 days now. Very bad country, Warner. [00:10:19] Speaker G: This very bad country. [00:10:20] Speaker F: Yeah, we'll skip it. For all the luck we've had so far, it might as well be Central Park. [00:10:24] Speaker G: Central Park? I don't understand. [00:10:28] Speaker F: Never mind. If we don't find something here. Here. What's the matter? Quiet now. Sanchez, what's wrong? [00:10:33] Speaker G: They're in the path. [00:10:34] Speaker F: See? [00:10:34] Speaker G: Bushmaster. [00:10:39] Speaker F: Bushmaster? The deadliest snake in the world. Bushmaster. Its Latin name was lacusis muta. Mute fate. It lay there in the center of the path, a 10 foot length of silent death coiled loosely in an undulant loop, ready to strike violently at the least movement. Here was the one snake that would go after any animal that walked or any man. It lay there and watched us, not moving, not afraid, ready for anything. The splotch of its colors stood out like some horrible, gaudy floor mat. Lying there on the brown background of the jungle, waiting for someone to step on it. Here was what I'd come 2,000 miles for. A bushmaster. Sanchez, I didn't want that snake killed. [00:11:22] Speaker G: In no kill, senor, he gone. Bush must have very smart, very quick. Must always see a bullet in time to dodge. [00:11:29] Speaker F: Well, anyway, he's gone. And the only one we've seen in five weeks. [00:11:31] Speaker G: Oh, if find other this very bad country. [00:11:35] Speaker F: Well, lay off that gun. The next time, don't shoot, you understand? [00:11:38] Speaker G: Why you say no shoot? You want bushmaster? [00:11:41] Speaker F: Sure, but I want it alive. [00:11:43] Speaker G: Hombre Cristo. Senor Warner, you tell me you want bushmaster, but you no say alive. [00:11:51] Speaker F: You're getting 200 for it for dead man. [00:11:54] Speaker G: What is 200? Tomorrow we go back to Caracas. [00:11:58] Speaker F: I'll make it 500. Sanchez. [00:12:00] Speaker G: I catch water snake, rattlesnake, any other kind. But I no catch bushmaster. [00:12:06] Speaker F: Sanchez, I'll give you $1000. [00:12:07] Speaker G: We go back to Caracas. [00:12:10] Speaker F: It cost me 1500American dollars. But three days later, Sanchez brought me the snake in a rubber bag. He was shaking so hard, I thought for a moment the thing had struck him. [00:12:19] Speaker G: One thing, you make sure Senor Juana not turn him loose in Venezuela. Because he know I the one who catch him and he know where I live. [00:12:29] Speaker F: All right, Sanchez. I'll keep an eye on him. Cambien. [00:12:31] Speaker G: He know you pay me to catch him. All the time. He watch and wait. You no forget that Senor Warner, because he no forget. Not ever. [00:12:50] Speaker F: Well, after going through all that trouble and danger and laying out 1500 bucks, I wasn't going to let a pig headed ship captain stop me at the last minute. At least not as long as the cables were still in operation between Laguire and New York. Morning, Captain Wood. The boy at the hotel said you wanted to see me. [00:13:06] Speaker G: That's right, Christopher. Sit down. [00:13:09] Speaker F: Thank you. [00:13:10] Speaker G: Seems you weren't willing to let matters stand the way we left them yesterday. [00:13:14] Speaker F: Well, sorry to go over your head, Captain Wood, but I had to. The museum sent me all the way down here for it and I'm not going to be stopped by red tape. This will be the only live bushmaster ever brought to the United States. [00:13:26] Speaker G: Yes, and if I had my wave. Well, orders are orders. I got a cable from the head office this morning. All right. I suppose we talk about precautions. [00:13:38] Speaker F: I'll handle it any way you say. [00:13:40] Speaker G: Gotta have a stronger box. That crate's too flimsy. [00:13:44] Speaker F: It's stronger than it looks. And that wire screen on top would hold a wildcat. But anyway, I bought a heavy sea chest this morning. I will put the crate inside of it. [00:13:52] Speaker G: Sounds all right. You got a lock on it? [00:13:54] Speaker F: Heavy padlock. It's fixed so that the lid can be propped open a crack without unlocking it. A snake's got to have air, but. [00:14:00] Speaker G: In dirty weather, that lid stays shut. I'll take no chances. [00:14:05] Speaker F: Fair enough. [00:14:06] Speaker G: I will keep the thing in my inside cabin where I sleep. I can have it in the baggage room and nobody on board's to know about it. [00:14:15] Speaker F: Whatever you say, Captain, but we won't have any trouble. After all, it's only an animal. It doesn't have any magical powers. [00:14:22] Speaker G: I saw a bushmaster in the zoo at Caracas once. Had it in a glass cage with double walls. It'd never move, just lay there. Look at you, as long as you were in sight. Gave a man the creeps. [00:14:38] Speaker F: I didn't know they had a bushmaster at the Caracas Zoo. [00:14:40] Speaker G: They don't now. Found the Glass broken One morning, the snake gone. Night watchman was dead. They never found out what happened. [00:14:51] Speaker F: Well, the watchman must have broken the glass by accident some way. [00:14:54] Speaker G: The way they figured it, the glass was broken from the inside. We sail in four hours. [00:15:08] Speaker F: We steamed north into the Caribbean with perfect weather and a sea as smooth as an inland lake. The barometer dropped a little on the third day, but cleared up overnight and left nothing worse than a heavy swell. But in spite of the calm seas and the pleasant weather, I found myself feeling more and more often an ominous foreboding. I was developing an almost unnatural fear of that snake. Well, I stayed clear of the passengers. Pretty much got the habit of dropping into Captain Wood's quarters several times a day. He kept the heavy box underneath his berth. I'd approach it quietly and shine my flashlight through the open crack. Never once could I catch that 12 foot devil asleep or even excited. He'd be lying there half coiled his head raised a little, staring out of those beady black eyes, waiting. He'd still be like that when I'd turn away to leave. Maybe that's what bothered me. That horrible and constant watchful waiting. What in the name of heaven was he waiting for? Well, hello there, Mr. Warner. Oh, how are you, Mother Willis? Why, but you and the captain spend an awful lot of time around this cabin. [00:16:17] Speaker G: I'm beginning to think the two of. [00:16:19] Speaker F: You must have some guilty secret. Oh, no, nothing like that, Mother Willis. I don't know about Captain Wood, but I. Well, I certainly don't have any guilty secret. Well, she's running quite a swell out there, Mr. Bowman. Yeah, it's a little heavy all right, Mr. Warner. Guess a storm passed through to the west of us yesterday when the glass dropped. Think it missed us then, huh? Yeah, that's. That's what the mate figures. Sure stirred up some water, though. This will put half the passengers in their bunks. Makes it great for my department. Two thirds of them will want a steward to hold their heads. They'll keep Mother Willa so busy, she'll have wait. Look at the size of that wave, huh? A great Jehoshaphat. We're gonna take it on the port bow. Hang on. Well, that was a freak if there ever was one. Not another wave in sight. You see him like that sometimes, even in a calm sea. Well, I gotta get below, Mr. Warner. That water probably did some damage on the officer's deck. Yeah, I suppose it's. What did you say the wheel Companionway was open on the port side bridge cabins. Must have taken a Pretty bad. Smashing up. [00:17:34] Speaker G: They're right below the here. [00:17:38] Speaker F: Is something wrong, Mr. Warner? No, no, nothing at all, Mr. Warman. At least I hope not. I looked first for Captain Wood and couldn't find him. Of course, I knew it was only one chance in a thousand. But the chances against that freak wave were one in a thousand too. Well, I couldn't waste any more time, so I stumbled down the companionway and along the passage to the captain's cabin. Oh. Oh, come on in, Mr. Warner. Brother Willis. Why isn't this cabin a mess? Trying to get some of these things out to dry. Yeah, well, I just wanted to check. Where's that box that was under the captain's bunk? Threw it out on that. But where? We didn't know. It was nearly dark when we met together again in the chart room. [00:18:25] Speaker G: I don't get no other way around it. We've risked all the time we can. We've got to warn the passengers. [00:18:31] Speaker F: Well, we do it, Captain. Call them all together in the lounge. [00:18:33] Speaker G: No. If we did anything like that, we'd be asking for a panic. [00:18:36] Speaker F: We'll get one whether we ask for it or not. [00:18:38] Speaker G: Pick a few men and go through the cabin decks. Tell them individually inside their cabins. Watch for any act that looks as though it might cause trouble. And we'll keep an eye on them. Handle the crew the same way. [00:18:49] Speaker F: Right. [00:18:51] Speaker G: As soon as you're finished, arm all the deck officers and start searching again. Our only chance of preventing a riot is to find that damnable snake. [00:19:03] Speaker F: The slow nightmare that followed grew worse by the hour. None of us slept. All the ship's officers not on duty kept on with that endless search. Passengers locked themselves in their cabins or huddled together in the lounges, knowing all the time that no spot on board could be called safe. Fear was a heavy fog in the lungs of all of us. And every light on the vessel burned throughout the night. Morning came and brought no relief. Terror and tension mounted by the hour. There, now, Mrs. Crane. Stop getting yourself all worked up and go back to your cabin. The horrid things probably crawled overboard anyway. You're just saying that. [00:19:44] Speaker G: You're paid to say it. [00:19:46] Speaker F: You don't know. Nobody does. Now, now. Everything's gonna be all right. Oh, if you could only do something. If all of us could only get. [00:19:53] Speaker C: Off the ship, they could fumigate it. [00:19:55] Speaker F: Yes, that's what we've got to do. We've got to get off the ship. Now, wait, Mr. Bowman. [00:20:01] Speaker B: Mr. Bowen. She's gonna jump us. [00:20:02] Speaker F: No, you don't. [00:20:02] Speaker B: Lady, let Me go. Let me go. [00:20:05] Speaker G: Nice. [00:20:06] Speaker F: Good. Let me go. Nice work, Mr. [00:20:09] Speaker G: Bowman. Get her down to her cabman. Whatever you do, don't turn. [00:20:17] Speaker F: You never know when it might strike you. You can't put on a coat or move a chair without risking your life. Now, something's gotta be done. [00:20:23] Speaker G: It might be right here in this lounge. [00:20:26] Speaker F: All right, mister, you better quiet down. Take it easy. [00:20:28] Speaker G: Take it easy, huh? [00:20:29] Speaker F: Well, you're a great officer. Why don't you do something about it? That thing might be crawling around here right under our feet somewhere. Like I said, shut up. Are you trying to start a panic? I got a right to talk. I don't want to die. [00:20:39] Speaker E: Nobody's gonna tell me what. [00:20:47] Speaker F: The second night passed, and morning came around again. A gray and rainy day, just as grim and tense, dragged past. And the night came down again. Third night of the terror. Again every light burned and the whole ship seethed in the throes of incipient panic. Faced by a horror they'd never met on the sea before, crew and officers alike were on the verge of revolt. Passengers sat huddled in a trance like stupor, ready to scream at the slightest unknown sound. At seven bells, I made my way forward to the chart room and found Captain Wood bent over a desk. [00:21:22] Speaker G: Ah, hello, Christopher. Come on in. Sit down. [00:21:27] Speaker F: Well, it's got to be somewhere, Captain Wood. It's got to be. [00:21:30] Speaker G: I don't know. You could search this ship for six months and never touch all the places aboard. We can only hold out for two more days. We'll be in. [00:21:38] Speaker F: What's the home office say? [00:21:39] Speaker G: Oh, here's the latest wireless from them. Keep quiet and keep coming. What else can we do? How is it on the decks? [00:21:48] Speaker F: Pretty bad. Anything could happen. [00:21:50] Speaker G: Yeah, that's why I took the guns away from the men. One pistol shot and we'd have a riot on our hands. [00:21:56] Speaker F: Oh, the whole thing's my fault, Captain. That's what I can't forget. [00:21:59] Speaker G: Oh, take it easy, lad. [00:22:01] Speaker F: There was only some way I could pay for it myself, alone. [00:22:04] Speaker G: No. I know how you feel, but it's no more your fault than mine. The man who asked you to bring the snake back alive. Nobody planned this. You'd better try and get a little sleep. [00:22:17] Speaker F: Sleep? [00:22:18] Speaker G: Mr. Bowman made some coffee down in the steward's galley a while ago. Better go down, get yourself a cup and then rest up for a couple of hours. [00:22:26] Speaker F: Rest? I can't rest, Christopher. [00:22:29] Speaker G: It's no good going. What are you gonna do? You can't help anything. You stumble through a hatch half asleep and break your neck. Go on and get some coffee. One way or another, we've got to hold out for two more days. [00:22:52] Speaker F: The light was on in the steward's galley and my coffee pot was standing on the stove. It was still warm, so I didn't bother to heat it. I poured out a cup, carried it over, and set it on the porcelain tabletop in the center of the room. I started to light a cigarette. The door of the pan cupboard beneath the sink was standing slightly ajar, and I happened to glance down toward it. Out from the dark interior of the cupboard shone two glittering points of light, two inches apart. I dropped a cigarette and moved slowly backward. I'd found the Bushmaster. As I moved, the snake slid out of the cupboard in a single sinuous glide and drew back into a loose coil on the galley floor. Never taking his eyes off me, I moved slowly back, waiting any moment for that deadly slithering strike. How had he known it was me? He'd stayed quiet when Bowman was here. How did he know to pick? The first time in three days when I didn't have a gun? My hands touched the wall behind me and I stopped. Only then I realized in terror what I'd done. The call button and the door were on the far side of the room. I'd backed into a dead end. I stared at the snake in fascination, expecting any moment the ripping slash of those poison fangs. The horrid coils tightened a little and then were still again. 10 million years of evolution to produce this moment. Homo sapiens versus Lacassis muta. Man against mute form, and all the odds were on fate. I knew then that I was going to die. I could feel the sweat run down between the painted wall and palms of my hands pressed against it. My skin crawled and twitched and the pit of my stomach was as cold as ice. There was no sound but the rush of blood in my ears. The snake shifted again, drawing into a tighter coil, always tighter. Why the devil didn't he get it over with? And then, for just an instant, his head veered away. Something moved over by the stove. I didn't dare turn to look at it. Slowly it moved out into my line of vision. There was a cat. That scrawny cat Clara, that mother Willis had sneaked aboard in La Guayra. Its back was arched and every hair stood on end. It moved stiff legged now, walking in a half circle around the snake. The bushmaster shifted slowly and kept watching the cat. He tightened. He was going to strike at any second. He struck and missed the Cat was barely out of reach now. She was walking back and forth again. She was asking to die. Missed again by a fraction of an inch. He was striking now without even going to a full coil. Miss again and again, always missing by the barest margin. Each time the cat danced barely out of reach. And each time she countered with one precise spat of a dainty paw, bracing her skinny frame on three stiff legs. And then suddenly I realized what she was doing. The bushmaster was tiring, and one strike was just an instant, slow. But in that split second, sharp claws raked across the evil head and ripped out both of the lidless eyes. That cat had deliberately blinded the snake. Well, he didn't bother to coil now, but slid after in a fury, striking wildly and rapidly, always missing. And every strike was a little slower than the last one. Until finally, as the snake's neck stretched out at the end of a strike, the cat made one leap and sank her razor sharp teeth just back of the ugly head, sank them in until they crunched bone with tooth and claw. She clung as the monster snake flailed and lashed on the floor, striving to get those hideous coils around her, trying to break her hold, to shake off the slow and certain paralyzing death that gradually crept over him and at last stilled his struggles forever. I took a deep breath, the first in minutes. The cat lay on her side on the floor, panting, resting from the fight just over. She had a right to rest. That mangy, brave, beautiful alley cat had just saved my life, and maybe others as well. But as I turned toward the stove, I suddenly became very humble. And I knew all at once what a small thing a human being really is. I and others aboard were still alive only by the merest accident. There were three reasons why that cat had fought and killed the world's deadliest snake. And those three reasons came tottering out from under the stove on shaky little legs. Three kittens with their eyes bright with wonder and their tails stiff as pokers. Up on the decks, hundreds of passengers were waiting for the news that the days and nights of terror were ended. Well, I could wait a little longer. I pulled open the doors of the cabinet, found a can of milk, and then I dropped down on my knees on the floor of the galley. [00:28:14] Speaker G: Escape is produced and directed by William N. Robeson and tonight brought you a shipment of Mute Fate by Martin Storm, adapted for radio by Les Crutchfield with. [00:28:24] Speaker F: Jack Webb as Chris Warner, Raymond Lawrence. [00:28:27] Speaker G: As Captain Wood, and D.J. [00:28:28] Speaker F: Thompson as Mother Willis. [00:28:30] Speaker G: The special musical score was conceived and conducted by Cy Fuhr. [00:28:36] Speaker F: Next week at this same time, when you're tired from a hard day at the office or leaning over a hot stove all day, when you want to get away from it all, CBS again offers you Escape. [00:29:03] Speaker G: Good night. Then until this same time next week. [00:29:05] Speaker F: When CBS again brings you escape. This is cbs, the Columbia Broadcasting System. [00:29:28] Speaker B: That was a shipment of mute fate from Escape here on the mysterious old Radio Listening Society podcast once again. [00:29:35] Speaker F: I'm Eric. [00:29:36] Speaker E: I'm Tim. [00:29:36] Speaker C: I'm Shannon. [00:29:37] Speaker A: And I'm Joshua. [00:29:39] Speaker D: And I'm Ryan. [00:29:40] Speaker B: And Ryan is our very special guest on this episode of the podcast, as we are broadcasting. Broadcasting, not broadcasting, as we are recording live at the Bryant Lake Bowl Theater in Minneapolis. And Ryan is a patreon and our special guest. And thank you so much for being here and being a Patreon. And I would like to start the discussion with asking you why you brought this version of Rikki Tikki Tavi. [00:30:14] Speaker D: I prefer to call it Rikki Tikki Kitty, but thank you and I'm very happy to be here. I brought this to you because I went on a journey with this episode. All right? At some point in the past, an episode of Escape was analyzed, and everybody on the panel wondered, is there such a thing as a bad episode of escape? [00:30:37] Speaker B: Right. [00:30:37] Speaker D: And I thought this one walked the line. And here's why. The journey I went through with this episode is escape. [00:30:43] Speaker F: Great. [00:30:44] Speaker D: Oh, Jack Webb, Sergeant Friday. Great. Okay, we open up on a gangplank. [00:30:51] Speaker B: Awesome. [00:30:51] Speaker F: Yep. [00:30:52] Speaker D: Oh, avuncular Jack Web. No, no, no. [00:30:56] Speaker A: Meeting, Meeting. [00:30:57] Speaker D: Nice Lady Chekhov has a cat. Okay, excellent. So horrified by that, we move on. Oh, now we're in the jungle. Awesome. [00:31:09] Speaker F: Excellent. [00:31:10] Speaker D: We're going to have a great jungle scene. No, we're just going to pay for a rubber bag full of snake that we didn't tell the guide we were going to get alive for the first ten days. Okay, fine. We're moving on. We skipped the jun. All right, now we got to get the snake on the boat. Okay. Smuggling. Good scene. You know, skullduggery. No, we cable dad who cables the head office. Who? Okay, fine, whatever. And that box isn't going to hold. I'm here to tell you that box is not going to hold. And so, okay, on the boat. Fine, fine, fine. [00:31:42] Speaker F: Oh, no. [00:31:42] Speaker D: More avuncular Jack Webb talking to the bosun guy or whatever. And then, ah, we're going to have a storm. Oh, no, the storm is just references having passed. [00:31:53] Speaker F: Ah. [00:31:54] Speaker D: But we do have Deus Ex Wevina. There we go. Only thing it wrecks is the thing that was missed in the episode is the desk of the captain slams into the sea chest and smashes it in the box. And the woman, the cat owner, throws those things away and whatever. You didn't miss much. I listened to one of the other eight episodes of this. So, okay, now we've got, you know, the part of the show where it is Samuel L. Jackson saying, I'm sick and tired of this mute fate snake on this mute fate boat. And so, all right, we're picking up. We're picking up foreboding, badness this and that. [00:32:37] Speaker F: Ha. [00:32:37] Speaker D: We get to the climax. This podcast has a long history with cats. [00:32:43] Speaker F: Yes. [00:32:43] Speaker D: And this one is where, okay, this cat is going to come through. But we don't know that until all of a sudden the cat comes out. And this snake was built up so much, so much, so much, so much. This, this cat is like, ah, I got this. [00:33:00] Speaker C: And proceeds after giving birth. [00:33:03] Speaker D: Yeah, right, yeah. Apparently just a few days too. And I have to say that if this were one of my cats, we'd all be dead. All those people would be dead. Not even a chance. So anyway, cat horrifically dispatches the snake. Awesome. Great escape. Great escape. Great escape. And then the After School special music and logo pop up. The more, you know, goes across the screen and we get the three kittens and it's a lesson about the horrific, horrific love of a mother. Very violent. And I flip the table and I think to myself, well, was this a good episode of Escape or not? And I leave it. That's the question that I ask. I'm not 100% on this. [00:33:50] Speaker A: I'm gonna argue. [00:33:51] Speaker B: Tim, tell him stuff. [00:33:52] Speaker A: No, I'm coming in hard here. This is the most autobiographical episode of Escape for me ever as a cat and sleep snake owner. [00:34:05] Speaker E: Did you pay $200 for mute fate? [00:34:07] Speaker C: That's true. He does have cats. And he has a snake. I just wanted to. [00:34:11] Speaker A: Cats will kill a snake. I'm telling you that. But so I'm a little biased because I have experienced an escaped snake in a house full of cats. [00:34:21] Speaker D: A 12 foot snake. [00:34:22] Speaker A: Not 12, 3ft. But still, I love harrowing adventure of. [00:34:26] Speaker E: A snake on the run. [00:34:27] Speaker A: Yep. And cats are after that snake. They know the snake disappeared for two days. It's a ball python. And the cats are walking around the house. They're just looking over their shoulder. They're like darting their eyes back and forth. They're chain smoking. They are just like, there's a snake in here somewhere. [00:34:46] Speaker C: They're knocking on the walls. [00:34:47] Speaker A: They're like, hey. And eventually, it was the cat who found the snake just frozen in a hotel room for. For, like, 24 hours at a spot in the cupboard. And the snake had found a small crack. [00:35:01] Speaker C: Snake was like, guys just was in there. [00:35:04] Speaker A: Yep. [00:35:05] Speaker B: Did the cat. The cat kill it? [00:35:08] Speaker A: Well, no, it couldn't get at it because, you know, snakes, even poisonous snakes, like a Bushmaster, which is another product made by ThighMaster. I think it's in the. [00:35:20] Speaker B: It's in the John Deere line of things. [00:35:22] Speaker A: I believe. They don't want to fight, right? They're gonna go hide in a dark corner somewhere. And that's what this ball python did. But I will say my own as a side. I found the end really moving, and it's what saved the entire episode to me. About the human stuff, I think. Well, not particularly the human stuff so much as that moment to end the suspense. This very masculine show on the Jack Webb character getting a bowl of milk. [00:35:50] Speaker C: And falling to his knees. [00:35:51] Speaker A: And he says, falling to his knees to this. This mother kitten. And I do think, thematically, it's drawn through this quite well, because you have this guy bowing down, which is the respect for nature, which was already shown to us through Sanchez, who respected the snake. Right. He was like, no, this snake knows where I live. Mad respect for this snake. He's coming for me. Get him out of the country. Right. Like, that's not superstition. That's like a respect for nature on his part. And then also with the milk, it's an act of nurturing. And who's the other carer, though? In here, she literally has the title Mother, Mother Win. And she's the only one who cares. [00:36:34] Speaker D: Violent mother. [00:36:35] Speaker A: Yeah. But she cares enough to smuggle this cat on board. Whereas before this, the only thing that the Jack Webb character feels about the snake is that it's a trophy, it's an object, and he doesn't care about it. And so I think in the end, all the themes come together in a way that's unexpected for a skateboard. And maybe it's because I love animals, don't you think? [00:36:59] Speaker C: I'm so sorry to keep. But maybe they edited it out. That's a hard word to say. But when he falls to his knees, wasn't he going, $1,500, which was $1500. [00:37:15] Speaker B: In 1947, which was 1 trillion. [00:37:19] Speaker A: That's nothing. He's a Nepo snake, baby. They've established that. Right? Like your dad called, and no. And he goes over this guy's head, I think The Jack Webb character. Well, I agree he's avuncular. And did you use avuncular? Because we've established in the podcast that Eric doesn't know what that means. [00:37:36] Speaker D: Maybe. [00:37:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:37:40] Speaker A: But he is not a likable guy, I think, throughout this. [00:37:43] Speaker D: I agree. [00:37:44] Speaker B: So a couple things to agree with with you. First, I've never heard a bad episode of Escape. I love it. And so you're absolutely right. That is a great challenge. The production value of this show, the storytelling, all of it, is direction, acting, the actors, they get for it. It's a phenomenal show. So that being said, I think that this falls into that category of this is a really well done Escape show. I think that. As if I can guess what evuncular means. [00:38:17] Speaker E: It's your vuncle swollen. [00:38:19] Speaker B: Yeah, well, it is, yeah. That's why I'm sitting forward. So it's the idea that Jack Webb is gone up an octave in his register at the beginning. Like, that's just. It's too much like, hi, how's it going? Like, no, don't do that. Jack Webb. Everything is in E flat. Stay right there. [00:38:40] Speaker C: I thought he sounded good. [00:38:42] Speaker A: This is like, oh, wow. Jack Webb can act. [00:38:44] Speaker B: It's not. It's not this. [00:38:45] Speaker F: He doesn't sound good. [00:38:46] Speaker E: This is a year off. He started acting. [00:38:48] Speaker B: How did this be coming to me hating Jack? No, it's. I'm not used to it. [00:38:52] Speaker C: Right, right. [00:38:53] Speaker B: I'm not used to that. [00:38:54] Speaker C: And so it's. [00:38:55] Speaker B: It's so iconic, it's weird. And the last thing that I want to say that really struck me is that it quite obvious that coffee was for different purposes a long time ago. I've never heard the advice to have a cup of coffee and to go to bed, go to sleep, and then go to sleep. It was a stupid advice. [00:39:21] Speaker E: Did anybody here amongst us. I did not know what mute fate referred to before it was. [00:39:28] Speaker B: No. [00:39:28] Speaker E: Did anybody in the audience here know what mute fate was? I don't feel so bad, but I thought there'd be a very different story experience if you knew, like, oh, Bushmaster. The opening of this thing, this unblinking thing in the box, watching me, a gunshot away, distance wise, like, what is that thing? I'm so excited. But if I don't. [00:39:49] Speaker B: That's a Bushmaster 3000. It's Bushmaster 3000. [00:39:54] Speaker E: That's one of the older models. [00:39:56] Speaker D: You, You. [00:39:57] Speaker B: But you're right, the elements that are introduced. Both of you have said this. It's got like, here we go. Right, we're on A boat, and there's Jack Webb and getting into the jungle and all of these things. It's all really close to. This is going to be a really fun, exciting adventure. And I know that you like the ending, but kitty fight with a snake is a weird ending for me. [00:40:21] Speaker E: I will totally cop to when that cat was brought in with a condition. I thought, that cat's a dead. [00:40:26] Speaker A: Me too. [00:40:26] Speaker B: Well, I was really glad they didn't kill the cat. [00:40:29] Speaker C: Well, I would have laughed. [00:40:31] Speaker E: The cat didn't just suddenly turn up dead, but to come out at the end and be the fighting force that it was. [00:40:37] Speaker B: Yeah, go, cat. [00:40:38] Speaker A: It's literally the last thing I expected to have happen in this episode. [00:40:42] Speaker C: Or that the kitty was pregnant because. And that's the language I should have realized because she says delicate. That's what we said about. [00:40:50] Speaker D: I was too busy being horrified by Jack Webb being all friendly. I'm your favorite passenger. [00:40:57] Speaker A: And as an aside, I did look at a online transcript of this episode because there's that missing chunk of scene minor. [00:41:06] Speaker E: Missing little detail where the snake is the most important middle point. Plot. [00:41:11] Speaker B: What is it? [00:41:11] Speaker A: But this transcription has a stage direction in it that says fart noise. [00:41:17] Speaker E: No, it says bushmaster heard screaming. [00:41:21] Speaker D: Don't say pregnant. [00:41:22] Speaker A: No, it says the meow of a pregnant cat. So we don't have someone just doing. You know. [00:41:31] Speaker C: Was that an actor doing that cat? Because that was great. [00:41:34] Speaker A: It's a great cat. [00:41:35] Speaker C: I think it was. Was a human. Otherwise, they. They punched a cat. [00:41:39] Speaker A: Yeah, it was definitely a human. [00:41:41] Speaker C: But that different time. It was a different time. [00:41:43] Speaker A: That level of rage is very. [00:41:46] Speaker C: It's real. [00:41:46] Speaker E: That was the meow I recently gave birth. Cat. [00:41:49] Speaker A: Yeah, which. [00:41:51] Speaker B: So what we missed was. I want pickles. That's all. [00:41:57] Speaker C: I know you can see yourself out. [00:42:01] Speaker B: So I want to kind of head toward my vote. Here's why this work. [00:42:06] Speaker A: Thanks for coming, everybody. Let's cut this short. [00:42:11] Speaker B: I'm gonna get out here. No, on my Facebook page. And yes, I have Facebook, it says. [00:42:18] Speaker A: Aging before our eyes. [00:42:20] Speaker B: Just describe yourself. [00:42:21] Speaker A: Somebody opened the Ark of the Covenant, Right? [00:42:24] Speaker D: I'm old, too, Eric. [00:42:25] Speaker A: Go on. [00:42:26] Speaker B: And it says on my pages as terrified of snakes since 1966. That's my description of me. Is it really? Yeah, I know. [00:42:38] Speaker A: Did you have a bad experience with a snake? [00:42:40] Speaker B: I hate them so much. This was really hard to sit through. I can't stand snakes. I don't like them. They don't have arms or legs yet they're moving. That's gross. What is going on? They are the most disgusting, vile things. The fact you have one in your mouth. In your mouth. In your house. Mouth, house, wherever. [00:43:01] Speaker A: I think you just remind me to. [00:43:03] Speaker C: Stay away from this. You don't know how to be with snakes. That's why you hate them. [00:43:06] Speaker D: That's not what you do with snakes. [00:43:08] Speaker C: Exactly. [00:43:09] Speaker B: Whatever you do with them, I don't even know what you do with them. And then we'll be in Zoom stuff, and he'll have a snake around his neck. Can you cut it out? [00:43:16] Speaker D: Okay. [00:43:17] Speaker A: Sentence made me uncomfortable. [00:43:19] Speaker B: But my point being is if you are as terrified of. And I mean, garter snakes, that what they're called, and, like, these are harmless. I'm in the house. [00:43:29] Speaker A: You're a grown man, Eric. [00:43:32] Speaker B: No, that thing doesn't have arms and legs. It's an abomination. So the thing. [00:43:37] Speaker A: You are the most conservative man I know. [00:43:40] Speaker B: Anybody who feels that way, like me. This was hard. This is a gross episode. Like, man, I would have jumped. [00:43:48] Speaker A: But it's successful as theater of the mind, then. Yeah, yeah. Because there are snake sound effects. It's just description. Right. [00:43:54] Speaker B: It made me very. [00:43:56] Speaker C: You would have been that woman who was like, I'm jumping off the ship. [00:43:59] Speaker B: That would have elbowed fumigate. I would have got off that ship. No one noticed. [00:44:06] Speaker E: What made this episode difficult for me to listen to was not thinking of the Marvel supervillain Bushmaster being there the whole time. [00:44:15] Speaker C: Oh, I'm sorry. [00:44:17] Speaker B: Oh, what is. [00:44:20] Speaker E: Just had to keep realigning, like, nope, that's not that guy. It's a little wiggly snake. [00:44:24] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:44:25] Speaker B: Tell us more about Bushmaster, the Marvel. [00:44:28] Speaker E: Season two of Luke Cage. It's really cool. [00:44:31] Speaker C: It's like, oh, I like Luke Cage. [00:44:32] Speaker B: Is it a giant snake guy? [00:44:34] Speaker E: No. Oh, dude just call himself Bushmaster. [00:44:40] Speaker D: Pretty good, right? [00:44:41] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm in. [00:44:45] Speaker D: So, Shannon. [00:44:46] Speaker C: Yes? [00:44:47] Speaker E: Ryan changed the topic. [00:44:49] Speaker B: What? [00:44:50] Speaker A: Ryan's just taken over. [00:44:52] Speaker D: You mentioned that you liked the cat noises that you thought. [00:44:55] Speaker C: Yeah, I did. [00:44:56] Speaker D: Noises were pretty good. I was on the fence a little bit with that, but I was okay with it. But did anyone besides me notice the. [00:45:04] Speaker B: She does her cat noises when we have cats in our live shows. [00:45:08] Speaker D: The noises in the forest when they were. Or in the jungle when they were shooting. Like, what the hell is going on? Are they shooting people? There's a lot of screaming. It was very strange. [00:45:18] Speaker C: It was very. [00:45:20] Speaker E: It did sound like the whole. The whole crew of people they had there to capture the snake were suddenly up on chairs. [00:45:27] Speaker F: Yes. [00:45:28] Speaker D: Absolutely perfect. [00:45:30] Speaker B: Yes. [00:45:30] Speaker D: Yes. [00:45:31] Speaker C: That's exactly what I still love Too in these. [00:45:33] Speaker B: The Tom and Jerry mom. [00:45:36] Speaker C: I love, too. In this era of storytelling where somebody, they just saw a Bushmaster, they're freaking out the snake, Tim, the snake. And so they're freaking out. [00:45:47] Speaker A: Somebody call Luke Cage. [00:45:50] Speaker C: And the first thing that Jack Webb's character says, his name, Chris, Chris Warner says is, hey, calm down, shut up. And I was like. And that jungle is like on 11, you know, it's just like every creature is screaming and he yells at the one guy, right? Yeah, shut up. [00:46:08] Speaker D: Our whole Foley budget is that scene. Because there's almost nothing else. There's no footsteps, there's no nothing. [00:46:13] Speaker B: Like you said, it doesn't tell him for 10 days what the hell we're doing out here. And then he tells him, and it cost him 1500 bucks. And then the story, it's like, oh, wow, we've got four minutes left. You know, like someone went. So he went and got the thing, brought it back. Like the jump to. All right, I'll go get it. I want that scene. [00:46:32] Speaker D: A rubber bag big enough to hold a 12 foot snake. [00:46:35] Speaker B: Right? [00:46:35] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:46:35] Speaker D: Remember that? [00:46:36] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:46:36] Speaker F: What was it called? [00:46:36] Speaker E: An undulating pile. That's not right. [00:46:39] Speaker F: It was a better term. [00:46:40] Speaker A: I think that's Luke Cage. [00:46:41] Speaker D: Again, that's what avuncular means. [00:46:45] Speaker A: But I would argue that is just not the story they want to tell. And what it does is support this privileged guy. Right, Right. He's just offering money. It's just a thing. Thing to him. He like, I'll just. If I pay this guy enough money, he'll just go do it and I'm no part of it. And then he's forced to actually deal with it. [00:47:06] Speaker E: You want to know what that scene was? He goes to a snake bar and says, I'm gonna get 1500 bucks. If you get in this bag, I'll split it with you. [00:47:13] Speaker B: 50. [00:47:13] Speaker F: 50. [00:47:15] Speaker C: And then the snake was like, as long as there aren't any cats. He was like, yeah, no problem. [00:47:20] Speaker B: This isn't far off. Because apparently the snake knows a lot of stuff. [00:47:24] Speaker D: Yeah, it knows where you live. [00:47:26] Speaker B: Listen, that isn't funny. [00:47:30] Speaker C: You've been so mean about them. They're gonna find you. [00:47:33] Speaker B: The idea that a snake would know where I lived is gonna keep me up at night. [00:47:37] Speaker A: Eric's irrational fear. [00:47:39] Speaker B: Now we know they can knock on doors because they can get through glass somehow. [00:47:44] Speaker D: You got a cat. [00:47:48] Speaker B: How did it get out of the glass? [00:47:50] Speaker C: I don't know. [00:47:51] Speaker B: Doesn't have any arms. [00:47:54] Speaker A: One of the things that I liked about this is that the suspense changes Halfway through. From the fear of the snake to the fear of people like Eric who will behave irrationally and do something drastic and stupid on the ship because they know the snake is free and it becomes this. This human thing. And again, plays into that final thing about, like, the enemies in this episode are the people. [00:48:18] Speaker E: In all seriousness, that was the part of that last beat that I particularly enjoyed, was acknowledging there are hundreds of terrified people up there. But I. They can wait. [00:48:26] Speaker A: Like, you. [00:48:27] Speaker E: You just go up, stay up there and panic. [00:48:29] Speaker A: Yeah. You deserve some milk, cat. [00:48:34] Speaker B: He knew he didn't have a gun. He knew he was in the. He knew he was the guy. He knows his email address. [00:48:44] Speaker A: So I was a little angry early on when Jack Webb says he looked in the box with his flashlight, and every time he looked in, the snake was awake. So I got, like, nerdy and went like, snakes don't have eyelids. [00:49:01] Speaker C: Oh. So they're always like. [00:49:03] Speaker A: But he's actually describing his physical posture because later, by the end, I was like, oh, the cat ripped out its lidless eyes. I was like, okay, I'll give you that point back. Escape. [00:49:14] Speaker B: Do they sleep? [00:49:16] Speaker A: They do. They just have these transparent scales that come down over their eyes. [00:49:21] Speaker C: Why are you telling them these things? [00:49:23] Speaker A: They're called spectacles. [00:49:24] Speaker B: The more you. [00:49:27] Speaker A: Come down, they're like goggles. [00:49:32] Speaker B: Remember that show V? [00:49:34] Speaker C: Oh, and they blinked this way. [00:49:36] Speaker B: Lizards. [00:49:37] Speaker D: Lizards, not snakes. [00:49:39] Speaker A: So I actually had to. [00:49:43] Speaker B: Actually, that was lizards. [00:49:47] Speaker A: I had to feed my snake last night while listening to this episode. [00:49:51] Speaker C: You feed it, like, little mice? [00:49:53] Speaker A: Frozen mice. [00:49:54] Speaker C: Frozen dead mice. [00:49:55] Speaker A: I couldn't do the living ones, but they're actually really stupid. [00:49:58] Speaker E: In front of the window. [00:49:59] Speaker D: I thought for a second. You fed it to the cat. No, never mind. [00:50:03] Speaker A: They do have Jurassic period brains. They're just tiny brains. You have to, like, dangle and shake a mice. A mouse in front. [00:50:10] Speaker B: Then how do they know where I live? [00:50:12] Speaker A: I know they're not very threatening. That's the point. [00:50:15] Speaker B: All right. [00:50:15] Speaker C: Yeah. They don't want to see you. [00:50:17] Speaker A: No. [00:50:18] Speaker B: All right. [00:50:18] Speaker C: They don't want to see you. [00:50:19] Speaker A: The snake actually accidentally bit itself while going for one of these. [00:50:23] Speaker C: Oh, that bums me out. [00:50:24] Speaker A: They are idiots. [00:50:26] Speaker E: I've bitten myself. [00:50:27] Speaker C: That really bums me out. Well, I think it's exciting that Jack Webb was in this, though. [00:50:34] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:50:34] Speaker C: Like, the whole time. That made it happy. [00:50:37] Speaker B: Was this before Dragnet? [00:50:38] Speaker E: Oh, yeah. [00:50:39] Speaker G: Okay. [00:50:39] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:50:40] Speaker E: I think he just started acting, like, a year before this. He gotten out of the whatever military service he was in. [00:50:45] Speaker C: Oh, cool. See that? [00:50:46] Speaker B: I didn't know he was a snake. [00:50:48] Speaker E: Reserve, but he had, like, a Jack Webb comedy show before this. [00:50:53] Speaker D: Oh, God, no. [00:50:54] Speaker F: Oh, yeah. [00:50:54] Speaker B: Why are we not listening to that? [00:50:58] Speaker D: I've got a few. [00:51:04] Speaker C: Amazing. [00:51:05] Speaker B: It's just dead. Is it like Steven Wright on steroids? I don't know. [00:51:10] Speaker E: I. I'm an uncurious person. [00:51:11] Speaker B: I gotta hear that. [00:51:12] Speaker A: Just the jokes, ma'am. [00:51:16] Speaker B: Just the punch lines. Then I said, I gotta get out of here. [00:51:23] Speaker E: And I got on my knees and fed it some mil. [00:51:28] Speaker D: It's one of those things that when you say it and it's supposed to be funny, it is funny, even though it's okay. [00:51:35] Speaker A: So you did mention at the top of this Ricky Tikki Tavi, like, that's the first thing I thought of. Now, I assume that terrorized you as a child. I thought it was really scary, that cartoon. Does anyone else know what we're talking about? That 1975 short. [00:51:48] Speaker B: It's a mongoose that killed a snake in. It's a Disney. [00:51:52] Speaker C: It was a scary. [00:51:52] Speaker D: It's a Kipling story. [00:51:54] Speaker A: It's a based on a Rudyard Kipling story from Jungle Book. It was. Chuck Jones did the animation, so it's gorgeous. And Orson Welles. Wells was the voice of the cobra and narrated it. [00:52:04] Speaker C: So, so scary. That voice was so scary. [00:52:07] Speaker A: Yeah. It was back when kids were not coddled. [00:52:09] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:52:10] Speaker A: By their entertainment. I just watched it just frozen as a child. [00:52:14] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:52:15] Speaker A: Mongoose fighting. [00:52:16] Speaker C: That snake is terrifying. It is truly violent. Yeah. Then everyone's like, okay, nighty night. [00:52:22] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:52:23] Speaker D: Oh, that's too scary. Let's. Let's put on something else, like Water Ship Down. Cheer us up. [00:52:31] Speaker C: But I always thought the Nutcracker was terrifying because it was PBS and the Mouse King or whatever. I was like, I'm out. I'm out. Freaked me out, so. Okay, good. I'm glad that wasn't just me. [00:52:44] Speaker A: Oh, no. It's terrifying because it's a man in a. [00:52:47] Speaker C: It's a man in a. In a. Yeah. [00:52:49] Speaker G: Yeah. [00:52:49] Speaker A: And you immediately sense that that's wrong. [00:52:51] Speaker C: That's not okay. Yeah. There's a lot going on. [00:52:55] Speaker A: I saw that guy in the changing room at the ymca. [00:53:00] Speaker B: I avoided him. I know that guy. [00:53:07] Speaker C: We all know that guy well. [00:53:11] Speaker B: Anybody other. Any other points, or should we send this around to Final Analysis? [00:53:16] Speaker C: I think everyone should vote on this one. [00:53:19] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, we're gonna get everyone's vote. But yeah, let's. Let's start the vote process. We got a lot of people up here. Let's start with Ryan, our guest of honor. Have we swayed you at all. Are you still a skeptic? [00:53:31] Speaker D: You know, it's an escape episode, so it's going up against other escape episodes. So I'd give it Middle of the Road Escape. Not a classic, but it does stand the test of time since, I mean, clearly, even today we're shipping snakes on passenger liners. You know, secretly we are. Oh, yeah. [00:53:50] Speaker B: The hell? [00:53:53] Speaker A: Hold on. I just sent one to your house. It's Amazon. One day you'll get it, tomorrow he's. [00:54:05] Speaker E: Delivering you a pizza. [00:54:07] Speaker A: Snake pizza. [00:54:09] Speaker B: Now it knows where I live. I will say in typical Escape, it. The production value, the direction, the writing, the performance, the acting. I think it's all the music. Yeah, right. It's such a well done show and it's very good. I think this thing has a lot of holes in it. And if I wasn't so terrified of snakes, I don't think I would have been riveted to this at all. I think I would have been very. You know, you had. And as you said, there's opportunities, there's things introduced where you go, great, that's where we're heading. And then we're really not heading there. So for me, it was unnerving and suspenseful and all of that, but I'm pretty sure that not everybody has the same reaction. I do. [00:54:52] Speaker C: No, Nobody. [00:54:53] Speaker F: Yeah. [00:54:54] Speaker B: They don't have any arms. How they move, how many. How are you doing that? So, yeah, I would say that I pretty much agree with you. It's. I would say it stands the test of time, though. I would. Well, you know, there's nothing about it that's like, oh, what? Like by today's standards? I think it's a good story that way. Your turn. [00:55:19] Speaker C: Oh, it is my turn. I never know how to do this. I think the ending, the speech about I made it sound terrible, the human speech. But I did think that was wonderful. And I liked the idea that the cat lived. So I'll just call it. Yeah, that was great. I think it's a classic. I just wanted to live. And there's more cats on the ship. There were ship cats. I just. I want the next one to be about those cats and how spin off, they took crime together. The mom cat becomes the captain. [00:55:52] Speaker B: They all get. They all become roommates and live together. [00:55:54] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. And there's hijinks. That's. Yeah. [00:55:58] Speaker E: I have often said, like, the mark of a really great artist is. Is your mediocre stuff good, right? Scape's mediocre stuff is good. [00:56:07] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:56:08] Speaker E: I really like this and in fact the whole part of missing the scene where they put the snake in the bag, I didn't mind that because we know he has the snake because snakes in the box, you don't need to really agonize that point. You got the snake. So I didn't mind that sort of choice. In the flashback, I was totally on board for the threat of the snake. And so when it concluded with snake gap fight, it was a surprise. And I liked it. [00:56:39] Speaker C: Points off that it wasn't Bushmaster. [00:56:44] Speaker E: So I will not call this a classic, but stands test time and I enjoyed it. [00:56:49] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that this show is intentionally subverting the expectations of the escape listener. And for me it worked for others. It seems to have disappointed you because it subverts them. And like Eric said, like, oh, I know where this is going. And I was listening going, like, I know where this is going. So often Eric and I have the same reaction, but one is excited and one is disappointed and that's pretty typical. And so when it subverts and comes around and brings in, like you said, Chekhov's pregnant cat, I should have seen this coming. But why would I see this coming as an end of Escape? So I found it delightful. I enjoyed the fact that it's a character we don't often see in old time radio. This strangely privileged character who learns a lesson, but he's not completely despicable. So I liked his mini redemption arc. I was also fascinated by the fact that I don't think I've ever heard anyone in Old Time radio called Chris. I don't know why. Can you think of any other Old Time radio? [00:57:55] Speaker C: That's a really good point. Chris. [00:57:57] Speaker E: Adventures of Chris. [00:57:59] Speaker A: What kind of old timey name is Chris? [00:58:01] Speaker C: When you say that, that he's redeemed, I envision he falls to his knees, he does his human monologue and then he falls to his knees. He pours the milk and then he's drinking it himself and the cat comes and he just pushes her across the room. You know how cats slide and then they come back and he's just. [00:58:17] Speaker A: He's totally snapped. [00:58:18] Speaker C: Totally snapped. He's lost it. [00:58:22] Speaker A: So, yeah, I think it stands the test of time for sure. It is not an escape classic, but personally for me, it just hit a sweet sp spot of both, like my. My appreciation and love of animals. And I. I love something that can subvert my expectations in a way that still fulfills them. Because it still has a big fight with a snake at the end. It doesn't Cheat. [00:58:43] Speaker E: So folks in the audience. Yeah, just like by applause and no judgment. [00:58:49] Speaker B: No. [00:58:49] Speaker E: No aspersions. Cast like if you were kind of. I didn't care for it. Go ahead and clap for that opinion. [00:58:58] Speaker B: That guy. [00:58:58] Speaker E: I can't believe you. Judge, judge, judge, judge, judge for pretty good claps for not overly proud but enjoyed it good enough. [00:59:12] Speaker C: That's what I'm aiming for for all shows, really. [00:59:16] Speaker E: And for folks who thought a triumph of old radio. [00:59:20] Speaker G: Ah, yeah. [00:59:23] Speaker B: And how many of you are in here are as afraid of snakes as I am? [00:59:29] Speaker C: See, Maybe. Okay, thank you. [00:59:31] Speaker E: For anyone who here who is a snake, clap your hands. [00:59:34] Speaker B: Oh my God. If you know where I am, then you can pay my bar tab. All right, Tim, tell them stuff. [00:59:47] Speaker E: Please go to ghoulishdelights.com that is the home of this podcast. You'll find other episodes there. You can leave comments, you can vote in polls. Let us know what you think on a more one on one sort of basis that way digitally. You can also find links there to our store. You can get the hats and shirts and coffee mugs and stuff like that. [01:00:07] Speaker A: We should get a shirt that says Chekhov's pregnant cat. [01:00:12] Speaker C: We should. [01:00:13] Speaker B: Worst episode of Star Trek ever. [01:00:16] Speaker E: And you can also find a link to our appropriate this episode Patreon page. [01:00:20] Speaker A: Yes, you can go to Patreon and become like Ryan. Hey, are there any other patrons in the house tonight? [01:00:30] Speaker C: Thank you. [01:00:31] Speaker A: Nice. Thank you. Listen to that applause. It's so warm and kind and we really appreciate it. Ryan, what are some of the amazing perks of being a patron of this podcast? [01:00:42] Speaker D: Well, Joshua, there is a thriving social community on Discord for this podcast. There are happy hours where a bunch of like minded folks get together and discuss with the cast here other episodes of Old time Radio. There is an old time book club. There's bonus content, whole other podcasts with different episodes discussed equally wittily. [01:01:14] Speaker A: What are you waiting for? Get out your phones. Give us some money right now. It's amazing. Go to patreon.com themorals thank you. [01:01:21] Speaker B: And if you'd like to see us performing Old Time Radio drama live on stage. The mysterious Old Radio Listening Society Theater company does recreations of classic old time radio and a lot of our own original work. You can find out where we're performing radio drama on stage by going to ghoulishdelights.com and there you'll find out what we're performing, where we're performing and how to get tickets. Do we happen to know what's coming up next. [01:01:46] Speaker A: We sure do. But first I would like to give one more round of applause to Ryan. [01:01:52] Speaker B: Thank you. [01:01:53] Speaker D: Thank you. [01:01:54] Speaker C: So fun. [01:01:55] Speaker A: You did amazing. Thanks for putting up with us, Ryan. [01:02:01] Speaker B: Yeah, thank you so much. [01:02:03] Speaker A: What's coming up next is Tim's choice. Do you remember what it is? Oh yes. [01:02:07] Speaker E: We're doing the Queen Anne Pistols affairs matter matter. [01:02:13] Speaker C: Sure you are the queen and pistols. [01:02:15] Speaker E: Matter matter from yours truly, Johnny Dollar. I'm sure this will all be edited to make you sound competent. [01:02:21] Speaker A: Not at all. [01:02:23] Speaker C: Here's Truly Johnny Dollar. That's exciting. [01:02:26] Speaker A: So until then. [01:02:31] Speaker B: You will see that we our next show will be a crooners which is that way. [01:02:40] Speaker C: Fridley. [01:02:40] Speaker B: Fridley Northeast. Not Ridley 60. Anyway, it's outside of here. [01:02:45] Speaker C: Outside of somewhere. [01:02:46] Speaker A: But if you find Eric just roaming around looking for crooners, help him out. He doesn't know snakes. [01:02:51] Speaker D: Know where it is.