[00:00:16] 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.
[00:00:36] Speaker C: And I'm Joshua.
[00:00:37] 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.
[00:00:43] Speaker C: Today we present a request from our Patreon supporter, Zachary Spider from Lights Out.
[00:00:51] Speaker A: Lights out was a horror series created by writer Willis Cooper in 1934. Originally broadcast on Chicago area NBC station WENR on Wednesday nights at midnight night. Cooper's late night Grand Guignol was a local hit and in April 1935, NBC began broadcasting it nationally, growing the program's fan base coast to coast.
[00:01:13] Speaker C: After terrifying listeners for more than a year, Willis Cooper left Lights out to pursue a career in Hollywood. His credits include several films in the Mr. Moto series starring Peter Lorre, as well as the third installment in Universal Studios Frankenstein series, Son of Frankenstein. Cooper eventually returned to radio where he created another iconic anthology series, Quiet please.
[00:01:39] Speaker B: After Cooper's departure, NBC hired a young writer director named Arch Oblor to take over Lights Out. Ober's bold story choices and innovative production techniques took the program to new heights of popularity. Lights out ended in 1938, but the show was revived several times during the 1940s. These later series are the source of most of today's surviving Lights out recordings, including the performance you're about to hear.
[00:02:01] Speaker A: And now let's listen to Spider from Arch Obers. Lights out Originally broadcast on May 18, 1943.
[00:02:10] 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.
[00:02:25] Speaker D: Ionized Yeast presents.
Light out, everybody.
It is later than you think.
Lights out brings you stories of the supernatural and the supernormal, dramatizing with fantasies and the mysteries of the unknown.
We tell you this frankly. So if you wish to avoid the excitement and tension of these imaginative plays, we urge you calmly but sincerely to turn off your radio now.
This is Arch Ober.
In these days, the jungles are full of the whine of machine gun bullets and with.25 caliber automatic rifles.
There was a time, though, when the sound in the jungle was that of insects and the raucous call of jungle birds. Men went into the tropical forest for high adventures or to make money.
It's of these times that our story is tonight.
And now, Lights out, everybody.
The jungles of the upper Amazon.
You don't have to shout.
I hear you. Hey, Tixie, look. Hey, look at this. Look at this one. Look at it right there, dear. You another butterfly? Yeah. Look at these wings. Look at them. Better for that wing. As big as an airplane to take us out of this hell hole. I bet I'll get 10 francs for this one if we get out of the jungle alive. Oh, I'll get out. Aye. You mean we. You wouldn't leave me here.
Don't worry, Casey. You get in this with me and you'll get out of it with me.
Until the ants begin to eat you. Oh, cut it out, Willie. Can't you do anything but sing their blues? I suppose I should be happy should sing a song because the sun is burning me up because the insects bite me Because I'm hearing this devil's hole Half the world away from my home Cut it out.
They like it any better than you do. It's our only chance, see? Catching these bugs is our only chance to get a dough and get out of here. But the sun. Do you think the sun's any colder working in the mine?
Think your sun's any colder sitting out there on the beach, tearing her heart out of there Every time you see a boat heading back.
Tell you, Dixie, the jungle's the only chance we have to get out of here. And by the devil, I'm taking.
Yeah, yeah, you're right.
I know what you say.
Our only chance. Sure it is. Now snap out of it. Another couple of days like this one and we'll have caught enough of these bugs to head back to the coast.
But will we get through? Listen, Dixie, when I say I'm getting out of here, I'm getting out. But the natives here. Cut it out. I tell you. Nothing's gonna stop me. But if we do get out, how do we know that Mr. Renapp will buy the butterflies? Listen, he said he worth the name. Oh, what a man says. Yeah, why shouldn't he buy em? Gives us a franc a piece and then sells them all over the world for plenty of dough. But who would waste money on such things? Don't you know nothing? Schools, museums. They pay plenty of dough for these jungle butterflies. But why should anybody? I forget it, I tell you.
Yeah, Hot enough without you shooting your mouth up all over the time. I still. I tell you, forget it.
All right, I'll forget Me.
Joe, I've seen you laugh to yourself. Why do you laugh?
Just thinking what I think of what you said before about a Butterfly with wings like an aeroplane. Yeah.
Funny, ain't it? Two big guys like you and me. Guys that shot the worst from Arsenal. Murder both of us. Depended on what to get us out of the jungle and back to where we came from.
Handful of blue and red and purple butterflies. Yeah, that's what it is.
Funny if anybody told me a couple years ago I'd be chasing bugs that I slugged them bugs are all the chance I got now, ain't you know, it's a funny thing. When I was a kid, I used to chase butterflies too.
Dinky little white ones all around the empty lot in brackets.
What's the matter with you, Dixie? What do you say with us here you didn't see it? See what? What is there to say with it?
Leaves. No.
What then what?
From behind that tree, he looked out at me.
He.
What are you talking about?
Who looked out at you?
A spider.
And I think it was as large as a dog.
Joe not sleeping?
No.
I can't sleep either.
Oh, so hot.
It used to get nice and cold about this time of night where I used to live.
Joe Nelson Miller.
Did I.
Did I see it?
You startin that again? But I must have seen it. I must have seen.
Was all so clear. But I tell you, it was nothing but a monkey hanging there.
Spider. But I saw. Go on. The heat. Spy in your brains.
Wanna sleep?
Yeah, sleep.
I'll try.
Okay.
Black mosquito. Got it under the netting.
You get it? You get it? Oh, no, I got it.
Another one.
Hole in a netting.
Took him out.
My. Hook it up. Fix it.
Blast that stoppage. Falling apart with mill. Joe.
Joe. What do you want? Don't go too close to the edge of that clearance. What are you talking about? I'm just gonna fix the net and show them.
Joe. What?
Joe, what is it? Joe.
Okay.
Yeah, but you. You screamed.
Yeah, well, I saw it too.
Sitting at the edge of the curve in the moonlight.
Yeah.
Spider as big as a dog.
Tighter.
Pull the light tighter.
Yeah. Yeah, that does it. Okay, come on out of the tree now. All right, now watch yourself. Don't shake that tree too much.
That trap door setting a hair trigger.
Yeah.
Now it's done.
That cage ain't strong enough to hold it. You can run a right through me. But. But what if it doesn't come here again? Here by the tree the last two nights, wasn't it? Yeah, but what? So it'll do it again.
This time it's going to stay by the tree.
What if the trap fails? I'll start that again. Tell you, one jerk of his. Fine. From where we're sitting, the whole cage will fall right on him.
Then, my friend, I traveled the roll. I tell you, Joe, I'm afraid. Afraid of what? Getting out of here and getting someplace where we can live like men.
You afraid of making money. Money. Listen, for a spider that big, I could get enough cash to float home with silk shirts on our back.
Think of it. A spider that big. We'll clean up with him. No, Joe, no. I say, let's get away from here. Scared you, Dixie, huh? Well, it don't me.
I tell you, this blat. The jungler spit out a gold mine for us with a trap.
Are you sure? But, Joel. Oh, sure, I'm sure. We'll catch him and there won't be butterflies paying our ship there home to see it'll be the biggest spider in the world.
That's all right, Aunt Iggy.
But are you sure of the trap, Joel?
The wind's strong like.
Yeah.
I wonder what time it is.
Stars are gone getting that morning.
Yeah, there's always earlier before trap threaten them away.
But a spider's not about traps. You said yourself a clever. Now we a fool. But you said yourself talking, that's all.
There's a fear in the cold and sharp as if. Wait. Huh?
Yeah. You declare it's common. Stay quiet, Joe. Let him go. Quiet about kidding. Don't pull a draft. Quiet.
He's looking at us.
This step a little to you. Right under there.
I got it. I got it. Oh, look at it, Dixie Drot. And it's mine. The biggest spider in creation. I'll get all the money I need.
Dixie, what's the matter with you? Come on. I wanted to say something.
Crabbed and it doesn't move.
Just looks at us.
Joe.
Oh.
How many days since. Well, say it. Since we caught the big fella. Three.
Yeah, three days.
You haven't said it. You're telling me.
Why do you? Because I planned it smart. Pretty soon that thing won't be caring much about anything. Then I'm gonna slip the bottom of that cage and off we go.
They say such creatures can live for a long time without eating. Not one of that size. I figured. It's sitting out there in that sun all day.
Well, in about a week it won't care much whatever we do with it.
Do, eh?
How could such a creature be? What do you mean, how could it be? You're looking at it, ain't you? But such a spider, it's there, that's all that means anything to Me? But such a giant creature. That's it. It's a giant, ain't it? Well, you've seen giant human beings in circuses, haven't you? They just happen, that's all. That's the way this spider happened.
So black.
Yeah, the midnight special, Amy.
Those big hairy legs. Once I saw an octopus. Devil fish. Oh, yeah, yeah, sure.
This one looks like a dry land. Devil fish. Is that it? Yeah.
We'll let make a billboard at a circus sideshow. Will we? Clean up the legs, the strength they must have. Not when I get through it. Look at it, Joe, be honest.
Isn't there a strange fascination when you look at it closer? What are you talking about? It's ours. Well, how's it shine? So what? As if there was a thought behind you. Start. Not again. All these three days it sits there so quietly. T's like burning flames. Just watch. You cut it out. Cut it out.
If it is thinking, I'm afraid of what is thinking.
Howdy, Spider.
Yeah, plenty. Huh?
He thinks he couldn't take it anymore. He's off looking for a cool spot. But me, I didn't want to leave you alone, Spider.
I didn't want to leave my meal ticket.
You're going to be a big time attraction on the boardwalk in some big time circus. Spider.
Yeah, yeah. Give a screwy looking thing, Spider.
Oh, believe it. Until they see it. The fellow is going to cost them plenty before they do see.
Hey, Spider, watch him move.
Spider not dead.
Get a stick spot.
Well, I say you're not dead.
You can't be dead. If it's been only a witness. You can't be dead.
You're my chair. Shoot your legs over. You let go of me, you bastard devil.
Let go.
Let go of my arm.
Get away. And I.
Joe.
Joe. Where are you?
Joe.
Before the sound suddenly so quiet.
Joe.
Where's the man? He said it'd be here. Said Joe, buddy, buddy. What?
Joe.
Joe, come quickly. I found a body. Joe, come quickly.
Must he? Who?
Joe?
Joe. Jew.
Joe hugged this one.
The spider.
But how gone? Gone from the cage.
What he did to you, Joe might come back. Whatever I stand here, it might come back. Gotta get out here, get things together, get a plan. Take them off and get out before something move behind that tree.
No, it won't get me. Won't get me. It won't get me.
Oh, my foot twisted.
Must have broken leg.
No, Gotta get away.
Gotta get away.
Gotta get away. Gotta get away.
Oh, my leg.
All day so dark.
Never get me. Now that devil thing.
I Did get away. Crawled miles. I did get away.
Clear.
Someone to help me.
Crawled at the house.
Someone to help me.
So dark.
Oh, tired.
No strength to call out.
Crawl and mind. Someone to help me be free.
Free.
Catch something.
What, buddy?
You. But how?
Back in the camp. I'm back in the camp.
Crawled all night and circled back in the camper.
No, that.
No, no, no. Can't crawl anymore.
The jump.
What?
Behind me. It's behind me. Waiting to jump on my back. No, don't.
Nothing isn't there.
I could only crawl again. If I could only get away before the moon coming up bright. Now I'll see. I'll see what?
Not here.
Only you, Joe. Empty flesh over there in the moonlight.
Blast you to the devil's Joe. You brought me here. You attracted you, Doc. But that spider won't get me. Not me. It's gone now. My leg. It will get better. I will get away. Yeah. I will.
Spider come back.
Oh, no.
No, no, no, no, no, no. No. Closure. No closure. No. No.
Cr.
When Joe is dead.
When is he?
When is the spider going to Spinning a web over him.
Turning him around and around like a fly.
Covering him with that thick silk.
And ain't nowhere but the silk over in Jo.
See, son.
Morning.
Morning. It is morning. I'm alive. I'm alive.
Someone coming.
Get a hide. Who?
So heavy. A wolf. It can't be. That Devil's Brightness must be one of the savages. There. Help me see. Who?
Joe.
It here's Joe. Alive.
Joe.
Joe. I'm here, Joe. I'm here. Wait for me, Joe. Why do you stand there? I must have had a dream. All that happened here's a dream. Last night was such a funny nightmare to tell you, Joe. Why do you just stand there?
Why do you just look at me?
Your eyes. The sun shines in them and they hurt me.
Don't look at me like that, Joe. Your eyes. So dark. So big.
I say closer. Closer, my friend. Come closer. I have such a happy thing to tell you. Closer.
I hear you.
Like what? Your eyes are singing to me, Joe.
As I come closer.
You keep telling me that happy thing.
Yeah.
I'm close to you now, Joe. Tell me what? Your eyes.
Your hand.
Why do you grab my arm?
Your other hand. My other arm.
Why do your fingers hold my arms so tight? They hurt me.
Another arm on my shoulder, Joe. What?
Another arm holding my neck. Joe. So many arms. How can it be, Joe? It is you. I see your face, but your eyes. Bigger and bigger. Sun so strong. And my head burning. My Head inside. Is that why I see such crazy things? Joe. Joe, why don't you say something? Your eyes. Bigger and bigger. Burning into my head now. Your face is changing, Joe. It is you. Then why doesn't your face.
Joe. That's hound. Your face. Your arms.
Spider.
You are the spider.
The spider.
Your eyes fooled me, didn't they?
Made me think I was seeing Joe. But all the time it was you. Mr. Spider.
The wonderful eyes you have. Mr. Spider.
I'm not afraid anymore.
Isn't that a joke?
Your black dance comic pros.
I see the poison dipping from your fangs, but I'm not afraid.
It's very funny when the worst thing really happens. You're not afraid.
I'm not afraid.
Your fangs.
Closer.
Close.
I'm not afraid.
Right deep.
Right deep.
Now, Mr. Oer, what's the moral of tonight's story? Stay away from spiders. Yes. Especially from black widows.
No, Frank, our story tonight was just in fun. Which reminds me of occasions of which few of us are going to have any this year.
And speaking of vacations, I'd like to tell you about a very amazing vacation I once had visiting haunted house. And after that vacation, I was badly in need of something our government wants most very much these days. Nurses.
Now here's some facts and please listen because they concern each of you.
Unless the nurse power of the entire nation is reinforced by the enrollment of 65,000 students in the schools of nursing for 1943, all of us face a real threat to civilian health.
Therefore, beginning immediately and continuing through the spring and summer months, nursing must be considered America's number one woman power shortage.
I'd like to say some words that the government said.
65,000 young women must dedicate their lives so that others might live.
Now, about haunted houses. Well, I visited all the legendary haunts up in New England, but, well, I went through the moss covered old piles and creaky floored structures and weather beaten homes and all the places where the souls of the unhappy depart are supposed to walk through the night. What happened? I caught a violent cold and met a little old lady. Oh, who's she? Well, you'll meet her next week in a play titled Little Old Lady. And to all of you, I have very, very cordial invitation to an amazing little old lady next week. Yes, tune in next Tuesday again for Arch Ober's eerie story, Little Old Lady.
It is later than you think.
[00:27:59] Speaker A: That was Spider from Lights out here on the Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society podcast once again. I'm Eric.
[00:28:07] Speaker C: I'm Tim and I'm Joshua.
[00:28:09] Speaker A: Okay, here's the deal that came to us from Zachary, our Patreon supporter. So thank you very much, Zachary, for being a supporter and for this request.
I'm going to just say I am literally on the fence and I require discussion to find out if I like this or not.
[00:28:26] Speaker B: I'm going to put my glasses on.
[00:28:29] Speaker D: Okay.
[00:28:30] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:28:31] Speaker B: Pushing them up.
[00:28:33] Speaker C: You're literally on a face.
[00:28:37] Speaker A: But I am. My glasses are up too high now. What I mean by that is I seriously can't figure out if I like this or not. There are these things in this that I go, no. And there are things I go, yes.
Is this good? I. So I can't wait to hear what you guys think.
[00:28:54] Speaker C: It's been almost 10 years, Eric. I am done making up your mind for you.
[00:28:58] Speaker A: Grow up.
[00:28:59] Speaker C: Make up your mind.
[00:29:00] Speaker A: I do on a lot of stuff. I do on lots of things.
[00:29:05] Speaker C: Put on your big boy old time radio pants. Your literal big boy pants.
[00:29:10] Speaker B: I can't.
[00:29:10] Speaker A: I'm on a fence.
Literally.
I don't know if it's later than you think. I don't know if it's 30 minutes worth of material in here. It seems stretched out sometimes. Also, I'm not sure if the acting is terrible or good.
[00:29:36] Speaker C: It's.
[00:29:36] Speaker A: I am struggling with this.
I think there's a premise here that is suspenseful and scary.
What did you come away thinking?
[00:29:44] Speaker C: I will start by saying I think this is Arch Oblord at his best.
[00:29:50] Speaker A: All right.
[00:29:50] Speaker C: Then when he zeroes in on a simple horror premise and works every angle of it, it's a cast of two characters made up almost entirely of intimate conversations with one another and strange, disturbing monologues to a giant spider.
And to me, that's my favorite Arch Oblor.
My second favorite Arch Oblor is when he is just being belligerently political. Whether I agree with him or not, I like his hardcore propaganda because I think he's the most alive and creative when he's doing that. It's when he's sort of squishy in between those two polls that I feel like he struggles.
So I really like this one.
[00:30:40] Speaker B: I'm gonna be maybe a little closer to Eric's eventual conclusion. Maybe that there are things that Archoga does amazingly well, phenomenally better than anyone. And the influence endures to this day. But that's not everything. He doesn't do everything that well. But ultimately, he had some stuff that he felt like I wanted to do in this story, and he accomplished that extremely well. And then all the other stuff he had to do to kind of make this happen was like, okay.
I felt like these characters, he used them well, but they're not really compelling characters. There's not a lot to their characters, I thought.
But mainly the scene.
There were several scenes, but primarily the scene of where the vision of his friend who turns into a large spider and the arms around him is so surreal, upsetting, disturbing, glorious, perfect, arch, oblor. Wonderment that it justifies a lot of the stuff building up to it. That felt to me a little.
Just getting to it, drawn out.
[00:31:47] Speaker A: Do we all walk away from this thinking that the idea is that the spider and Joe merged somehow? Or is he hallucinating?
[00:31:59] Speaker C: I want to lie to you right now.
That was that pause.
My take on it is that not Joe.
I forget his name is hallucinating has snapped.
[00:32:17] Speaker D: Also.
[00:32:18] Speaker C: That final monologue, to me, is the payoff that makes the entire thing worthwhile.
And all the time spent to get there, I think is important to achieve that final moment. And it is, to me, a shocking, surprising final moment. Not that he thinks the spider's Joe, but the whole idea of when the worst thing happens, you're not afraid, where he's suddenly no longer afraid and giving in that the last lines are, Bite me. Bite deep. I retroactively then take this entire play to be almost a manifesto on horror, on the genre itself. And Obloer just focusing in on how much we love just spending 30 minutes anticipating something horrific happening and then enjoying it finally happening. Because horror as a genre is very sadomasochistic.
[00:33:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:33:22] Speaker C: We. We want to be repulsed. We want to be frightened. We're asking for it.
[00:33:27] Speaker A: Yeah. And we know it's coming with lights out, so please deliver.
[00:33:32] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:33:32] Speaker A: Is it possible that it was all just a manifestation at the end of his love of Joe, that he was afraid to tell him, I will accept that.
Bite me deep.
[00:33:45] Speaker C: Yeah. I.
[00:33:46] Speaker A: Take me in your arms. All six of them.
[00:33:48] Speaker C: Fold me in.
[00:33:49] Speaker A: I crawled away.
[00:33:49] Speaker B: I crawled back. Yep.
[00:33:52] Speaker C: Honestly, your reading matches the text. You could make a case for that reading. And also, fear is his defining characteristic throughout it. Joe is the braver one. Joe's the opportunistic one.
[00:34:09] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:34:10] Speaker C: And he is eventually by the spider breaks him entirely by when he says, I'm not afraid. Bite me. Like, it's almost like the spider removes the entirety of his identity.
[00:34:19] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:34:20] Speaker C: I also am a big fan of intelligence as horror.
Right.
[00:34:26] Speaker A: Because you.
[00:34:27] Speaker C: You see this spider the size of the. Of a dog in the clearing in the moonlight, which is a creepy image. And so immediately your mind jumps to being attacked. The fang sinking into you. All the violence that this spider could do, and then the spider's easily trapped and it just sits there and it waits and it waits. And that's a twist I didn't expect.
This isn't guys fighting a giant spider in the jungle.
I see the disappointment in your eyes, Eric, that it's not. But I appreciated that small thing when
[00:35:00] Speaker B: they sort of just dispelled like, not a spider, just a monkey.
[00:35:04] Speaker A: There was a monkey.
[00:35:05] Speaker D: You're right.
[00:35:06] Speaker C: The same note. Wait, what?
[00:35:10] Speaker A: Just a monkey peeking at you from behind a tree. Watch your face.
[00:35:13] Speaker C: Man.
That spider, though, the first thing I thought of was that spider's gotten into some ironized yeast.
[00:35:23] Speaker B: Right.
[00:35:24] Speaker C: Five to ten pounds of good new spider flesh.
[00:35:28] Speaker B: Well, to no particular purpose. I also couldn't. Like, this is the ash tree.
[00:35:33] Speaker C: Yes, that is a nice connection. I even thought of that. The Mr. James story where the giant tree outside.
[00:35:39] Speaker A: Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
[00:35:41] Speaker B: I just pretended I was a tree. Have my hands up like little branches, creating the picture for the audience.
[00:35:47] Speaker A: No, it was good.
[00:35:48] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:35:49] Speaker A: When we eventually just start filming us like other podcasts do, which I don't understand. What's the point?
[00:35:57] Speaker B: Why do they film us?
[00:35:59] Speaker A: No, no, other podcast people. They film them. So you're just doing a video, you're doing a podcast.
[00:36:06] Speaker C: Because a lot of people love to watch their podcast.
[00:36:09] Speaker A: Should we film ours?
[00:36:10] Speaker C: No, it's an old time radio podc.
[00:36:14] Speaker A: Good, because I don't want to wear clothes.
[00:36:17] Speaker C: I think the. The fastest way to ruin this podcast is to chase the youth.
[00:36:26] Speaker B: We gotta maintain the illusion if they
[00:36:29] Speaker C: stumble into this podcast.
[00:36:31] Speaker A: Right.
[00:36:32] Speaker C: Quicksand. That's the wrong.
[00:36:36] Speaker B: I. I shortchange Obloer on some things. But I.
He got a lot of exposition in pretty efficiently about who these guys are and why they're here.
[00:36:45] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:36:45] Speaker C: And he added nice layers. I think of irony to that exposition that made it go down easier. Just these guys are criminals.
Guys that have shot the works from arson to murder, and they ended up here trying to make a quick buck in the Amazon. And now you have this sort of idyllic image of him chasing butterflies with a net.
[00:37:09] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:37:09] Speaker C: And I also appreciate that everything that concerns them before the giant spider is really small from butterflies. They're trying to capture the irritation of mosquitoes getting in through the net. And then that contrast, I think, is really nice. That's what I mean by Oblor just focuses and thinks like, what are all the variations on this scenario that I can pull out before I reward you? With the final weird, semi erotic spider death at the end.
And the sound is great. That jungle is so loud and so cacophonous that it's almost claustrophobic. You feel like you are sitting in that clearing with them.
[00:37:57] Speaker A: It's an interesting line in the description at the top by Oblor that, you know, back before jungles, the sound was mortars and explosions and bullets because he
[00:38:08] Speaker C: always has to fit a reference to the war in. And this was written before the war and he's redoing it during wartime. So, yeah, he's got to fit that in. And it's interesting to think that in 1943, the kind of exotic adventure to foreign lands to make money and have adventures was already ruined by the war.
[00:38:28] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:38:30] Speaker C: The reality of death and destruction had kind of ruined the romance.
[00:38:36] Speaker A: I think they could have made some money had they brought the spider back dead if they would have killed it while it was in the cage.
I'm just saying that's their fatal flaw. And we're going to bring this back alive and then we'll make money. Just kill it. People will still be like, holy crap, look what you found.
[00:38:53] Speaker B: Probably be more money alive.
[00:38:55] Speaker C: It's more money alive, King Kong.
More money alive than dead. All right, in the end, when he's dead in the street having been shot off the Empire State Building, he's not like, cool, I can make a little less money now.
The implication is it's over.
[00:39:14] Speaker A: If that movie went another hour, it would have been just the trials and tribulations of that poor taxidermist because, you know, they tried to preserve them.
That sound is crickets. That's actual crickets. That is actually jungle crickets.
[00:39:31] Speaker C: Giant jungle crickets borrowed from Inner Sanctum.
[00:39:36] Speaker A: See, Kong. The taxidermy on Kong would be exhausting.
[00:39:41] Speaker C: I totally understood it.
[00:39:45] Speaker D: Oh.
[00:39:46] Speaker A: Oh, see, Tim didn't get it.
That's why you explain jokes.
[00:39:51] Speaker C: Gigantic jar of formaldehyde.
[00:39:53] Speaker A: Rule one, Always explain your jokes.
[00:39:56] Speaker B: But you could put them in a little outfit.
[00:39:59] Speaker A: Yeah, you put them in a pose.
[00:40:01] Speaker C: I also like that this had that classic horror story moral choice for them. Even though they're murderers. Right. They clearly.
[00:40:09] Speaker B: We're done talking about King Kong.
[00:40:11] Speaker C: Yeah, we're done.
[00:40:11] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:40:16] Speaker C: Unlike King Kong.
[00:40:18] Speaker A: Oh, I'm back in. What now?
[00:40:20] Speaker C: They had a route to make the money safely chasing butterflies. Butterflies. Unless there's also, like, Mothra is lurking in the shadows. Perhaps. But they had that option. And Ober links that to a kind of innocent and honest pursuit in that he has the flashbacks. Oh, I remember Chasing butterflies as a child. And that route, I think we're supposed to think, would have safely got him through, would have made just enough to sell him to some cheap Frenchman and made it back home to travel along this route.
[00:40:57] Speaker B: Then one sees the spider, and it is horrifying and is upsetting. And then the other sees the spider. And now that they have both seeing the spider in as. I think I'm following your description of a metaphor for horror. This unspeakable, horrible thing. And then, like, we can commodify this. We can capture this, we can master this.
[00:41:16] Speaker C: I, like, take that one step farther. I hadn't thought of that.
[00:41:19] Speaker B: And trap it. And the consequences are, as any horror devotee would say, like, nope, you have to die.
You cannot put my horror in a box. But I think that's. I wouldn't put that past Ober's model of thinking.
[00:41:39] Speaker A: No.
[00:41:39] Speaker B: And I mean, getting a little more on T. Mobler.
[00:41:42] Speaker C: It could have been subconscious. It doesn't have to be the author's
[00:41:46] Speaker B: intention when he's lying in bed talking
[00:41:47] Speaker C: to his recorder, talking to his Dictaphone.
[00:41:51] Speaker B: That's how I always imagine, because he did that. But that's.
[00:41:54] Speaker C: Honey, I can't reach my Dictaphone.
Could you hand it to me?
[00:41:59] Speaker A: Dictaphone Powell.
[00:42:03] Speaker C: Yeah. And I think the fact that it's a little left ambiguous whether that spider had some kind of hypnotic power to give the character at the end the hallucination of Joe or whether his mind had snapped, that all leans into this sort of surrealness that helps set up that final turn of Bite me.
[00:42:28] Speaker A: Joe's death was quick. We don't learn a lot. Joe's like, hey, what do you.
[00:42:34] Speaker C: And it cuts away.
[00:42:34] Speaker A: And it cuts away.
[00:42:35] Speaker C: I like that.
[00:42:36] Speaker A: Yeah. What it does is makes you wonder at the end. It leaves it ambiguous because you don't know exactly what happened. So in my head, I really want it to be that they merged.
That's what I want it to be. Not a hallucination. I want it to be half man, half Joe, half Joe, half spider.
[00:42:52] Speaker C: Oblor left it open enough that you can have Spider play. You want.
[00:42:57] Speaker A: That is exactly what I want.
[00:42:59] Speaker B: You can have the romantic subtext and merging of Joe and spider.
[00:43:04] Speaker C: Like Joe and the spider merged, and all three of them merged.
[00:43:09] Speaker B: Perfect.
[00:43:10] Speaker C: We solved this blank.
But in all honesty, I mean, I think that's what's really strong about it. It has these ideas that seem emblematic of something.
And so it gives you something to think about, despite it just being two guys talking for A while. Then they get eaten by a spider.
[00:43:32] Speaker D: Right.
[00:43:33] Speaker B: But also the appeal for the lights out audience is creepy Joe with extra arm and grotesqueries.
[00:43:43] Speaker A: Should we vote?
[00:43:44] Speaker B: Yeah, sure.
[00:43:45] Speaker A: Joshua, you're first.
[00:43:47] Speaker C: As I said, I think this is Oblor doing his best. Just a hyper focused single idea horror story. The characters are very clearly drawn, even if they don't have a lot of depth. They both have strong personalities, strong motivations and differing goals which add a little bit of contrast and conflict. The sound is really rich and textured and like I said, it has a claustrophobic quality to me. And that ending twist where he just gives in to the spider. I loved it. I did not see that coming. And I think it is that. That last line brings everything home like the snap of the spider fangs. I really loved it. For me, this is a old time radio classic. This is what radio horror in the 30s wanted to do. Circumstances actually allowed me to listen to this in the dark. Right the way Ober and God intended.
[00:44:46] Speaker A: What's the difference?
[00:44:48] Speaker B: And so by God he means bullet scooper.
[00:44:50] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:44:52] Speaker C: And so I was really exactly where Oblor and all the practitioners of 1930s old time radio horror wanted me to be.
[00:45:03] Speaker B: I think this certainly Stand the test of time and I think is a great example of why Lights out has the incredible legacy that it has, why people were so devoted to it at the time. And I'll agree that Arch Oblr, it really showcases his strengths. I won't be as enthusiastic as a classic, but that is praising with faint damnation, I would say.
[00:45:28] Speaker A: I will say that it is, it was, it was good.
It's not classic. It's very Oblor and I. Absolutely, for sure, for sure. And that is a hit and miss or even sometimes between people like, you know, I can't stand Archobler. For me, Archobler's hit and miss. Like there's some things I love and. But you're always going to get not the same thing that you heard last week. You know, like it is going to be experimental, it's going to be risky. I just think in this one there could have been a few more elements added to not make it seem so drawn out. They needed a couple of suspenseful more.
That spider needed to peek his head around a corner a few times. It needed, you know, there was something a little too long about it to get to that end.
So I have my critiques but in no way did I finish listening to that and go, that was a waste of my time. You know what I mean? I thought it was fun, but if I was there at the time, I would have had some notes.
[00:46:32] Speaker C: Well, I'm glad you weren't.
[00:46:34] Speaker A: You're right.
Oh my God, the hubris of what I just said.
So uncomfortable.
Tim, tell him stuff.
[00:46:42] Speaker D: Please.
[00:46:43] Speaker B: Go visit ghoulishdelights.com it's the home of this podcast. We find hundreds of podcast episodes. We've done hundreds and you can search through them by what series they are by name.
There's lots of parameters if you want to find a good radio episode to listen to and some good commentary afterwards. You'll also
[email protected] a link to our swag store. You could buy some merchandise, some T shirts, some coffee cups, that kind of thing. And you'll find a link to our Patreon page.
[00:47:15] Speaker C: Yes, go to patreon.com themorals and support this podcast.
We appreciate all those who do support it, but we are also looking for more support. You know, you get older, things drop so you could be that support.
Now that I've painted that image, go to patreon.com themorals and push our stuff up.
[00:47:43] Speaker A: Oh my God. The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society Theater Company also performs live on stage recreations of classic old time radio shows and a lot of our own original work. Come see us performing audio drama live.
Find out what we're performing, when, where and how to get tickets by going to ghoulishdelights.com we also record the audio of all of our live performances and we make that audio available to our Patreon. So another perk of being a Patreon.
What is coming up next?
[00:48:16] Speaker C: Next, we are celebrating our 10th anniversary with a live podcast recording at Crooner's Supper Club featuring a discussion of the man who Knew everything from a series we've never featured on the podcast before, the Strange Doctor Weird.
[00:48:33] Speaker A: Until then, if that movie went another hour, it would have been just the trials and tribulations of that poor taxidermist because you know, they tried to preserve them.
That that sound is crickets. That's actual crickets.
