"Tired of the everyday grind?....Ever dream of a life of romantic adventure?.... We offer you-- ESCAPE!"
So began a typical opening of this long-running series hosted and starring (for the most part) William Conrad, a voice almost as synonymous with OTR as Orson Welles. A spinoff series from Suspense, Escape ran on CBS from 1947 to 1954, broadcasting a wide range of stories-- science fiction, horror, murder mysteries-- though it seemed to display a fondness for adventure tales set in the tropics or on the high seas. As far as I have been able to find out, there were a total of 194 stories. With the exception of "Earth Abides", all episodes were half- hour format.
Currently this archive contains plots for 167 of 193 episodes
WEBMASTER RECOMMENDS:
The Abominable Snowman; Bloodbath; Leiningen vs the Ants; The Golden Snake; The Thirteenth Truck
SEE THE CD COVER ART FOR THIS SERIES HERE
A Bullet for Mr. Smith
Genre: Espionage
Episode: 115
Available for Listening Booth: Y
An American Secret Service agent in France undertakes a mission to 'remove' an elusive mystery assassin known only as 'Mr. Smith'.
A Diamond as Big as the Ritz
A student invites a friend to come to the secret estate of his amoral family whose fortune is based on a huge diamond. The family goes to extreme lengths to protect their privacy. Story by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Reviews:
A mind-numbingly dull story with annoying characters and a highly cliche-ish ending. I recommend this episode for everyone's Must Avoid OTR List. - Harry Leshko
A fiendish combination of adventure story and satire I found quite fun. - Brad Reed
A Good Thing
A Letter from Jason
An alcoholic makes a deal with his uncle to kill a man in exchange for future financial support for his family once he commits suicide.
A Matter of Conscience
Genre: Adventure
Episode:138
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Dutch officials in colonial Bali are faced with a sudden uprising when a trio of English tourists defile a native temple and steal off with the high priest's daughter.
A Passenger to Bali
The seducing presence of a very evil man plagues the steamship Roundabout.
Reviews:
By the end of the story you really feel for the captain of the ship.—Tim Barnett
A Rough Shoot
Scaring off what he thinks are poachers from a neighbor's field, a man accidentally kills one and soon finds himself embroiled with former high-ranking Nazis.
A Shipment of Mute Fate
A trapper connives the captain of a passenger ship into allowing the transport of a bushmaster-- the world's deadliest snake-- with predictable consequences.
Two versions of this story were also produced for Suspense
Reviews:
The minute that bushmaster loads the vessel, you know where the story is headed. Still, it is pretty suspenseful overall and it didn't end the way I expected. - James Seger
A Sleeping Draught
A 19th century prison hulk delivering convicts to the penal colony of Australia is endangered when the desperate prisoners decide to stage a revolt.
A version of this story was also produced for Suspense
See also 'Typhoon' (Escape)
A Source of Irritation
A crusty English farmer is abducted by a German flyer, who is under the impression he is one of their agents, and taken to Nazi Germany. Later rescued by the British, he is then sentenced to death for spying on behalf of the Nazis.
A Study in Wax
Two men trapped for the winter at a remote research station in the Arctic Circle must contend against each other as well as the elements.
Another version of this story also appeared on Suspense
See also 'Weather Station Four' (Nightfall)
A Tooth for Paul Revere
A man with a toothache seeks help for his ailment and in so doing ignites the American Revolution.
Reviews:
Silly, but it's meant to be. Very odd for an episode of Escape, and rightly does not rate mention here, as it does not fit the parameters of this site; there is no element of the fantastic whatsoever, or even of high adventure. However, I thought I would flesh out the archive, if only for the sake of thoroughness. - Webmaster
The Abominable Snowman
Action
Following a stroke, a wealthy financier decides to climb an unassailable glacier in the Swiss Alps.
A version of this story was also produced for Suspense
The Adaptive Ultimate
A life-enhancing serum gives a dying woman incredible powers, and an insatiable lust for power.
The Adversary
An island haven for crooks, swindlers, smugglers and other nogoodniks receives a visit from 'Honest John Weatherby' , a merchant captain who is eager to demonstrate just how honest a fellow he really is. Maybe a little too eager...
Affair at Mandrake
A British officer is assigned to Mandrake to head military research on rockets; but a German POW has escaped from a nearby prison camp and may have an idea of what's going on at Mandrake.
The Ambassador of Poker
Genre: Adventure
Episode: 083
Available for Listening Booth: Y
A gentlemanly poker shark from Virginia seeks to swindle a Chinese warlord out of a precious relic.
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
A Confederate saboteur hanged from a bridge by Union troops gets a reprieve when the rope snaps; can he evade the enemy's pursuit and reach home? Story by Ambrose Bierce.
Versions of this story also appeared on Suspense and CBS Radio Mystery Theater
Reviews:
Comparing the OTR episode with the Twilight Zone episode provides an interesting contrast between the two mediums of radio and television. The Twilight Zone episode is predominately silent, with all the action provided visually. The OTR episode is heavily narrated (by our beloved Shadow actor, Bill Johnstone!) and includes lots of dialogue. As a result, the OTR episode provides some extra sequences not depicted in the television program. However, the crucial final moments are a bit confusing in the OTR episode, and the listener may not understand what has happened.-- David Hassell
An Ordinary Man
Ancient Sorceries
A man stays the night at a remote Welsh village where the residents insist they know him even though he could swear he had never been there before. Starring Paul Frees. Story by Algernon Blackwood.
Back for Christmas
A man's wife drives him too far and has had control of him for too long, so he starts to make plans...
A version of this story was also produced for Suspense
Beau Geste
The classic story of three English brothers who join the Foreign Legion for adventure, and instead end up running afoul of a sadistic sergeant and defending a patch of nowhere against Berber hordes.
Reviews:
A great story, unfortunately jammed into a half-hour format. I enjoyed it, though it suffered badly under time constraints. - Brad Reed
Benchillina and the Fisherman
Genre: Adventure
Episode: 179
Available for Listening Booth: Y
A fishing trip to the back country of Ireland leads a vacationer into a dangerous love triangle witha beautiful Gypsy girl.
The Big Sponge **LOST** The Bird of Paradise
Episode: 091
Available for Listening Booth: N
Genre: Adventure
Episode: 172
Available for Listening Booth: Y
A fortune seeker after a source of rare bird skins in the South Seas instead stumbles on a remote island whose only inhabitants are a beautiful girl and her rather violent boyfriend, who is as jealous of his privacy as he is of her.
The Birds
Daphne du Maurier's story of the day all the birds in the world decided the planet would be better off without humans in it. Adapted by Alfred Hitchcock for a film of the same name.
A version of this story was also produced for the Lux Radio Theater
Bloodbath
Five men trek deep into the steaming jungles of the Amazon to verify a uranium find that could make them all billionaires - and escalate the nuclear arms race. They each vow to share in the profits, but what sense of morality can you expect from me willing to endanger the human race for their own personal welfare? Starring Vincent Price.
Reviews:
Tense, well-crafted episode with a real 'you are there' feel to it. And Vince is great, as always. - Webmaster
Blood Waters
A diver becomes enmeshed with a gang of treasure hunters in the Amazon.
See also: 'The Footprint' (Escape)
The Blue Hotel **LOST**
The Blue Wall **LOST**
The Boiling Sea
A ship becomes trapped when a volcano rises out of the ocean around them, encircling them in a ring of rock and burning magma.
Border Town
The Brute
The story of a family with a sailing tradition and their encounter with a beautiful but murderous ship. Story by Joseph Conrad.
Reviews:
I found this to be a rather clichéd story. Nothing in it came as a surprise.—Tim Barnett
Carnival in Vienna
Casting the Runes
In Victorian England, a literary critic incites the vengeful attention of a crackpot occultist angered over the critic's scathing review of his book on ancient curses.
The Cave
A version of this story was also produced for Suspense
Classified Secret
A spy traveling cross-country by bus exchanges military and government secrets with foreign agents.
A version of this story was produced for Suspense
Clear for Action
A swashbuckler a la Hornblower-- an early 19th century naval frigate is ordered into the Caribbean to deal with a French privateer preying on American merchantmen.
Command
A look into the lives of US cavalry troopers on a search and rescue mission into hostile Sioux territory.
A version of this story was also produced for Suspense
See also 'Massacre at Little Big Horn' (Suspense)
Confession
Released from a wartime hospital in London, a lonely Canadian soldier-- seeking a little female companionship-- gets lost in the fog and drawn into murderous goings-on.
Reviews:
An annoyingly inconclusive ending that leaves a lot of questions unanswered. - Harry Leshko
Confidential Agent
Conqueror's Isle
A WWII bomber crew in the Pacific is forced down and find themselves on a remote island populated by an advanced race of mutants planning to take over the world.
Conquest
A gripping account of a mountain climber's obsession to be the first man to reach the top of Mt. Everest.
Country of the Blind
Genre: Adventure
Episode: 016
Available for Listening Booth: Y
An adventurer discovers a strange valley in remotest South America whose inhabitants have evolved without sight. When he falls in love with a local girl, the locals want to make him blind too. Story by H.G. Wells.
Versions of this story also appeared on Suspense, Favorite Story (as "Strange Valley"), and SIX times on the BBC
The Coward
The lone survivor of a plane crash in the Caribbean seeks to return to the crash site to retrieve a fortune. VERY similar to the episode 'Gringo'.
Crossing Paris
A timid man most smuggle illicit cargo across Nazi occupied Paris with a loudmouthed madman as company.
Reviews:
An excellent story that keeps you on the edge of your seat.—Tim Barnett
Danger at Matecombe
A man desperate for work accepts a job posing as a controversial author.
Reviews:
A nicely done story with an humorous ironic ending.—Tim Barnett
Dangerous Man **LOST**
The Dark Wall
A man must take his schizophrenic wife across the high Pyrenees to get her to the hospital, but her delusions persuade the locals on the way that he is a threat to her life.
Dead of Night
A down-on-his-luck ventriloquist has a falling out with his dummy, whom he is convinced wants to dump him for bigger and better things. Based on a movie of the same name, this is the pilot episode of Escape, initially aired under the same title for a prospective series called Out of This World.
Reviews:
An interesting start for the series, though I'll bet that ventriloquists really hate these sort of stories. The opening was quite different, with cheesy organ music instead of the familiar Night on Bald Mountain. - Harry Leshko
The Derelict
Genre: Adventure
Episode: 149
Available for Listening Booth: Y
The survivors of a sunken ship happen across a drifting derelict, but when they discover gold aboard, they find a far greater menace than being adrift at sea.
Diary of a Madman
A squad of German soldiers fleeing defeat in North Africa follow a megalomaniacal officer obsessed with carving out a kingdom of their own in the remote interior of the continent. But first they must cross the cruelest place on Earth - the furnace of the Sahara.
Reviews:
A very engaging story, though the mood is broken a bit due to the fact that the title character sounds like the Nazi mad scientist Der Teufel from The Adventures of Superman.- Harry Leshko
Dream of Armageddon
A man is tormented by persistent dreams of living another life, one in a dark future where he is a political leader unable to prevent the onslaught of global war. Story by H.G. Wells
Drums of the Fore and Aft
Two incorrigible fife and drum boys serving in the British Army on the Afghan frontier hunger for their first taste of combat, despite the reputation of their regiment for cowardice. Story by Rudyard Kipling.
Earth Abides
After a plague has wiped out the bulk of humanity, a small community of survivors struggle to rebuild civilization, but the same old problems of greed and violence stand in the way. This episode was done in 2 parts.
The Earthmen
The first Earthmen to reach Mars are greeted not as interplanetary ambassadors, but as lunatics. From Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles series.
See the full listing of 'Martian Chronicles' stories done for radio on the Famous Authors on Radio page.
El Guitareo
Partial episode directed by Anthony Ellis and written by E. Jack Newman about a love hate triangle in Mexico. Interrupted by prisoner exchange info/news break in. The dialogue has the soft, sweltering heat of Mexican days, and the languid beauty… of Mexican nights. As a guitareo plays a game of life and death… with a poet.
Reviews:
Enthralling episode. Beautiful language, punctuated with a languid guitar. It’s everything a movie of the mind should be. A. - HT
Elemental
Eager to prove his theory that love is an illusion, a man offers a couple a small fortune if they agree to his trial by ordeal.
Another version of this story was produced for the series Author's Playhouse.
Evening Primrose
Genre: Adventure
Episode: 013
Available for Listening Booth: Y
A poet decides that he's had it with the real world and will go live secretly in a department store. But he gets a bit of a shock when he finds a small colony of people who have been living there for some time already. Story by John Collyer.
Reviews:
Perhaps one of the most retarded stories I've ever heard. - Ed Corbeil
This story is not "retarded", without doubt odd. Interesting & worth listening to, the humor value is too high to dismiss as "retarded" - Anonymnous
Eye of Evil
A story with similarities to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. A representative of a historical research society is sent into the depths of the Burmese jungle to locate a fellow researcher who has seemingly gone mad. However, someone seems to have put the 'evil eye' on his expedition.
See also 'The Power of Hammer' (Escape)
The Fall of the House of Usher
Edgar Allen Poe's morbid tale of a man descending into madness over a family curse.
Versions of this story also appeared on CBS Radio Mystery Theater, NBC Short Story, and Weird Circle.
Reviews:
Nice eerie atmosphere in this one. Roderick is pretty over the top at times, but the narrator plays off this pretty well. The part where they're reading The Mad Tryst with strange noises in the background was creepy! - James Seger
The Far Away Island
Genre: Adventure
Episode: 157
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Figure a Dame
On a train to Calcutta, the embittered bodyguard of a wealthy widow murders her for the fabulous emerald he thinks will change his life. But--figure a dame.
Finger of Doom
When a young man's fiancee disappears while dropping off a parcel for her boss, he can't convince anyone that she even exists, let alone help him find out what has happened to her. Story by Cornell Woolrich.
Another version appeared as "I Won't Take A Minute" on Suspense.
Reviews:
The best adaptation of a very strong story. Excellent! - Geoff Loker
Flood on the Goodwins
A salvage crew helping to rescue ships in the English Channel during the war inadvertently takes on a Nazi saboteur.
A version of this story was also produced for Suspense
The Follower
Returning home from abroad, a husband discovers his wife's ex-lover dead on the floor and his wife missing, apparently fled to Mexico.
The Footprint
An expedition to recover treasure from a remote temple in the Mexican desert runs afoul of a fanatical cult.
See also:'Plunder of the Sun', 'Blood Waters', The Golden Snake' (Escape), 'The Temple of Huitzilpochtle' (Hall of Fantasy), and 'Toltec's Tomb' (Miscellaneous Shows)
Reviews:
Very typical example of 'Escape' fare-- two-fisted hero gets involved with crooks looking to steal treasure from a bunch of silly native culltists, replete with snakes of the legless and legged kind-- very common plot for the forties and fifties, and it has been better done than this.-- Webmaster
The Fortune of Varga
A man learns from a former Mexican revolutionary the location of a stolen gold shipment that was buried in the desert many years ago. It's no big surprise when others take an interest in his little expedition.
Four Went Home
Genre: Adventure
Episode: 134
Available for Listening Booth: Y
With the Allied forces closing in, a group of American POWs plot an escape from a German prison camp, fearing their captors may execute them before they can be liberated.
The Fourth Man
Three escaped convicts adrift on a raft in the South Seas are rapidly running out of water and tolerance for each other-- but their biggest concern is over the fourth man on the raft, a native islander who is as oblivious of them as he is of thirst.
Reviews:
A terrific parable on the stupidity of racism.-- David Hassell
The hopelessness builds for three of the men on the raft while the fourth man seems unaffected. While this is definitely a morality play, it's also well acted and suspenseful. - C. Grigsby
The Fugitive
A French convict escapes his prison and makes his way towards Spain, pursued by the only man he considers his intellectual equal - the chief of police.
Funeral Fires
A hard-nosed doctor sent to battle plague in Malaya must also contend with the theft of his serum and a murder.
The Game
A version of this story was also produced for Suspense
The General Died at Dawn
A broke American gets involved with embezzling funds from a brutal rebel Chinese general.
Reviews:
The story keeps you guessing until the end. It was ruined for me by the portrayal of the general’s death. He is supposed to be brilliant, but in the end behaves very stupidly.—Tim Barnett
The Gladiator
A champion heavyweight boxer is kidnapped by a wealthy man with a fixation on ancient
The Golden Snake
Reviews:
A clichéd story with so much ludicrous tough-guy talk it veers into comedy. It’s almost a perfect prototype for a straight-to-video action movie of today. - Brad Reed
Episode: 084
Available for Listening Booth: Y
A down and out pilot is tempted by money and a beautiful woman to fly an archaeologist deep into the Yucatan in search of a sacred Mayan temple, despite native threats, and the disappearance of two previous expeditions.
See also:'Plunder of the Sun', 'Blood Waters' (Escape), 'The Temple of Huitzilpochtle' (Hall of Fantasy), and 'Toltec's Tomb' (Miscellaneous Shows)
The Great Impersonation
One the eve of WW II, a Nazi agent assumes the identity of a captured English lord, but runs afoul of not only his doppelganger's past, but his own.
Green Splotches
Ignoring warnings not to enter the Valley of the Infernal River, a scientific expedition encounters a superior alien life form doing some specimen-collecting of their own. Adapted from a T.S. Stribling story. Stars William Conrad, Paul Frees, Ted de Corsia, Jay Novello.
Gringo
An American boat skipper agrees to help a Mexican adventurer and his gold-digging girlfriend retrieve a fortune from a plane that crashed offshore on the lip of an active underwater volcano. The story was later rewritten slightly for the episode 'The Coward'. The Grove of Ashtaroth
Reviews:
Pretty standard stuff for Escape; in fact, if you were to pick one episode that could be called representative of the tone of the entire series, 'Gringo' would be a good choice. -Webmaster
Genre: Adventure
Episode: 030
Available for Listening Booth: Y
Transfixed by an enigmatic tropical grotto in the middle of the African savannah, an Englishman buys the land and settles there. Is it just the hypnotic beauty of the place that captivates him, or does the grove have a more sinister hold on him?
Habit
A sour, crotchety old sea captain, who does not take kindly to snide remarks about his rusty relic of a ship, risks his crew to prove his critics wrong.
He who Rides the Tiger
A man seeking to save Chinese art treasures from the advancing Japanese army during World War II awakens in a small Chinese village with amnesia years after the war.
Reviews:
Standard 'man with amnesia is now in great danger' story. Unfortunately, for me the episode did not live up to its great title.—Tim Barnett
The Heart of Kali
How Love Came to Professor Guildea
A minister befriends a psychiatrist who despises all forms of human compassion and attachment, yet becomes convinced some invisible lurking 'thing' is in love with him.
Versions of this story also appeared on the CBS Radio Mystery Theater (as 'Shadow of Love'), NBC's Radio City Playhouse, and CBC's The Vanishing Point.
I Saw Myself Running
A version of this story was also produced for Suspense
Incident in Quito
An archaeologist who in Ecuador seeks to make his reputation by getting rare shrunken heads, and begins the long road… to losing his own.
Reviews:
Very enjoyable episode. A-. - HT
The Invader
A milquetoast husband hounded by his wife for his obsession with his ham radio hobby, makes contact with an alien spacecraft on its way to Earth.
Very similar to "Pictures Don't Lie" on X Minus One
The Island
Okinawa, 1945-- Two American soldiers on patrol behind enemy lines encounter a beautiful girl who tells them of the island she came from, the idyllic paradise one of them has always dreamed of finding and will do anything to reach.
Jetsam
Jimmy Goggles, the God
Sailors from a sunken South Seas cargo ship who return to salvage the wreck run afoul of restless natives. Their only saving grace may be their deep sea diving outfit, which the natives take for a god. Story by H.G. Wells.
John Jock Todd
A longshoreman who takes a job on a river wharf in the steaming jungles of West Africa finds himself the target of a sadistic dock boss.
Journey into Fear
A British engineer working for the Turkish government becomes a target for enemy agents and is forced to flee the country on board a ship bound for Athens. However, someone aboard is still out to kill him... Story by Eric Ambler.
Judgment Day at Crippled Deer
The Klondike is the setting for this tale of murder and revenge when a close knit group of friends seek frontier justice against the killer of a missing companion.
The Killer Mine
An army deserter is blackmailed into accepting the dangerous job of blasting open an old mine beneath the sea bed off the coast of Cornwall, to flood it as an underground conduit for a band of smugglers. Based on a novel by Hammond Innes.
Reviews:
The story is good but moves a little slow. The most interesting character is the father of the blackmailer. He has one goal, to keep our miner from doing the job. But in the end, will the mine live up to its name? You be the judge. - Don Walker
A nicely paced, well produced episode. Of particular note is the fact that, unlike many American produced episodes set in Britain where the accents are at best mediocre, the accents sound real and unforced. A person actually from Britain, however, might think differently, I suppose. - Harry Leshko
A wanted man comes back to England to do a mining job for a friend. Unexceptional beginning, and middle, but strong, if muddled ending. C-. -HT
The King of Owanatu
Two fortune hunters after black pearls find a mother lode on a remote Pacific island, one ruled over by a hermitical tyrant with an arsenal and an army of natives to back up his power.
Letter from Jason
Episode: 068
Available for Listening Booth: Y
A suicidal drunk is hired by his rich uncle to kill an old enemy in return for a guarantee of financial support for his family once he is dead.
Leiningen vs the Ants
An iron-willed South American plantation owner is determined to prevent a plague of army ants from overrunning his land.
Versions of this story appeared on Suspense, Mystery in the Air; also as 'The Naked Jungle' (based on the movie of the same name) on Lux Radio Theater.
Reviews:
This is one of the most frequently cited episodes by fans of the series, but frankly, I find the rats in "Three Skeleton Key" to be more menacing. Still, this episode is certainly no picnic!-- David Hassell
Lily and the Colonel
Genre: Adventure
Episode: 150
Available for Listening Booth: Y
A young British Officer stationed in East Africa is befriended by a bigoted, high-handed retired colonel who becomes the target of insurgent Mau-Maus. Story by actor John Dehner.
A version of this story was also produced for Suspense
The Log of the Evening Star
The Log
Upon hearing that his old boat is to be sold for scrap, an ex- submarine captain hires his old crew and steals the ship from under the noses of its owners, intending to lead a life of modern-day piracy on the high seas.
The Lost Special
A 40-ton locomotive disappears off the face of the
earth on a section of single track between Liverpool and Manchester. Ben Wright plays the Scotland Yard snoop. Story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.The Loup Garou
The simple-minded locals of a remote Louisiana bayou community suspect a newcomer of lycanthropy when a child is found brutally murdered.
Macao
The Man from Tomorrow
A version of this story was also produced for Suspense
The Man who Could Work Miracles
George Fotheringay has discovered the secret to performing miracles - all he has to do is ask and it is done. the only thing he can't seem to control are the consequences. Story by H.G. Wells.
Other versions were produced for the CBS Radio Mystery Theater and the BBC
The Man who Liked Dickens
Versions of this story were also produced for Suspense and The Vanishing Point
The Man who Stole the Bible
A New Orleans hotel guest snatches a bible from his room and finds himself the target of some very desperate and dangerous people.
A version of this story was also produced for Suspense
The Man who Won the War
A WWI ship's captain's unsupported claim that he stopped a German invasion must wait many years for the truth behind his fantastic story to finally surface.
A version of this story was also produced for Suspense
The Man who Would be King
Hungry for adventure, two soldiers venture beyond British India's NorthWest Frontier in the hopes of founding their own private kingdom. Story by Rudyard Kipling.
A version of this story appeared on Suspense .
Reviews:
An okay retelling of the story. Worthy of a listen for its exotic locales, the buddy story at its heart, and a classic moment of hubris. - Brad Reed
The Man with the Steel Teeth
A correspondent in Moscow imprisoned and accused of espionage escapes from a Soviet prison and flees his pursuers toward the Iron Curtain. Story by John Dehner.
A version of this story was also produced for Suspense
Maracas
The first mate of a Caribbean tramp freighter discovers that the ship is carrying a Pandora's Box of rifles, and gets himself entangled with gunrunners, betrayal, murder, and drunken revolutionaries.
Mars is Heaven
The first explorers to land on Mars discover-- Earth, and an idyllic Midwest town populated by their long lost relatives. Story by Ray Bradbury; part of his Martian Chronicles series
Versions of this story also appeared on Dimension X, X Minus One, and ABC Radio Workshop (Think)
See the listing of all Bradbury's Martian Chronicles series done for radio on the Famous Authors on Radio page.
The Match
A Mountie and his prisoner must cross a frozen Canadian wilderness without food or warm clothing when a fire destroys their supplies. But it is the prisoner who has the upper hand, for only he knows the location of a cabin they might reach before they freeze to death.
Misfortune's Isle
In the Philippines in 1790, an American merchant decides to try raiding the lair of headhunter pirates that look like easy pickings. However, on his way, just about everything that could go wrong does so. Starring Paul Frees.
The Most Dangerous Game
Classic tale of a world renowned hunter who gets shipwrecked on an island owned by a madman who shares his passion for the hunt, except that he hunts only the most dangerous of game-- human beings.
Versions of this story also appeared on Suspense, The Chase, and Arch Oboler's Plays.
Night in Havana
A small time Cuban thug has decided to go straight, but gets involved in one last deal.
Reviews:
Pretty standard story, but with a nice twist at the end.—Tim Barnett
Night of the Guns
Two American smugglers in Haiti are confused by the natives' demands for their merchandise.
Nightmare in the Sun **LOST**
North of Polaris
The first expedition to another planet discovers a world in ruins, where the dominant surviving life form are insatiable hordes of giant hungry rats.
Reviews:
Charles Smith’s foray into sci-fi is a winner, with a nice gotcha ending. About explorers on a dead world. B+. - HT
The Notebook
Two prospectors in the Old West run afoul of a desperate and murderous claim jumper.
One Eighth Apache **LOST**
The Open Boat
A straight-up survival tale of four men in a small dorry lost in an ocean which is not identified.
Operation Fleur-de-Lys
A commando raid into Nazi-occupied France is endangered by the feelings one of the commandos develops for a girl in French resistance - a girl whose loyalties are suspect.
Reviews:
This episode admirably avoids a slide into melodrama. It’s a war story, and not a nice one. The only flaw was how quickly the hero falls in love with the woman. It was standard for stories of the time, but it’s distracting to a modern listener. -Brad Reed
The Orient Express
A man offers to help out a lady and what happens? He finds himself embroiled in a covert operation to smuggle a freedom fighter out of his native country, of course.
See also 'The Train from Obisfelde' (Escape)
The Out Station
A remote outpost in British Malaya is the crucible for the only two Englishmen assigned there, both of whom hate one another with every fiber of their being. Story by Somerset Maugham.
The Outer Limit
A test pilot in an experimental high altitude aircraft disappears from radar, only to return safely ten hours after he should have run out of fuel. He can't explain, but brings a grim warning back with him.
A very popular story among radio producers, versions of this episode also appeared on Dimension X, X Minus One, Beyond Tomorrow, and two versions for Suspense.
Pagosa **LOST**
Papa Benjamin
A small-time jazz band leader uses a voodoo song melody to make it to the big times, but can he escape the voodoo curse that comes with it? Story by Cornell Woolrich.
Reviews:
Well done, and true to the original story. - Geoff Loker
A confession of murder, old New Orleans, 40's jazz, voodoo... What's not to like? Engaging enough, the music is Hollywood-hip (not true New Orleans jazz or blues but more "arranged") and the performances are fine. Another minor classic from Escape? Hmmm, could be. 3/4 stars. -RC
Pass to Berlin
Genre: Crime
Episode: 089
Available for Listening Booth: Y
After an American soldier stationed in occupied Berlin inadvertently murders a German fraulein, he finds himself the victim of blackmail from a pair of stage show mind-readers.
The Pistol
Plunder of the Sun
Reviews:
An enjoyable story, but there's a plot hole you could drive a Mack truck through that's central to the story. Namely the Inca manuscript mentioned above. The problem with this is, IIRC, the Incas didn't have a written language. - Harry Leshko
Poison
An American engineer on contract in India has his excessive bigotry tested to the limit when he wakes to find a deadly snake in his bed and must rely on a native doctor to save him. Story by
Roald Dahl.Reviews:
For many this is their first introduction to the world of ESCAPE, and a fine introduction it is. With Jack Webb as Woody and William Conrad giving a heart attack inducing performance as Harry, in this tale of a bigot in India… and a deadly Krait snake. 9/10. - HT
Pollock and the Porrah Man
An English colonist in Africa desecrates a native holy site. Naturally, the local witch doctor hexes him something nasty. Story by H. G. Wells.
A version of this story was done for a series called Dark Ventures.
Reviews:
Even though you hear it only once, the witch doctor's voice sent chills down my spine. - Harry Leshko
Pretty good story. Kind of predictable, but worth a listen. And bless H.G. Wells for eschewing the racist colonial attitudes so relevant back then. - James Seger
Port Royale
An ex- merchant seaman turned violent hood browbeats his way into a place amongst a diving expedition to the Caribbean to retrieve treasure from a city that had sunk in an earthquake centuries before.
Reviews:
Although the story is rather standard fare for Escape, what helps make this a fun trip is Charles McGraw, who had a voice like gravel running through a thresher, and a talent for bringing off hard-as-nails characters.-- Webmaster
The Power of Hammer
A thinly disguised take on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness - a safari guide is recruited by Belgian authorities to lead an expedition into the deep Congo to arrest a megalomaniac who has made himself the master of a fanatical native tribe.
See also 'Eye of Evil' (Escape)
Present Tense
A condemned murderer on his way to death row for killing his wife is granted a reprieve by fate when the train he is on derails and he escapes to find the man who framed him. Stars Vincent Price.
Another version of this story (also with Price) appeared on Suspense.
Pressure
A hard luck, unpopular sub captain seeks to redeem his reputation by taking on a Japanese aircraft carrier and its escort of destroyers single-handed.
The Price of the Head
A violent alcoholic beach bum in the South Seas is continually rescued from dire straits by his native companion - but what possible reason could he have for going to all the trouble?
The Primitive **LOST**
The Red Forest
After tracking down and killing a man for framing him, a murderer flees the remote cabin and inadvertently starts a raging forest fire, which local authorities draft him into helping to quench.
The Red Mark
Gritty tale of conflict between prisoners and a villainous trustee/executioner over the trustee's intended wife, set on the French penal colony of New Caledonia .
Red Wine
A detective arriving in the jungles of Borneo to investigate a murder narrows down the list of suspects to three. He has a four hour window to figure out which one of them is guilty and take them back to justice. The real question here is who is more clever, the detective or the murderer?
Reviews:
This is a well-crafted whodunit with a little romantic triangle thrown in for spice. Good show that really comes together at the end. - Brian Lane
The Return
A world-weary adventurer longs for what he believes cannot exist : a place without strife or conflict or suffering - until he is clubbed in an alley and wakes to find himself in an island paradise where all his dreams come true.
The Rim of Terror
A young woman in a Bentley convertible befriends a hitchhiker who's trying to escape his life as a spy and be a regular American. Unfortunately, the sinister "left arm" keeps trying to pull him back. Hans Conreid plays the unwilling spy.
The Ring of Thoth
A scholar engaged in research at the Egyptology wing of the British Museum encounters a mysterious stranger who relates a bizarre tale of love, betrayal and a terrible fate that reaches back to a time before the Pyramids. Story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Reviews:
Jack Webb turns in a terrific performance.-- David Hassell
A fine and involving story. Well done all around, with Jack Webb managing to turn in a good performance even though he sounds less like an Egyptian than perhaps any man in history. - Brad Reed
Robert of Huntington
The Sheriff of Nottingham dispatches an assassin into Sherwood Forest to rid himself of the pesky Robin Hood.
Roulette
A wet-behind-the-ears English college student is seduced by a beautiful woman into taking her to Turkey via train in exchange for $50,000; sounds like easy money, if it weren't for the killers who are after her.
Run of the Yellow Mail
**LOST**The Running Man
Lucky in love, unlucky at cards describes the lot of a plantation owner in Honduras, but the tables turn when his wandering eye incurs the jealous wrath of a local voodoo priestess.
S.S. San Pedro
Genre: Supernatural
Episode: 045
Available for Listening Booth: Y
After taking on an unusual passenger, a ship starts experiencing a bizarre string of inexplicable and escalating troubles.
A version of this story was done for Columbia Workshop.
The Scarlet Plague
An inexplicable and lightning-quick plague sweeps across the world, killing its victims within an hour of the first symptoms. Civilization rapidly begins to disintegrate. Story by Jack London.
See also 'Earth Abides' (Escape)
Reviews:
An unnerving and relentlessly grim episode, all the more disturbing for the fact that it is not the least bit implausible. Not the kind of fare one would expect from a writer like Jack London (best known for his rather formulaic adventures of the Far North), but apparently he did pen a number of stories that could be called science fiction. This episode has been updated to fit within the time frame of the listening audience, but the decision to do so only enhances the emotional effect. -- Webmaster
The Second Class Passenger
A cruise passenger who bemoans the lack of excitement in his life gets more than he wishes for when he gets himself lost in the shadowed alleys of a Mozambique port.
A version of this story was also produced for Suspense
Second Shot
Lieutenant Daumier, a young officer in Napoleon's Grande Armee sports an obsession with fighting pistol duels, which brings him into mortal conflict with an experienced senior officer - who just happens to be engaged to Daumier's former lover. Story by Alexandre Dumas.
Seeds of Greed
Genre: Adventure
Episode: 072
Available for Listening Booth: Y
A besotted, ex-Navy drifter is hired by a Chinese treasure hunter to retrieve a cache of pearls from a sunken ship off the coast of Borneo.
Serenade for a Cobra
A rough 'n ready unemployed pilot in India accepts a job offer to smuggle undesirables out of China, but runs afoul of an Indian manservant who plots his untimely demise. Starring Charles McGraw.
Seven Hours to Freedom
Two mackerel fishermen are sea-jacked by a group of desperate and murderous criminals.
The Shanghai Document
Seeking passage from the interior of China to Shanghai, an American journalist manages to get aboard a crowded river steamer, but finds himself drawn into a web of intrigue and violence over the whereabouts of the mysterious Shanghai Document, and the obligatory beautiful woman who seems to be at the center of it all.
Shark Bait
A fishing boat skipper in Nicaragua is hijacked by gunrunners to a deadly rendezvous with rebels from neighbouring Honduras.
She
H. Ryder Haggard's classic story about two explorer's search for a lost city in the jungles of East Africa and their discovery of the secret of immortality.
The Silent Horror
A jilted lover seeks escape and forgetfulness among the primitive tribes of New Guinea, but he must first deal with a local chief who is convinced he has come to overthrow him.
The Sire de Maltroit's Door
A young man is lured into a trap by a noble bent on taking action against him for his advances toward the noble's niece. But does the sire have the right man? Story by Robert Louis Stevenson.
A version of this story also appeared on an Australian series, Playhouse of World Famous Authors, and on CBS Radio Mystery Theater
Reviews:
Silly and bad. Trite. An all-around boring and unpleasant story.- Brad Reed
The Snake Doctor
Genre: Adventure
Episode: 027
Available for Listening Booth: Y
A wily old hermit in the Ozarks, feared by the locals for his affinity with snakes, encurs the murderous enmity of a backwoods hunter who thinks his wife is having an affair with the 'snake doctor'.
Something for Nothing
A drifter witnesses a woman leap from a car just before it careens off a cliff, and sees an opportunity to indulge in a little honest blackmail. Bad idea...
Sundown
A farmhand takes exception when a notorious gunslinger commandeers his horse and rides the animal to death. He vows revenge at any cost.
Reviews:
A tale of the west, and a boy who hunts across the empty plains, the man who took his horse. Surpisingly this is a great episode. One of the best. A. - HT
The Sure Thing
A doctor, responding to a distress call from a sailing yacht in the Caribbean, becomes embroiled in a deadly game of betrayal, greed and murder.
Taboo
A small village in the Carpathians is terrorized by a werewolf. A visiting Englishman takes it upon himself to help the locals deal with the creature.
The Target
An insurance investigator on the trail of a con man in Chile gets caught in his target's web of betrayal, deceit and murder.
The Thirteenth Truck
WW II desert commandos on a mission to locate, penetrate and destroy a secret German airfield in North Africa.
See also 'Operation Fleur-de-Lys' (Escape)
Reviews:
One of the series' best efforts, with a gritty atmosphere and well realized sound effects of truck engines, machine gun fire, and diving Messerschmidts. Tense and believable (the intro seems to suggest there may be some truth behind the story); I really felt like I was there, a feeling enhanced by the quality acting and voices. No cheesy accents here-- the Germans speak German. A four-star episode.-- Webmaster
This Side of Nowhere
A pilot takes an interest in a beautiful woman during a layover, only to have her hijack him to fly her to a remote location in northern Mexico to evade the law.
Three Good Witnesses
A mild-mannered geological surveyor on a train from Istanbul to Cairo helps out a woman and soon finds himself embroiled with wartime spies. Stars Jack Webb.
Three Skeleton Key
Three men are besieged in a lighthouse when a ship wrecks on the shoal and releases a horde of starving rats.
Two versions of this story were produced for Suspense. Also, a version was done for an independently produced series called The Grip of Terror.
Reviews:
Here is an episode that will have you biting your nails.-- David Hassell
My pick as greatest radio drama of all time. Vincent Price is great and the rats are menacing. - C. Grigsby
The Time Machine
H.G. Wells' classic story of a man who travels into the distant future to discover a Utopia of idle leisure which hides a terrible secret.
Versions of this story also appeared on Favorite Story, the BBC, Seeing Ear Theater, and Alien Voices.
Train from Obisfelde
Genre: Espionage
Episode: 165
Available for Listening Booth: Y
An spy assigned to escort a defecting nuclear scientist on a train across the Iron Curtain discovers that there is an enemy agent aboard carrying a bomb with which he will blow up the train should it reach its destination.
See also 'The Orient Express' (Escape)
The Tramp
A version of this story was also produced for Suspense
Transport to Terror **LOST**
Treasure, Inc.
A Carribean island serves as the backdrop for an unhappy couple who go into business with a third man and find out that a paradise retreat isn't all that it is cracked up to be. Their plan is to have a resort getaway and seed it with old "treasure" for guests to find, but a resident hermit acts as the proverbial fly in the ointment, hoping to dissuade progress and the onset of civilization.
Reviews:
This is a morality tale, warning of the dangers of greed. Above average quality show for the series, worthy of a listen. -Brian Lane
Two and Two Make Four
A merchant sailor recovering from a head wound in Calais suffers a blackout after which he finds himself in England and the target of an unknown enemy out to kill him.
Two Came Back
A man gets sucked into a treasure-hunting scheme by an old war buddy whose life he once saved, and his buddy's unfaithful vixen of a wife. The hunt takes them to remotest New Guinea, but jungle fever and headhunters soon turn out to be the least of his worries.
Reviews:
A terrific episode about two army buddies and their dangerous get-rich-quick scheme. However, the femme fatale wife of the leader (Paul Frees) has her own ideas on how to divide up the loot. I rate it as one of the best Escapes ever, with a shocking twist ending. You’ll definitely want to add this one to your collection. - Carl LaFong
Two if By Sea
A British journalist must try to arrange the escape from Russia of his Soviet ballerina wife.
Reviews:
A good story with tension all the way to the end. I haven’t seen a lot of stories with this plot.—Tim Barnett
Typhoon
An old tramp steamer in the South Seas faces a triple threat-- a shipload of angry migrant workers, an impending typhoon, and a captain who refuses to heed warnings.
See also 'A Sleeping Draft' (Escape)
The Untouchable
Two men on a business trip to India find their venture disrupted when one, a germophobe, becomes convinced he has contracted leprosy from a street beggar.
Up Periscope
Just prior to WW II, an American ex-submarine captain accepts a commission from the Chinese government to repair an old sub and take it into action against Japanese convoys supplying their war in China.
See also 'Pressure' (Escape)
Reviews:
Radio drama out of the 40's and 50's was, by our standards anyway, notoriously politically incorrect. Actors and directors routinely made foreigners into cardboard parodies of their ethnic backgrounds, while Westerners were depicted as naturally dominant in almost every way. Carlton Morse, who wrote and produced the I Love a Mystery and I Love Adventure series, was the most guilty of stereotyped prejudices, but this episode is one of the best examples of how Escape was little if no better. The Chinese here are presented as chattering idiots, helpless and incapable of coherent, effective action save under the patriarchal guidance of their American superiors. As such, shows like this one are more interesting for what they say about our social and racial attitudes of that era than they are for the stories themselves. Oh well, at least the sound effects of the submarine are not bad. -- Webmaster
The Vanishing Lady
In a pre-war Paris hotel, an Englishwoman returning home from India with her daughter is struck by a sudden critical illness. The daughter rushes off to fill the doctor's prescription, but upon returning finds her mother gone and the hotel denying she was ever there.
Vessel of Wrath
On a remote South Seas island, a besotted miscreant and womanizer meets his match in the prudish stalwart daughter of the local pastor. Story by Somerset Maugham.
Reviews:
Not really worth the effort of reaching the end, even if you can manage to stay awake that long. However, if you happen to suffer from insomnia.... - Webmaster.
Violent Night
An American plantation owner in a banana republic becomes the prey in a deadly manhunt when a petty thug he once humiliated resurfaces as the leader of a successful revolution and now seeks revenge.
The Voyages of Sinbad
Sinbad the sailor relates one of his adventures from his youth, when he took a wife in a distant land, and fell victim to a unique form of native barbarism when she dies of a sudden illness.
When the Man Comes, Follow Him
A mobster’s bodyguard narrates the story of a blind gangster who, following the cryptic clues of his dying brother, goes hunting treasure.
Reviews:
This seems to be a knock-off of “The Treasure of Sierra Madre”. However, the blind gangster angle is kind of interesting. Also, deciphering the clues leading to the treasure was kind of fun.—Tim Barnett
Wild Jack Rhett
Red Mesa, a lawless western town, turns to a hired professional killer for peace.
Reviews:
Interesting story that tries to give a glimpse into the mind of a killer. Although Escape did many stories set during this time frame as far as I know this is the only one that completely fits the Western genre. It transcends many because it’s about more than gun fights.—Tim Barnett
Wild Oranges
When a ship is laid up for repairs on a remote section of the Florida coast, the crew sights a beautiful girl who lives on an abandoned citrus plantation terrorized by a sadistic foreman.
Reviews:
Predictable, boring stuff. Yet another case of “world-weary man meets unworldly girl living alone with her ancient father and romances her, despite danger.” A very common plot. Somehow I suspect a dangerous madman will come into play, but our hero will manage to kill him, win the girl, and sail away. Yawn. - Brad Reed
Yellow Wake
A ruthless treasure hunter murders a whaling ship's first mate to get his hands on the man's treasure map, then usurps his post as part of a plan to seize the vessel and then the treasure buried in the Panamanian jungle.
The Young Man with the Cream Tarts
Classic story of two thrillseekers in Victorian London get more than they bargained for when they join a secret society and find themselves unwilling members of a suicide club. Story by Robert Louis Stevenson.
Versions of this story appeared on CBS Radio Mystery Theater and ABC Mystery Time as 'The Suicide Club'.
Zero Hour
Neighborhood children invent a new game called 'Invasion'-- or is it just a game? Story by Ray Bradbury.
Versions of this story also appeared on Future Tense, Adventure Theater, Suspense (3 versions), X Minus One, The Mysterious Traveler, and Dimension X