Across the Gap  

The Archer                                                                                                                                              
Genre: Supernatural
Available for Listening Booth: N

A young woman held prisoner in an old mine by bandits receives help from an unearthly source.

The Author and the Thing                                                                                                                
Genre: Occult/Supernatural
Available for Listening Booth: Y

An odd episode (the last of the series) which stars Arch Oboler as himself, the head writer and producer of Lights Out, confronted with a malignant presence given life by the force of his own creative imagination and persistent concentration.

The Ball
Genre: Horror
Available for Listening Booth: N

Two American college students in Paris attend a ball with some unusual masked guests.

Bathysphere                                                                                                                           
Genre: indefinable
Available for Listening Booth: Y

A ruthless dictator seeks to be remembered for more than his political and military conquests by breaking the record for the deepest ocean dive in history. But the bathysphere operator accompanying him has his own agenda for the expedition...

Reviews:
An intriguing, thought-provoking  episode, very well written -- I thoroughly enjoyed the philosophical debate between the doctor and 'His Excellency' as their personal war comes to a head. Disappointingly few sound effects here, but the script more than makes up for it. And that ending - Jeez! -- Webmaster

Battle of the Magicians                                                                                                                 
Genre: Occult
Available for Listening Booth: Y

An occultist detective is hired by an airline to investigate a plane crash that may have been caused by supernatural means.

Bon Voyage
Genre: Supernatural
Available for Listening Booth: N

Two old ladies go on a cruise to get away from it all. Only it is a very strange cruise, because they find out that no one else is aboard...

Call Her Jean (aka 'It Happened')    
Genre: Horror
Available for Listening Booth: N                                                                               

A young woman on a lark in Paris is abducted by a kidnapper and taken into the labyrinth of sewers under the city. She manages to escape her captor, but is lost and runs afoul of a demented sewer dweller who means to apprentice her in his ghoulish pursuits.

The title is an arbitrary one, as no title is offered by the narrator; it is derived from the first words of the story. Why some copies of the episode are labeled as 'It Happened' is a mystery to me.

Cat Wife
Genre: Creatures
Available for Listening Booth: Y

An angry husband vents his rage by calling his wife a heartless cat, only to witness his accusations take on a disturbing reality when she begins a strange lycanthropy. Stars Boris Karloff

Reviews:
Boris Karloff is a big favorite of mine and he's great here, but this episode is overrated in my opinion. - Clarence Grigsby

Chicken Heart
Genre: Super Science
Available for Listening Booth: N

One of the most famous radio plays ever : the subject of a scientific experiment, a chicken's heart starts a cycle of rampant, uncontrolled growth, threatening to overwhelm the entire surface of the earth within weeks. 

Sadly, although Bill Cosby immortalized this show in one of his comedy sketches, only portions of the original survive.

See also 'Green Death' (The Mysterious Traveler)

Reviews:
One of the series best efforts; corny, cheesy, outdated and unbelievably fun - just what a Lights Out show should be. Boris is as "Karloffian" as ever. Don't miss this one! -Luc L'Heureux

The Coffin in Studio B
Genre: Horror
Available for Listening Booth: Y

A difficult rehearsal for a murder scene in  Lights Out is interrupted by an eccentric old man peddling coffins. Despite the director's misgivings, the broadcast goes well, until.....

Come to the Bank
Genre: SF
Available for Listening Booth: N

When a man learns to walk through walls he decides to try it out and gets stuck.

Crazy Town                                                                                                                                              
Genre: War
Available for Listening Booth: Y

Two Fascist (read 'Nazi') pilots on a bombing mission crash and are taken in by the very same villagers whom they had been sent out to destroy.

The Dark
Genre: Horror
Available for Listening Booth: Y

A doctor and a cop are called to a house, which has a closet with a void of darkness. A new kind of evil lurks in that darkness, a force which turns you inside out!

Darrell Hall's Thoughts (see 'The Dream')

This version of the story does not star Boris Karloff. aka 'Kill'

The Day Sinatra Got Fat
Genre: SF
Available for Listening Booth: Y

A newlywed couple honeymooning in a remote mountain cabin become snowbound and find themselves inexplicably gaining weight at a frightening rate.

Death Robbery                                                                                                                 
Genre: Super Science
Available for Listening Booth: Y

A researcher has developed a resurrection technique that he's successfully performed on animals and now plans to try on his recently deceased wife. But, as is typical with mad science, the results are less than desirable. Stars Boris Karloff.

See also 'The Search for Life' (Hermits Cave) & 'Return From Death' (Hall of Fantasy)    

Reviews:
Hard to come by but a gem of a show; excellent. The sound effects are great. Great presentation of the idea of body and soul. - Anonymous

Slow to get to the punch, but worth the wait; the woman who portrays the resurrected Ruth will chill your bones to their marrow. - Webmaster

Not only is this a chilling story, it's also a great morality  play on the dangers of "playing god". Karloff is great and the actress who plays his wife deserved some sort of award. A true classic.- Clarence Grigsby

The Dream (aka 'Darrell Hall's Thoughts')                                                                                             
Genre: Occult
Available for Listening Booth: Y

Boris Karloff stars as a kindly man who never dreams, until one day when the nightmare image of a beautiful siren goads him to murder with a litany of 'Kill, kill, kill, kill....' 

The Fast One   (aka 'Speed')                                                                                                 
Genre: Super Science
Available for Listening Booth: Y

A doctor creates an elixir that speeds up his physical and mental processes, which he uses to commit robberies. But like any cutting edge drug, it eventually exhibits some nasty side effects.

Flame                                                                                                                                                         
Genre: Occult
Available for Listening Booth: Y

Arnie Douglas is a man who has everything, including an obsession with elemental fire spirits that he seeks to conjure from his fireplace. 

The Ghost on the Newsreel Negative                                                                                               
Genre: Ghosts
Available for Listening Booth: Y

Two milquetoast reporters journey out to an abandoned farm, supposedly haunted,  to interview the resident ghost. 

The Haunted Cell                                                                                                                                    
Genre: Ghosts
Available for Listening Booth: Y

A cop killer refuses to confess, so he gets put in a cell allegedly haunted by the ghost of another cop killer to see if that'll make him crack.

He Dug it Up                                                                                                                                              
Genre: Horror
Available for Listening Booth: Y

While digging a hole to plant a tree, a man uncovers an ancient Roman coffin. Inside he discovers something that would have been better left forever buried.

Reviews:
Excellent, suspense filled episode. The concept of curiosity is dealt with very well. - Anonymous

Homus Primus      aka 'Neanderthal'                                                                                                        
Genre: Time Travel/ Creatures
Available for Listening Booth: Y

A couple vacationing in the French countryside have a car accident, which somehow transports them back 12000 years into the past, where they are menaced by a Neanderthal hunter. 

The Immortal Gentleman                                                                                                                    
Genre: Time Travel/ Future Earth
Available for Listening Booth: Y

A man obsessed with the idea of death finds himself transported to a future where his longed-after immortality is the norm, and a revolution is underway to overthrow the elderly.

It Happened  see 'Call Her Jean'

Kill see 'Darrell Hall's Thoughts'

Knock at the Door                                                                                                                              
Genre: Ghosts
Available for Listening Booth: N

A woman drowns her despised mother-in-law in the basement well. But Ma intervenes when the missus plans the same for her not too bright husband.

Reviews: 
A decent episode, but boy, some of those lines were really kinky sounding (though I'm sure Arch didn't intend that). You'll know them when you hear them.- Harry Leshko

A fun little ghost story, has everything I expect from OTR horror. The three main characters are completely unlikeable, but I enjoyed this episode quite a bit

Little Old Lady                                                                                                                                    
Genre: Creatures
Available for Listening Booth: N

A college student and her friend go pay a surprise visit on an aunt she hasn't seen for a while. But it is they who get the surprise when they encounter the aunt's cat.

Reviews:
As with the episode 'Poltergeist', it's a pretty good story that gets ruined by atrocious acting (in fact, I think those may be the same actresses that were in the episode 'Poltergeist').- Harry Leshko

The Little People
Genre: Super Science
Available for Listening Booth: N

A scientist murders, then shrinks the bodies of his wife and her lover.

The Man in the Middle                                                                                                                      
Genre: indefinable
Available for Listening Booth: Y

A businessman's random desperate thoughts overlay his attempt top defuse his wife's discovery of his affair with his secretary. In the end, there may only be one way out - the final way.

Meteor Man                                                                                                                                             
Genre: Aliens
Available for Listening Booth: Y

A suburban couple are astounded when a small meteor crashes into their yard and they bring it inside, only to find that it houses a malevolent alien mind.

Reviews:
I've heard a lot about this episode, all of it bad. While it's nothing special, it's hardly the ghastly mockery of a story that I've heard it described as (certainly no where nearly as bad as Cat Wife). - Harry Leshko

Mirage                                                                                                                                                              
Genre: Occult
Available for Listening Booth: N

A couple walking down the beach one night come across an old man writing names in the sand and the dates when they'll die.

Murder Castle
Genre: Horror
Available for Listening Booth: Y

An old man finds new ways to build his house and make money while doing it. 

Reviews:
This is one of the most demented shows of the series - James Cornelius

Mungahra
Genre: Occult
Available for Listening Booth: Y

A frustrated fortune hunter murders his native guide to get his hands on the man's diamond, but he gets more than he bargained for when the native vows vengeance with his last breath.

Murder in the Script Department  
Genre: Horror
Available for Listening Booth: Y

Two network secretaries find themselves the object of bizarre occurrences while typing out a script for Lights Out.

The Naked Man (aka 'The Projective Mr. Drogan')
Genre: SF
Available for Listening Booth: Y

What evil could a man wreak upon the world if every wicked desire he conceives were to instantly come true? As they say - Absolute power corrupts absolutely.... 

Oxychloride X    (aka 'The Hole')                                                                                                              
Genre: Super Science
Available for Listening Booth: Y

At a college, after a student is refused membership in a fraternity he decides to pay them all back. Being a science student he turns to science and builds his instrument of revenge a chemical that can dissolve anything. He calls it a miracle as it eats deeper and deeper. You must decide - is it a miracle or his destruction?

Reviews:
A story of revenge that eats out a young man's insides and a chemical that  can eat through the earth. Not the best  Lights Out show that I have heard but a good one with a twist. - Don Walker

If there was ever a case for sympathizing with someone who causes such destruction, the actor playing Ray Stuart has succeeded -- Ray sounds just like your best friend's sweetly nerdy brother. And how could he possibly face his mother if he isn't pledged into that fraternity? A guy has to redeem himself in some way, right? - Gudrun Brunot

The Organ                                                                                                                                                 
Genre: Ghosts
Available for Listening Booth: N

A family renting a creepy old house write off the warnings of the old caretaker, until they hear organ music in the middle of the night and their son claims to have conversations with an old woman who is clearly not there. Or is she?

Poltergeist      aka 'Gravestone'                                                                                                                                    
Genre: Occult
Available for Listening Booth: Y

When three young women desecrate a grave by dancing on it, they discover the hard way just how deadly the old superstition against such taboos can be.

Reviews:
What could have been an entertaining episode was made unpleasant by a severe case of overacting on the part of the cast. Regarding that "legend" about dancing on a grave incurring the wrath of a poltergeist, I've never heard that one and personally think Arch just made it up. - Harry Leshko

The Projective Mr. Drogan (see 'The Naked Man')

Reunion After Death (aka 'The Ghost of Diana' or 'Reunion')

The Revenge of India 
Genre: Occult
Available for Listening Booth: Y

A British officer serving in India makes use of Eastern mystic powers to avenge the death of his brother at the hands of thugs back home. 

Revolt of the Worms                                                                                                                  
Genre: Super Science
Available for Listening Booth:

A botanist obsessed with growing the perfect rose invents a hormone formula that, when poured into the ground, has a startling effect on worm physiology.

Rocket From Manhattan  (aka 'The Rocket Ship')                                                                       
Genre: SF
Available for Listening Booth: Y

The first manned mission to the Moon is returning to Earth in triumph, but the home world is not the same place as when they left it.

This story appeared as 'The Last Survivor' on The Mysterious Traveler

Scoop                                                                                                                                                           
Genre: Ghosts
Available for Listening Booth: Y

A newspaper gets a new owner who decided to purge the staff, leading one columnist to commit suicide. On a drive home late one night, he finds out what a bad idea it is to treat his underlings in such a shoddy manner. Vincent Price?

The Sea                                                                                                                                                        
Genre: Ghosts
Available for Listening Booth: Y

An Irish miscreant, jealous of his brother's fiancé and their mother's favoritism, plots his death. He succeeds, but doesn't count on his brother refusing to stay at the bottom of the sea.

The Spider

The Story of Mr. Maggs
Genre: Horror
Available for Listening Booth: N

An unassuming milquetoast obtains an empty chest at an auction, inspiring the wrath of his shrewish wife. He has no defense against her tirades, but the chest? That's another story....

Reviews:
Laughably outdated-- the characterizations are ridiculously cliche, and the dialogue ("I'll get you, you chest!") is hilarious. Not one of old Arch's better efforts. -- Webmaster

Sub-Basement
Genre: Creatures
Available for Listening Booth: Y

A man  takes his unfaithful wife down into the labyrinth of corridors beneath a large department store very late one night to "show her around."  But his sinister intentions backfire when they encounter a thing that should not exist - a leftover from the Cretaceous.

Reviews:
Listened to this when I was a teenager and didn't like it. Gave it a second chance a few months back and I've had a change of heart. The interaction between the couple and the hopelessness of their situation makes for a good story. - Clarence Grigsby

Super Feature                                                                                                                                             
Genre: Creatures
Available for Listening Booth: Y

An enterprising crook and his crony travel to a small town looking to screen monster films to keep the locals occupied while they burglarize their homes. Seems to work in theory, until the monster on the screen decides to take affirmative action. 

They Met at Dorset
Genre: War/ Ghosts
Available for Listening Booth: Y

Two German commandos air-dropped into England to retrieve Rudolf Hess hide out in an abandoned farmhouse, yet find it occupied. They murder the inhabitants, but those stubborn Englanders just will not play nice and stay dead.

The Truth                          
Genre: indefinable
Available for Listening Booth:  N                                                                                                                

An astrophysicist is haunted by a recurring dream wherein he is drawn towards the heavens by a brilliant star appearing overhead.

Uninhabited

Visitor From Hades 
Genre: Creatures
Available for Listening Booth: Y

A couple's incessant violent arguments and virulent hatred for each other attract a loathsome creature to their home, one invisible to all but them.

The Word
Genre:
Available for Listening Booth: Y

Two newlyweds appear to be the only people left in New York City. Where is everybody?

Reviews:
Strictly a morality play. Not much on thrills and chills. - Clarence Grigsby