Old Nancy from The Witch’s Tale provides the Society with this week’s episode, The Devil Doctor! The Witch’s Tale was the first horror series ever produced for radio, and writer/director Alonzo Deen Cole set the standard for everything that was to follow. Is this show an innovative work of frenzied genius or does the mad pace push the story from horror to farce? Can a character be defined both by reason and faith? Is this cast actually receiving rewrites as they perform? Listen for yourself and find out! Then vote and let us know what you think:
Just pointing out that although the episode features Adelaide Fitz-Allen as Old Nancy, the photo features 13-year-old Miriam Wolfe playing the role from a later episode. The picture of Miriam was just too good to not use.
Almost any story that incorporates satan-worship automatically creeps me out. Add the creepy laugh and it’s a done deal.
Decades later and they’re still staples of modern horror. It’s amazing how much of The Witch’s Tale is encoded into the DNA of the genre now.
Despite the frenetic pacing, I think this episode holds up pretty well. I think the doctor’s laugh was pretty creepy.
I need to check out more episodes of this series. “Four Fingers and a Thumb” was one of the first radio dramas I ever heard when I was a kid back in the mid-90s, so I’m kind of sentimental about The Witch’s Tale.
Haven’t heard that episode! I’ll have to track it down. Thanks!
This one drove me around the bend. Relentlessly Obstinate Rich White Guy does all of the things that everyone tells him not to do, and then the thing that everyone said would happen happens.