The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society

We’re starting the new year off with a sneak peek at what awaits listeners when they become one of our Patreon supporters! Our current members voted on their favorite bonus content in the past year and this episode of Frontier Gentleman, “Random Notes,” tied for the top selection! Our supporters on Patreon already know what the other bonus episode was and if you want to find out, go to patreon.com/themorls and join! But for now, please enjoy this tale of a journalist in the Old West collecting small bit and pieces of stories filled with pathos and absurdity. Can this collage of character studies come together to make a satisfying whole? Will this discussion settle the hosts ongoing feud about Frontier Gentleman? Has someone salted this Sonuvagun Stew?

Happy New Year’s Eve! It’s that heartwarming time of year when we gather around the tunnel and try to discern the ghostly message being relayed from beyond. It’s another adaptation of Charles Dickens’ other famous ghost story, “The Signal-Man”! This year we gather in The Weird Circle for their version which they retitled, “The Thing in the Tunnel.” As before, this story depicts a curious stranger who encounters a rail worker beset by visions. Why does he seem to be receiving some otherworldly warning? How will this version compare to those we have already heard? What hat leads to the most successful military career? Listen for yourself and find out!

We’re spending Boxing Day with Lurene Tuttle in this Suspense episode, “The Tip”! In this production, she plays a devoted wife being held at gunpoint by a desperate man. This intruder intends to kill her husband as revenge for crimes unknown to her. As the two wait for his intended victim to come home, she engages her captor in a battle of wills. Can she outwit this man to escape? Has her husband really done something wrong? Has Joshua successfully atoned for bringing so many ape-themed episodes? Listen for yourself and find out!

Thanksgiving has passed but it’s too soon for Christmas, and that means it’s time for leftovers! Specifically, it means another live Q&A at the Bryant-Lake Bowl in which special guest Shanan Custer asks your Mysterious Old Hosts all the leftover questions from our previous Q&A! Tim, Eric, and Joshua share their opinions about classic monster movies and their earliest stage performances. What well-mannered historical figure caused their biggest argument? Who dressed as Not Batman for Halloween? Why does Tim have to pay licensing fees each year for a blank piece of paper? Listen for yourself and find out!

We were joined by Shanan Custer for this live recording of our podcast at the Bryant-Lake Bowl! She brought a couple episodes of Ceiling Unlimited for us to check out! The series features Orson Welles in patriotic tales of flight sponsored by Lockheed-Vega! The first of these two scripts was written by Lucille Fletcher and features the military’s response to the endless variety of gremlins that bedevil our pilots. The second depicts a vision of the future when everyone has easy access to air travel. What do these gremlins really want? How do events in the future so quickly erase our memories? How did this series get stuck with this name? Listen for yourself and find out!

This week’s episode, “The Target” was the penultimate episode of Escape and featured Whitfield Connor as Vic Kennedy, a hard-boiled insurance investigator scouring South America to track down a man named Arthur Matson. Soon the case leads Vic to a dead body and a femme fatale, as well as deceptions and accusations. Will he track down his target? Was Vic complicit in Matson’s escape? Is this guy worse than all the other terrible men in the noir genre? Listen for yourself and find out!

And with this, Joshua finally concludes his trilogy of ape-themed episodes of The Shadow with “The House of Horror”! The story features a kidnapped gorilla, a fortune teller, and a series of wealthy young socialites who vanish in a taxidermist’s shop! And a plot happens! What will young women be willing to do to find a piece of lost jewelry? How does a scientist reach this point in his career? How will this episode stack up against the previous ape episodes? Listen for yourself and find out!

Our thanks to our Patreon supporter, Lance, who suggested this week’s episode, “Little Old Lady” from Lights Out! Thanks, Lance! The story features a young college student and her friend paying an unannounced visit to her elderly aunt. But once there, the two find themselves menaced by a large cat and their aunt is behaving strangely. What’s really going on in this house? Does this remind you of any other Lights Out episodes? How many television shows can we talk about? Listen for yourself and find out!

Happy Halloween! We’re celebrating the spooky season with CBS Radio Mystery Theater’s adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe’s short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher”! Kevin McCarthy stars in this story of Roderick Usher, a man consumed by nameless fears even as his sister falls in and out of catatonic states indistinguishable from death. What horrific obsession terrifies the siblings to such an extreme? Can anything survive the madness and rot within this house? Would this be improved if the family were simple Midwestern folk? Listen for yourself and find out!

Our Patreon supporter Zachary sent us to the Listener Library to check out “The Book of Hell” from Nightfall! Thanks, Zachary! The episode features a publishing house struggling to survive which is presented with a strange manuscript from an author who apparently died two years ago. Allegedly, the text is an actual message from hell! Even as they debate the morality of publishing the text, they discover the manuscript itself has strange qualities. Was this book literally written in hell? What truths about damnation does it describe? Has Eric secretly been a fan of Nightfall all along? Listen for yourself and find out!

This week we’ll be reflecting upon the Screen Director’s Playhouse adaptation of the film, “The Dark Mirror”! Olivia_de_Havilland recreates her dual role as a set of identical twins who come under suspicion for murder. But it’s unclear which was at the scene of the crime, and which had an alibi— and the twins refuse to reveal which was which. The pair are researched in depth by a specialist in the psychology of twins, but soon a romance blossoms between the scientist and one of his subjects! Did one of them commit the crime? Is there really no better “twin specialist” available? What’s it like to get paid like a musician? Listen for yourself and find out! 

For this week’s trip to the Listener Library, one of our Patreon supporters sent us to Mars! Thanks, Mark! We’re listening to Escape’s adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s “The Earth Men”! A band of brave astronauts have arrived on Mars and, while they wait to report back to Earth, they encounter the planet’s inhabitants. But the Martians’ reactions to the newcomers is neither hostility nor the hero’s welcome the men expected! Why are the Martians behaving so strangely? Are these really the best men Earth had to offer? Will we remember this episode three years from now? Listen for yourself and find out!

It’s time for another thrilling adventure of The Shadow! This time we’re listening to “The Night Marauders,” in which a series of home invasions attracts Lamont Cranston’s attention when the perpetrators break into Margo’s home! Even as their crimes grow more brutal, the police remain unable to solve the crimes! Will Commissioner Weston accept Lamont’s help in the investigation? Who is behind these robberies? Pumpkin or punkin? Listen for yourself and find out!

Our 350th episode celebration continues with a live Q&A at the Bryant-Lake Bowl! Special guest Shanan Custer interviews your Mysterious Old Hosts to find out the true origin of the MORLS and to learn their secret opinions on a wide range of topics! We collected questions from Patreon and the audience and here are the answers! What’s the best way to get cast in a show at the Bryant-Lake Bowl? How long is the podcast obliged to continue? Which host can actually name a film from 2024? Listen for yourself and find out!

It’s our 350th episode and we’re celebrating with live recording of our podcast at the Bryant-Lake Bowl! Our audience joined us for the Suspense adaptation of “The Most Dangerous Game” based on the short story by Richard Connell! The production features Orson Welles as General Zaroff, an eccentric big game hunter who lives a reclusive life on a private island. When a fellow hunter is shipwrecked and washes up on the shore of this island, Zaroff invites him to participate in a hunt for an unusual quarry! Will Zaroff capture his prey? At this point, does anyone not know what “the most dangerous game” is? How politically extreme can a dog get? Listen for yourself and find out!

It’s that time again! Join us as we celebrate the glorious triumphs and the embarrassing whoopsies of 2023! We’re revisiting all the episodes we listened to last year. Then, based on listener polls, the keen insights of esteemed special guests, and our own incoherent ramblings, one episode shall travel a Long Distance to The Black Tie Affair and another will be forced to Hideout in the Junkyard! Will your hosts go to the Black Room in the Cabin? Will they get Milwaukee Deep in the Devil’s Workshop? And which host will be arrested for taking a standardized test nude? Listen for yourself and find out!

This week, we take a gamble on a new-to-us series, Diary of Fate! “David Dexter” is the story of a grifter trying to con a recently remarried widow. But Fate has other plans for the man who calls himself David Dexter! When past crimes come back to haunt him, there are no guarantees for who will get the better of whom! Will this woman discover his true intentions before it is too late? What happened in the past that connects these two? Why is Fate so judgy? Listen for yourself and find out!

Joshua’s old college friend John suggested we listen to “The Gorilla Man” from The Shadow. So we did! Thanks, John! The story features a man who takes care of a large gorilla at the zoo. He finds himself growing to resemble the beast in his care, and the more he does, the further he retreats from the rest of humanity. But when Lamont, Margo, and Shrevvy find a corpse at this zoo, it’s up to the Shadow to uncover the truth! Is the Gorilla Man really turning into an animal? How exactly does the staffing in this zoo work? Why does Eric keep saying, “Ski-U-Mah”? Listen for yourself and find out!

This week we’re listening to an episode of X Minus One recommended to us by our Patreon supporter, Evan. Thanks, Evan! “The Lifeboat Mutiny” is an adaptation of the Robert Sheckley story of the same name. The plot features a crew of space travelers who get a bargain on a used lifeboat. But when the automated lifeboat decides the crew is in peril, it becomes a bizarre battle to retain control of the ship! Why does this intelligence think the crew is being threatened? Why does it do such strange things to “care” for them? What made the podcast host decide to “sing” in this discussion? Listen for yourself and find out! 

We’re checking out a new-to-us series this week, The Eleventh Hour for an episode entitled “The Tomb!” Robbers take a hostage to help them break into a jewelry shop’s safe, but lives are on the line when the plan takes a turn for the worse! Will their hostage survive? Will the heist ultimately succeed? Is there anything that will make Joshua truly happy? Listen for yourself and find out!