Escape's "The Silent Horror" was adapted from a short story by pulp fiction writer Hugh B. Cave, which was first published in The Saturday Evening Post (April 28, 1951). Escape made almost no changes to this peculiar love story in their adaptation.
The episode opens in a hotel bar in Port Moresby, New Guinea, where a man's watch hangs on the wall. The bartendar points out the watch and begins to tell the tale behind it. The watch once belonged to a painter named Tom Dorson...
Tom had married a woman named Elizabeth and to everyone's surprise, brought her to Port Moresby to settle down. Elizabeth was clearly the sort of girl who got about, and everyone seemed to know that except Tom. When he finally realized that she was secretly visiting a trading captain on the side, he left her.
To escape the pain and humiliation, Dorsan disappeared into the New Guinean jungle. There, he found a tribe with a chief, Ramabu, who allowed him to settle there-- on the condition that he didn't cause trouble. Dorson made a home for himself with the tribe, but then he met a young woman named Giri, and the trouble started...
"The Silent Horror" was adapted for radio by Les Crutchfield and directed by Norman MacDonnell. Harry Bartell and Georgia Ellis starred. Also appearing were Jack Kruschen, Ben Wright, Don Diamond, Stanley Waxman, and Lou Krugman. This episode aired on August 22, 1951.
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(Illustration by Bill Fleming. Saturday Evening Post 4/28/51)
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