The Creaking Door
1964-65 (-1968?)
Known Episodes: 35 Circulating*
I have flown. I have sailed. I have moved about this world of ours, and ever in search of the finest of its kind, we bring you the tops in spine chillers.
Back in the 1960s, The South African Broadcasting Corporation & Springbok Radio produced a horror show along the lines of Inner Sanctum, its name reflecting the opening of its predecessor. They were quality shows, but not much information remains about their production.
The South African version should not be confused with the show of the same name that re-recorded original Inner Sanctum scripts in Australia in both 1956 and 1958 using Moray Powell in place of Raymond. The name was altered to avoid any legal confusion, but some of them are the only existing recordings of the Inner Sanctum scripts.
Sources:
Digital Deli
Old Time Radio Downloads
Radio Horror Hosts
Wikipedia
Alive in the Grave
A poor man takes the contents of a dead guy’s pockets and later finds a card reading “I am not dead, but cataleptic.” But the body is already on its way to the morgue, sans the card! After a chase, he ends up caught by the police, coffin exhumed, shovel in hand… the body is dead. Is the pick-pocket guilty of murder?
Anna
A convict framed for murder sees the ghost of a woman hung for witchcraft while digging in a peat bog. He frees her soul, then joins her for True Love.
Aunt May
A man is accused of killing his girlfriend by an avenging spirit. Aunt May chases the ghost away. Then we learn that the man’s bedroom is in an asylum! His girlfriend is dead, and the avenging spirit is really a police investigator seen through the lens of hallucination. But what about Aunt May– was she real?
Bring Back Her Bones
A man believes he can rid himself of his wife by stealing her bones from the past. Illogical reasoning makes this silly. Double cross: She fakes being a ghost when he returns from the past… she already paid the witch doctor to get revenge!
Cards, The
A woman falls into a trance and speaks a prophecy while reading tarot cards. Each word comes true on a trip to an African diamond mine… but there is a rational explanation: a saboteur (who then has an accident cleaning his gun. The end). “There is always a price for magic, and the price is too high to pay.” But the morality play doesn’t play out– the bad guy dies, but the one dabbling in evil is saved.
Cat’s Whiskers
See “Cat Woman”
Cat Woman
A woman’s brother and his wife try to drive her mad by convincing her she is a were-cat! Too bad they killed her fiancee to convince her. Now she’s spitting mad! Motif #1
Dangerous Dive
A sunken treasure has never been recovered because no diver has ever returned from the shipwreck! When a guy and his crony find the gold, he kills his partner by cutting the airline. He comes back to get the treasure with his wife, and guess who’s waiting?
Day of Truce
Crime Noir. Red, A mob boss, wants to quit the rackets but needs money to disappear. He eyes up a recently murdered kingpin’s money, but Butch Hennessy’s ghost appears! Red tracks the stash to Butch’s tomb. When he’s double-crossed by a dame, it’s a race to the grave!
Death In Your Hands
A fortune teller sees death in the hands of a surgeon. When a friend and palmist confirms this, the doctor believes he is doomed to murder his wife! She arrives in his emergency room after a car accident… he operates! Will she survive? Was she planning to run away with the occultist?
Death on the Road
A headstrong drunk-driver kills a motorcycle cop and tries to cover it up by buying a new car identical to his own, but without the bloodstains. He beats the investigation, but can’t seem to shake the ghostly sirens that start to follow him.
Don’t Take My Blood
When this donor gives his rare blood to save a life, he always has a vision of the recipient’s much more violent subsequent death. But a girl is on her death bed and needs his blood to live!
Don’t Go Down In The Mine
A crazy drunk tells the story of a coal mine cave-in. Two men are stabbed to death as sacrifices with invisible knives held by the ghosts of druids. The mine was dug on an ancient sacred site.
Dummy, The
A ventriloquist argues with his dummy, who threatens to quit– to just walk off stage… he’s done it before! His boss thinks he’s crazy.The dummy is destroyed in the end, the ventriloquist placed in a mental ward. When the manager visits him there… who does he really speak with?
Ever Loving Doll, The
A cop-killer is double-crossed by a dame and he tracks her down by following the money. “Ah, go fry an egg!” He kills his competition, but takes Lola back. “Is that a gun in your pocket?” She hands him a treasure map to Monte Muerte– they’ll have to shoot their way in to get the gold… but discover their guide is a bandit! “Did she slip ya’ a Mickey Finn?” Lola gets hers, Pete goes in guns blazing… oblivious to booby-traps. “He shouldn’ta… shouldn’t have laughed like that!”
Face to Face
A cosmonaut travels to Mars… and in time! After a long journey (for us listeners) he meets himself! Will he ever reach home?
Ghost at Ridgeway, The
A writer goes to stay at the mansion where her aunt died of fright! What could go wrong? Someone is playing “Let’s Scare Miss Garfield to Death.” Luckily there is a paranormal investigator in town… Is he looking for ghosts, or for hidden treasure?
Girl, The Gold & The Getaway, The
Paralleling an urban legend, a truck driver picks up a hitchhiking girl. Turns out the rig he’s in was used to run down a cop. It’s a set-up, but there’s gold in the back! May, his passenger, warns him about fate. Will he go as far as murder to keep the loot?
Happier Dead
Crime Noir. Igor wants out of the spy business. When he invites Tonya to come with him, she reports him to Ivan, who has money stashed and is already planning to run off with her! A dead spy named Boris appears and informs them the money is counterfeit! Authorities are on their way– the only way out now… death!
Haunted Hangman
An execution is delayed because many people believe the condemned to be innocent… and the hangman sees his ghost upon the gallows. They can’t kill him now! The warden does the research the lawyers should have and discovers the identity of “the tall man” who lured the condemned out of his house so his partner could kill a judge leaving the condemned without an alibi. The real killer must be truly haunted by his deeds. [aka: The Haunting]
I See Ghosts
A man wakes to find a woman’s dead body in the room, then meets the very same woman on the street! The twist: she took a bullet for a friend, a look-alike moll.
Informer, The
See “The Imposter”
Inn Specter
A woman believes she may be responsible for murder. The story is explained in soliloquy, a setup by a husband who wanted her Inn, (buried on old temple grounds;) not only is he having an affair, but he is the leader of a coven. When he brings back the spirit of the magus who once lived there, the shadow of the Moon Goddess saves the narrator.
Imposter, The
A look-alike impersonates a man about to inherit a half-million. He makes it as far as his blind Uncle’s safe… but he’s not the only imposter! Geez, how many people does a guy have to kill?
Island of Lost Souls, The
A man washes up on the shore of a shunned island and listens to “The Keeper’s” bizarre speech about life & death. He wakes in the hospital, scared away from Wolf Island in order to protect a mad girl’s mind.
Like Blood Sisters
Joan is called to Ludlow Park where her fiancee encounters a murder scene, then finds bloody gloves in her trash. She blames a woman who wants to be her “blood sister.” Is it a split personality …or an evil twin?
Man in the Lift , The
A claustrophobic is trapped in an elevator and begins to hear the conspiring voices of his wife… and her lover! Is it madness… or murder?
Man in the Morgue, The
A crime reporter finds Old Willie, the coroner, dead in the police morgue… when another stiff rises with a hideous laugh!
Midnight Express
A couple are stranded in a railway station by a rainstorm under circumstances identical to five years previous when a train crash happened. Is their host a ghost? Not unless a ghost can break a leg. But the rails are really washed out three miles down. So if the railway man is at the hospital, who stopped the train?
Mystery of the Mausoleum
See “Secret of the Mausoleum, The”
Room for the Night, A
A couple is caught in a storm; since the next town is 19 miles away, they disregard the gas station attendant’s warning and stay at Cliff’s Edge where people keep jumping to their deaths. Mr. Mogridge is caught trying to throw Sally over also, but was he a murderer, or truly possessed?
Secret of the Mausoleum
A veiled woman lures a man into murdering three brothers who share a family mausoleum. The man is a homicidal patient freed from an insane asylum by its director’s sister so that she could inherit the family fortune. Will she succeed in offing all three of her brothers including the director? Motif #1
*Every copy of Mystery of the M and Where the Dead Sleep that I have found are the same show; not a re-make like some episodes of Suspense/Escape, but the same actual recording, (including those from OTRR) yet each is historically noted on separate broadcast dates by Digital Deli.
Snow White Scarf
See “White Scarf Strangler, The”
Three Wishes
Is The Monkey’s Paw in the Public Domain? It must me. A modern re-telling– but this time… she’s already used up the third wish when the knock comes at the door! “Honey, I’m Home!”
Vagrant, The
A fortune teller sees death in the hands of a doctor. The doctor seeks help… but a palmist confirms his fear: He will kill his wife! When she appears on his emergency surgery table, he operates! Is the palm reader in love with his wife? Is it a self-fulfilling prophecy?
Victory Over Death
See “Death in Your Hands”
Village of Daleside , The
A schoolmaster suffering from “Mee-graine” headaches is hijacked by a gorgeous woman… and a man with a gorilla’s face! He is dosed, and convinced to allow a mad-scientist to experiment on him for the love of a woman. Bad sound quality.
Where the Dead Sleep
See “Secret of the Mausoleum”
White Scarf Strangler
A man who wears white scarves and keeps a pet tiger is suspected of being the local strangler. Though it could well be his creepy brother…
Who Stopped the Train?
See “Midnight Express”
Yesterday You Died
A paranoid man overhears his wife plotting his death over the phone and develops the perfect alibi to murder her first.
