The Clock
1946-1948
Known Episodes: 6 US and 49 Australian version Circulating
Sunrise and sunset, promise and fulfilment, birth and death. The whole drama of life is written in the sands of time.
Narrated by a clock itself, or Father Time, the 30-minute program was directed by William Spier. In 1955, a version of the program was produced in Australia. 82 episodes were produced for the American version. 52 episodes were taped for the Australian revival using the same scripts, but a different cast. Most of the circulated recordings of the show are the Australian (Harp McQuire hosted) version, rather than the US (William Conrad hosted) show. The last 13 episodes used scripts from Suspense and The Whistler.
The quality stories are more crime and murder than supernatural horror, but the victims die in the most gruesome ways! The existing episodes were transcribed at the wrong speed, but it can be overlooked. It’s funny hearing an Aussie accent talk about hitchhiking through upstate New York!
Sources:
Digital Deli
Old Time Radio Downloads
Radio Horror Hosts
Wikipedia
OTRR – Australia
OTRR – U.S.
Actor, The
A store clerk meets her perfect man, but when a serial killer begins a spree, Jeannie notices too many similarities between the guy who wants to marry her and the murderer’s M.O. She gets so scared that when Courtney tries to kiss her, she shoots him with his own gun! Wait… he has a gun?
All The Money In The World
A thirty-five dollar a week schlub wants to offer his girl Lois some kind of life, but her mother won’t stand for marriage. When Joey saves an old man from a speeding bus, Mr. Pickering turns out to be a millionaire… and offers him limitless cash! He soon realizes there is more to life than money.
Angel With Two Faces, An
A woman is acquitted of pushing her husband out a twelfth story window to inherit his fortune. When a newspaper reporter is assigned to get the “real story,” he falls for her. She seems to love him, too. They even plan to elope… if it wasn’t for those pesky anonymous letters that keep arriving accusing her of murder! Well, let’s just hope they don’t get a flat tire and find out what’s hidden in the trunk.
Aunt Emmy
Lucy goes to live with her estranged Aunt Emmy and becomes paranoid that auntie is responsible for a salesman’s disappearance. Crazy does run in the family…
Bad Dreams
Uncle Milosh fires Bela from the delicatessen when he starts drinking. He’s just trying to forget the recurring nightmares, but his nagging wife doesn’t want to hear it. The bad dreams start with Bela on death row, and work their way backwards towards some horrible deed he may have committed! Predictable, but the accents and the back-and-forth between husband and wife make this enjoyable!
Bank Holiday
Two crooks rob a bank and take the teller hostage. The bank manager is the teller’s fiancee, and promised not to sound the alarm. He lied. It’s a tense getaway, and the three find themselves holed up in a shack, surrounded. The bank manager promises that he’ll get the fuzz to give the robbers an hour head start if they set his fiancee free with the money. He lied again. Tear gas. But while the teller was going through a bit of Stockholm Syndrome, she learned that there are two types of guys, right ones and wrong ones. Guess which one she decides her fiance is.
Bank Vault, The
Mr. Geiger, Bank manager, invites locksmith Bill to go halfsies on the next payroll deposit. Bill says no, but after a steamy visit from Mrs. Geiger, changes his tune. Their plan is to lock her lovin’ hubbie in the vault after it’s been cracked and head for Mexico. Too bad Bill is so clumsy. Too bad Kitty chooses to double-cross him.
Behind The Mask
Philanthropist Frank Cameron is introduced to Viola Hazen, a sculptress just returned from Europe. (She survived the war there under questionable circumstances.) She offers to sculpt his “true inner self”, but he refuses because he spends most of his time caring for his invalid wife. But he falls into obsession and agrees. The sculpture is that of a hideous ape-man! Viola says: “A man who gives his money away is trying to cover up some inner feeling of guilt,” Frank begins to change. Has she turned him into a murderer?
Consuelo
Charlie is a gambler who picks up a kleptomaniac to serve drinks at his weekly poker games. The catch? She’s going to feed him signals. But Nicky gets wise to the grift. He tries to get Consuelo to double-cross Charlie, but she tips off the stinker. There’s a gunfight. Too bad both goons fell for Consuelo’s dumb act.
Coming Events
A woman in shock from her carriage going off the road staggers to a house where a couple reluctantly offers her a bed. She dies that night, clutching a winning lottery ticket. When her husband shows up at the door asking for a lost “trinket”, the couple claims they haven’t found a thing. During the prelude, the couple was warned at the Pan-American Exposition by Madame Baba that they should beware the color red, to refuse the money they are offered. Guess what the carrot-top in the carriage accident goes by?
Criminal Mind, The
Frank Arnold’s wife leaves him for his “friend” Rex. Rex is a police detective… who shoots Frank with his own gun, staging a robbery, and committing the perfect crime; one he investigates himself. But a nosy newspaperman named Bill Kane has a theory, that it was murder, not suicide, and he has a witness! He follows Frank’s wife Lorna right to the house of the witness… who then gets offed! She wanted to help solve the murder. Will she take the heat for the murder?
Deadlier Than The Male
Cleo carries loaded dice in her purse, and she won’t stand for a cross. Ricky and her decide to partner up when they find success grifting. This hatpin honey “stuck ‘em like you’d jab a fork into a side of ham.” But after an accidental murder in New Orleans during a shakedown, Ricky decides to finger her rather than take the fall. Big mistake. She escapes, and he ends up begging the cops to put him in the clink for the night. Soon he hears those words he’s been dreading. “Hello… Baby.”
Doctor Carter’s Experiment
Three convicts break out of prison and, while waiting for their getaway boat, decide to take over a nearby house. The house is that of a retired biochemist and his daughter. When the thugs trash the basement laboratory, the chemist informs them that he was working on a cure for bubonic plague. They get scared as the symptoms set in, and force Carter to give them his cure. Will it work… or will the doctor get “cold” feet?
Don Miguel
A classic tragedy. A great bullfighter mentors a young matador who proves himself by killing ‘s most prized bull with a sword. After incredible success, the young Pedro appears to be stealing Don Miguel’s deeply beloved wife. The great matador trains the bull Pedro in the ring himself, and trains it to kill! His wife reveals that she only has eyes for her husband, and that Pedro is planning to leave in deference to their love. Alas, too late.
Flaming Frances
The version I have access to is terrible, but the discernable story is excellent. A couple hires a woman to help with cooking, but she starts “acting queer” around fire. Coincidentally, a serial arsonist has made the headlines recently. Ralph calls the police on Mamie when she shows up with a bandaged burn the day after another arson, but she escapes custody… and kidnaps Mrs. Cartwright by gunpoint! As it turns out, they have a lot in common. (This reminds me of another show about a firebug, “The Night Reveals” by Suspense)
Gertrude
A man thinks he’s pretty slick when he picks up a hitchhiker he believes to have escaped from a mental facility and hires her as a companion for his invalid wife, Hilda. It’s the perfect setup to pin her murder on the insane housekeeper… except Gertrude saw him roll his wife’s wheelchair into the water, and even took pictures of the act! Charles bides his time, playing the role of her servant while she’s got the goods on him, but then some neighborhood kids find a camera buried down at the beach.
Good Valet, The, The
When Fletcher the valet is notified of being laid off with the rest of the house staff after years of service, he is resentful enough to blackmail Gregory Richards, but is rebuffed. Until he later witnesses Richards murder his wife after she refuses him a divorce! The new ultimatum: He wants “everything,” including the young Anne Cartwright, or the police will hear about what they could find below the cellar concrete! After a turnabout where Richards becomes Fletcher’s valet (I always thought it was pronounced “val-AY,” but then, I’ve never had one,) has had enough… but Fletcher has taken precautions in the case of his untimely death.
Guilty, As Always
A District Attourney with his sights set on becoming Mayor frames a bum for a murder rap so he can play the hero in the headlines. I even began to wonder if Mr. Wayneheart the D.A. was really the killer. When he has an allergic reaction, though, the attorney coincidentally takes on the appearance of an escaped convict whom cops and crooks alike will shoot on sight. Will Wayneheart make it? Will the homeless drifter get the chair for Wayneheart’s greed?
Gus Fowler
Gus is given a prognosis of death within a month. When he’s about to jump off a bridge, a guy named Crane makes him an offer: $2,000.00 cash to spend his last days in luxury. All he has to do is… guarantee Crane can have his body for his experiments after death. As collateral the guy has Gus sign a confession to murder. When the doctor says he got the X-rays mixed up and he’s really healthy, Gus makes a run for it. But Crane hunts him down. Will Gus go quietly?
Hazel
This starts out, like many other episodes, with a wife who is fed up with her husband because she wants more from life. When she discovers her spouse has a heart problem, she gets him as active as possible against doctor’s orders, and when that doesn’t work, Hazel invites a bruiser over for a nightcap! At that, Charles finally decides to leave her, but she rigged the stairs to the basement where he keeps the luggage. He falls! The ending is almost an insult to the listener.
Helping Hand, A
Howard, A man accused of embezzlement but exonerated, moves his family to a quiet American town. When a woman he gave a lift to turns up dead, the gossip turns on him and he is convicted on circumstantial evidence. In his death row cell, the local constable admits that he was the one who killed the woman. But was anyone there to hear it?
Hitchhiker, The
Len offers a young woman a lift. He seems the perfect gentleman. In fact they pick up another hitchhiker named Leitch who seems kind of gruff. While he is making a phone call, a bulletin comes over the radio: A serial killer has escaped the local prison! He’s a pathological murderer who must take a clip of his victim’s hair. And Lola feels a piece missing from the back of her head! They try to ditch the tag-along, but they can’t. Eventually it’s the end of the line. Will Lola and Len survive the ride? Sounds like another radio show, but nobody here is Death personified …except maybe the man with the knife!
Hollywood Heartache
George asks Arlene to get married after only one date. He makes a big thing out of buying them both expensive life insurance policies. A string of accidents follows. “Gee, I guess the gun was loaded…” The car was in gear when it started… Arlene describes this to the police after George finally takes her for a ride up into the steep Hollywood hills… and tries to push her off!
Hunter and The Hunted, The
Diana and her husband Charles talk their friend Kent into accompanying them on a quail hunt: “Alright, I will, I’ll go along with you two homicidal nimrods.” Evening conversation reveals that Diana’s brother Bud likes to drink, and Charles is about to go bankrupt. The hunt soon devolves into “The Most Dangerous Game” as something starts picking off the hunting party, slashing the throats of the dogs! Strange footprints reveal they have become the prey of something more of a savage, primal marauder than man. The twist ending was telegraphed, but it was well played-out.
Hypnotist, The
Luther, guilty of practicing medicine without a license, picks up a girl off the street and hypnotizes her. He gives Martha a gun and sends her to shoot his ex-wife! Luther gets greedy, and tries to keep Martha as his thrall, but Robie, her ex-boyfriend, gets jealous. Luther threatens to turn her in to the police for her crimes, but it doesn’t float; so the hypnotist sends Martha to take care of Robie with her gun, to shoot when she hears a chime strike 4:00. But it doesn’t strike the hour, and he’s forced to troubleshoot the infernal device…
Island of Women
When the love of Tracy’s life gives him the brush off, he ends up sending both of them into the drink on a cruise ship while pretending to jump overboard. They wash up on an island with no male inhabitants, hidden by tides that keep visitors away (yet, somehow they have cars…) The queen wants to marry Mr. Whitman, prompting Doris to realize she still loves him. Because of a political rivalry, they end up having a lottery to see who gets to marry Tracy, but the results are fixed! A light-hearted farce.
Island Paradise
A convict being escorted from Singapore back to California swaps identities with the police detective he was handcuffed to when their plane crashes. They find themselves on a nameless island inhabited by a couple who live self-sufficiently while the criminal looks for an excuse to eliminate his captive. He makes a mistake when he makes a pass at the hermit’s wife.
Jekyll and Hyde Gangster, The
Barney Keetch is swimming in gravy with his new club. But Leo Tarran, who runs the rackets in the town, the guy who isn’t human, who doesn’t kill because he has to but because it gives him a laugh, comes to set him straight. In the ensuing gunfight, Leo is grazed on the head and turns yellow. He flees to another city, goes legit, marries, a kid on the way… then Barney catches up with him. Leo takes another knock to the head and gets his edge back. Another showdown happens, but the loser is Edna.
Jungle Drums
Charles is taking an expedition down the headwaters of the Amazon to explore and collect specimens. He invites his wife Eve, and they meet up with their friend Barry Kramden… who is having an affair with her. Barry decides the trip to the interior is the perfect opportunity to murder Charles and make it look like the work of the local Indian tribe, the Chivante. He breaks Charles. Then drums begin, pursuing the couple back to their ship. But the map doesn’t seem quite right.
“They kill their victims in a very original way. They break their backs.”
Lefty and Delilah
Heavyweight contender Lefty Hogan sets up his manager and only real friend Danny to take the fall for the murder of a woman’s husband. Delilah (sounds like Trouble, right?) another woman who’s “all class” is poison to our protagonist. No one wins this game. Danny did try to warn Lefty.
Leon
A medium is killed by his new assistant and his cheating wife, who continue his seance routine… until ghostly laughter elicits a confession!
Lively Ghost
Vera tells George he needs to kill her husband. She’s not in love with him, but he’s got money, and George has the looks. The car accidentally slips out of gear one night (and here’s where I miss Inner Sanctum’s sound effects,) and they gruesomely back over Frank again to make sure he’s finished. George’s conscience starts playing games with him and he starts seeing ghosts. It’s Frank’s twin brother. Sorry for the spoiler, but it’s a terribly delivered “twist”.
Liz
A waitress witnesses a man drop a mickey into his rich wife’s drink, then follows him to the spot where he buries her body! Of course she blackmails him. But she goes one step too far. After the body is moved, she has one final confrontation during which the murderer offers her a drink. Will Liz choose the right glass and walk away with his money or get herself dumped in the river with the killer’s wife?
Loverboy
A charismatic womanizer talks a woman he takes for a dupe into becoming an accessory to killing her boyfriend… who is an uncanny look-alike! Then Alex swaps identities with Stanley and drives the corpus delicti off a cliff! But when Alex shows up to claim his half of the double-indemnity payout, Ethel doesn’t recognize him! She’s smart, but she can’t outsmart a gun. Unfortunately, Alex can’t outsmart the cops after forging Ethel’s suicide note.
Man Who Couldn’t Lose, The
A guy riding the rails runs into an old man who happens to be a statistician who has developed a system for roulette that can’t lose. But he got the boot when he tested his strategy, and needs a partner to play exactly as he is instructed. Miles Scallon makes $1500 on a preliminary run, just some cash to start with. But that night he meets a woman. Need I say more? He wins a million bucks. But then keeps on winning. And winning. The old man’s ghost wants revenge, so Scallon won’t be walking out of the casino a winner. [aka: Thou Shalt Not Kill, Gambler’s Luck]
Man Who Lived Once Before, The
This guy John Shepley gets the idea that in a previous life he killed the husband of the Marquise de Pompadour. So the host… (yes, The Clock himself,) breaks the fourth wall and offers to chime him back to the court of Louis XV. Is he truly a murderer? Shepley is convinced his love transcends time… but the king’s mistress set him up! Will he ever make it back to his own time? Will his girlfriend forgive him for ditching her over a dream? I hope not, he was a real jerk to her.
Man With The Strange Trunk, The
When a mysterious stranger shows up at their bed and breakfast, nosy Mr. and Mrs. Briggs get suspicious. The guy gets upset when they put on the news, then they find their radio destroyed! The newspaper goes missing. What is he hiding? Is he on the lam? He says he’s a rare bookseller. When the town gets wind there was a murder, the body missing, and the culprit escaped with a large trunk… the couple call the police. But they find nothing.
“Do you like tours, Mrs. Briggs, tours around the world? You’re going to get your wish. You’re going to travel. But you’re going to make your journey with my other friend… inside the trunk!”
Manicurist, The
The hospital told Mabel she was the “homicidal type.” When she escapes the psych ward she sets up a cover as a manicurist for men only. It helps her find wealthy marks. She drives a nail file into their necks, killing victim after victim, raising quite a fortune. She didn’t do it for the money; just because… she liked it. Eventually she meets her match, but what a fun ride.
Mike’s Dream
A teary-eyed dame gets a guy to fall for her. He’s sure she’s all class. Then her weasel of a rich husband comes home. Francesca plugs him! When Mike goes to dump the body, the cops are on him way too soon. Oddly, the cop has Mike drive him to the station house. Big mistake, because Mike now has a score to settle. Too bad she’s got more than one gun stashed.
Natalie
A widowed benefactor gives money to a bum, and he starts showing up at her door demanding more, then more. Unable to assert herself against his aggressive demeanor, Natalie stays at a friend’s house and buys an elephant gun to protect herself! There’s a knock at the door… The confusing, contradictory ending would rate this a ‘D’ except for the luscious tension throughout.
Nicky
A felon rigs his visit to the chair, saying he’ll always return for his girl, Lou. When Nicky is accidentally embalmed, Lou gets nervous when he asks to visit the guy who double-crossed him. The couple have a shot at freedom now,
but the undertaker influences Nicky to commit a murder-suicide, the two to be buried together instead.
One-Eyed Cat, The
An invalid falls victim to the machinations of a woman who, posing as a nurse/companion, tries to coerce him into marriage before she kills him for his money. Miss Garth frames his housekeeper for theft so she is dismissed, then cuts the phone lines. Well acted, but an uninspired premise… unless you, like I, have ever actually been tripped up by an overly affectionate cat, even without the depth perception issue.
Only Death is Timeless
A retelling of “The Hitchhiker,” only with an old woman as Death. A couple driving home to their injured son accidentally hit a dog, but the lady brings it back to life. She’s tipped her hand… does she mean to save the boy or release him from his pain? It’s a mother’s love pitted against Death herself.
Ophelia
Jess and Gladys think they are about to inherit a fortune… but the old lady leaves it all to her cat! After a number of incidents where the cat comes out ahead despite their best efforts to kill it, the couple accidentally kills the housekeeper. They try to hide the body, but guess who sniffs it out! The ending is actually pretty entertaining, and no, the cat survives.
Past or Present
Kay and Larry get stuck in the rain and make a dash for the colonial Inn up the road. It’s one of them “quaint little joints” with period costume. Except the staff is rude and lock the guests in their room. The couple witness a duel in the clearing outside the window. One man gives away his shot. The other does not. Turns out the blustery jerk from the night before had the initials A.B.! Ghosts? Time travel? Both?
Pretty Cousin Amy
Cousin Amy comes to stay with hum-drum Nora and Ted. But she won’t leave. After starting an affair, bringing some excitement into Ted‘s life, she uses her favor to manipulate Nora into becoming her servant. Nora won’t take it though. She goes full on Hitchcock, building a coffin in the basement to make Amy crack psychologically! Who will come out on top?
Professor Leonard Higgins
A 47-year old anthropologist brings back an attractive 22 year old native headhunter to “civilize” her. She kills the cat. Then, having fallen in love, she kills his wife. The professor gets lucky until she expects that they will move back to live in the jungle.
Reference, Please
A Christmas Carol. Blowhard Alexander Dolby (born in Rochester, NY) has a toothache and brings it to the dentist who’s been dating his daughter Arlene. Dolby forbids Dr. Reiner to see her again, yet demands the dentist fix his tooth painlessly! He gets the gas. Saint Peter then sets Dolby straight when all he needs to get “upstairs” is a recommendation, just one, that he is a good man. It is a hard thing to find, though, Dolby is a real jerk.
Return of The Vanished Wife
Mr. Stewart is marrying his secretary Lorna after the mysterious disappearance of his wife, Irma. Kelvin, his lawyer, wants fifty grand to keep his mouth shut after he learns the whereabouts of Irma; she’s been located in an institution diagnosed with amnesia! Adam agrees… but guess who shows up one night regardless? She’s on the brink of insanity. Newly remarried Adam doesn’t want to lose Irma’s money in a divorce, so while having contrived an odd sort of threesome living arrangement with Lorna, he gives Irma a gun in a scheme to get her declared legally insane.
Sea Story
Mitchell Bullock hires Stacey Sutter to take him and his “nurse” Diana deep sea fishing in the Florida Keys. Stacey’s gig is taking tourists out to hook a few, but Bullock’s luscious companion is more interested in fishing for money. She had been warned that taking Bullock out fishing might be too much for the old man’s heart. They were right. Her laugh makes Stacey uneasy, but he covers for her despite noticing Bullock’s safety strap had been cut. The couple goes out on the boat again after they are married and have inherited three million… but both are prepared for a double-cross!
Spangler’s Attic
Mrs. Flint is Frederick Spangler’s housekeeper. She has a Mrs. Danvers vibe, given the death of Joyce, Fred’s first wife and his subsequent inheritance of her considerable estate. The replacement wife, Lilly, learns of her husband’s rage at anyone going near the mysterious locked attic. He keeps the key close. Inspector Markham of Scotland Yard stops by one day; according to Spangler, his first wife had been lost in a train wreck, but there is news she may not have been aboard! Could Joyce still be alive? The similarity to Rebecca ends with a shocking turn of events!
Star-Crossed Lovers
When Juliet and Cliff meet, it’s like they have known each other for years. It’s more than love at first sight, they are a timeless match. When they make a date to spend the weekend with friends at their cabin, Cliff is not there to meet her at the train station. But he said nothing could keep him from Juliet’s side… Then he shows up at the cabin, changed. Haunted. He leaves abruptly. Guess why? [Aka: Juliet and Cliff]
Story of John Littlefield, The
John Littlefield wants to leave his wife when his mistress says there is no future in their relationship otherwise. He steals $1500 from his father-like employer… accidentally killing him in the act. But he has a plan. A plastic surgeon changes John’s face to be unrecognizable. Littlefield then kills the drunken surgeon and dumps his body in the river with his wallet, but when he brings the drowned man’s jacket to the cops, they were looking for Littlefield because the old man, who died of a heart attack, left him a fortune. Too bad not even his wife can recognize him now.
Ted and Cora
A couple gets a stunning deal on a sweet apartment… before they find out about the double murder! Was it the blood-colored walls? Neighbor Eve states her intentions toward Ted just as she did with the previous tenant, Mr. Hawthorne. When Ted starts spending too much time with Eve, will he try to poison Cora like Hawthorne did to his wife, or is it just paranoia?
Uncle Amos
Cousins Joel and Enid call Doctor Morton when Uncle Amos gets a cold and they are warned to keep the old penny-pincher away from drafts. Fearing their Uncle will take his money with him to the grave, the loafer and the leech (their quips and banter are entertaining) respond to his threat to re-write his will with sleeping pills and an open window at night …to assist his bronchitis! The murder attempt fails, as do the second attempt with food poisoning and a third (the miser has the gas on a meter!) Will rat poison in his milk be direct enough to off the geezer?