Mystery in the Air
1947
Known Episodes: 13 (8 Circulating)
Starring Peter Lorre, the show deals mostly in crime noir, but the stories and acting are always superb. The announcer was Harry Morgan of Dragnet.
SOURCES:
Digital Deli
Radio Horror Hosts
Internet Archive – Complete Series
Beyond Good and Evil
(Peter Lorre) Crime Noir. An escaped convict murders a preacher to take his place as a town’s pastor in a money scheme. The only one who knows of the identity swap becomes paralyzed by a stroke, but shepherding the flock has changed him. [Original script by Ben Hecht and Doug Whitney]
Black Cat, The
(Peter Lorre) A man gets violent with drink and kills his cat. Lorre overacts as he gets a new cat and kills his wife. He covers his tracks by walling her up in the cellar. [Adapted from Edgar Alan Poe]
Crime & Punishment
(Peter Lorre) Crime Noir. A poor man who is an expert at criminal detection murders an unfair pawnshop owner. The police chief plays a game of cat-and-mouse until a woman convinces the academic to turn himself in. [Adapted from Fyodor Dostoyevsky]
Great Barastro, The
(Peter Lorre) A fellow psychic becomes obsessed with Barastro’s wife and trains himself to mimic his “friend”. She is fooled by the doppelganger and dies from the strain. Now Barastro is determined to kill Rico Consoni in revenge.
Horla, The
A passing schooner’s shadow leaves behind an evil spirit that traps a man in his home forever. There is only one escape. [Adapted from Guy de Maupassant] [See also Weird Circle]
Lodger, The
(Peter Lorre, Agnes Moorehead) A woman suspects her new lodger may be a wanted murderer… and he’s alone with her daughter. A classic. [Adapted from Marie Belloc Lowndes, also a Hitchcock movie (1927), etc.]
Mask of Medusa, The
(Peter Lorre) A man who hates murderers obtains the head of Medusa and keeps it in a bag in his wax museum. His dummies are still alive, but frozen… until they discover telepathy. Then forty-six killers, all maniacs, are loosed upon the world at once!
Queen of Spades
(Peter Lorre) A man who studies gambling hears of a woman who knows the secret of three cards that always win. She won’t tell, so he kills her in rage. Still she returns from the dead to reveal her secret! [Adapted from Alexander Pushkin]