Weird Circle | Old Time Radio

The Weird Circle, episode 40, “The Dream Woman,” originally broadcast September 3, 1944. In this first program of the series’ new season, The Weird Circle adapts Wilkie Collins’s supernatural suspense tale for the Mutual Network, later syndicated by Ziv.

An unlucky ostler seeks refuge at a lonely roadside inn and is shaken by a midnight vision: a silent fair-haired woman standing beside his bed with a knife. Whether nightmare, apparition, or warning, the encounter becomes a haunting presence that follows him into later life.

Old Time Retro Radio presents the original broadcast with a newly produced contextual introduction, a short closing announcement, and gently cleaned/mastered audio for a more consistent listening experience.

Chapters:
00:00 Victor Sterling Introduction
00:40 Original Broadcast
30:20 Closing

Support Old Time Retro Radio at https://www.patreon.com/oldtimeretroradio

The Weird Circle, episode 38, “The Old Nurses Story,” originally broadcast May 14, 1944. This archival supernatural drama adapts Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell’s 1852 ghost story “The Old Nurse’s Story.”

Longtime nurse Hester recalls the troubled history of an aristocratic household, where sisters Maud and Grace, their music-obsessed father Lord Ferndale, and visiting musician Tony Sorrento become bound up in old resentments and uncanny disturbances. The radio adaptation changes several names and details from Gaskell’s original tale while preserving its Victorian atmosphere of family secrets and lingering dread.

Old Time Retro Radio presents the original broadcast with a newly produced contextual introduction, a short closing announcement, and gently cleaned/mastered audio for a more consistent listening experience.

Chapters:
00:00 Victor Sterling Introduction
00:48 Original Broadcast
29:13 Closing

Support Old Time Retro Radio at https://www.patreon.com/oldtimeretroradio

The Weird Circle presents “Mateo Falcone,” episode 12, originally broadcast November 14, 1943. This adaptation of Prosper Mérimée’s 1829 short story features Edwin Jerome, Skippy Homeier, Milton Herman, Joseph De Santis, and Gladys Thornton.

In rural Corsica, an accused murderer fleeing through the rugged maquis seeks refuge amid a community governed by family honor and an unforgiving local code of justice. Suspense builds as the law closes in and loyalties are tested.

Old Time Retro Radio presents the original broadcast with a newly produced contextual introduction, a short closing announcement, and gently cleaned/mastered audio for a more consistent listening experience.

Chapters:
00:00 Victor Sterling Introduction
00:46 Original Broadcast
25:46 Closing

Support Old Time Retro Radio at https://www.patreon.com/oldtimeretroradio

The Weird Circle, episode 39, “The Middle Toe of the Right Foot,” originally broadcast May 28, 1944. This NBC Radio-Recording Division syndicated transcription adapts Ambrose Bierce’s chilling tale and marked the end of the series’ first 39-program block.

When Parsons returns to a small town that remembers him in connection with an old, unsolved family murder, suspicion quickly rekindles. Challenged to face the town’s darkest rumors in a long-abandoned house reputed to be haunted, he agrees to a midnight ordeal steeped in accusation and dread.

Old Time Retro Radio presents the original broadcast with a newly produced contextual introduction, a short closing announcement, and gently cleaned/mastered audio for a more consistent listening experience.

Chapters:
00:00 Victor Sterling Introduction
00:47 Original Broadcast
30:27 Closing

Support Old Time Retro Radio at https://www.patreon.com/oldtimeretroradio

The Weird Circle presents “The Werewolf,” episode 37, originally broadcast May 7, 1944. This syndicated supernatural drama adapts Frederick Marryat’s 1839 Gothic tale “The White Wolf of the Hartz Mountains,” from The Phantom Ship.

In an isolated cottage in Germany’s Harz Mountains, young Herman and his siblings grow uneasy when their father brings mysterious travelers in from the wilds after pursuing a strange white wolf. As the forest closes in and the newcomers become part of the household, old fears and unsettling suspicions deepen.

Old Time Retro Radio presents the original broadcast with a newly produced contextual introduction, a short closing announcement, and gently cleaned and mastered audio for a more consistent listening experience.

Chapters:
00:00 Victor Sterling Introduction
00:43 Original Broadcast
29:40 Closing

Support Old Time Retro Radio at https://www.patreon.com/oldtimeretroradio

The Weird Circle presents “The Spectre of Tappington,” episode 29, originally broadcast March 12, 1944. Adapted from Richard Harris Barham’s comic Gothic tale from The Ingoldsby Legends, this syndicated drama brings an old English ghost story to radio.

Home from India, Lieutenant Charles Seaforth visits his cousins at their ancient Kentish manor and is assigned the ominous Oak Room. Family legends, an ancestral portrait, and a succession of peculiar nighttime disturbances lend this Kent-set haunted-house yarn its eerie atmosphere—and its distinctly playful edge. The cast includes John Moore, Michael Fitzmaurice, Elizabeth Morgan, and Alfred Shirley.

Old Time Retro Radio presents the original broadcast with a newly produced contextual introduction, a short closing announcement, and gently cleaned and mastered audio for a more consistent listening experience.

Chapters:
00:00 Victor Sterling Introduction
00:41 Original Broadcast
26:53 Closing

Support Old Time Retro Radio at https://www.patreon.com/oldtimeretroradio

The Weird Circle, episode 72, “The Shadow,” originally broadcast April 15, 1945. This surviving approximately 25-minute supernatural drama adapts Hans Christian Andersen’s 1847 literary fairy tale.

A man finds that his shadow has separated from him and taken on a life of its own. As the familiar image becomes an unsettling human double, this compact horror tale explores the dread of losing control over one’s own identity.

Old Time Retro Radio presents the original broadcast with a newly produced contextual introduction, a short closing announcement, and gently cleaned/mastered audio for a more consistent listening experience.

Chapters:
00:00 Victor Sterling Introduction
00:46 Original Broadcast
25:29 Closing

Support Old Time Retro Radio at https://www.patreon.com/oldtimeretroradio

The Weird Circle, “The Duel Without Honor” (Episode 59), originally broadcast January 14, 1945. This 30-minute NBC-syndicated installment adapts Alexandre Dumas’s military tale “Zodomirsky’s Duel.”

Framed by a conversation at a monastery, the drama follows the arrival of the accomplished Captain Zodomirsky at the frontier garrison town of Valines. His interest in Marianna Ravensky and his contempt for the officers’ established code bring him into a volatile rivalry with Lieutenant Stamm, where pride, military honor, and the threat of a duel hang heavily in the air.

Old Time Retro Radio presents the original broadcast with a newly produced contextual introduction, a short closing announcement, and gently cleaned/mastered audio for a more consistent listening experience.

Chapters:
00:00 Victor Sterling Introduction
00:53 Original Broadcast
26:54 Closing

Support Old Time Retro Radio at https://www.patreon.com/oldtimeretroradio

The Weird Circle presents “The Burial of Roger Malvin,” episode 47, originally broadcast October 22, 1944. This 30-minute NBC-syndicated adaptation draws on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1832 short story “Roger Malvin’s Burial,” with featured performers Stacy Harris and Inge Adams.

In the aftermath of a colonial frontier raid, wounded survivor Reuben Bourne returns to civilization carrying the weight of a promise made to his older companion, Roger Malvin. Years later, as Reuben, Dorcas, and their family attempt a fresh start in the New England wilderness, the past presses ever closer in this tale of survival, conscience, and foreboding.

Old Time Retro Radio presents the original broadcast with a newly produced contextual introduction, a short closing announcement, and gently cleaned and mastered audio for a more consistent listening experience.

Chapters:
00:00 Victor Sterling Introduction
00:50 Original Broadcast
27:47 Closing

Support Old Time Retro Radio at https://www.patreon.com/oldtimeretroradio

The Weird Circle, episode 32, “The Curse of the Mantle,” originally broadcast April 2, 1944. This archival supernatural drama adapts Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1838 tale “Lady Eleanore’s Mantle,” from his Province-House stories. Maurice Tarplin is credited in surviving episode metadata.

In colonial Massachusetts, Lady Eleanore awaits a magnificent blood-red, gold-stitched mantle despite the misgivings of her fiancé, George Helwes. As unease and fear of smallpox spread from the governor’s candlelit mansion through the community, the garment’s ominous reputation deepens the atmosphere of dread.

Old Time Retro Radio presents the original broadcast with a newly produced contextual introduction, a short closing announcement, and gently cleaned/mastered audio for a more consistent listening experience.

Chapters:
00:00 Victor Sterling Introduction
00:52 Original Broadcast
25:05 Closing

Support Old Time Retro Radio at https://www.patreon.com/oldtimeretroradio