Murder at Midnight
1946-1947
Known Episodes: 51 (41 Circulating, per OTRR)
MURDER! at MID-night…
The witching hour… when night is darkest, our fears are the strongest, our strength at its lowest ebb. Midnight– When graves gape open and death strikes!
Hosted by former church minister Raymond Morgan, (not to be confused with the Raymond of Inner Sanctum,) this half hour drama from New York boasted some of the best actors and writers in radio. Many of the shows were science fiction, but it was dark sci-fi, as were the crime episodes.
Sources:
Digital Deli
Radio Horror Hosts
Wikipedia
OTRR
Ace of Death
A suicidal man becomes disenchanted with The Hereafter Club after pulling the playing card that obligates him to murde the man who introduced him to the thrilling game. Will he be successful in an attempt to convince the opportunistic owner of the club to play a deadly round of cards himself? [Adapted from Robert Louis Stevenson: The Suicide Club]
Ape Song
A wealthy hunter tricks a gorilla into killing his wife! “She made me kill your mate!” he shouts. Then guilt transferrence makes him turn into an ape himself. When he goes to revenge himself upon the gorilla, who will will the hand-to-hand combat?
Black Curtain, The
(See Death’s Worshipper)
Black Swan, The
A shipbuilder is killed during a launch and the ship is shunned by his father, who commissioned it. Many more die, including the woman it was built for. Is it truly cursed? Where are the shipbuilder’s tools hidden?
Creeper, The
With a murderer on the loose, a terrified woman meets a series of suspicious characters alone in her apartment while her door lock is broken. It is fun being skillfully misled, for heaven’s sake!
Dead Come Back, The
A man who pled insanity for murder leaves a trail of corpses when he escapes the asylum. He starts hallucinating as he works his way back to retrieve the jewels; his victims reappear as though he had never killed them!
Dead Hand, The
When a pianist loses his hand in an accident, he contrives to steal the hand of a pick-pocket… but “Hook” swears revenge!
Deadman’s Turn
(See Death Across the Board)
Death Across the Board
A chess mastermind plays a game with real people as his pieces… and capture means death! With the police chief as the white king, can Dr. Strand checkmate Rafael? You can’t castle when you’re in check!
Death Is No End
A banker decides her accountant husband and her lives are not what she wants nearing middle age, so she threatens to leave him if he doesn’t help her rob the bank! When the drunk night watchman catches them, she stabs him… but he’s got a strong heart! Coincidentally, while hiding the body in the woods of Wisconsin, they meet a Native guide who also has “a strong heart.” When he sees what’s in the trunk, they kill him too, and dump him in a creek! The ending is vague and implied, but the mousey accountant who hears a tell-tale heart and his femme fatale wife keep the story interesting!
Death Tolls a Requiem
When a philanthropist spends half a million dollars relocating a set of church bells from England, his son grows angry that his inheritance was blown on something so frivolous… so he kills his old man. Despite being left “penniless,” the son goes on lots of expensive vacations, where the peel of bells follow and sing to him of his guilt!
Death’s Worshiper
Quentin returns from a jungle adventure with a new philosophy that allows Shiva to ride him. Possessed, he begins a spree of murder. Good descriptions of heads twisted around!
Death’s Goblet
A man gifts his skeptical friend a wine goblet with a drop of blood in the glass said to make anyone who drinks from it kill somebody. A blood-bath ensues. But… he made it all up!
Heavy Death, The
A mad scientist makes himself “heavy” (as in heavy water, or uranium.) His might crushes men’s skulls! He also has a death ray! But the ghost of a man with a crushed skull comes for revenge!
House That Time Forgot, The
In a new home strangely abandoned by the previous owners, a clock sends a couple back in time. They are the ones that warned the previous owners of the house that they would die!
House Where Death Lived, The
A ghost hunter is influenced by the spirits of a haunted house and commits murder… twice! Did the ghosts want his company, or someone to take their place? Hidden treasure, false stairways, and bodies in the cellar!
Island of the Dead
A wrongfully convicted man mistaken for dead finds himself on a potter’s field island and phones out… for revenge!
Kabbalah, The (Cabala)
A mysterious stranger delivers an ancient manuscript, possibly the Key of Solomon itself. It will magically answer any question… but the answer is a curse!
Line is Dead, The
A man suffers from his heart slowing and he is almost buried alive. He has a phone placed in his crypt and leaves his wife directions to keep it installed for a whole year after his death. Again he is buried, …and the man whom he had abandoned trapped in an Aztec temple long ago returns to proclaim his love for is wife! (1947) [Similar to Creeps by Night: The Strange Burial of Alexander Jordon (1944) -and- Suspense: The Death of Alexander Jordon (1962).]
Man Who Died Yesterday, The
A preposterous notion that a man born crossing the International Date Line gains a free 24 hours after his death. He has always seen a day into the future. Today before midnight, he must deliver a dire warning to the Secretary General of the UN… but falls in with a criminal. Sounds like a good premise for a TV series…
Man Who Was Death, The
A sculptor believes in order to truly capture the countenance of his masterpiece, a bust of Death, he must know what it feels like to be Death… so he commits murder. Again and again, to get it just right!
Man With The Black Beard, The
A woman is convinced the man she meets on the corner, the man from her dreams, is Death… and that she is his intended victim! He isn’t. She dies anyway!
Mark of Cain, The
(See Death Across the Board)
Murder Is a Lonely Business
Uncle Edward is killed by a couple who squander their cash. But a person willing to kill once… can Fred trust his wife? Alternating point of view is a nice change.
Murder Out of Mind
A man tries to drive his wife mad; once committed, he’ll be free to marry another woman. All that is left is the sound of a letter stabbing his heart.
Nightmare
A woman’s murderous nightmare is explained away by her husband’s dream analysis, from hamburgers to their anniversary. But once she falls asleep, the phone rings…
Red Wheels
When a superstitious man on the run from a murder wakes up on a bus with no driver, He jumps off and finds himself in an empty saloon. His only escape from the voices he hears… the bus with red wheels in the parking lot! Epilogue: The bus driver explains how a passenger went crazy with guilt.
Secret of XR-3, The
Gorgo, a vaudeville dwarf is dominated by is giant partner. When given a chance at normal height, he must kill for the ‘opportunity for growth.’
Terror Out of Space
Radio contact is made with the moon! Professor Martel changes the frequency with no memory of it. Then he crushes Ray’s skull like the shell of a rotten pumpkin! A dream? Or did the carrier wave bring more than just a radio signal? (Sci-Fi from 1946!)
Thirteenth Floor, The
A woman who sold out her boyfriend gets a visit when he escapes death row. Except the apartment she entered is on the non-existent thirteenth floor! She escapes, and finds herself back in time before she got home. Was it all a dream? She returns home again to the correct floor…
Till Death Do Us Part
Frank subconsciously wants to strangle his new bride, but can’t figure why. He also can’t remember that line she used to read to him while he was recovering from a car crash… turns out Ruth’s getting revenge for her sister’s death in that accident! Everyone knows he’s out to kill her now, all she needs to do is shoot him in self-defense. “Each man kills the thing he loves”.
Trigger Man
Crime noir. Chicken Charlie Nix discovers new courage when he is told he has only six months to live. When he discovers it was a lie, will he have the guts for revenge?
Wherever I Go
A man murders his rich wife, then discovers a hitchhiker who knows all about how he got away with it. So he murders him , too. Great scene where they set up his wife to write her own suicide note. [Motif: Hitchhiker]
