{
  "title": "ANCIENT SORCERIES",
  "category": "[SHORT-STORY]",
  "article": "Story by Algernon Blackwood…\nBlackwood: “…that old French town of ‘Ancient Sorceries,’ where the slinking inhabitants\nbehaved as cats behave, sidling along the pavements with slanting gestures, twitching their sleeky\nears and snakey tails, their sharp eyes glinting, all alert and concentrated upon some hidden,\nsecret life of their own while they feigned attention to tourists like ourselves—ourselves just back\nfrom climbing in the Dolomites and finding the train so boring on its way from Basle to Boulogne\nthat we hopped out at Laon and spent two days in this witch-ridden atmosphere. The ‘Auberge de\nla Hure’ was the name of the Inn, and it was…Laon, a lovely old haunted town where the\nCathedral towers stand up against the sunset like cats’ ears, the paws running down the dusky\nstreets, the feline body crouched just below the hill. Yet who should guess that so much magic lay\nwithin a kilometer of its dull, desolate train station, or that from my little bedroom window I\nshould presently stand enthralled as I looked across the moonlit tiles and towers, jotting down on\nthe backs of envelopes an experience that kept sleep away till dawn.”",
  "origination": "",
  "duration": "",
  "personnel": "",
  "extant_recordings": "",
  "chronology": "ESCAPE (KNX, HOLLYWOOD—CBS)\n[Sunday—7:00-7:30 PM]\nFebruary 15, 1948\n“Ancient Sorceries”\n[Saturday—8:30-9:00 AM]\nFebruary 21, 1948\n“Ancient Sorceries”\nPERSONNEL: William Conrad (announcer), Les Crutchfield (scriptwriter), Eddie\nDunstedter (organist—2/21/48), Cy Feuer (music), Norman Macdonnell\n(director), William N. Robson (producer).\nCAST: Kaye Brinker (Ilse), William Conrad (Dundreary/The Doctor), Paul Frees\n(Arthur Llewellyn), Anne Morrison (Madame).\nEscape's \"Ancient Sorceries\" is based on the short story of the same name\nby Algernon Blackwood, a writer who was famous for his tales of horror and\nthe supernatural. The story was adapated for radio by Les Crutchfield, who\nchanged and abbreviated it considerably to fit within a half-hour program. In\nthe radio version, the main character's name is changed to Arthur Llewellyn,\nand the setting is a remote part of Wales, rather than France. Escape's version\nis good, but it is worth the time to read the short story. The text of \"Ancient\nSorceries\" can be found on the Algernon Blackwood\npage atwww.HorrorMasters.com.\nAs the episode opens, Mr. Llewellyn is on a train on his way to London. He\nimpulsively decides to get off and spend the night in a small, Welsh village\nnamed Malton, despite the warning from his fellow passenger. He takes a room\nat the local inn, and to his surprise, they seem to have been expecting him. Mr.\nLlewellyn soon becomes involved with innkeeper's daughter, Ilse, and discovers\nthe strange world of the townspeople and what they do in their secret lives.\nTHE CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER (WRVR, NEW YORK—CBS)\n[???day—10:07-11:00 PM]\nMarch 27, 1975\n“The Velvet Claws”\n[“…Vacationing in France, John Latour, a middle-aged bachelor of fixed\nhabits, finds himself inexplicably drawn into a French town where all the\ninhabitants have feline characteristics and appear to know him. A series\nof accidents prevent him from leaving, and he falls in love with Ilse,\ndaughter of the innkeeper, the most cat-like of them all. Ilse is convinced\nLatour is the reincarnation of a long-ago warlock and urges him to join a\nfiery, demonic celebration of his return…”]\nSCRIPT: Murray Burnett.\nPERSONNEL: Himan Brown (producer-director).\nCAST: Gordon Gould (John Latour), Evelyn Juster (Ilse Duschenes), Gilbert\nMack (Driver), Arnold Moss (Dr. Hazard).\nANCIENT SORCERIES (BBC 7, LONDON—BBC)\n[Thursday-Tuesday—6:30-7:00 PM]\nSeptember 1, 2005\n[1]\n[BBC 7: “…Timid commuter Arthur Vezin is struck by how the people of a\nsleepy French village resemble cats, both in looks and behaviour…”]\nSeptember 2, 2005\n[2]\n[BBC\n7: “…Vezin realises that despite the townsfolk’s apparent\nindifference, they are watching him closely…”]\nSeptember 5, 2005\n[3]\n[BBC 7: “…Vezin declares his love for Ilse but realizes that he may only\nhave fallen deeper into the clutches of her and her mother…”]\nSeptember 6, 2005\n[4]\n[BBC 7: “…Mother and daughter invite Vezin to join them in the witches’\nSabbath but Vezin is suspicious…”]\nBOOK AT BEDTIME—“ALGERNON BLACKWOOD GHOST STORIES (RADIO 4,\nLONDON)\n[Wednesday—\nAugust 2, 2006\n“Ancient Sorceries”\n[“…An Englishman staying in a sleepy French town makes a terrifying\ndiscovery…”]\nSCRIPT: Fiona McAlpine (abridger).\nPERSONNEL: Clive Brill (director), Hugh Ross (reader).",
  "sources": "",
  "gallery": "",
  "images": []
}