BLACK VENGEANCE
[RADIO-SCRIPT]
“Introduced with ‘inward trepidation’ and with a warning to the nervous, the
elderly, the invalid, and even to those living alone…”
[BBC title card] “A century before, Sir George Fellowes’ grandfather interfered
with black magic practised by negro slaves on his West Indian settlement. The
sudden appearance of a black man in Sir George’s house makes him realise that
after all this time they still mean to have their vengeance and he eventually dies
of terror.”
This “tale of fear” was, as far as can be determined, the sole radio play written by
Mrs. St. Loe Strachey, widow of the late editor of The ???, lifelong advocate of
children’s welfare, and the author of several novels and memoirs.
[Manchester Guardian, September 4, 1935] “Mr. Peter Creswell, the producer,
should have plenty of opportunities for proving the elasticity of the microphone
tonight.”
[K. H., Manchester Guardian, September 5, 1935] “It is a pity from the
dramatic point of view that the conscience of the B.B.C. dictates these solemn
warnings, for they have the effect of bracing the listener’s nerves before the play
begins, and instead of horror creeping upon him as the story proceeds the nerves
slowly relax. Prepared for the worst in horror and terror, he finds invariably that
the worst is by no means as bad as he had anticipated, and by the end of the play
he is feeling quite pleased with the way he has faced the ordeal.
“ ‘Black Vengeance’ was an interesting play, and produced from the actors some
fine studies of fear, varying from uneasiness to terror, but in the Yorkshire
sequence the author’s purpose was defeated by the use of sound effects in what
should have been an eerie and frightening silence. The drums which were
supposed to be heard by one man—and he referred to them only obliquely,--and
to others were a mere vibration, were altogether too loud and real. When the
alleged silence was lifted and the natural sounds of the country could be heard
effects once more were responsible for a relaxing of tension; the twitter of birds,
the cuckoo’s note, and the barking of dogs, though doubtless accurate recordings,
had an artificial and even faintly comical sound. Left in the hands of the actors,
without so many effects, the play would have been far more telling.”
[Program information]
ORIGINATION: National and Regional Programmes, London (BBC).
DURATION: September 4-5, 1935.
PERSONNEL: Peter Creswell (producer), Mrs. St. Loe Strachey (scriptwriter).
CAST: Lindesay Baxter, Nigel Clarke, Malcolm Graeme, Carleton Hobbs, Ethel
Lodge, Charles Maunsell, Cyril Nash, Leon Quartermaine, George Sanders, Philip
Thornton, D. A. Ward
EXTANT RECORDINGS: None.
[Program log]
(NATIONAL PROGRAMME, LONDON)
[Wednesday—8:00-8:50 PM]
September 4, 1935 “Black Vengeance”
[“…described as a ‘tale of fear’… Mrs. St. Loe Strachey, who
has written it for Broadcasting, has based it, we are told, ‘on
the dark mysteries of Voodoo, the occult power that the
oppressed slaves
of the West Indies brought with them from Africa as their
sole weapon against their tyrants… The black man’s
vengeance pursues the great- grandson of a planter who got
involved with Voodoo more than 100 years ago. The action
starts in London, travels to Yorkshire, and then flashes back
to the shadows of a sugar plantation in the West Indies over
a hundred years ago before returning to Yorkshire…”]
(REGIONAL PROGRAMME, LONDON)
[Thursday—9:10-10:00 PM]
September 5, 1935 “Black Vengeance”