CARMILLA
[SHORT-STORY]
“Miss Fletcher will be remembered by Columbia network fans for her delightful whimsy, ‘My
Client, Curley,’ story of a caterpillar who danced like a cobra whenever anyone played ‘Yes Sir,
That’s My Baby.’
“Earle McGill, author of ‘Radio Directing,’ says the production is a challenge to the art of hiding
the real plot until the climax. ‘Carmilla’ McGill says, “is the story of a personality so disarming
that the most delicate nuances of character have to be guarded, so that when the awful truth
becomes known, the shock will be sudden—and the reaction correspondingly quick. Otherwise
we’ll all have insomnia.’”
[Northern Ireland Drama] “Sheridan Le Fanu’s classic novella Carmilla was published in the
1872 ghost story collection 'In a Glass Darkly', since when its influence can be traced on
everything from Bram Stoker’s novel 'Dracula' to Dreyer’s 1920s film 'Vampyr' and Hammer’s
lurid 1970s film 'The Vampire Lovers'. Le Fanu’s original is far more than a vampire story,
however, offering a love story plausible in its complexity, a subtle psychological study of
individuals at the mercy of the unknown, and an elegant chiller all in one.”
EXTANT RECORDINGS: “Carmilla” (The CBS Radio Mystery Theatre, July 31, 1975), “Carmilla”
(Nightfall, 11/20/81).
[CHRONOLOGY]
THE COLUMBIA WORKSHOP (WABC, NEW YORK—CBS)
[Sunday—
July 28, 1940 “Carmilla”
[“…‘Columbia Workshop’ audiences are in for the spine-tingling surprise
of their lives—plus an understandable desire to lock all the doors and
windows—when Director Earle McGill presents Lucille Fletcher’s
modernization of Sheridan Le Fanu’s ‘Carmilla’…”]
SCRIPT: Lucille Fletcher.
PERSONNEL: Earl McGill (director).
CAST: Peter Cappell (Tony), Jean Colbert, Maurice Franklin (Reverend
Witherspoon), William Johnstone (Dodge), Jeanette Nolan (Carmilla), Neal
O’Malley, Effie Palmer, Joan Tetzel (Helen Dodge)., Gladys Thornton (Mrs.
Wood), Tom Tully.
EXTANT RECORDING
UNUSUAL PEOPLE (WEVD, NEW YORK)
[Tuesday—10:30-11:00 PM]
March 6, 1945 “Carmilla”
SCRIPT: Lucille Fletcher.
PERSONNEL: Jack Curtis (announcer), Edward Ludlum (producer-director).
CAST: Michael Blair, Harriet Burke, Marion Chancer, Sterling Cheseldine, Helen
Thomas (Carmilla).
THE HALL OF FANTASY (WGN, CHICAGO)
[Monday—9:00-9:30 PM]
July 3, 1950 “The Tomb of Carmilla”
HALLOWEEN DRAMA (WFUV, NEW YORK)
[Thursday—8:00- PM]
October 31, 1957 “Carmilla”
[“…front the Gothic tale by Sheridan Le Fanu about a mysterious girl, a
moldering castle on the Rhine and manifestations of ancient evils…”]
THE CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATRE (WRVR, NEW YORK—CBS)
[???day—10:07-11:00 PM]
July 31, 1975 “Carmilla”
[“…Nineteen-year-old Laura Stanton, living with her father in an isolated
Austrian mansion, is delighted when one of the victims of a carriage
accident, 19-year-old Carmilla, agrees to stay with them. They become
very close friends until Laura learns who—and what—Carmilla really
is…”]
SCRIPT: Ian Martin.
PERSONNEL: Himan Brown (producer-director).
CAST: Court Benson (Dr. Zulig), Staats Cotsworth (Mr. Stanton), Martha
Greenhouse (Contessa), Mercedes McCambridge (Laura Stanton), Marian Seldes
(Carmilla).
EXTANT RECORDING
SEARS RADIO THEATER (
[Wednesday—
March 7, 1979 “Carmilla”
SCRIPT: Brainard Duffield.
PERSONNEL: Elliott Lewis (producer), Fletcher Markle (director), Vincent Price
(host, narrator).
CAST: Antoinette Bower, Ann Gibson, Anne Seymour, Olan Soule, et al.
EXTANT RECORDING
NIGHTFALL (TORONTO—CBC)
[Friday—7:30-8:00 PM]
November 20, 1981 “Carmilla”
[“…Vampire classic delves into the psychology of friendship between two
girls…”]
SCRIPT: John Douglas, Graham Pomeroy.
PERSONNEL: Bill Howell (producer).
CAST: Eve Crawford, Douglas Campbell, Maureen Fitzgerald, Dorothy Ann Haug,
Martha Henry, Eric House, Douglas Rain.
EXTANT RECORDING
AFTERNOON PLAY (RADIO 4, LONDON—BBC)
[???day—
June 5, 2003 “Carmilla”
SCRIPT: Don McCamphill.
PERSONNEL: Lawrence Jackson.
CAST: Brana Bajic (Carmilla), Kenneth Cranham (General Spielsdorf), Anne-
Marie Duff (Laura), Celia Imrie (Madame Perrodon), Jacqueline Pearce (The
Duchess), David Warner (Father).
[Sources]
“Spine Tingler Booked on Air Sunday Night.” Mason City Globe-Gazette (July 27, 1940).