The misanthropic master of the war and horror story, Bierce was not really discovered by
broadcasters until the 1940s.
Witch’s Tale in an adaptation by Alonzo Deen Cole entitled “The Deserter” (January 23, 1933;
revived May 30, 1935). No recording of this adaptation exists, but fortunately several versions of
the superb dramatization by the major radio writer-producer William N. Robson do. Robson’s
adaptation – loyally entitled "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” – premiered on Escape
(December 10, 1947, starring Harry Bartell) and was revived three times on Suspense (December
9, 1956, starring Victor Jory; December 15, 1957, starring Joseph Cotton; and July 19, 1959,
starring Vincent Price). Although all three performances ostensibly used the same script, close
scrutiny reveals a number of differences between the scripted text and each performance, a result
of live broadcasts and the individual stamp given to the central role by actors as diverse but
equally accomplished as Joseph Cotton and Vincent Price. Regardless of the peculiar nuances and
differences between the various performances, the impact of Bierce’s tale is undiminished.
Indeed, the bleak, ironic twist of Bierce’s most famous short story creates a paradigm in radio
horror which is repeated, copied, or honored in countless other examples of the genre. The
statement in the preamble to the Escape broadcast that “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” is
"one of the great short stories in American literature” becomes, by the time it is revived and
revised for Suspense, an assertion to the listener that the story is a “true classic," the great
exception in a literary world of short fiction in which “few are memorable, fewer still are classics."
For one of the “true classics” of fiction, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” is remarkable for its
economy: Bierce’s short story is characterized by its concision (it is considerably less than 4000
words in length) and a quality of honed yet vivid description that is almost imagistic. Like an
Imagist poet, Bierce believes in the efficacy of the “hard, clear image,” [4] yet can startlingly shift
gear into a descriptive mode which could even be described as impressionistic; for example,
“Objects were represented by their colors only; circular horizontal streaks of color.” [5] The
economy of the story is not simply with regard to description; it is a simple tale with minimal
exposition, its three short sections painting three detailed scenes or three dramatic episodes. The
grotesque finale of the story is like a “punch line” to bitter Bierce’s hideous joke. The story reveals,
as Cathy N. Davidson writes, “the fatal presumption that war can have a happy ending.” [6] The
tale ingenuously exploits the reader’s naiveté in hoping for one. In hindsight, all the clues to the
ending are there: the ages it takes Farquhar to awaken after falling into the water and his other
deliriums; his impossibly microscopic visions and the fact that his run through the forest “seemed
interminable” (312); the haunting “whispers in an unknown tongue” (312). The story is also an
exploration of mortality in universal terms: the precision of Farquhar’s vision when he resurfaces
from the creek may be mocking irony or it may be a revelation of the return to dust. In other
words, the “audible music” (310) of spider’s legs and “the prismatic colors in all the dewdrops
upon a million blades of grass” (310) signify that Farquhar is at one with creation. Similarly, with
the benefit of hindsight, the story has a mythic connotation. The “Federal scout” (308) is a Grim
Reaper, the bringer of death who ultimately visits everyone, while the river of life and escape is
really the River Styx, the dizzying “vortex” (311) that represents Farquhar’s journey into oblivion.
Despite such mythic connotations, the fact that the story is set in a Civil War context lends the
work, on first reading, the possibility of being real and even anecdotal – a tale of real life
adventure and survival – although at the end of the story specific history crumbles and universal
horror prevails.
William N. Robson’s radio adaptation of Bierce’s mythic story presents a highly complex
narrative. The radio play broadly shares the same structure – indeed, in one of the broadcasts it is
specifically described as having three acts. However, the first act adapts section I of the short
story along with some of section III (the breaking of the noose and the beginnings of Farquhar’s
escape). This is because Robson’s adaptation reworks Bierce’s tale as a suspense thriller in what
was a highly competitive market; radio drama needed to hook the listeners and ensure that they
can resist the temptation to retune their radios. Therefore, the first few minutes (approximately
four minutes) are highly dramatic and suspenseful: we need to know what will happen and, even
if we are familiar with the original tale, we still need to know how the tale will be told. Another
important technique employed by Robson is a shift in narrative point of view. We, the listeners,
are often implicated: you are Peyton Farquhar; the bullet lodges under “your collar,” not “his
collar." At the same time, the action is framed – and occasionally interrupted – by an objective
account and description of Farquhar. Occasionally, Farquhar becomes a first-person narrator. In
the 1959 Suspense version, these moments are given heightened treatment with Vincent Price
using a mechanical filter which distorts and distances his voice to emphasize that it is a moment
of interior monologue, as well as lending it an uncanny quality. The adaptation also develops a
significant amount of exposition and narrative embellishment. Frequently, this is achieved as an
expansion on existing Bierce material. For example, the adaptation develops some of the short
story into a highly lyrical and even philosophical mode. As Farquhar awaits his execution we hear
his thoughts from the brink of death:
Who has come back from the dead to tell what dying is like? I don’t recall any childhood
memories now. The past does not engulf me in this naked moment. I am only aware of what’s
here, now: those Yankees lined up on the bank; the captain’s tired eyes; that turkey buzzard
circling up there, waiting for me . . .
Such material adds dimensions to Farquhar’s character. Other expansions have a more
expositionary function, simply making the story clearer and, for a performance in the genre of
suspense, more gripping. There is, for instance, a major expansion of the retrospective section II
in which the “gray-clad soldier” (307) arrives at the Farquhar plantation. The few, succinct lines
of dialogue in the short story are embellished in Robson’s adaptation to create a fuller dramatic
scene with Farquhar, his wife and, as the adaptation has it, the “confederate corporal” underneath
the “magnolia trees” on the plantation. This includes Civil War detail such as a discussion of the
war and the corporal describing the Alabama regiment he belongs to (later in the play he is
revealed to be a lieutenant in a Massachusetts regiment). The scene concludes with a clear set-up
for Farquhar’s entrapment, the corporal riding off on his horse after coaxing Farquhar into
sabotage with the words “You couldn’t do a greater service for your country.” The substantial
expansion of this scene in the process of adaptation creates a more dramatically gripping episode
inasmuch as it develops the sense of conspiracy and covert sabotage in a style similar to the many
adventure, espionage, and hardboiled crime dramas of the same period. A scene like this is
designed to hold the listener’s attention and awaken their curiosity, making one wonder “Will
Farquhar see it through? What will go wrong?” and so on.
If the plantation scene is an example of the expansion of original Bierce material, some other
scenes are complete additions. Robson adds a scene in which Farquhar is entrapped and
summarily tried. This partly serves to reinforce the Civil War setting of the play but it also
intensifies the drama, permitting Farquhar’s desperate plea for his life in the presence of an
officer who sentences the “southern patriot” Farquhar to death for his intended treason. This
scene evokes pity for Farquhar (another strategy to hook the attention of the listener), yet the
most important addition to the play is morally complex and is condemnatory of Farquhar – a
decision which ultimately enables the listener to assuage the shock and horror of Farquhar’s grim
fate. When Farquhar clambers out of the water, he is assisted by a man on the riverbank fishing
for catfish. The man turns out to be Jethro, Farquhar’s former slave. The narrator informs us that
Farquhar – or rather “you” – sold Jethro knowing that he was dying of consumption. Farquhar is
astonished that Jethro is still alive, but rather than being riddled with remorse, the increasingly
unpleasant and egotistical Farquhar believes that Jethro will exact revenge. But Jethro is imbued
with altruism and forgiveness, declaring, “I’m free! I’m free at last!” Farquhar’s inner narrative
responds with contempt that Jethro has subscribed to Abraham Lincoln’s “traitorous
emancipation proclamation.” The fact that the terminally ill Jethro is still alive is a clue to
Farquhar’s genuine fate, but Robson promptly steers us away from any further suggestion of the
supernatural when the dreaded “gray-clad soldier” returns on horseback looking for the fugitive
Farquhar. Jethro helps Farquhar hide, after which the latter swiftly departs, interpreting Jethro’s
drawn knife as a sign that “he’s gonna do you in himself” despite the former slave’s assertion that
he is merely going to “slit up them catfish."
The most successful plays in the genre of suspense radio are able to reach an unambiguous
climax. The radio listener must be able to comprehend lucidly what is happening in the
denouement of the play, no matter how ironic, fantastical, or downright implausible it may be.
Robson’s play succeeds in doing this in an inexorable final section that builds from the narrator’s
question “How long have you been running down this endless road?,” a line that serves as
Robson’s equivalent to Bierce’s “interminable” forest. The listener is cast into absolute darkness
which is either night or “blood bursting into your congested eyeballs.” However, a burst of
lightning (accompanied by the classic and ever-popular radio sound effect of thunder) reveals a
world of fierce Yankee soldiers “aiming at your heart,” Jethro baring his knife and his teeth and,
ultimately, nooses swinging from all the branches. The sequence ends in a piercing scream and
then the glorious sunshine as Farquhar finds himself in his garden. The moment of reunion with
his wife is expanded into a romantic and lyrical scene accompanied by appropriately sentimental
music: all the agonies of Farquhar’s journey and fatigue are nothing compared to the “sanctuary
of these arms, the security of these lips.” However, Robson is merely deploying a strategy of
misdirection. The seemingly happy ending is a technique to heighten the shocking final line:
“Peyton Farquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to side beneath
the timbers of the Owl Creek bridge.” The line is uttered by the framing narrator and is
accompanied by the rhythmically creaking sound of the swinging noose.
The creaking sound of the noose is one of the finest moments in Robson’s elaborate soundscape.
The adaptation and the brilliant skills of the live sound effects technicians variously create the
sounds of the waters of Owl Creek (varying from a gentle lapping to the frenzy of a whirlpool), the
echoing sounds of military commands, the crack of muskets and the boom of cannons, the
croaking frogs on the riverbank and even an exact replication of Bierce’s description of “the
humming of the gnats” (310). Similarly, the use of orchestral music (once again performed live on
air) enhances the production. On Escape, the score uses a register that is both lyrical and
harmonious, with the interjection of dramatic chords as a punctuational strategy. The music for
Suspense, however, is more consistently sinister, using eerie dissonances merging with military
bugle sounds. In both programs, descriptive music, such as descending scales for Farquhar’s fall
into the creek, is used. In Escape and all but the final production on Suspense, an ingenious
dramatic twist makes use of music: the narrative is accompanied by the increasing, rhythmic
beating of timpani, which is explained thus: “it’s your heart, of course, you hear, stepping up its
cadence, pounding under the forced graft of fear."
Despite differences in music, William N. Robson’s adaptation of “An Occurrence at Owl Creek
Bridge” remains broadly unchanged across Escape and Suspense. The actors cast as Farquhar all
capture and convey a distinct southern accent, although the broadness of dialect may vary. It is,
arguably, at its most broad in Harry Bartell’s performance on Escape, although, in contrast,
Jethro’s accent in the same production is less broad than in the 1950s versions. Probably the least
pronounced accent is Vincent Price’s in the 1959 production. Although Price adds considerable
southern “drawl” to certain words, such as “writhe” (lengthening the word emphatically). Overall,
the lack of heavy accentuation on Price’s part retains the distinctive quality of his own voice: Price
was one of the leading stars of golden age radio, not least as the lead star on The Saint (1947-51),
and in notable horror plays such as “Three Skeleton Key” (several productions on Suspense in the
1950s). Any radio producers who secured Price would not want their listeners to be in any doubt
as to the identity of the leading actor. In addition to Price’s performance, the other notable feature
of the final production of “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” on Suspense is that it is
considerably shorter. The Escape and other Suspense productions are all around the 25-28
minute range. In contrast, the 1959 Suspense production is around a mere eighteen minutes, very
short for the standard “thirty-minute slot.” This major reduction primarily dispenses with some of
Robson’s longer descriptive material and lyrical exposition, although it retains the additional
scenes such as the entrapment retrospective and the encounter with Jethro. What this sharper
adaptation produces is a succinct, thrilling journey that never lets up its thunderous pace and is
perhaps more in keeping with the concision and pace of Bierce’s original.
Although the last adaptation of “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” in the golden age of live
radio may have aimed for unprecedented concision, the most significant radio adaptation after
the golden age could not have been more different. Sam Dann’s dramatization of Bierce’s tale for
the pre-recorded CBS Radio Mystery Theater (June 4, 1974 and repeated on August 24, 1974 and
September 15, 1979) is near the forty-five minute mark in duration and turns the story into a full
drama with several characters, lengthy exposition, and substantial embellishment. These
embroideries reflected the ambitious attempt, during the 1970s, to revive American radio drama:
the longer time slot made demands on narrative sweep. The actions of, in this version, “Peyton
Forrester” are not part of a cunning entrapment but a calculated collaborative sabotage in which
his accomplice is killed. Forrester’s attempt fails, but he escapes Union custody and attempts to
blow up the bridge again. In another major plot change, the moment that Forrester thinks he has
succeeded in blowing up the bridge is the moment he hangs, dead, from Owl Creek Bridge. Dann’s
adaptation also develops the drama of the Civil War, including the domestic ructions caused by a
nation at war (“We’ve lost, we’ve lost, Peyton!” says Forrester’s wife, disapproving of her
husband’s terrorist plot). Similarly, Dann uses the development of several other characters to
expand the setting and scene of the play. At the start, for example, a Union officer supports a
young soldier who declares “I’m gonna be sick!” as the execution is about to occur. However, as
laudable and rich as Dann’s adaptation is, it does diminish the intensity of Bierce’s original tale
and the live radio versions. Similarly, although the slightly different ending may be ingenious, it is
not as powerful, poignant or disturbing as Bierce’s sex (Eros) and death (Thanatos) ending with
Farquhar – in the cruellest irony of frustrated desire – dying as he is about to embrace his wife.
October 14, 1940“The Man and the Snake”
finally resulted in his death…”]
Nelson Olmsted.
Nelson Olmsted (reader).
Oct. 30, 1940“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” ???????????
[
January 2, 1942“A Horseman in the Sky”
Nelson Olmsted.
Nelson Olmsted (reader).
March 7, 1942“A Man with Two Lives” / “Roast Pig”
September 9, 1942“The Man and the Snake”
February 9, 1943“The Man and the Snake”
Mel
Eva La Gallienne (host, reader), Rosa Rio (organist).
[
September 2, 1943“A Horseman in the Sky”
J. G. Sarasin (adapter).
APPOINTMENT WITH FEAR (THE LIGHT PROGRAMME)
April 27, 1944“A Watcher by the Dead” (Ambrose Bierce; JDC)
October 12, 1944“The Devil’s Manuscript” (JDC)
Circa 1945“The Middle Toe of the Right Foot”
APPOINTMENT WITH FEAR (THE LIGHT PROGRAMME, LONDON—BBC)
October 30, 1945“He Wasn’t Superstitious”
[
“Young man comes to blackmail wife of doctor who
keeps snakes—he is scornful of the power of snakes to attract—but when
he imagines he sees one in his bedroom he is drawn towards it—imagines
it strikes him and dies of shock. It was a stuffed voodoo snake put there
by native servant.”]
John Dickson Carr (adapted from the story “The Man and the Snake”).
April 16, 1946“A Watcher by the Dead”
John Dickson Carr.
October 15, 1946“A Watcher by the Dead”
January 15, 1947“A Horseman in the Sky”
September 18, 1947“The Man and the Snake”
[
December 10, 1947“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”
Harry Bartell, William Conrad, William Johnstone, Luis Van Rooten.
January 14, 1949“The Man and the Snake”
February 14, 1949“The Middle Toe of the Right Foot”
John Keir Cross (scriptwriter).
[
December 9, 1956“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”
January 16, 1957“The Waxwork” / “The Man and the Snake”
December 15, 1957“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”
Harry Bartell, William Conrad, Joseph Cotton, Jack Kruschen, Lou
Merrill, Ellen Morgan.
June 16, 1959
by Prof. Theodore G. Ehrsam…”]
July 19, 1959“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”
CAST: Norman Alden, Sam Edwards, Cathy Lewis, Roy Glenn, Barney
Phillips, Sam Pierce, Vincent Price.
DREADFUL JOHN AT MIDNIGHT (WKCR, NEW YORK)
[
Circa 1960s“Oil of Dog”
LE THEATRE DE L’ETRANGE (FRANCE INTER AND INTER VARIETES)
July 18, 1965“La Route au clair de lune”
(THIRD PROGRAMME, LONDON)
[
May 26, 1969“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”
PERSONNEL: Christopher Whelan (libretto and music).
STORIES BY AMBROSE BIERCE (THIRD PROGRAMME, LONDON)
[
May 30, 1969“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”
THE CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER (WRVR, NEW YORK)
June 4, 1974“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”
service in the Southern Army, is caught by the Yankees as he
unsuccessfully attempts to blow up the railroad bridge over Owl Creek
and thus isolate the entire Union army. Union troops catch him in the
act. Forrester is convinced that nothing can harm him after the rope
wraps around his neck—and the rope miraculously snaps. Forrester now
swims for his life, dodging the bullets of Union troops, and plans another
attempt at dynamiting the bridge…”]
CAST: Mildred Clinton (Millicent), Jack Grimes (Woody), Leon Janney
(Corporal), William Prince (Peyton Forrester), William Redfield (Robbie
Tompkins).
Sam Dann (scriptwriter—1974,CBS Radio Mystery Theater).
December 31, 1977
January 3, 1978
January 4, 1978
January 5, 1978
January 6, 1978
October 31, 1978“A Horseman in the Sky”
November 1, 1978“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”
THE CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER (WRVR, NEW YORK)
November 20, 1978“The Thing at Nolan”
Ozark Mountains in 1879, is the first member of the family to learn how
to read, a skill that causes him to develop some new-fangled notions: that
women should not be mistreated and that he doesn’t have to help his
father seven days a week. The result is a fatherly punch in the face, which
John vows his father will soon regret…”]
CAST: Court Benson (Charles May), Russell Horton (John May), Arnold
Moss (Harry Odell), Bryna Raeburn (Elvira May).
Arnold Moss (scriptwriter—1978,CBS Radio Mystery Theater)
September 23, 1980(1)
September 24, 1980(2)
September 25, 1980(3)
September 26, 1980(4)
[
September 21, 1990“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”
AnOccurrence at
Owl Creek Bridge, by Ambrose Bierce. It is a tale of the U.S. Civil War,
and when we meet Peyton Farquhar, a civilian citizen of the Confederacy,
he is about to meet his fate at the hands of Union soldiers…”]
[
Circa 2000“El Guardian”
Circa 2000“El funeral de John Mortonson” / “La alucinacion deStanley
Fleming” / “Un habitante de Carcosa”
Hand, Richard J. “Reanimating Peyton Farquhar: The Adaptations of Ambrose Bierce’s ‘An Occurrence at
Owl Creek Bridge’ in American Radio and Television.”TheABP Journal(Fall 2005).