Alonzo Deen Cole’s radio script borrows heavily from Balzac’s story “The Executioner,” but
transposes the story from the Napoleonic campaigns in Spain to the French Revolution and
imposes a supernatural denouement.
Cole himself maintained descent from an aristocratic family that was uprooted by the French
Revolution and the Reign of Terror. This motif of revolutionary bloodshed and cruelty informs a
number of his scripts, including “The Lady of the Guillotine” and “Physician to the Dead.”
November 8, 1933“The Altar”
Alonzo Deen Cole (scriptwriter, director).
October 11, 1935“The Altar”
about a son who was given his life but at the expense of becoming his
parents’ executioner.”]
January 13, 1938“The Altar of Hate”
Circa 1941“The Altar of Hate”