May 12, 2008 - 740711 - The Devil God

[wadenjulie]

This week's CBSRMT Show of the Week is presented
by forum member Kurt Wayne:

740711 The Devil God 32kbps (http://rapidshare.com/files/114507321/74-07-11_-__0117__-__32-22_44m04s_-_The_Devil-God.mp3) (11MB)

written by Mary Jane Higby; starring Ruby Dee,
Mandel Kramer, Leon Janny, Guy Sorrell.

Encode quality: Good
Episode #117
Commercials and News: No
Station: Unknown
Preview: No

Click link above to download mp3 .
Link may expire in 45 days due to storage limitations.

This show presented in honour of "Tornado Week",
historically the most active week for tornadoes in the
U.S. The great sound effects in this episode depict
severe weather, of which I am all too familiar.

[Kurt Wayne]

Understood, my friend. We had a supercell go over us Saturday dropping a tornado on the south side of Bentonville...making it THREE SUPERCELLS/WALL CLOUDS within view of our Bentonville house this year. And I'm so sad that this most recent storm system brought so much tragedy to our states of Oklahoma and Missouri.

Back to the RMT.

This play could have been a flop for three reasons:

1. The voice of Mandel Kramer - rather than sounding like a "young, blond husband", I think of someone more like Morley Safer whenever I hear that very talented yet at-the-time aging actor's voice.

2. The voice of Ruby Dee - a beautiful, talented lady to be sure, but again, she has a clearly African-American voice that seemed a bit unusual for a western land heiress (though not impossible).

3. The voice of Guy Sorrel - he was peerless in our former two-time SOTW "The hand" as a big English baron with a sinister, dangerous secret in his past, but as a young American Indian...well...(Trivia: Mr. Sorrel is another one of those RMT actors you just can't find a picture of. But he was married to a fellow RMT actor, Mary Jane Higby.)

But this episode still "works" for me. It's got a rich blend of writing, sound effects and music, plus the one perfectly cast voice of the wonderful Leon Janny.

- Also, note how Kramer's characters and Dee's characters outlooks change and go in opposite directions...first he's timid and she's bold, but she ends up the timid one while he challenges "Chin-dee" or whatever thing's name was.

- I hate the name of this program...but it's still a fascinating story, and like the aforementioned "The hand" may or may not have a supernatural cause behind it.

[omr]

... Mr. Sorrel is another one of those RMT actors you just can't find a picture of. But he was married to a fellow RMT actor, Mary Jane Higby. ...You're right: it's not easy to find a photo of Mr. Sorel online.

I can find only one. In a 1979 New York Times article
(available from the NYT web archives, but unfortunately
not (http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10616FC385511728DDDA80994DA405B 898BF1D3) for free, there is a fuzzy photo of a scene from
WNET's 1976 historical drama series "The Adams Chronicles",
third episode: "John Adams, Diplomat", with Guy Sorel
in costume in his role as the Count de Vergennes.

By the way -- that award-winning series
was finally released on DVD last month.
http://www.amazon.com/Adams-Chronicles/dp/B0013NAML0/

Mary Jane Higby and Guy Sorel both appeared in
"The Honeymoon Killers" (1970).
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064437/
http://www.amazon.com/Honeymoon-Killers-Criterion-Collection/dp/B00009MEA3

-- omr

[Mike Hobart]

740711 The Devil God

There is a drastic change in volume between Act One and the rest of the story.

I've tried to fix this with Audacity.

A file with more uniform sound levels can be downloaded here:

http://www.mediafire.com/?mhxjwe2c92e

[wadenjulie]

Thank you, Mike.

[Mike Hobart]

This play could have been a flop for three reasons. But this episode still "works" for me. It's got a rich blend of writing, sound effects and music, plus the one perfectly cast voice of the wonderful Leon Janny. Also, note how Kramer's characters and Dee's characters outlooks change and go in opposite directions...first he's timid and she's bold, but she ends up the timid one while he challenges "Chin-dee" or whatever thing's name was.

I tend to agree with this. Sometimes stories about curses can be pretty bland, because at the start of the story the hero is told he'll die if he does something, he does it and he dies. The End. But this one kept my attention all the way through. The actors did good job of bringing their characters to life, and the sound effects were convincing.

And Ruby Dee as a ranch heiress? - hey, that's the magic of radio!

[CardsFan]

Just as rain is often used to good effect in films (Roger Ebert discusses this in his commentary on the "Citizen Kane" DVD), storms liven up radio dramas. Mix in rain and you have instant spooky atmosphere. Off the top of my head, I cannot think of an RMT that utilized storm sound effects with more impact than this episode. This show was strong from beginning to end, with a well done conclusion.

[Frozen Ink]

I can think of one episode that had a great storm effect... The Man-Sized in Marble. The sound of the storm is great at the end. Not that it is the greatest, it just really adds to the excitement of the story.