Suspense : The Hitch-Hiker
Mercury Theater (US 1942)
29 min Episode 45 of 52
The Audio equivalent of a black and white matinée film, narrated by a young Orson Welles. (Citizen Kane) We are pulled in with the question; Who doesn't like a good ghost story? No blood or gore, just a shocker, a thriller, a real Orson Wells story. Sometimes you want your heart to be warmed and sometime you want your spine to tingle.
Wells plays the protagonist Ronald Adams who comes across a mysterious hitchhiker as he drives across the States in his Buick. This radio play takes the listener to another era but the production is so good - and to think this was all done live!
There’s even a Patreon style plea at the end to Mrs and Mrs American working man and woman to lend Uncle Sam a dime to help win the war against the Nazis. It’s revelatory.
And if you’e never heard the original War of the Worlds by H G Wells, it’s really worth a listen (Also produced by the Mercury Theatre)