Vincent Price Meets Poe in a Chilling Adaptation

Step into the mysterious world of Edgar Allan Poe as we unravel the captivating tale of "The Oblong Box," brought to life through the haunting art of radio drama.

Have you ever wondered how classic literature transforms into atmospheric audio experiences? 

Join us, Fran from Melancholy Mentor and Evan from Mystery Mythos, as we guide you through the chilling corridors of gothic storytelling. Discover the secrets behind the 1940s radio adaptation by The Weird Circle and the iconic 1969 film featuring legendary actors Vincent Price and Christopher Lee.

In our discussion, we explore the fascinating synergy between these adaptations and Poe's original vision, while also sharing our admiration for the cinematic giants who left an indelible mark on the genre.

Chapters

• 0:00 Poe's 'The Oblong Box' Radio Drama
• 7:24 Exploring Edgar Allan Poe's Mysterious Death

Transcript

Fran: 0:00

Hello everyone and welcome to Melancholy Mentor, where classic literature meets the vibrant world of radio plays. I'm Fran and I'm joined by Evan from Mystery Mythos. Together, we're your guides on this creative journey. During each episode, we'll dive into stories featured on the Melancholy Mentor channel, allowing fresh ideas to flourish, inspiring you to dream big and unlock your creative potential. Get comfy, open your mind and embrace curiosity.

Fran: 0:36

Let's get started hello, I'm Fran and I'm evan and today we're going to talk about the Oblong Box. Yes, so each week we're bringing you a highlight of a radio drama that we've got on our channel, melancholy Mentor, and this week it's the turn of the oblong box is by Edgar Allan Poe, and it explores the dark recesses of the human psyche and the mysteries that lie within. Wow, I know it sounds cool, doesn't it part of the description that we've got on the on the radio play?

Fran: 1:24

So I took it from there, and the story revolves around an unnamed narrator, which I feel like a lot of post stories revolve around an unnamed narrator, and the actual film for this was filmed in pool, and when I say film, I mean the film that we do. So what Evan and I do usually me, actually, I go around with a tripod and my phone and I film scenes around um paul in dorset. So it's usually paul, but sometimes it's a little bit of hampshire or there's other areas of um dorset that I film, and this was filmed at paul harbour. Now I wanted to say something about Poole harbour, because it's one of our favorite places, isn't it, evan?

Evan: 2:08

love it, absolutely love it.

Fran: 2:10

Yeah, Poole harbour, it's a natural harbour and it's actually a drowned valley, so I like that. It's a drowned valley formed at the end of the last ice age. The radio play itself is nearly 25 minutes long, so sometimes the videos that I do are looped, but it allows listeners to have the audio of the radio play, but they can also have just some video of the water or the sky or some boats to go along with it. And what we also do on the channel is we add some black screen um videos in for anybody that likes to sleep to them. So let's say a bit more about the, the oblong box.

Fran: 2:56

So it's a short story and it was first published in 1844 and it's about a sea voyage and a mysterious box now the actual recording I know. So it was first published in a newspaper called the dollar, so it's the dollar newspaper. I couldn't find out any information about this at all now, bearing in mind that um edgar allen po, he was actually born in 1809 and perished in 1840. Is it 49? Yes, so we've only got so much on his life. There's a lot online about his life, but this particular first publication of the Oblong Box in the Dollar Newspaper I couldn't find out anything else about the Dollar Newspaper, and I know a lot of the time we struggle to find out information about the radio plays. There's not a lot to be found about them, but you've got a little bit about this one, haven't you, evan?

Evan: 3:54

yeah, a little bit. This one is, it's by the weird circle and it was a radio drama series produced in new york, and it was actually broadcast between 1943 and 1945, that's all it ran for and it was showcasing like drama, suspense and kind of horror stuff and it lasted for like two they did like two seasons and it consisted of like 78 shows across the two seasons and the Oblom box was number 64. So now I'm wondering, you see, if it ran for two seasons and the oblong box?

Fran: 4:26

was number 64. So now I'm wondering you see, if it ran for two seasons and the oblong box is number 64 how many numbers it went up to um, I think, yeah, I think it was 78 shows.

Evan: 4:43

Yeah, it was 78 shows. So, and I think the first season was like 39, like went up to 39, and then it, and then it went into the second season.

Fran: 4:54

So yeah, because we featured them before on the channel and I know that there's. We don't know anything else about them, do we?

Evan: 5:03

no, there's not a great deal to to find out. I've kind of scoured the internet on this one. That's pretty much it.

Fran: 5:11

It just kind of repeats the same information you know so yeah, and so again, if anybody's got any information that they want to share with us that we highlight in these episodes, then by all means please do, and we're always open to learning more. And so Edgar Allan Poe was known for poetries and short stories, particularly tales involving mystery and the macabre, which I love as well. There's a movie based on the oblong box. Now, when I say based on it, I think it's very loosely based on on the on the actual original story, and the movie is a 1969 gothic horror and it's starring vincent price and christopher lee just very loosely based on it, and I've actually seen this movie.

Evan: 6:04

I want to see this but haven't got around to watching it. It's on my list. I've seen this movie years ago and.

Fran: 6:10

I really like it, because I've watched a lot of Vincent Price movies, christopher Lee, boris Karloff and Peter Cushing it's one of my favourites as well, so it'd be nice sometime if we could perhaps do a deeper dive into some of the actors and highlight some of the actresses as well that were featured in these in the movie adaptations of the radio dramas that you know are often originating from an actual book or a play, aren't they? To start with, we've got on the channel. So a little bit about christopher lee. It's a? english actor and he was born in 1922 and he perished in 2015, and he actually um had heart failure and he was 93 years old oh crikey yeah, incredible yeah yeah, amazing actor, and at the time it was said that he was the titan of the golden age of cinema yeah

Fran: 7:15

I love as well. What? What an accolade. That is amazing. Yeah, yeah, I turn up the golden ages. Cinema Sounds amazing. So, with in previous episodes, we've delved a little bit into the history of Edgar Allan Poe his life and very, very mysterious death. We've kind of delved into a couple of others, so I feel like we can do more of a deeper dive on that. Yeah, another time. And that's all we've got on the oblong box. So if you want to find out more about the actual story, go and listen to the radio player adaptation that we've got on the channel melancholy mentor, which is actually a really good recording. Yeah, listen to it now a couple of times and it's a nice recording. It's got some really good sound effects, isn't it in the background?

Fran: 8:04

yeah, yeah, it has yeah yeah, so I feel like a lot of work went into this one, and so please do go and take a listen to the oblong box by Edgar Allan Poe on Melancholy Mentor, and thank you for listening thank you bye.