
The Mercury Theatre on the Air, Vol. 1
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Narrated by:
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Orson Welles
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full cast
About this listen
The Mercury Theatre was an independent repertory company founded in New York City in 1937 by Orson Welles and producer John Houseman, who is best known for his Oscar-winning performance as Professor Charles Kingsfield in the The Paper Chase. After a series of acclaimed stage productions, Welles and his Mercury Theatre were offered theirown weekly hour-long radio program over the CBS radio network. Here Welles - along with Agnes Moorehead, Ray Collins, Joseph Cotten, Alice Frost, Martin Gabel, and others - presented powerful adaptations of literary classics with Bernard Herrman as composer and conductor.
Considered by many critics as the finest dramatic hour on radio, The Mercury Theatre on the Air was without a sponsor until a single broadcast changed all that: The War of the Worlds.
Episodes include "Dracula", starring Martin Gabel, Agnes Moorehead, George Coulouris, Ray Collins, and Karl Swenson; "A Tale of Two Cities", starring Martin Gabel, Ray Collins, Edgar Barrier, Frank Readick, and Kenny Delmar; "Abraham Lincoln", starring Orson Welles as Lincoln, plus Ray Collins, George Coulouris, Karl Swenson, Agnes Moorehead, Carl Frank, and William Allen; "The Count of Monte Cristo", starring Orson Welles, Ray Collins, Eustace Wyatt, George Coulouris, and Edgar Barrier; " The Immortal Sherlock Holmes", starring Orson Welles, Ray Collins, Edgar Barrier, Alfred Shirley, William Allen, and Arthur Anderson; and "Around the World in Eighty Days", starring Orson Welles, Al Swenson, Arlene Francis, Edgar Barrier, Frank Readick, and Ray Collins.
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Overall
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Performance
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Made as a prequel to the hit film The Third Man, this radio show was created to follow the adventures of the popular character Harry Lime, played here and in the movie by Orson Welles. The 1949 film The Third Man won an Academy Award and was an international success, called "magic" by Roger Ebert and "one of the finest films ever made" by The New York Times.
-
-
Re: Fun stories
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By: Hollywood 360
-
Third Man
- By: Original Radio Broadcast
- Narrated by: Orson Welles, Old Time Radio
- Length: 7 hrs and 26 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
He's a con man, a manipulator, and a master of every form of deception. He'll look you right in the eye and rob you blind...but you won't care, because he's one of the most fascinating men you'll ever meet! He's Harry Lime - and before he met a memorable end in The Third Man, he cut a broad swath across most of the inhabited globe!
-
Mercury Theatre: Julius Caesar - September 11, 1938
- By: Orson Welles
- Narrated by: Orson Welles
- Length: 1 hr and 6 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Mercury Theatre on the Air, a radio series created by Orson Welles, presented adaptations of classic literary works. These were performed by actors from Welles' celebrated Mercury Theatre repertory company, with music composed or arranged by Bernard Herrmann.
-
-
Great play, but what were they saying?
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By: Orson Welles
-
Ghost Stories: Stephen Fry's Definitive Collection
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- Narrated by: Stephen Fry
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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-
-
Wonderful narration. Mediocre stories.
- By Michael Fuchs on 11-07-23
By: Stephen Fry, and others
-
Cinema Speculation
- By: Quentin Tarantino
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Quentin Tarantino
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In addition to being among the most celebrated of contemporary filmmakers, Quentin Tarantino is possibly the most joyously infectious movie lover alive. For years he has touted in interviews his eventual turn to writing books about films. Now, with Cinema Speculation, the time has come, and the results are everything his passionate fans—and all movie lovers—could have hoped for. Organized around key American films from the 1970s, all of which he first saw as a young moviegoer at the time, this book is as intellectually rigorous and insightful as it is rollicking and entertaining.
-
-
A letdown I didn't see coming.
- By polycow on 11-03-22
-
Dimension X
- Adventures in Time & Space
- By: Robert Heinlein, Kurt Vonnegut, Ray Bradbury
- Narrated by: Staats Cotsworth, Raymond Edward Johnson, Les Damon, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 50 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door." A new crop of writers emerged from the dawning of the nuclear age, grappling with humankind's place in the universe. While imagining the wonders of space exploration and the rise of technological advancements, they questioned whether we were prepared to encounter aliens, or even control the machines and weapons we'd built ourselves.
-
-
The "Grand Daddy" of Radio Science Fiction
- By C. Orena on 02-20-16
By: Robert Heinlein, and others
What listeners say about The Mercury Theatre on the Air, Vol. 1
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- cd listener
- 06-09-23
Mercury treater
Ordóñez Welles and his company at their best. Classic OTR. Lots of well known cast members.
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