Knock at the Door (LOUT)

A woman murders her impossible mother-in-law, but she refuses to stay dead.

Lights Out episodes are more misses than hits for me. I'm on the fence with this one, though. Oboler's writing is interesting. The stream-of-consciousness, rapid-fire, repetitive dialogue he gives to characters who are "losing it" becomes a familiar rhythm. (State Executioner is a good comparison.) I would put that observation in the plus column. In the negative column are the one dimensional characters. The husband is as impossibly stupid as the mother-in-law is controlling and the wife is cold-blooded. I guess the plot provides the deciding vote, and this is an undeniably creepy story.

According to radio historians, Oboler had a large ego and was a very polarizing individual; he thoroughly impressed some and completely annoyed others. It was common practice not to credit the other talents in Lights Out productions, which could have been the continuation of a precedent set by Willis Cooper (the original creator of the series) or an illustration of the fact that Obolor thought his stories were the real star.

Oboler had a unique style for churning out weekly scripts. To keep up with the demand, he would lie in bed at night, smoking cigarettes and improvising into a Dictaphone. He would even act out all the parts, creating the dialogue on the fly. In this way, he was able to complete a script quickly, sometimes in as little as 30 minutes, though he might take as long as three or four hours. In the morning, a stenographer would type up the recording for Oboler's revisions.

Lights Out #?
Knock at the Door
15 December 1942
19421215(xxx)_LOUT_KnockAtTheDoor.mp3
CBS. Sponsored by Ironized Yeast. Arch Oboler (host, writer), Frank Martin (announcer), cast uncredited.

Arch Oboler