This week we’re listening to the earlier of Agnes Moorehead’s two performances of “The Yellow Wallpaper” from Suspense! Our thanks to Mark for recommending this adaptation of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story! A new mother is being kept by her husband in a room adorned with yellow wallpaper, allegedly for her health. Is her madness causing her to see things in the wallpaper’s pattern? Are the things hiding in the pattern driving her mad? Is this secretly a really disturbing episode of the Shadow? Listen for yourself and find out! Then vote and let us know what you think!
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Thank you so much for doing this! Agnes Moorehead is, indeed, amazing. It was interesting to hear you all discuss the episode, especially situating it in radio history, both in terms of casting and the context of the typical “Suspense” approach.
Regarding Joshua’s invitation at 43:31 to listeners who weren’t familiar with the original story: I was not and I confess that if I’d heard this without any introduction, I would have expected a “Suspense twist” – like the woman committed some horrible act in the room and suffered amnesia, and the ugly wallpaper was there to disguise the room and avoid triggering her memory.
I listen to your show this morning a dark journey. I had never heard the show before in my take was that the husband and Jerry could’ve been possibly in some sort of relationship and also of the room I was thinking and then possibly a torture area or a place for children were abused initially specially with the rings And the marks on the wall. It was a great performance and thanks a lot for bringing this to me
(I’m moving this to The Yellow Wallpaper, I think that’s the episode you mean…) Those sinister implications about both Jerry and the room seem disturbingly plausible. Thanks for the comment!
This is the kind of creepy that gets under your skin. I was physically shrinking at times, my shoulders hunching in.
Classic radio drama! I’d never heard this until just now.
Jesus H. Christ
Two things. Never heard the story before, but found it suspenseful and while ‘a twist’ is a common characteristic of old time radio, I feel it is more the domain of the shocker or sensationalist kind of radio. There are many Poe stories without such a twist. I think the previous Tell Tale Heart adaption was a clumsy attempt at a twist, so I can see where Joshua is coming from. Speaking to the malice of the Doctor and his sister, there is a single comment the sister makes that really shows the evil of the times and those people… Read more »
I’ve just realized from your review about the room with the yellow wallpaper where the Agnes Moosehead’s character goes insane, that it is already a padded cell. The bed bolted to the floor, the bars, mean it’s for an inmate. The husband and sister try to convince her it’s a guest room but she is definitely confined. They already believe she’s mad and are humoring her hoping she’ll improve. Does Jenny ever call her anything but “pet?” She’s a captive and she was never going to leave there a free woman. Such a great story !