Archive Update: Mystery Playhouse (Peter Lorre AFRS Classics)

1. Progress Metrics & Inventory Milestone

This report documents the transcription, captioning, and verbatim update, commencing our focused restoration of Mystery Playhouse—the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) series hosted by Peter Lorre that rebroadcast America's premier Golden Age radio mystery, crime, and supernatural anthology plays for Allied servicemen across global theaters during World War II.

2. Highlights

Every synopsis conforms strictly to the 100–180 character standard (story-first, dramatic action, high factual density, zero assistant boilerplate):

1. Mr. District Attorney Case Of The Backstage Murder

• Synopsis:

  Host Peter Lorre presents an AFRS Mystery Playhouse broadcast of Mister District Attorney investigating a fatal backstage stabbing during a live theater production.

• Background: Lorre opens with his trademark sinister whisper; Jay Jostyn stars as District Attorney Paul Garrett solving a locked-dressing-room murder.

2. Nero Wolfe And The Last Laugh Murder

• Synopsis:

  Host Peter Lorre presents an Armed Forces Radio Service rebroadcast of Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin solving the fatal poisoning of a wealthy practical joker.

• Background: Lorre delivers an affectionate monologue poking fun at sedentary armchair sleuths before Wolfe untangles an elaborate poisoned cigar mechanism.

3. Molle Mystery Theater Criminal At Large

• Synopsis:

  Host Peter Lorre presents an AFRS Mystery Playhouse edition of Molle Mystery Theater adapting Edgar Wallace classic tale of strangulation murders at Marks Priory.

• Background: Features Edgar Wallace's celebrated Scotland Yard Inspector Tanner interrogating aristocratic suspects following silk scarf strangulations.

4. Ellery Queen Dead Man's Cavern

• Synopsis:

  In an AFRS rebroadcast of The Adventures of Ellery Queen, the gentleman detective invites armed forces listeners to solve a murder inside Dead Mans Cavern.

• Background: Announcer Ernest Chappell introduces Ellery Queen as he pauses before the final act to challenge GI listeners stationed worldwide to deduce the killer.

5. Inner Sanctum The Walking Skull

• Synopsis:

  Host Peter Lorre opens the creaking door of Mystery Playhouse for an Inner Sanctum tale about a cursed unearthed skull that haunts a terrified grave digger.

• Background: Classic Himan Brown production featuring sound effect technician trowel scratches and eerie subterranean acoustics.

6. Those Who Walk In Darkness

• Synopsis:

  Host Peter Lorre presents a psychological thriller about a blind accident patient whose impending restoration threatens to expose the murderous identity of her caregiver.

• Background: Tense domestic melodrama culminating in a race against the clock as the surgeon prepares to remove optical bandages.

7. Hermit's Cave Mr. Randall's Discovery

• Synopsis:

  Host Peter Lorre welcomes servicemen to the macabre realm of The Hermits Cave for a supernatural radio thriller involving a terrifying occult discovery.

• Background: Rebroadcast from Detroit's WJR radio mystery series featuring the howling wind and cackling hermit opening.

8. Sherlock Holmes Adventure Of The Superfluous Pearl

• Synopsis:

  Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson investigate high society London jewel thefts and aristocratic deception in The Adventure of the Superfluous Pearl.

• Background: Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce star in an original radio drama written by Denis Green and Anthony Boucher.