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Escape - "The Time Machine - Jeff Corey" (Old Time Radio, 1948) · The 50 Greatest Old Time Radio Shows | Old Time Radio

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Jeff Corey stars as Dr. Dudley in this CBS presentation
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: of Escape, adapted for radio by Irving Ravitch from H.G.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Wells' novel The Time Machine. Originally broadcast on May 9, 1948,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: episode 40 also features Eric Rolfe as Dudley's skeptical friend, Fowler,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: and Kay Brinker as Weena, Norman MacDonald produced and directed.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: In a 1948 laboratory, Dudley persuades Fowler to test his machine,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: and their journey carries them forward to the year 100
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: through 80. There, the two travelers find themselves separated from
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: their means of return and must learn the ways of
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: a future society. We now take you back to the
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: original broadcast.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: Escape!
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: You are rushing forward through time, far into the future,
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: trying desperately to flee the clutching fingers of a band
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: of night creatures, a dreamlike horror from which there seems
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: no escape.
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: Escape, designed to free you from the four walls of
• 1:28
  Speaker 4: today for a half hour of high adventure.
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: Tonight we escape to the year 100,080. And to a
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: world where beauty and terror live side by side, as H.G.
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: Wells described it in his immortal story, The Time Machine.
• 2:07
  Speaker 5: You must be mad, Dudley. A time machine.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: Yes, my friend. A time machine. This thing? This very thing.
• 2:16
  Speaker 5: Well, this contraption, this whatever it is, made of quartz
• 2:21
  Speaker 5: and brass and ivory, with its levers and dials and
• 2:26
  Speaker 5: its seat in the middle. This is the result of
• 2:30
  Speaker 5: three years' hard work?
• 2:31
  Speaker 6: I promise you, fellow, that on this machine, a man
• 2:34
  Speaker 6: can go wherever he likes in time. By working these levers,
• 2:37
  Speaker 6: a man can choose his century, his year, his very day.
• 2:40
  Speaker 5: Oh, that's impossible. It's out of the question.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: In one of the journeys I've already taken on this
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: little contraption.
• 2:46
  Speaker 5: Well, I'm afraid you're having a bad dream.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: You mean I've developed into a liar? Very well. You
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: shall have proof, my friend.
• 2:56
  Speaker 5: Oh.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: Just climb on, Fowler. Sit in a seat with me.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: I'll take you for a little spin.
• 3:02
  Speaker 5: You mean right now?
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: Right now.
• 3:05
  Speaker 5: Well, just in case it should work, aren't there any
• 3:08
  Speaker 5: preparations we should make?
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: No, Fallon.
• 3:10
  Speaker 6: You won't need any luggage on this trip, not even
• 3:12
  Speaker 6: a toothbrush. You'll be back in less than a minute.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: All right. I'm on.
• 3:18
  Speaker 5: Now what?
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: Hold tight, because it sways a good deal. I'd hate
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: to lose you.
• 3:23
  Speaker 5: I can't be frightened, Dudley.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: Then you're braver than I am. Tell me, what time
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: is it?
• 3:29
  Speaker 5: It's just, um, 12 noon.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: Before we start, I want to adjust this controller a bit.
• 3:36
  Speaker 5: Is everything ship-shaped?
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: Oh, yes. Tell me, did you notice anything just then?
• 3:41
  Speaker 5: Only a noise, a humming noise, nothing else.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: And what time is it?
• 3:45
  Speaker 5: You just asked me, old man. It's... That's funny.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: What?
• 3:52
  Speaker 5: My watch says 11 o'clock. I could have sworn it
• 3:54
  Speaker 5: was noon a moment ago. Must be something wrong with it.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: There's nothing wrong with the watch. It's only that I
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: touched the lever to test it.
• 4:04
  Speaker 6: And we've gone forward a full day. 23 hours at
• 4:08
  Speaker 6: any rate.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: Dudley. Have you finished scoffing, Fowler?
• 4:15
  Speaker 5: Yes, I believe I have.
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: Then hold tight. This will be the real article.
• 4:21
  Speaker 5: I'm ready, Dudley.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: Good man.
• 4:24
  Speaker 6: Well, say goodbye, Fowler. Say goodbye to 1948. We went
• 4:32
  Speaker 6: off to the shattering jar. With machines swaying under.
• 4:35
  Speaker 5: Us, the walls of Dr.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: Dudley's laboratory suddenly fell away and night was.
• 4:38
  Speaker 5: Speeding after day like the flapping of a black wing.
• 4:42
  Speaker 7: I saw the sun hopping across the sky, leaping swiftly
• 4:44
  Speaker 7: across it every second and every second marking a day.
• 4:47
  Speaker 7: I saw the moon spinning through her quarters like a ball,
• 4:50
  Speaker 7: from new to full, all in the twinkling of an eye.
• 4:53
  Speaker 7: Trees grew and blossomed like puffs of smoke and then
• 4:55
  Speaker 7: passed away. And all the while we were going faster.
• 4:59
  Speaker 7: And our pace was a year a second faster. So
• 5:01
  Speaker 7: that second by second, the white snow flashed across the
• 5:04
  Speaker 7: world and was followed by the bright brief spring.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: And still we went on into the future. How do
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: you feel, Fowler? Sort of weak and very dizzy. Don't
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: let go. Don't fall off. Where are we? How far
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: have we come?
• 5:18
  Speaker 8: We're in 100,000 and 50 and 60 and 70.
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: That's enough. Stop it, Dudley. I can't stand anymore. Stop it. Now,
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: are you all right?
• 5:37
  Speaker 5: I believe so.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: Oh, broken bones. What happened? I'm not sure. It must
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: have stopped too suddenly.
• 5:48
  Speaker 5: Where are we, Dudley?
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: Look around for yourself. On a wide lawn in a beautiful,
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: vast garden. I meant geographically. Just where we were when
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: we started.
• 6:01
  Speaker 6: We're standing exactly on the spot where my laboratory stood a.
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: Hundred thousand years ago. And the year? One hundred thousand
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: and eighty.
• 6:11
  Speaker 5: It seemed absolutely incredible. A dream, but a pleasant one.
• 6:25
  Speaker 5: For the garden in which we found ourselves was beautiful
• 6:28
  Speaker 5: in summary and inviting. At some distance we could see
• 6:32
  Speaker 5: a large, imposing building, always quiet and peaceful, almost too
• 6:36
  Speaker 5: much so. And the sense of strangeness, of incredible strangeness,
• 6:42
  Speaker 5: sent a shiver up my spine.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: One hundred thousand and eighty.
• 6:46
  Speaker 5: Dudley. Dudley.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: Dudley.
• 6:49
  Speaker 5: Have you thought what we might find here? What manner
• 6:52
  Speaker 5: of man? What danger? I don't see any men at all. Well,
• 6:57
  Speaker 5: perhaps they don't exist at all anymore. If they do,
• 7:00
  Speaker 5: what are they like? How have they developed?
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: There's been a long interval between us, more than a
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: hundred thousand years. We won't know until we see them.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: I bet it may be too late.
• 7:12
  Speaker 5: Suppose the race has lost its manliness and has become
• 7:15
  Speaker 5: a savage animal.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: Do you... Want to go back?
• 7:19
  Speaker 5: Yes, Dudley, I'm frightened. Let's go back.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: Dudley! From over there in the bushes.
• 7:23
  Speaker 5: It sounded human.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: Come on.
• 7:26
  Speaker 5: But, Dudley, we don't have any weapons.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: Come on.
• 7:32
  Speaker 5: It's a child. Look, it seems to be a very
• 7:34
  Speaker 5: small girl.
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: There's been a beast here of some kind. It struggled
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: with her. Look at the marks on her arms.
• 7:41
  Speaker 5: See here, my dear. You'll be all right now. You
• 7:45
  Speaker 5: won't be harmed. Of course.
• 7:48
  Speaker 6: She wouldn't understand English. I don't think it's that. She's
• 7:51
  Speaker 6: motioning us to go with her. I don't believe they
• 7:54
  Speaker 6: have any language at all, Dudley.
• 7:56
  Speaker 5: What about the animal? Did you see him?
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: No, not a glimpse. It was too fast for us.
• 8:00
  Speaker 5: Perhaps we'd better go back, Dudley. The girl seems to
• 8:03
  Speaker 5: be all right now.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: Leave her like this? Without seeing her people and the
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: way they live? You want to go back so soon?
• 8:10
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I've had enough.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: Well, they haven't, old man. Because they're here. All around us.
• 8:18
  Speaker 5: They had crept up on soundless feet to surround us,
• 8:26
  Speaker 5: the little people of this era. And the girl we'd
• 8:29
  Speaker 5: saved was not a child, but a full-grown woman. For
• 8:32
  Speaker 5: they all stood four feet high, dressed in simple tunics,
• 8:35
  Speaker 5: beautiful creatures, but terribly frail with a plump, soft kind
• 8:40
  Speaker 5: of frailty. Their mouths were small, and their little chins
• 8:44
  Speaker 5: ran to a point, and they made no sound. They
• 8:47
  Speaker 5: were like eerie figures in a dream, and all we
• 8:50
  Speaker 5: could hear was the heavy rustling of their clothes. As
• 8:53
  Speaker 5: they surged happily around us, their faces wreathed in smiles. Why,
• 8:59
  Speaker 5: they're not savage at all. They're very loving and gentle
• 9:04
  Speaker 5: little people.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: Yes, but there's something terribly wrong with them.
• 9:07
  Speaker 5: How do you mean?
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: They seem to have the minds of five-year-olds. This one
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: over here has been trying to talk to me with gestures.
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: Look at him. He seems to be asking me if
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: I've come from the sun or a thunderstorm.
• 9:16
  Speaker 5: How did you expect him to be?
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: Far ahead of us, of course. Incredibly ahead of us
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: in knowledge and in science. And look at them. Children.
• 9:23
  Speaker 5: They seem happy in this huge garden up there. Is
• 9:25
  Speaker 5: that something? I've changed my mind, Dudley. Maybe we shall
• 9:30
  Speaker 5: enjoy spending a few days with our little friends. The
• 9:36
  Speaker 5: little people led us home into their valley. They lived
• 9:38
  Speaker 5: in colossal buildings, sleeping all together in one huge hall,
• 9:42
  Speaker 5: eating in another, playing and frolicking together in the sunshine,
• 9:46
  Speaker 5: and Dudley and I lived with them for days in
• 9:48
  Speaker 5: utter contentment. One afternoon, we walked together along the banks
• 9:52
  Speaker 5: of the Great River.
• 9:53
  Speaker 6: There's no apparent difference among the sexes. They all wear
• 9:57
  Speaker 6: the same clothes, have the same soft hair, skin, same
• 10:01
  Speaker 6: feminine roundness of limbs.
• 10:02
  Speaker 5: No.
• 10:04
  Speaker 6: I wonder if it's because they're vegetarians. They're vegetarians because
• 10:08
  Speaker 6: they have to be. You haven't run across any horses
• 10:10
  Speaker 6: or dogs or cattle.
• 10:10
  Speaker 5: Of any kind, have you? No, now that you mention it.
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: Good reason. They're all extinct by now, just as the
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: dinosaur is with us.
• 10:20
  Speaker 5: Dudley, there's something very strange here. Something hidden away and silent.
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: You may be right. Anyway, I've taken the precaution of
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: removing the controls from the machine.
• 10:33
  Speaker 6: I don't much fancy the idea of someone riding away
• 10:36
  Speaker 6: with it into another century and leaving us here for
• 10:38
  Speaker 6: the rest of our lives.
• 10:39
  Speaker 5: Dudley. Do you recognize this bit of ground?
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: What? Yes, this is where we landed.
• 10:46
  Speaker 5: I thought so. I wasn't sure. Why do you ask?
• 10:50
  Speaker 5: Can't you see? Look around. It's empty. What's happened to
• 10:53
  Speaker 5: the machine?
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: They've taken it away. They've stolen it.
• 10:58
  Speaker 5: Where, Dudley?
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: Where?
• 10:59
  Speaker 5: Look.
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: See the tracks where they've dragged it? Over here. Come along.
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: Right here. By this monument, the end of the trail.
• 11:07
  Speaker 5: Those are brass doors in the base, and they're locked.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: The machine. It must be in there, inside. We must
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: get it. Break down the doors. How? How can we? Here,
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: we use the levers.
• 11:23
  Speaker 5: It's no good, Dudley.
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: They're solid.
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: We'll never break through.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: Never?
• 11:27
  Speaker 5: Never?
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: Do you mean stay here for all our lives? Do
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: you mean never go home again?
• 11:34
  Speaker 8: They must open the machine, the time machine.
• 11:46
  Speaker 5: The time machine was gone. The brass doors of the
• 11:50
  Speaker 5: monument held. Our retreat was cut off, a thin line
• 11:53
  Speaker 5: by which we could make our way back home, back
• 11:55
  Speaker 5: to our own time and our own people. But there
• 11:58
  Speaker 5: seemed nothing we could do. We had no way of
• 12:00
  Speaker 5: communicating with the little people. of asking what they had
• 12:03
  Speaker 5: done with the machine and why and how to get
• 12:06
  Speaker 5: it back, they merely stood around and watched our vain efforts.
• 12:10
  Speaker 5: There was nothing hostile in their attitude. They were more
• 12:12
  Speaker 5: like simple, wondering children. Only one, the young woman, Weena,
• 12:17
  Speaker 5: whose life we had saved on our first day had
• 12:19
  Speaker 5: become really friendly. She went with us wherever we walked
• 12:22
  Speaker 5: and brought us presents of garlands of flowers, slept near
• 12:25
  Speaker 5: us at night in the hall, and we in turn
• 12:27
  Speaker 5: had taught her a few words of English. Now, we
• 12:31
  Speaker 5: redoubled our efforts, like men racing against a clock, so
• 12:34
  Speaker 5: that we might speak to her and discover the secret
• 12:36
  Speaker 5: of our immense loss. No, not these, Dudley.
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: No.
• 12:43
  Speaker 6: How could you be so sure that your people didn't
• 12:45
  Speaker 6: steal the machine? Are there any thieves among them?
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: Are they all perfect?
• 12:48
  Speaker 5: That's a lot, Dudley.
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: You awaken them.
• 12:50
  Speaker 5: Besides, she doesn't understand.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: But the thief must be sleeping somewhere in this hall. Weena,
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: they take machine. No, Dudley, no.
• 13:02
  Speaker 5: Who then, who?
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: We are friends.
• 13:06
  Speaker 5: Yes, yes, friends.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: We need, must have machine. Yes, Dudley, yes. Who took machine?
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: Are there other people.
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: Not yours. Arthur's.
• 13:24
  Speaker 5: What about those doors, Wiener? Doors open. No.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: Oh, no.
• 13:28
  Speaker 5: Wiener, machine in there must open. No.
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: No, not open.
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: All right, my dear. Go to sleep. Get some rest.
• 13:38
  Speaker 5: Yes, Dudley.
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: Sleep. You too, Fowler. Try anyway.
• 13:43
  Speaker 5: I've tried.
• 13:43
  Speaker 6: It's no good. What's to become of us, Fowler? Are
• 13:48
  Speaker 6: we caught here in this century? Should we spend our
• 13:52
  Speaker 6: lives with the little people and their secret?
• 13:54
  Speaker 5: Try to sleep, Dudley. We'll go back to the monument tomorrow.
• 13:59
  Speaker 5: We'll find a way of breaking in. Dudley.
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: Yes? Did you just....
• 14:07
  Speaker 5: There it is again.
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: What?
• 14:08
  Speaker 5: Something on my face, cold and filthy to the touch.
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: On my face and in my hair, cold as death.
• 14:14
  Speaker 9: Dudley!
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: You're right, my boy. There's something in here with us.
• 14:19
  Speaker 5: I smell the grave.
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: What was it?
• 14:21
  Speaker 5: I don't know.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: But look at them. The little people are all awake.
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: It's as though they've been stampeded. Let's get out of here.
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: I want some fresh air.
• 14:29
  Speaker 5: We went quickly through the hall and outside, away from
• 14:34
  Speaker 5: the frantic rustling of the little people and into silence.
• 14:37
  Speaker 5: The moon was full just overhead and it was close
• 14:40
  Speaker 5: to dawning. There was a faint sound speeding close behind us,
• 14:43
  Speaker 5: and we turned our nerves ragged and our muscles tensed.
• 14:46
  Speaker 5: But it was only Weena coming swiftly to join us.
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: Weena. Come closer, my girl. Dudley. Tell us. What do
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: your people fear? What makes them afraid? Afraid?
• 15:01
  Speaker 9: Darkness.
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: There is something. What do you mean, darkness? Dark things.
• 15:09
  Speaker 5: Dark places. Darkness. Night.
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: Why? Why? I.
• 15:15
  Speaker 5: I don't know.
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: Why should they be afraid of the night, Dudley? Perhaps
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: it's not the night alone. Dark places. That's our cue.
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: Perhaps it's something underground.
• 15:33
  Speaker 5: By now it was light, another day. We had wandered
• 15:37
  Speaker 5: into a lovely wooded place about a mile from the community.
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: Suddenly, weaned a scream. We stopped short.
• 15:43
  Speaker 5: A pair of glaring eyes was fixed upon us. As
• 15:46
  Speaker 5: we stood there petrified, the thing, a little ape-like figure,
• 15:50
  Speaker 5: rushed across our path and disappeared in the clearing about
• 15:52
  Speaker 5: 30 yards away. What was it?
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: I couldn't see it too well. It seemed to be
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: dull white, with white hair at its head and down
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: its back.
• 16:03
  Speaker 5: Looked like a small ape.
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: That's because it was running on all fours or with
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: its arms held very low.
• 16:08
  Speaker 5: Weena, Weena, what's the matter?
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: Morlocks. They are... Morlocks. Who are the Morlocks?
• 16:14
  Speaker 5: What are they? Weena, tell me. No.
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: No going. Let's go over there and see where it disappeared.
• 16:24
  Speaker 5: In the clearing, we found a round well-like opening. I
• 16:27
  Speaker 5: leaned over and looked down a deep shaft, and as
• 16:29
  Speaker 5: I did so... I saw a small, white creature retreating
• 16:33
  Speaker 5: down a ladder in the well. Something like a human spider.
• 16:37
  Speaker 5: Its large, bright eyes watching me as it went swiftly down,
• 16:42
  Speaker 5: and then it disappeared in the shaft.
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: Fowler, did you see it? Like a nape? Yeah, yeah.
• 16:47
  Speaker 5: But like a man.
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: So there are two species of men in this world. Eh, Fowler?
• 16:54
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 16:55
  Speaker 6: The little people above the ground... And this obscene thing,
• 16:59
  Speaker 6: this bleached monster below. Two races of men in this country.
• 17:03
  Speaker 6: That white look.
• 17:06
  Speaker 5: It's common to animals that live in the dark, like
• 17:08
  Speaker 5: huge rats, like worms that are cold to the touch.
• 17:10
  Speaker 5: I know because they've touched me.
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: You can feel air being sucked down into the shaft.
• 17:16
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 17:17
  Speaker 6: The earth must be tunneled enormously here under our feet.
• 17:21
  Speaker 6: And these monsters live.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: In the tunnels.
• 17:24
  Speaker 5: I think we know now who stole our time machines.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: Yes, I'm sure of it. Then? Then we'll go down
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: and have a look.
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: No, no, don't go.
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: Why not, Wiener? Warlocks, you never come back. We've got
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: to have our machine, my dear.
• 17:42
  Speaker 5: You wait for us here. No, no.
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: But we went down.
• 17:51
  Speaker 5: Our heels ringing on the small metallic bars that were
• 17:54
  Speaker 5: meant for creatures so much smaller than we. Down we climbed.
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: Down. Down.
• 18:00
  Speaker 5: Ever in darkness. Down it seemed into the center of
• 18:04
  Speaker 5: the earth.
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: Into the core of the world.
• 18:06
  Speaker 5: How much longer?
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: We won't know till we reach bottom.
• 18:14
  Speaker 5: We can only stop and rest.
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: It can't be much further.
• 18:18
  Speaker 5: I'm so terribly tired.
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: Hang on, old man. You hear that? Like machinery. We're
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: almost there.
• 18:27
  Speaker 5: Thank heaven for that.
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: All right, Fowler. I'm at the bottom. Come along. Just
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: a few more steps. Give me your hand, Fowler. Good.
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: We're here.
• 18:43
  Speaker 5: In the land of the Morlocks.
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: Do you have a match?
• 18:46
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah. There seems to be A large vaulted cavern at
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: the end of the passage.
• 18:58
  Speaker 5: What do you suppose they'll do if they catch us?
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: I've no idea, so we'd better take care not to
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: get caught. Another match.
• 19:09
  Speaker 6: That throbbing noise. It's probably the ventilating system pumping air down.
• 19:15
  Speaker 6: There must be thousands upon thousands of these Morlocks.
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: Living under the earth.
• 19:19
  Speaker 5: And we haven't seen any yet except for our friend
• 19:21
  Speaker 5: who came down.
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: Ahead of us.
• 19:23
  Speaker 5: Why do you suppose they wanted our time machine?
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: I think they wanted us, Dudley. Not the machine.
• 19:32
  Speaker 5: And we've come to them.
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: We must. It's our only chance.
• 19:37
  Speaker 6: Fowler, if that noise does come from air pumps.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: Why is it so stuffy here? So oppressive?
• 19:46
  Speaker 5: Dudley, that smell... Blood.
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: Light another match. Dudley, look.
• 19:56
  Speaker 5: Straight ahead on the white metal table.
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: It's set for a meal.
• 20:03
  Speaker 5: Yes, with a big chunk of bloody meat.
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: And we know that cattle are extinct.
• 20:12
  Speaker 5: What do they feed on, these Morlocks?
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: Don't you know? I guess I do. Another match.
• 20:22
  Speaker 5: All right, I... Dudley? Dudley? I haven't got any more.
• 20:32
  Speaker 5: We've used our last match.
• 20:35
  Speaker 6: All right, we'll have to go back there then. We
• 20:38
  Speaker 6: know the secret now anyway. The Morlocks living here underground
• 20:43
  Speaker 6: are the masters.
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: Of this age.
• 20:46
  Speaker 6: And our friends up above, fatted cattle fed by the Morlocks,
• 20:50
  Speaker 6: clothed and supplied and housed until the day when they're
• 20:53
  Speaker 6: cut out from the herd and brought underground as food.
• 20:59
  Speaker 6: This is the future you're looking at. This is what
• 21:02
  Speaker 6: we men.
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: Of the 20th century shall come to. What is it?
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: I felt hands, cold hands. Take one of these levers.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: Use it as a weapon. Lash out. Against the wall. Fowler,
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: here beside me. Dudley, what do we do? Do. Fight them. Kill.
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: Use your evil mind like this. Dudley, they're all around us.
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: This way, Fowler. This way.
• 21:25
  Speaker 9: Back this way.
• 21:31
  Speaker 5: We went back in that evil darkness, fighting every step
• 21:37
  Speaker 5: as we went.
• 21:38
  Speaker 10: Back to those projecting bars, kicking and clawing ourselves loose
• 21:42
  Speaker 10: from their pallid, grasping hands and climbing up again toward
• 21:45
  Speaker 10: daylight and freedom, away from their stench and the eagerness
• 21:48
  Speaker 10: of their icy hands.
• 21:50
  Speaker 5: And they didn't follow, for daylight was their enemy and
• 21:54
  Speaker 5: their great fear. And we lived among the lush gardens
• 22:01
  Speaker 5: of the gentle little people like prisoners, like men without reprieve,
• 22:07
  Speaker 5: like men who are dead, while they still walk the earth. Well,
• 22:12
  Speaker 5: the time machine was locked away behind great brass doors,
• 22:15
  Speaker 5: and we knew we could never force them open. Then,
• 22:23
  Speaker 5: one day, Wiener told us of an old building, an ancient,
• 22:27
  Speaker 5: staggering structure that had survived through many ages and was
• 22:31
  Speaker 5: filled with many curious objects.
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: A museum. That's what it must be, a museum, Fowler.
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: Perhaps from some earlier time.
• 22:37
  Speaker 5: I'm in no mood to go looking at a museum.
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: But don't you see?
• 22:40
  Speaker 6: Specimens are hermetically sealed in museums. Perhaps there were things, weapons, machinery,
• 22:45
  Speaker 6: something we could use.
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: Oh, sure.
• 22:47
  Speaker 5: If we could find some dynamite or gunpowder or something.
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: We could blast those doors. We could get in.
• 22:51
  Speaker 5: Where is this place, Weena? This old building that no
• 22:53
  Speaker 5: one ever goes near? I take you, Fowler, if not far.
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: A chance, old man. A slim chance, but a chance nonetheless.
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: The End.
• 23:07
  Speaker 5: All day we wandered through the great ruined halls. The
• 23:11
  Speaker 5: building had been deserted and in disuse for perhaps a century.
• 23:15
  Speaker 5: The childlike men of that time had long since ceased
• 23:17
  Speaker 5: to care about anything but their own personal comforts. It
• 23:20
  Speaker 5: was late afternoon and growing dark when we came upon
• 23:22
  Speaker 5: the chemical section. We'd found nothing useful to us until then.
• 23:26
  Speaker 5: And now, now came the worst disappointment of all.
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: And it's dust, all of it. It's been dust for centuries.
• 23:38
  Speaker 5: Another dead end. It's hopeless.
• 23:41
  Speaker 6: We were out of our heads to hope that nitrates
• 23:43
  Speaker 6: would retain their form for a hundred thousand years.
• 23:46
  Speaker 5: We'd better go, if nothing here.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: Wait just a moment. There's something in this case.
• 23:54
  Speaker 5: You can break it with your lever.
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: Stand back a little. Hallelujah. A box of matches, hermetically sealed.
• 24:01
  Speaker 5: Perfect.
• 24:01
  Speaker 4: Perfect.
• 24:03
  Speaker 5: Not even damned.
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: And what should we do with them? Burn down those
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: brass doors?
• 24:10
  Speaker 5: Better keep them anyway. At least we can smoke again.
• 24:15
  Speaker 5: And you can't tell.
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: Fowler.
• 24:17
  Speaker 5: Yeah? On the floor.
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: See them? Small, narrow footprints leading away into the darkness
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: at the end of the gallery. Dudley.
• 24:25
  Speaker 5: We'd better go.
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: Pick Ween up and carry him. We'll have to run
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: for it.
• 24:29
  Speaker 5: Don't be frightened, my dear. It'll be all right. Go on, run!
• 24:39
  Speaker 5: We came out of the gloom of that place into
• 24:41
  Speaker 5: the deeper gloom of dust. Suddenly, we saw we were trapped.
• 24:43
  Speaker 5: All around us were the Morlocks. Over there were the Thousand,
• 24:47
  Speaker 5: surrounding us and coming closer, a long, even line of
• 24:50
  Speaker 5: deathly white, their eyes blinking in the half-light.
• 24:53
  Speaker 7: And their tiny mouths alive with appetite.
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: The match is Dudley. Light a fire here. The forest
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: is dry.
• 25:00
  Speaker 5: Good.
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: We'll have an inferno here in a minute. And our
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: little friends don't like light or heat.
• 25:07
  Speaker 7: The fire leaped high to the heavens and the countryside
• 25:10
  Speaker 7: was ablaze. The Morlocks turned in fear, blinded by the glare.
• 25:13
  Speaker 7: Some of them burned in the middle of the raging
• 25:15
  Speaker 7: flames and the rest faded away like a fog. Dudley
• 25:19
  Speaker 7: had left a narrow passageway for our retreat and we
• 25:21
  Speaker 7: fled down a long corridor of leaping flames and blistering heat.
• 25:25
  Speaker 5: We fled to safety.
• 25:27
  Speaker 9: We fled.
• 25:36
  Speaker 5: Back toward the community of the little people. And as
• 25:40
  Speaker 5: we ran, we passed the huge monument with its great
• 25:42
  Speaker 5: bronze doors that were locked tight on our time machine.
• 25:47
  Speaker 5: And suddenly, in the glare of the distant fires, we
• 25:50
  Speaker 5: saw something that stopped a short.
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: They're open, Fowler. The doors are open.
• 25:56
  Speaker 5: No.
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: No, not go in, Dudley.
• 25:58
  Speaker 5: No. It's a trap. They're ready for us inside.
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: Ready or not, we're going in.
• 26:02
  Speaker 5: Dudley, it's suicide.
• 26:04
  Speaker 6: It'll take me about one minute to screw the levers
• 26:06
  Speaker 6: in again. Then I touch them and we're away.
• 26:08
  Speaker 5: All right. I'll try to give you your one minute.
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: Good boy.
• 26:12
  Speaker 5: No.
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: No, go. Not leave me.
• 26:14
  Speaker 5: You, my dear, you hold tight around my neck. You're
• 26:18
  Speaker 5: coming home with us.
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: All right, let's go. We're in.
• 26:26
  Speaker 5: Look.
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: The machine. They haven't harmed it. I don't see them. Yet.
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: Come on. Quickly. Give me that other lever.
• 26:36
  Speaker 5: The door's dudley. They're closed.
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: Get in the seat. I'll be ready in a minute.
• 26:41
  Speaker 5: I waited for the hum that would signal our departure,
• 26:43
  Speaker 5: and there, in the darkness, the Morlocks were finally upon us. Cold,
• 26:46
  Speaker 5: persistent fingers swarmed over my body, tugging at me, sucking
• 26:50
  Speaker 5: me away from the machine, but I held tight to
• 26:53
  Speaker 5: Weena as a man holds fast to life and tried
• 26:56
  Speaker 5: to kick them away with my feet.
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: Hurry, Dudley! Hurry! I can't seem to get these levers. Quick,
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: we're done! Just another turn, and it's... There, Fowler. We're away.
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: We're gone.
• 27:15
  Speaker 5: Yeah, we made it.
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: You all right? I'm all right. Good. And Weena?
• 27:25
  Speaker 5: Weena isn't with us.
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: What happened?
• 27:29
  Speaker 5: They tore her from my hands at the last minute.
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: They got her. I tried to save her. I couldn't.
• 27:34
  Speaker 5: I know, old man.
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: I still got a piece of her tunic here in
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: my fist. A little piece of her tunic, Dudley.
• 27:43
  Speaker 9: But nothing else.
• 27:55
  Speaker 5: And so we came home again.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: Back into the very minute from which we had left.
• 28:02
  Speaker 5: Back into 12 noon, May 9th, 1948. We were in
• 28:09
  Speaker 5: Dudley's laboratory again, motionless, sitting on the ridiculous contraption which
• 28:14
  Speaker 5: he called a time machine. Was it all a dream?
• 28:22
  Speaker 5: A mad and feverish dream? Did any of it happen?
• 28:26
  Speaker 5: Could any of it happen? No, of course not. How stupid.
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: But then.
• 28:34
  Speaker 5: What's this? What of this jagged piece of thick green
• 28:43
  Speaker 5: silk I hold in my hand? What does that mean?
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: The End.
• 29:01
  Speaker 4: Escape, produced and directed by Norman MacDonald, tonight brought you
• 29:05
  Speaker 4: The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, adapted for radio by
• 29:08
  Speaker 4: Irving Ravitch, with Eric Rolfe as Fowler, Jeff Corey as Dudley,
• 29:13
  Speaker 4: and Kay Brinker as Weena. The musical score was conducted
• 29:16
  Speaker 4: by Wilbur Hatch.
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: Next week.
• 29:23
  Speaker 11: You are wandering in a vast white solitude, torn by
• 29:26
  Speaker 11: the icy blast of arctic winds. your strength ebbing and
• 29:30
  Speaker 11: frozen death creeping up on you, and behind you a
• 29:32
  Speaker 11: man with a gun from whom there.
• 29:34
  Speaker 5: Is no escape.
• 29:45
  Speaker 4: Next week, we escape with another great story of high
• 29:48
  Speaker 4: adventure by one of the world's best-known authors. Good night, then,
• 29:52
  Speaker 4: until this same time next week, when once again we
• 29:55
  Speaker 4: offer you Escape. This is CBS, where 99 million people
• 30:00
  Speaker 4: gather every week for Columbia Broadcasting System.
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: Escape concludes with The Time Machine. Follow the 50 greatest
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: old-time radio shows for more classic broadcasts.