Weird Circle 10 - William Wilson

"Out of the past phantoms of a world gone by speak again their immortal tale: William Wilson."

This episode, first broadcast on October 31, 1943, is an adaptation of a short story with the same title by Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1839. The adaptation seems to have mostly kept the core of the story, while transporting the setting across the Atlantic to the Northeast.

We start with Charlie Vernon coming unexpectedly to a party where his former college fraternity brother, William Wilson, is to announce his engagement to Laura St. Clair, although that was supposed to be a secret. Soon, shots are heard from the library, and it seems like Wilson has shot himself. He insists he did not, and so starts a story of his unpleasant deeds, of which Charlie was but one victim, and of another, younger William Wilson, who stalked and taunted him through the low points of his life.

This story is very similar in structure to The Knightsbridge Mystery, which also starts at the end and then fills in the gap through a long flashback, mostly seen from the point of view of a single individual, although it's more dialogue- than description-driven nonetheless. The other William Wilson serves a similar function to the outsider in The Horla.