"The Weird Circle. In this cave by the restless sea we are met to call from out of the past stories strange and weird. Bell-keeper - toll the bell, that all may know that we are gathered again in The Weird Circle." "Out of the past phantoms of a world gone by speak again the immortal tale: A Terrible Night.".
This episode, first broadcast on January 23, 1944, is an adaptation of the short story with the same name by Fitz-James O'Brien, first published in 1856. (This is a link to a reading, as I was unable to find the text online. Another reading with more background as part of a podcast can be found here) As in many previous episodes, we start towards the end - the protagonist, Charles Costa. is on trial, and is asked to tell his story in his own words, which leads us to the bulk of the plot. This is different from the original, that started mid-action. This action is in the woods - in the original, Upstate New York, in the adaptation, even farther north, in Canada. Costa and his brother in law are on a hunting trip. They get lost, and find shelter, but can they trust their taciturn host? Throughout there is a sense of dread as we wonder what the crime is until we reach the deeply tragic ending.
The original was very short and had little characterization beyond impressions from the protagonist and some bravado from his there future and here brother-in-law, Dick Linton. Bertha, there the fiancée and here the wife, and the host, Joel, are given more to say. The small amount of active characters made this easy listening, despite the backwards and sometimes outlandish statements ("that's the way writers are - so sure of themselves"). There is a real sense of the isolation and danger in the woods, and then at the cabin.
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