Mystery in the Air...Starring Peter Lorre...Presented by Camel Cigarettes....
Devoted to "great stories of the strange and unusual", Mystery in the Air knew exactly what its draw was. In its horror series form, it aired in 1947 as a summer replacement for The Abbott and Costello Show, and became a horror series starring the great Peter Lorre, and giving him a chance to show his acting chops in a very wide range of classic tales.
Lorre, a Hungarian born with the name Lazlo Lowenstein, was a famously genial guy, but he made his name by playing creepy and dangerous people in an inimitable way. On the show, Lorre would get intensely into his role; there's a story that he once became so caught up in acting that he threw his script in the air in the middle of the show, sending all the papers flying and forcing the entire cast to ad lib until the commercial break.
"The Black Cat" is one of the most memorable episodes, giving Lorre a chance to show his sheer emotional range, from genial good-natured to absolutely raging psychotic. Charles is a married man who adopts a black cat. Over time, he becomes increasingly irritable and obsessive about the cat, to the detriment of his marriage and his mind.
You can listen to it online at Internet Archive here (#7) and here (#1). You can read the script here at "Generic Radio Workshop".
