Bernard's 2025 walkthroughs review.

#TheHallOfFantasy: 6/10

This show is no classic of old time radio but is solid. I like how it moved from Salt Lake City to Chicago in such an unlikely manner. Those early eps from Salt Lake City were wonderfully crackpot.

bsky.app/profile/bern...

#TheHallOfFantasy End of another walkthrough.

Do I recommend?

I'd be lying if I said this series was crucial to your old time radio experience as there's pretty much nothing new in it that wasn't done in earlier and better shows.
But don't rule this show out as it's mostly solid and entertaining.

#TheHallOfFantasy And that is that there were 4 more Radio eps and then there was finally a pan-USA national run of 26 Radio eps on the Mutual Network but they were are either rebroadcasts or remakes of all the episodes I've covered.

The show's last national ep, Radio ep #210, aired on 29-Mar-54.

#TheHallOfFantasy Radio ep #180 "Diamonds of Death" (31-Aug-53).
Yet another venture into jungle pulp genre with the usual stakes. Unfortunately this was my least favourite ep of the show to date. Not even average this ep.

archive.org/details/4702...

#TheHallOfFantasy Radio 179 cont'd.
Reading some of the reviews on Archive.org and someone has "The Hall of Fantasy" as their favourite spooky OTR show! Seriously? I mean try listened to more OTR. Don't even dare put the brilliance of "Quiet, Please!" in the same sentence as "The Hall of Fantasy"!

#TheHallOfFantasy Radio ep #179 "The Sea Phantom" (24-Aug-53).
A decent ghost story even if the woman ghost was poorly realised. The sailor ghost was much better. Again the ep is just decent scares as THOF teases being profound but never bothers to get to that level.
archive.org/details/4702...

#TheHallOfFantasy Radio ep #178 "Stone's Revenge" (17-Aug-53).
Imagined this'd be yet another template "ancient tomb creature" tale but with stones from a stone circle like Doctor Who: The Stones of Blood.
Not as exciting but still decent it's about a murder in a cabin.
archive.org/details/4702...

#TheHallOfFantasy Radio ep #177 "The Man from the Second Earth" (10-Aug-53).
Another in their alien visits Earth template story. This is actually pretty decent in places. I liked how the alien's biology was explained and that black oily goo whatever that stuff was.
archive.org/details/4702...

#TheHallOfFantasy Radio ep #176 "The Golden Bracelet of Amoniris" (03-Aug-53).
Back to their "evil entity from old tomb" template. This ep it's Egyptology and a vengeful mummy. Entertaining but a totally cookie cutter THOF ep.
archive.org/details/4702...

#TheHallOfFantasy Radio ep #175 "The Automaton" (27-Jul-53).
Bad science ep. At first with the talk of robots being used to replace labour I thought this might be clever. But no it's a silly murder robot. I LOLed at the end speech saying someday we will get robots right.
archive.org/details/4702...

#TheHallOfFantasy Radio ep #174 "The Treasure Of Kublai Khan" (20-Jul-53).
Back to using their "exploring ancient tomb" story template. I found this a bit lesser as the woman's dreams were kind of just there as a device to add fear. That extra ingredient added little.

archive.org/details/4702...

#TheHallOfFantasy Radio ep #172 "The Man in Black" (06-Jul-53).
Not to be confused with all the other versions of The Man in Black on OTR!
Again it's made to a template this time their evil reanimated spirit template but I loved the last act scares with the doppelgangers.
archive.org/details/4702...

#TheHallOfFantasy Radio ep #171 "The Temple Of Huitzitlopoehtli" (29-Jun-53).
Another ep that uses the THOF template of investigating an old tomb. But although the story is almost the same every time I do love jungle pulp genre and this show's bootleg #Escape radio feels.
archive.org/details/4702...

#TheHallOfFantasy Radio ep #170 "The Marquise of Death" (22-Jun-53).
This ep bootleg Dracula but like that they do their own things for the classics in this case: the vampire.
Millau, France. A US writer gets inspiration from a local story about les morts-vivants.🧛‍♀️
archive.org/details/4702...

#TheHallOfFantasy Radio 169 cont'd.
So don't look too deep into The Hall of Fantasy. It's very surface level scary (except THAT spider ep!). For instance compare this to the 1954 #Escape radio ep #228 "The Heart of Kali" (25-Sep-54). Escape is a different league.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNtN...

#TheHallOfFantasy Radio ep #169 "The Jewels of Kali" (15-Jun-53).
I've been positive about THOF but at best it can be described as a mere nostalgia re-visitation of 1930s/40s OTR horror. This ep is at best a bootleg version of "Night at an Inn" or "The Mummy's Curse".
archive.org/details/4702...

#CreepsByNight Even though I'm currently doing both a #TheHallOfFantasy and a #MurderAtMidnight radio show walkthroughs I'm gonna add in a third radio show and start "Creeps by Night".

Here's some press I found from 1944. Only a few of the 27 eps survive so this will be a quickie walkthrough.

#TheHallOfFantasy Radio ep #168 "The Hand of Botar" (08-Jun-53).
The first ep for a while I didn't like. It's an old school killer severed hand style ep but fare too over wrought. Yes THOF eps never make too much sense but the logic kept throwing me out of the story.
archive.org/details/4702...

#TheHallOfFantasy Radio 167 cont'd
Other "The Tell-Tale Heart" radio adaptations I've previously done on these other walkthroughs (on Twitter):

#TheInnerSanctum ep #31 (03-Aug-41),
#TheWeirdCircle ep #23 (30-Jan-44),
#CBSRadioMysteryTheater ep #202 (11-Jan-75),
#Nightfall ep #5 (01-Aug-80).

#TheHallOfFantasy Radio ep #167 "The Tell-Tale Heart" (01-Jun-53).
Yet another radio adaptation of E.A. Poe's story (Jan-1843). It is very faithful to said story but definitely isn't one of the better adaptations I've heard.
So much unnecessary cackling. Unsubtle.
archive.org/details/4702...

#TheHallOfFantasy Radio ep #166 "The Twisting Weeds of Death" (25-May-53).
Great title, decent ep.
A woman who disappeared 20 years ago from a now derelict cliff side house has seemingly returned. The local sheriff and Doctor investigate.
I won't fault this ep at all.
archive.org/details/4702...

#TheHallOfFantasy Ep 165 cont'd.
The pre-credits which is scene from later in the ep revealed that it was gonna be about a giant murder spider so I was shitting myself from the top.
The amount of times I said aloud "Just get a fucking flamethrower and burn that fucker".
Yes a bad ending ep.
Ewwww.

#TheHallOfFantasy Radio ep #165 "The Crawling Thing" (11-May-53).
I'm a serious arachnophobe. Yet I'm listening to this at night in a forest alone. It concerns a giant intelligent hypno tarantula. So when a fly landed on my hand I sharted. This was silly yet so scary.
archive.org/details/4702...

#TheHallOfFantasy Radio ep #164 "The Spectre of Denston Castle" (11-May-53).
Also has audio issues. I admire the simplicity of this show and its commitment to scares. The poor audio quality made the ep even more immersive as THOF has a low budget soundscape already.
archive.org/details/4702...

#TheHallOfFantasy Ep 163 cont'd.
I liked this more as the only other Cromm Cruac ep I've seen was #RobinOfSherwood TV ep #3.07 (17-May-86).
I wasn't sure if the group got away at the end as I couldn't make out what the druid guy was saying at the end due to the audio issues. I think they survived?

#TheHallOfFantasy Radio ep #163 "The Idol of Cromm Cruac" (04-May-53).
Hard to hear this ep which was recorded from a no name station in 1997. Maybe another better file exists?
This ep has great #Escape energy even it has the usual THOF limitations.
A rare good ending?
archive.org/details/4702...

#TheHallOfFantasy Radio ep #162 "The Wild Huntsman" (27-Apr-53).
I recently read #Buffy Novel #3 "Child of the Hunt" (16-Oct-98) which was also about the Wild Huntsman. It was a sprawling mess but this radio was darn near perfect. A rare THOF ep with a brilliant plot.
archive.org/details/4702...

#TheHallOfFantasy Radio ep #161 "Out of the Sky" (20-Apr-53).
OMG they've finally tried the sci-fi genre and we the cookiest cookie cutter ep about UFOs. This was hilarious fun. I loved the switch with the single woman who seemed set up to be a love interest but no.
archive.org/details/4702...

#TheHallOfFantasy Radio ep #160 "The Demon of the Night" (13-Apr-53).
The cookiest cookie cutter ep about werewolves ever. OMG this isn't a good werewolf OTR addition but did I like this ep? I loved this ep like a stray orphan drawing bad art on the street for food.
archive.org/details/4702...

#TheHallOfFantasy Radio ep #159 "The Return from Death" (06-Apr-53).
A cookie cutter Frankenstein style ep. Yes the plot isn't good but I do quite like how uncanny and a little bit disturbing it gets when a human or animal is reanimated. You do feel a Hellish presence.
archive.org/details/4702...