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Title

The Canterville Ghost

Plot

In this classic tale by Oscar Wilde, a spirit repeatedly attempts to drive away the new owners of his castle and instead, becomes a source of hilarity and amusement.

Episode

0118

Air Dates

  • First Run - July 15, 1974
  • Repeat - September 21, 1974
  • Repeat - April 8, 1979

Actors

Writer

Listen

Rating

144
112     32


20 Responses to Episode 0118

Humorous episodes often fall flat on CBSRMT, but in this case the Oscar Wilde story works well, over-acting and all. The Canterville Ghost saying "Huh?" at one point is a good example. Nice mix of gruesomeness and poking fun at the genre.

Mike

Then there's Act 3! Worth the wait - and includes the hauntingly pretty "whistling" music about 5 minutes in.

Mike

A ghost tries very hard to scare the residents of an ancient castle and instead irritates and amuses them. I loved the story as a child, but didn't think much of this adaptation.

Jimrod Reyno

It must be frustrating to be a ghost when people aren't really scared of ghosts anymore. I enjoyed this one. Comedy ghost story.

Andy

A wealthy cantankerous American entrepreneur purchases an English castle and has the entire estate moved and recreated brick by brick to the States. The agreement with the previous owner, the love interest of the man’s daughter, was to keep everything as it was in England, including the grounds, the ghosts, and the blood stain – something the purchaser didn’t count on, and will not stand for. When he cleans up the blood stain, the ghost appears to state his objection. The man does not back down and gets quite belligerent with the ghost. What ensues is a battle of wills between the man and the ghost, with the tender and understanding of the daughter.

Jett

Corniness at its best. "The Canterbarry Ghost" was Mystery Theater's attempt at recreating an Oscar Wilde classic. It was satirically done with bursts of humor. It was also a romance. Great job!

DAVY JOE

An enjoyable humorous supernatural tale about a ghost who just can't seem to scare people anymore. I've only read The Portrait of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde so I had never read this story before. Definitely worth listening to.

Alec

I enjoyed this. It did not seem like a humorous tale only a little dry as far as the horror goes but as always, Mystery Theater has some very good philosophies added into their stories and explains this tale well. The ghost had murdered his wife out of a false belief that she did a wrong to him and realized it was a false belief too late.

dave

"Hilarity and amusement"?? I don't think so. This is one of the worst versions of this story I've ever heard. That's an Achilles heel of CBSRMT - hilarity. Sometimes they get it right, but many times the humor just isn't there. Stick with the Charles Laughton film, even though Margaret O'Brien cries every three minutes. It's still better than this.

Zeezee1

The Canterville ghost! Love that one!

Linda

That episode is General Laughter. You can find it for free on one of the many internet sites.

Cathy

Canterville Ghost is my favorite.

Linda

What a wonderful woman, Marian Seldes, reading about her in the NY Times tributes to her, before and after her passing. Her face was instantly recognized as I saw her pictures, undoubtedly from her TV and film work, as is her voice. But most importantly she was an inspiration to so many, her grace and ability to impart wisdom and joy and love to her colleagues and students and family. A vitality of life lived for the stage and beyond. Amazing.

Paul

The ghost of Sir Simon de Canterville, who, after 400 years is but a ghost of his former self, goes into a towering rage when an American business tycoon, who has brought the Canterville castle to America stone by stone, refuses to be frightened by the antique spook and even threatens to tear the castle down again stone by stone.

Jack

A G Marshall, loved the comment it is better to live than to make a living. Wish i had learned that lesson early on! An enjoyable episode but would love to hear the commercials and news for nostalgia.

Nancy

Clearly the inspiration for Beetlejuice.

Mark A

The curator of this collection must have found a treasure trove of episodes from a radio station in Seattle. It seems that all the episodes I've listened to in the past month or so have been from the same station. They have excellent sound quality and lots of news and commercials. Thank you for assembling this collection. This was a nice radio adaptation of Oscar Wilde's story and EG was quite heartfelt when he alluded to Wilde's tragic end of life.

Kathy D

Hi, Seattle was the feed market for cbs on the west coast. So KIXI and KIRO wood record the cbsmt live from when aired est, then send it to all west coast stations later so they could run it live. So this website must have found there old library of shows, And can you believe how bad that 'beautiful' music was back then.

Neil

Wrong you are, Neil! As it stands alone, and especially when compared with most of the no talent noisemakers today, the music from then is indeed beautiful. I’d give a lot for a site that simply played these old stations, commercials and all. And CBSRMT, of course!

Gene Blister

This is one of the episodes I remember vividly from my youth. Gaunt Gideon the Bloodsucker! The ghosts conversations with his wife, especially when she is encouraging him, remind me of Miracle Max and Valerie in "The Princess Bride".

Dr. D.


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