CBS Radio Mystery Theater – The Ghosts of Yesterday (1977)

Описание: A socialite, once a glamorous figure but now haunted by the scars of her past, is suddenly forced to confront a repressed nightmare. She is called upon to identify a man who may have been responsible for the horrific destruction of her family and her entire village during a brutal war decades earlier. As she delves into her memories, the line between past and present dissolves. The "ghosts" of her youth return with a vengeance, forcing her to decide if she is seeking righteous justice or if she is finally being consumed by a lifelong trauma she could never truly escape.

🎙️ Series: CBS Radio Mystery Theater (CBSRMT)
Episode Number: 0759
Title: The Ghosts of Yesterday
Original Air Date: December 26, 1977
Genre: Psychological Mystery / War Drama
Running Time: Approx. 45 minutes
Host: E.G. Marshall

🎭 Starring Cast
Mercedes McCambridge: (Lead) Academy Award-winning actress and the chilling voice of the demon in The Exorcist.
Arnold Moss: A legendary stage and screen actor with a powerful, authoritative voice.
Kristoffer Tabori: A prolific actor and director known for his frequent dramatic turns on the series.
Earl Hammond: A versatile voice talent later famous for his roles in iconic 80s animated series.

📻 Trivia and Historical Facts
The McCambridge Factor: Mercedes McCambridge was often referred to as the "First Lady of the Mystery Theater." Her ability to portray intense emotional distress made this episode one of the more chilling entries of the 1977 season.

The Writer: Written by Sam Dann, who was known for scripts that focused on "man’s inhumanity to man." This episode stands out for its mature handling of wartime atrocities and PTSD, themes rarely explored so deeply in standard 1970s radio.

Holiday Programming: Interestingly, this dark, trauma-heavy episode aired on the day after Christmas (Boxing Day). CBSRMT often contrasted the cheerful holiday season with bleak, gripping mysteries to capture the "stay-at-home" winter audience.

Historical Backdrop: While the war in the episode is often left slightly vague to feel universal, the themes of displacement and the hunt for war criminals mirrored real-world headlines involving the pursuit of Nazi fugitives in the late 1970s.

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