Music for Murder, Machines, and Monsters

Abstract

On 18 July 1944, Columbia Broadcasting System aired a notorious murder confession created for the public's entertainment. This confession came in the form of a radio drama called 'Moat Farm Murder' that aired on the Columbia Presents Corwin radio series with music composed by Bernard Herrmann. This was not simply a radio drama but a verbatim confession of a real-life 1903 London murder by Samuel Herbert Dougal, played by Charles Laughton. Elsa Lanchester played his victim, Camille 'Cecile' Holland. The play re-aired two years later on The Mercury Summer Theatre on the Air on 26 July 1946. In this re-airing, Orson Welles played the role of Dougal and Mercedes McCambridge played the role of Cecile. Fifteen years after the second airing, The Twilight Zone (CBS, 1959-1964) aired The re-use of storylines from radio plays on early television was not uncommon; indeed, much of the television programming of the 1950s and early 1960s consisted of repurposed radio scripts. Columbia Presents Corwin 'Moat Farm Murder' (Bernard Herrmann, 18 July 1944) was among the many radio programmes from the 1940s that had music featured in The Twilight Zone. Of the radio plays to feature music in the series, 'Moat Farm Murder' provided more cues than any other CBS radio score. Cues from 'Moat Farm Murder' are found in eleven episodes of The Twilight Zone (CBS, 1959-1964). The use of music from radio dramas and their re-uses in television has thus far not been examined. This essay looks at the composition of the 'Moat Farm Murder' radio score and Corwin's collaboration with Herrmann in it, as well as the re-use of radio music in The Twilight Zone. Through this case study of 'Moat Farm Murder', better knowledge of how the CBS Stock music library was used, in tandem with the way in which other similar network and production company cue libraries worked.