Mysteries by Morse

Carleton E. Morse created the longest running serial in radio history, One Man's Family, which was my mother's father's favorite show. My own favorite, though, is another Morse show, I Love a Mystery. But now and then I listen to episodes of a lesser Morse series, Mysteries by Morse, and in fact last weekend a long car trip was made more bearable by a 10-episode serial from that show, "Brothers of the Living Dead." The show's main character is Captain Friday ("If you like high adventure, come with me! If you like the stealth of intrigue, come with me! If you like blood and thunder (sound of thunder crashing), come with me!"). "Brothers of the Living Dead" has just about everything: a lost city in the jungle, flesh-eating trees, a werewolf (sort of), sudden death, slow death, torture, a staircase lined with skeletons in chains, poison-tipped spears, sappy romance, a mysterious and beautiful green-eyed jungle girl, underground passageways, the fate of the entire world hanging in the balance, and a lot of other things I'm probably forgetting. Completely implausible, of course. You can't just suspend your disbelief. You have to bind it, gag it, and lock it in a closet. But I can do that now and then. It wasn't I Love a Mystery, but it was a lot of fun. I remember another serial episode of the show that I liked even more, City of the Dead. Carleton E. Morse is one of my heroes.