Surfeit of Thrills

New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 313, 22 June 1945, Page 9

Surfeit of Thrills

HE listener who hears too many radio thrillers becomes in time, like the reader of téo many detective novels, both blase and easily bored. He knows by heart the methods which may be used to murder a victim; he is on the look-out for mistakes made by the criminal; he can analyse the importance of each clue as it is presented. Should he anticipat the denouement, he is so far past the stage of being pleased at his own cleverness that even his self-esteem ts not proof against the disappointment. All it amounts to is that yet another author has turned out to possess clay feet, and where are we now to turn? In some sueh mood I listened to "He Came by Night," a BBC fifteen-minute thriller from’ 4YA. It had the all-too-familiar old lady and companion living in the all-too-familiar lonely house in the country (even the villagers thought it haunted), and when the all-too-familiar rubies put in an appearance one suspected the worst. A thief got into the safe, but the old lady had anticipated that and substituted her false teeth for the gems. The companion, whom one had suspected all along, turned out to be a guilty accomplice and the criminals were completely fooled. The gentle listener was not, more’s the pity.