"Berenice": another winning EAP-RMT combination. Joan Banks has surely got one of the greatest evil laughs I have ever heard.

A few tidbits that may be of interest:

* The Poe story "Berenice" is quite short, and it's worth reading as a comparison (well, obviously it's worth reading on its own too).

(An odd detail included in a footnote to the Society's version of the text is that in Poe's time the name "Berenice" was pronounced to rhyme with "very spicy." It took me a minute to wrap my tongue around that one.)

* The RMT adaptation of the story interpolates elements of Poe's stories "The Fall of the House of Usher" and, particularly, "Ligeia." I hardly need say that these tales are also worth reading.

* The Payton/Grams guidebook to the CBSRMT includes this quote from the scriptwriter, George Lowthar:

"Edgar Allan Poe was a genius. There's no doubt about it. His language ranks among the most beautiful in the world, with its imagery, its color. The man holds you from the very first line until the very last. He was a storyteller, a master of prose. A dramatist must take the seed of his stories and fertilize it, at the same time retaining the poetic ambiance of Poe and the horror that is in his stories."

This episode represents some first-rate fertilizer by Mr. Lowthar.