I rate this episode ★★★★★ for EXCELLENT. I’d give props to Ian Martin for writing a mystery tale that combines Drama & Fantasy into one episode. The main character was like a combination of EUGENE VALMONT (created by Robert Barr), PROFESSOR AUGUSTUS S.F.X. VAN DUSEN (created by Jacques Futrell), and SHERLOCK HOLMES (created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle). The Title is good and another way to title this CBSRMT episode would be “The 19th Century Ghost Buster.â€ The music was terrifyingly good, especially at the 33-minute mark where the poltergeist comes in to attack. The sound effects of the phone ringing, train station, train whistle, horse carriage, bell ringing, tableware clinking, trance music, loud roaring thunder, glassware clinking, clock chiming, crickets in the garden, the howling wind, lighting the matches, body thud, glass breaking, birds chirping, and bystanders gasping were highly efficient in this mystery story. In our Host’s Prologue, E.G. Marshall starts it off by quoting Oscar Wilde: “Death must be so beautiful. To lie in the soft brown earth, with the grasses waving above one's head, and listen to silence. To have no yesterday, and no tomorrow. To forget time, to forget life, to be at peace.â€ In ACT-1, he introduces us to our main character who is not only a private eye, but a parapsychologist. In ACT-2, all 5 of characters are together…still. In ACT-3, he informs the CBSRMT fans about the aftermath of the recent dead corpse. In the end, after solving the mystery, E.G. Marshall lets us remember the name of this Ghostly Private Eye: Doctor Flaxman Low. In his Epilogue, he gives us the Resolution on what happened to the owners of the house. From the beginning to the end, E.G. Marshall was on point of his narrations! And finally, our creative cast: Larry Haines (as Dr. Flaxman Low), Paul Hecht (as Professor Jean Thierry), Betty Winkler (as Lady Cynthia Blackburton), Guy Sorel (as Sir George Blackburton), and Ian Martin (as Charles Volney and Superintendent Bumbry). I use the word “creativeâ€ because that’s how they portrayed their roles, especially Paul Hecht and Larry Haines. Paul Hecht pulled it off for playing his role with a French accent. But Larry Haines stole the show for portraying the sleuth of the supernatural. SPECIAL NOTE: Flaxman Low was created by E. & H. Heron and this particular story is based on the 1898 short story “The Story of the Yand Manor House.â€ Fans of CBSRMT should listen to this episode and read the short story also. Until next time…pleasant dreams. =^D
