The expression “soap” came from the many soap companies who sponsored serial dramas. Lux aimed a bit higher than the soapies, sponsoring this famous anthology of film adaptations (it later did so on television as well). It was hosted by Cecil B de Mille, helping him becoming one of the most famous directors of all pre-auteur theory.
This is an adaptation of the 1936 Goldwyn/Wyler movie which was in turn adapted from Lillian Hellman’s play. Famously the lesbian angle was removed, but the story still works because it is based on one of the great archetypal situations – namely a horrid little girl spreading a vicious rumour which is believed by everyone and ends up destroying lives.
The cast here is different from the movie, but is so high quality they could have easily played the roles: Barbara Stanwyck, Mary Astor and Errol Flynn. All three are strong; this was the first radio role of Errol’s I’d heard him play (he featured in a number of them) and he’s very strong – he had a beautiful, strong voice which made him ideal for radio, even if it’s a nothing part, just the handsome male lead. (NB de Mille introduces him as being from Ireland, and in an interview at the end Errol refers to watching movies when growing up in Dublin – even in 1937 he was pretending to be Irish!)
The three leads are outshone however by the girl who plays the little girl that goes hysterical – although three hysterical breakdown scenes might be too many (the director probably discovered the actor could do it really well and thought “hey let’s get them doing it again”).
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