ESCAPE!: ANCIENT SORCERIES (FEBRUARY 21, 1947)

Based on the classic horror story by Algernon Blackwood featuring occult investigator John Silence, this epoisode 2was sirected by Norman Macdonne;; and adapted by Lee Crutchfiled.   It featured the talents of William Conrad as "The Doctor," Paul Frees. Kay Brinker, and Anne Morrison.

Arthur Llewellen, a somewhat timid traveller, becomes more and more enchanted with a sleepy and ancient British town and soon realized that the citzens are being to act more and more like cats.

Algenon Blackwood (1869-1951) was a leading author of weird and occult stories, the most famous of which were arguably "The Willows" and "The Wendigo."   During his lifetime he published thirteen highly respected collections of short stories, as well as thirteen novels, two children's books, seven plays (including The Starlight Express), and a biography.  Blackwood was an avid nature lover and mystic.  He did not believe in the supernatural, but felt that there were "possibilities out beyond our natural reach of consciousness," and that, nonetheless, our "so limited norml consciousness can reaveal new, extraordinary powers."  He was a student of Buddhism and other Eastern philosophies, was one of the founding members of the Toronto Theosophical Society,and a memeber of the The Ghost Club and the Hermetic Oder of the Golden Dawn.  His interests in the occult and in nature were often combined in his work.  Blackwood was also a noted British Broadcast narrator.

Check out "Ancient Sorceries" here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJvRjJ1J4Yc

And check out the original story in this collection of three John Silence tales:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10624