SHORT STORY-ISH WEDNESDAY: THE MAN WHO COULDN'T BE PHOTOGRAPHED

 "The Man Who Couldn't Be Photographed" by John Dickson Carr  (radio play first broadcast on Cabin B-13, July 12, 1948; repeated on October 30, 1948; the script was included in Carr's collection The Island of Coffins and Other Mysteries from the Casebook of Cabin B-13, 2020.

(Sound:  a ship's whistle)

(Music:  in and behind)

ANNOUNCER:  CBS brings you John Dickson Carr's famous Doctor Fabian, ship's surgeon, world traveler, and collector of strange and incredible tales of mystery and murder, directed by John Dietz.

(Music:  fades out)

And that's how each episode of Cabin B-13 began.  The show was broadcast on CBS Radio from July 5, 1948 to January 2, 1949.  The series took its title from an episode written by Carr for Suspense, which aired on March 16, 1943; that episode has been re-aired and revisited a number of time and was the basis of the 1953 film Dangerous Crossing.  The later radio series had little in common with the original play, except that the steam ship Maurevania plays a significant role in both.  The narrator of the radio series was the ship's surgeon, Doctor John Fabian.  For many years it was thought that this series was lost to time, as no recording of the episodes had been found.  Then in the 1990s,all twenty-three scripts were found in the recesses of the Library of Congress.  These scripts were eventually reprinted by Crippen and Landru in The Island of Coffins and Other Mysteries from the Casebook of Cabin B-13 in 2020.

"The Man Who Could Not Be Photographed" has Fabian telling Bruce Ransom, "the greatest romantic film-star in the first decade of talking pictures."  Ransom and his (ahem) personal secretary Nita Ross crossed in the Maurevania to France during a voyage in 1933.  Ransom, as callous and egotistical as he was handsome, had changed for the worse over the past two years, cutting off past ties with 'little" people who could do him nothing to advance his career -- he just "outgrew them," and cast their friendship aside.  One of those was his best friend from college, Tom Sherwood, who happened to live nearby (and, coincidently, was an acquaintance of Fabian).  Sherwood, on hearing his friend was in town, tried to contact Ransom, but was rebuffed.

Ransom was one of those actors who tried to appear authentic on screen -- when a role called for swordsmanship, he learn how to use a sword.  The character in his upcoming film happened to be a champion darts player at the local pub, so Ransom had a dart board set up in his rented house and began to practice throwing darts.  While he was practicing, Nita remonstrated about his recent treatment of Tom Sherwood.  This was when he explained that is someone could no longer be of help to him, he wanted nothing to do with them.  Unfortunately, that also included Nita.  Ransom had brought her with him, away from home, only to dump her in a location where she would be less liable to make trouble.  This did not go over well with Nita, who had a dart in her hand.  She stabbed him in the shoulder, and cursed him, saying she wished she had stabbed in the face, scarring it so no photographer would ever want to take his picture again.  (That's a pretty dire curse to place on a romantic film star.)  the she stormed out of the room.  a few seconds later, there was a shot:  Nita had put a bullet through her head.

Ransom told his butler not to call the police, instead to call the local offices of his studio to clean the mess up.  The he went out for champagne.

The next day, Ransom visited four photographic studios to have his picture taken, figuring he would choose whichever did the best job.  A few days later, several of the photographers called to say that the pictures taken did not come out.  When he went in person to the last photographer, he was met with visible disgust and was told that these pictures, also, did not come out; something must have been wrong with the camera, they said.  Ransom demanded to see the prints anyway, and was denied.  Despite his fame, he was quickly shown the door.  He came back to his rented house and spent time gazing in the mirror.  What was wrong?  The mirror reflected his usual handsome face.  Why were people looking at him in horror?  Then he hears Nita's voice, as if filtered through the air: "I offer my life, I offer my soul, if that man never faces a camera again."  That must be imagination, right?  This could not happen.  Life is much too sweet now.  "Is it, Bruce?  If you never faced a camera again?'

In a panic, Ransom remembered Tom Sherwood, the friend he has discarded.  Sherwood used to play around with photography.  He called Sherwood and asked him to come over.  After the photographs were take, Ransom insisted that Sherwood develop them on the spot; there was a washroom off them library he could used.  It seemed to Ransom that Sherwood was taking a long time developing.  He picked up the phone and heard Sherwood on an extension, calling for help, telling the other person on the line to come quickly and that a straightjacket might be needed.  When Sherwood came back into the room, Ransom, in a panic, grabbed the gun that Nita had shot herself with and shot Sherwood...

There's not much more to tell, except why Ransom was the man who could not be photographed.

A little shocker of a tale and somewhat reminiscent of the old EC horror comic book stories, but with a surprisingly logical explanation.  This was an original story that used a gimmick that Carr once considered using for a short story but didn't.  As far as I can tell, there is no recording of this radio episode extant, which is  a shame because the sound effects would have really heightened the suspense even further..