This was a fantastic episode that left me going with three options to figure out the plot's ending. Very innovative for 1974. 5 stars. Just one note of minor criticism; Mystery Theater frequently cast older actors and actresses for younger parts. In this episode, the young wife sounded older than her husband's mom. Still, this was radio, and this episode was very powerful.

A woman goes to meet her new fiancé only to discover that he is already married, his wife is quite aggressive in wanting her to stay and clear things up, and he is trying to drive her away as quickly as possible. A bizarre situation to be sure!

"The Bride That Wasn't" is another winner. The story seems to begin as yet another TWILIGHT ZONE-ish entry, with the listener suspecting that the would-be bride is caught in a time warp or another dimension-- but it quickly turns into an episode which resembles nothing so much as Himan Brown's earlier series, INNER SANCTUM, which generally featured apparently inexplicable events that would always be "logically" explained. Once Florence's true murderous nature becomes apparent, the story really takes off. For me, the entire thing is more funny than frightening, but then that was always true of INNER SANCTUM as well. The dialogue helps the humorous effect enormously. Some of it is deliberately comic, as here: JACK: Give me the ax, Florence! FLORENCE: I'm tempted to ask where you'd like it. ...Whereas some of it features the kind of over-explaining that was common to bad radio writing, as when Jack and Amy are confronted by Florence and Amy says: "Your wife--standing in the doorway--an ax in her hand!" (Think about it. Would anybody actually say this unless Jack was blind?) Or, even better, this exchange: AMY: Joe, she's got a gun! JOE: I can see that, Amy. Good radio writers knew that they had to be more subtle in making the dialogue create the picture in listeners' heads. But that's not to take away from "The Bride That Wasn't," which is sheer fun all the way through. Its one slight fault, a standard one for RMT, is that it simply runs a bit too long. Brother Joe is a completely superfluous character, obviously introduced simply to fill air time; he does nothing that Jack and Amy couldn't have done themselves in a tighter script. Two things played in my mind while I was listening. One was the wonderfully campy horror films of William Castle, director of such "fright" fests as HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (the original), 13 GHOSTS, and--the one I kept thinking of here--STRAIT-JACKET, which featured a seemingly homicidal Joan Crawford. (For a certain kind of masochist there may be no more alluring vision on earth than that of Joan Crawford with an ax in her hand.) The other, not relevant at all but I'll put it here anyway, was the title of an early Pink Floyd song: "Careful With That Ax, Eugene." Given the nature of this story, the episode might have been titled "Careful With that Ax, Florence." Or, given the nickname she says her husband had for her, maybe it should have been "Careful With that Ax, Stupid." A very enjoyable episode, and I'll go ahead and post this early, so that no one comments on the sound of crickets chirping here on the board.

I relistened to this episode yesterday (yup, itmakes me think of Careful With That Axe, Eugene, too). I enjoy this episode a lot- not really a classic, but a fine listen. This one definitely features one of the nuttiest characters to make the RMT scene- you know she's a "bit mental" (as my UK friends would say) when she mentions visiting a friend at the asylum early on. In fact, this is a whole castful of folks whose behavior borders on the irrational at one point or another in this episode. Some notes- this show contains one of RMT's best act ending lines- "What are you doing with that axe? at the end of Act 1. I actually enjoy Acts 1 and 2 more than the climax in Act 3. Another interesting point is that the opening teaser serves to open the story- rather than coming as a preview of a plot point later in the show. All in all, worth a listen, and a good OTR show!

"Alright, give me the key!" "So you can UNlock it? [said as if that's a ludicrous thought]" "What else?" Or: "What are you, some women's libber?" This has to have been intentionally funny, not suspenseful, right? The husband and mother couldn't have subdued her the first time she dozed off? None of this works unless you just go with it for laughs.

Thanks to Psycho, in the first act, I kept expecting it to be the mother who was crazy. Then again, they had at least a day to escape and nebbish Jack didn't whack Florence, grab Mom and make a run for it? Okay, can Amy be any more stupid? But I guess she's perfect for Jack, since they were Mr. & Mrs. Stupid! "Oh, honey, let's name our daughter after the axe-murderess who tried to kill us all." And, of course, Amy gave up her career to marry a man she knew for two weeks who lied about having a wife/former wife who killed his father and was in an asylum. I guess they needed Joe because they were such idiots! I see Bernie Barrow did this the year before he began playing Johnny Ryan on "Ryan's Hope." I didn't realize he was playing Jack until the end. Interesting when you know/don't know what the actors look like and it affects your imagining of the story. I had a totally different image of Jack in my mind than BB.

Ahhh, another great episode!!! Excellent!!

A very exciting episode filled with several crazy characters.

Wow!! This was a simply written episode with a rather predictable ending but ite was truly one of the most exciting episodes I have heard so for. The acting was spot on and the characters really pulled you in to the drama. It was crazy and surreal. An example of what well-seasoned actors can do with a good story. Kudos and 5 stars!!!!

Another episode with the Lowthar Act III twist. Very well done and a action scene near the end! Mystery, no supernatural elements.

Very difficult to suspend disbelief during this episode. **SPOILER ALERT** In general, the story was a good one, but the thought that all of these adults could be so completely cowed by a lady (who didn't even display a gun until late in the story) buggers belief. And when she got the idea of using a fire to kill them, she repeated a couple of times, "Fire...Fire..." then said she figured out a way to deal with them. Does it really take a rocket scientist to figure out she was going to burn down the house? Call me crazy, but when the choice is between death (especially by fire) and being shot, I'd chance it with the gun. 4 against 1, really? And they didn't think about re-wiring the phone jacks until they were almost dead? And phones would use two wires (a twisted pair), not three. Ah, well. Way too unbelievable.

The dialogue is transparent on purpose in order to clue us all in. However, the characters weren't supposed to know. I think was what made it suspenseful...the audience's anticipation of Florence's plan, but the characters were supposed to be clueless. It's possible that in real life, the victims would be clueless as well, since people often don't see things clearly when they are caught in the middle of a situation.

Agree. If I were Amy, I'd be out of that house after 5 minutes. I don't care if I had to walk or run all the way to the train station. Go to a neighbor's house and ask them to call me a cab. Seriously, why would I accept shelter from a man that I'd felt wronged me and lied to me? He could always contact me later if he really loved me...with his explanation.

Obviously you're correct, but it sort of comes with the territory. Also, you neglected to mention the MOST unbelievable aspect of the ending, which was that the named their new daughter after her!!! As outlandish as it all was, I thoroughly enjoyed this episode; more than most.

It was an okay listen to actors who didn't frequent CBSRMT very often (or only this time). Definitely some plot holes as Mike pointed out - why didn't they just leave when she didn't appear to have a gun early on? If she had it on her, wouldn't it have been fairly easy to overpower her? If she had escaped, wouldn't they do more than call, wouldn't they come visit? I agree with Mike again that between burning and being shot why didn't they all just rush her at the same time? Although phones do use two twisted pair wires, usually it's four that come into a house (I'm not sure if it was the same then, but I don't know why it would be three - perhaps because then there would only be 6 combinations instead of 24 for the story). All that said, I wasn't sure who was craziest until Act 2 as others mentioned.

Of course these people don't act rationally, if they had EG would have broke in half way through act 2 and said "pleasant .....dreams? And we would have heard 26 minutes of Budweiser commercials. This episode is not plausible it is entertaining, just how I like em

I'm about to listen now, but did anyone else notice that this does not seem to be a NYC cast? It has all the earmarks of a California cast to me (Janet Waldo, Lurene Tuttle, etc.).

Amy Prentice met Jack Morton at a teachers' conference. He asked her to marry him, but when she shows up at his home he denies it all, saying he’s an insurance salesman and already married. But Florence, his wife, becomes suspicious when Amy is able to describe in detail much of the Morton house, which she’s never seen, claiming Jack told her all about it. That night he slips into the guest room where Amy is sleeping. Right behind him is Florence.

Wow, that Florence was one scary lady, one of the best villains on CBSRMT! This episode was interesting and kept you guessing until the end. One thing that was good about the episode was the build to the climax. However, I don't think they were coughing enough when they were trapped in the fire, lol! Still, it was a good, suspenseful tale that keeps you on the edge of your seat. I have one complaint about the storyline though. Why did the guy not warn Amy about his psycho wife BEFORE she arrived? It seemed really selfish of him to propose to her and invite her to meet his mom when he knew darn well that his psycho wife would be there and put her in danger. Shouldn't he have given her a heads up and let her decide if she wants to take the risk? Also, why did he propose to Amy before divorcing his wife? At the very least, why didn't he offer to meet her away from his psycho wife and explain the situation? He doesn't seem too bright or very responsible, lol!

The wife only escaped the asylum and showed up AFTER he returned home from his trip. Also he does mention that the marriage was annulled once the doctors pronounced Florence irrevocably "cuckoo bananas". Understand how you missed this, there was a lot going on that made little sense here! I'm still shocked by the fact that they named there new daughter after the woman who attempted to hack them up and burn them alive!

Very, very good!

Enjoyable episode, gives roses a whole other dimension! Lol. Hard to believe they could not over power the wife but then psychotic people are known to be strong and never sleepy, so chalk it up to theatre. I do miss the commercials and news!

Umm the mom’s voice sounds exactly like Florence…. and why did Jack invite her there in the first place. The entire episode made no sense unless you’re 9 years old… it’s hard to understand how anyone would even consider this a good episode. 2 out of 5 horrible!!

I agree. At first I couldn't tell if there were two women living in the house or one. Their voices were too similar. In this kind of story, I always ask myself what I would do. If my answer is too far off from what's happening, then I can't sympathize with the character. I reckon Amy is more of a people-pleaser than I am!

I listened to many of these episodes on there first run, or at least there repeat in 1974 over WEEI in Boston, including "The Bride that Wasn't"!