What happens
Andrei Stanning, a celebrated ballet dancer, has a dreamlike ballet career at the heart of this Inner Sanctum Mysteries episode. After his wife, the ballerina Nina, dies in costume at the end of a performance, Andrei grows withdrawn and haunted, plagued by visions of a stage knife. Detective McFarland of the homicide bureau begins asking questions about the death and Andrei's state of mind. The story is adapted from Ben Hecht's motion picture of the same name, presented in August 1946 under the Inner Sanctum banner. Andrei's relationship with the dancer Heidi and the troubled ballet company form the core of the mystery as the strange events surrounding the production unfold.
A ballet company's theater and a hotel room in an unnamed city, with the ballet production of Spectre of the Rose at its center.
Characters: Andrei Stanning, Nina, Heidi, Detective McFarland, Madame L'Aceau, Palakov
Listen for: Listen for Andrei's dream of the knife and the ballet music that seems to haunt him, and for McFarland's questions about Nina's death.
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.