What happens
Harry Lime, a young American adventurer, arrives in the remote city of Beccorata, where oil leases are being fought over by rival agents. Working as a go-between for a shadowy firm, Harry collects payments and pushes a deal with the Alafin, the local ruler. When a rival is shot during a tense confrontation, Harry flees the city with a young American woman named Marion Lauren, and the two begin a hurried journey across Europe under assumed names. The Mercury Theatre on the Air presents this episode of the Harry Lime series, first broadcast on September 14, 1951, with Orson Welles in the title role.
The city of Beccorata in a remote corner of Saudi Arabia, and then a journey across the border and through Istanbul, Bucharest and Vienna.
Characters: Harry Lime, Carl Schwab, Marion Lauren, George Harris, Mordecai Valley, The Alafin, The chief teller
Listen for: The moment Harry realizes Marion is the woman who shot her husband, and George Harris's reveal of how the bank's serial-number records traced her.
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.