MOLLE Mystery Theater

The MOLLE Mystery Theater aired from 1943 to 1952 on various networks, four years on NBC, three on CBS, and the final two on ABC. During most of its run on NBC, it was sponsored by MOLLE brushless shaving cream (pronounced MOLE-LAY, and still available today); during that time the sponsor's name was included in the show's title. An anthology show, it featured a different cast of characters each show. The shows in this collection are from the NBC iteration of the show.

The stories are well-scripted and well-performed and feature many of the leading performers of the day, such as Anne Seymour, Richard Widmark, and Frank Lovejoy. During the NBC years, the stories were introduced by the fictional amateur criminologist, Godfrey Barnes.

In many of the articles about this show, Peter Lorre is named as the narrator. This, I believe, is a mistake, but an understandable one. Many popular shows of the time were repackaged for broadcast to troops on the Armed Forces Radio Service's Mystery Playhouse In repackaging shows, the AFRS removed the commercials and replaced the narration (I suspect because of the product references, but I could not document that); Peter Lorre introduced many of the repackaged AFRS shows. Because of the quality of its production, the MOLLE Mystery Theatre was a favourite of the AFRS, so many of these shows, with Lorre's narration, have survived, leading confusion of the AFRS versions with the MOLLE versions.

Series description provided by Frank Bell.