Suspense 58-10-19 773 Three Skeleton Key

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Harold’s Old Time Radio

Episode: Suspense 58-10-19 773 – "Three Skeleton Key"
Original Air Date: October 19, 1958
Podcast Date: October 29, 2025
Host: Harolds Old Time Radio
Starring: Vincent Price
Story By: George Toudouze, Adapted by James Poe
Production: William N. Robeson

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Episode Overview

This episode of Harold’s Old Time Radio features the legendary Suspense radio drama “Three Skeleton Key,” starring Vincent Price. The story, considered a classic in the annals of radio horror, thrusts listeners into a claustrophobic nightmare set inside a remote lighthouse besieged by an army of ravenous rats. As disaster looms, tension laces every minute, building toward a harrowing climax that echoes the primal fears of isolation, madness, and nature run amok.

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Key Discussion Points & Story Breakdown

1. Setting the Scene: The Isolated Lighthouse

• The main character vividly describes the foreboding environment of Three Skeleton Key, a lighthouse on a barren rock surrounded by treacherous waters, deadly wildlife, and stifling winds.
• Quote:

  "A gray tapering cylinder welded by iron rods and concrete to the key itself. A bare black rock 150ft long, maybe 40 wide... the light rising 110ft straight up out of the ocean. And all about it the churning water." (01:16)

2. The Arrival of a Derelict Ship

• On a quiet night, the lighthouse crew—comprised of the narrator, the stoic Louie, and the talkative August—spot a ghostly three-masted ship heading straight for the reef.
• The ship appears strangely abandoned, yet is crawling with a "dark brown carpet"—revealed to be thousands of rats.
• Quote:

  "The decks were swarming with a dark brown carpet that looked like a gigantic fungus, but undulating... hundreds, no, thousands... an inestimable number of tremendous rats." (04:46 - 05:04)

• The ship crashes, unleashing the rats, who swim en masse for the lighthouse.

3. The First Wave of the Rat Siege

• The rats attempt to infiltrate the lighthouse, terrifying the keepers.
• The men scramble to close the bronze door, barely managing to keep the horde out, but not before fighting off a massive rat that slips inside.
• Quote:

  "He was as big as a tomcat. Bigger. And his eyes were wild and red. His teeth long and sharp and yellow... It was like fighting a panther." (06:24 - 06:45)

4. Encirclement and Terror

• The rats swarm the exterior, obscuring windows and filling the lighthouse with a suffocating stench.
• The men, trapped in the topmost room, desperately fend off the ongoing assault.
• In a moment of grim humor, they tease the rats through the glass, watching the rats scramble and even throwing them to the sharks below.
• Quote:

  "You must make the most of any situation to endure it... We found a way to entertain ourselves by teasing the rats. Sounds crazy. Horrible. It was fun." (08:53)

5. Breach and Breakdown

• The rats gnaw through a window frame and nearly break into the top room, forcing the men to reinforce the opening with tin.
• The rats begin to force their way through the wooden trap door, seriously injuring Louie in the process. Supplies and air dwindle, panic and physical exhaustion mount.
• August’s mental state deteriorates, culminating in him threatening to shatter the glass with a wrench, risking all their lives.
• Quote:

  "So there I was. A lunatic and a coward for company. And all about. Watching our little drama. The rats." (14:27)

6. Starvation and Salvation

• Failing light, no food or water, and near madness.
• Suddenly, the rats retreat, lured away by the arrival of a small freighter (a banana boat), which grounds on the reef, unwittingly becoming the rats’ new vessel.
• The narrator watches in horror but is unable to warn the crew, haunted by the knowledge of what’s aboard.
• Quote:

  "The sun came up. And there wasn’t a rat on the whole key. Every last one of that terrible army had deserted us. Gone back to sea on their new ship." (17:11)

7. Aftermath

• August is committed to an asylum, never recovering his sanity. Louie succumbs to blood poisoning from his wounds. The narrator survives but is forever changed, haunted by approaching ships and what might still lurk aboard them.
• Quote:

  "Life on Three Skeleton Key isn’t bad these days. But sometimes when I see a strange vessel approaching, I get a little nervous. Can you blame me?" (17:29)

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Memorable Moments & Quotes

• On the horror of the rat swarm:

  "Every one was covered with a thick, wriggling, screaming curtain of brown Fur... The light was dim. Brown filtered through the crawling mass that swarmed over the glass." (06:45 - 07:15)

• On psychological torment:

  "So there I was. A lunatic and a coward for company. And all about. Watching our little drama. The rats." (14:27)

• On survival’s grim irony:

  "Somewhere on the seas. There’s a little banana boat without a crew. That is, without a human crew." (17:32)

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Important Segment Timestamps

• [01:16] – The narrator describes the lighthouse and its haunting isolation
• [04:46–05:04] – The horror of the rat-infested ship is revealed
• [06:11–06:45] – The first rat breaks in and is fought off
• [08:53–09:56] – The men’s macabre game teasing the rats
• [10:53–12:18] – The rats breach the lighthouse, Louie is bitten
• [13:46–14:27] – August’s mental breakdown
• [17:11–17:32] – The aftermath and reflection on the ordeal

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Conclusion

"Three Skeleton Key" stands out not only as a chilling tale of survival but also as a psychological study of isolation and fear. The episode’s tight narrative, visceral sound design, and captivating performances (notably Vincent Price’s evocative delivery) create an enduring and deeply unsettling listening experience. Nearly 70 years after its first broadcast, the story’s power remains undiminished.

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Transcript

[William N. Robeson]

Suspense and the producer of radio's outstanding theater of thrills, the master of mystery and adventure, William N. Robeson.

[Narrator]

Among the great classics of radio drama, none is more memorable than Three Skeleton Key. Although few who have heard it would remember it by that title. To them it is simply that story about the rats and that it is an unforgettable experience in horror. We repeat it now because we can't help ourselves. We like to scare as well as you like to be scared. Listen. Listen then, as Vincent Price stars in Three Skeleton Key, which begins in just a moment.

[William N. Robeson]

And now Three Skeleton Key, starring Vincent Price. A tale well calculated to keep you in suspense.

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

Try and picture this place. A gray tapering cylinder welded by iron rods and concrete to the key itself. A bare black rock 150ft long, maybe 40 wide. That's at low tide, at high tide. Just the light rising 110ft straight up out of the ocean. And all about it the churning water. Gray, green scum, dappled, warm as soup and swarming with gigantic bat like devil fish, great violet schools of Portuguese, man of war and yes, sharks, the big ones. 15 footers. And as if this wasn't enough, there was a hot, dank, rotten smelling wind that came at us day and night off the jungle swamps of the mainland. A wind that smelled like death. Set in the base of the light is a watertight bronze door. And in you go. And up and up, round and round. Over the light storeroom is the food storeroom. And over the food storeroom is the bunk room where the three of us slept. And over the bunk room is the living and cooking room. And over the living and cooking room is the light. She was a beauty, balanced like a ballerina on the glistening steel axle of her rotary mechanism. My companions in the light were an odd and opposite pair. Big Louie, the head man who hardly ever talked, and August, who never stopped. But it wasn't a bad life, especially at night when the others were snoring in their sacks two levels down. Usually there was nothing to see across the starlit water, for most ships knew better than to come close to Three Skeleton Key. But one night, gazing out across the phosphorescent comas, I noticed something show for a second in the revolving light. Something far off. A three master, a big one, about half a mile off and coming down out of the north northwest, coming straight for us. I went over to the gallery door.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

And yelled, murray, Marie, what is it? Ship headed for the reef. Right on.

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

I had the glasses out now. I couldn't read her name. But I could see her quite plainly. All sail set. The foam creaming away under her bow. Her beautiful lines. But why didn't she turn? Every time our light turned, it hit her with the glare of day.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

A ship.

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

Where? North, northwest. The light will touch you in a moment.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

Can't they see?

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

Look at her. She just keeps coming on.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

Oh, the square heads. What is it?

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

What is it? Watch. North, northwest. August.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

I know. I know what it is. The Dutchman. The Flying Dutchman. She is derelict.

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

That's it. Derelict.

[William N. Robeson]

Abandoned.

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

Crew left her for some reason or other.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

But instead of sinking, she's gone on.

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

Running before every wind.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

She'll not run long. Not with these reefs to break her up.

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

Beautiful ship.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

Now, why would men leave a beautiful ship like that?

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

Impossible.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

Absolutely impossible.

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

What?

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

Here, take my glasses.

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

They're stronger than yours. All right. What is it? You. The rose in my throat. The decks were swarming with a dark brown carpet that looked like a gigantic fungus, but undulating and on the masts and yards were hundreds, no, thousands.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

No meat, I don't know.

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

An inestimable number of tremendous rats. We stood there, the three of us, frozen in terror, peering through our binoculars as the rat covered ship gracefully, relentlessly bore down upon the quay. Until at last, with a horrible certainty splintering and grinding upon the rocks, she ran aground. Look.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

The rat's on the water like a carpet.

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

They're swimming.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

Sure, they're swimming. Those are ship's rats.

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

But they're swimming for the rocks.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

The door below.

[Narrator]

It's open.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

Come on down.

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

We went racing down the stone stairs.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

Taking them three and four at a time. Scared?

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

You bet. We were scared to get the windows.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

Maybe they can climb, we don't know. All right, chief, but hurry.

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

Hurry.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

You see them?

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

No. Yes, I do.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

We're up at the other end of the rock. Look at the me can. They smell us. Here they come. Close the door.

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

I can't.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

It's stuck off. Here, let me.

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

Oh.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

Move, you thieve.

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

Made it close.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

One got in. Look there. Watch it, Egan.

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

Kick him. He was as big as a tomcat. Bigger.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

And his eyes were wild and red. His teeth long and sharp and yellow. He went for a starving ravenous. And we fought him. Fought that one rat all over the room. It was. Oh, believe me, I do not exaggerate. It was like fighting a panther.

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

I got him. Got him. As we ran up the winding staircase, we passed the tiny windows of the various levels. And every one was covered with a thick, wriggling, screaming curtain of brown Fur. The air of the gallery was thick and fetid with the stink of them. The light was dim. Brown filtered through the crawling mass that swarmed over the glass. All about us we could not see the sky. Nothing.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

Nothing but them.

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

Their red eyes. Their claws. Their wriggling hairy snouts in their teeth.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

What can we do? What can we do, Chief? Take it easy. Oh, Goose, take it easy. Oh, I can't. I just can't. It won't do any good.

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

Won't do any good to stand here and shake. Go away. Go away.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

Do you hear me? Go away. They won't go away. Not until the finish it, chief. Not until what? Not until they've been.

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

All day long we sat there in silent horror. Watching the writhing mass trying to reach us through the glass. And then at last it began to get dark. One side of the room was lit. A soft filtered red sunset through the rats. Very pretty. I set the wicks, checked my fuel and then lit the lamp. It caught them. Lit them in their gigantic wriggling web of pale hairless bellies. Twitching red tails. Bright eyes. And then I started the rotary motor. The light drove them mad as she swung slowly and smoothly about. She blinded them in the fierce stabbing bar of light. Moving continually about.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

Ever turning, ever touching.

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

Ever moving around and around. And they twitching and shuddering. Eyes flaming when they were struck by the light. Blinking and twinkling like the stars of hell. You must make the most of any situation to endure it. And we found a way to entertain ourselves by teasing the rats. Sounds crazy. Horrible. It was fun. We would get right up against the glass and make faces at them. It drove them crazy. They would scratch away trying to get at our eyes. Louie was even cuter about it. He'd pull a piece of bread out of his pocket and press it against the glass. The rats would scramble into a solid ball, Biting each other, clustering like grapes. From time to time a whole lot of them would slip and fall 110ft to the surf below.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

Look. Look at the sharks. They're eating them. The sharks are our friends. Oh, here, here.

[William N. Robeson]

I'll get another bunch together.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

Here, here, little beauties. Yeah, that's it. Pile up. Kill each other. There they go.

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

Ogoost joined in too. Very ingenious, Ogoost. He learned that if he spread eagled himself against the glass. They'd bunch and bundle against his figure.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

Then he'd leap my portrait erect.

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

I went off watch about midnight and I was just falling asleep when I became conscious of a new sound. I couldn't Figure it at first. So I got up, lit the lamp and went to the window. Even as I looked at it, I saw one of the panes begin to sag in. They were eating away.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

Louie. Louie, come quick. They found a way in.

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

I held the glass with my hand. And now they were all going crazy. And assured of the success of this.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

Maneuver, they were nibbling away at the frame.

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

Louis ran below and then returned with a large sheet of tin. We spread it against the window and hammered into place. Even as we did so, we felt the heavy bodies thudding against the other side as the window gave way.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

That ought to hold. If it doesn't, we're done for.

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

Rats can't eat tin. No.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

What was that?

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

I don't know. Well, that.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

That came from below. They're in. They're swarming up the stairs. Drop the trap door.

[Narrator]

Right.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

Two of them got in, huh? Go after them.

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

We didn't have to go after them.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

They came it up. I leaped to one side and grabbed a marlin spike, swung and smashed one in midair. I wh to see Lou with the other.

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

It had ripped his hand open and.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

The blood was pouring all over the place. He held his hand aloft and kicked at the snarl. I stepped ready, swung and got it. My hand. He got my hand.

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

It's both of Louie.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

I'll get you something to tie that up. I'm bleeding. Look at it. My bladder. I'm bleeding. Don't worry about it, Louis.

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

Now, look, look, look. I'll wind this kerchief about it.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

It'll be okay.

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

Now. It's not bad. Just the flesh. Then I became conscious of a new sound. They were gnawing their way through the wooden trapdoor. I watched the planks, fascinated, and even.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

As I did, it began to give way.

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

A bristling whiskery snout showed through the gallery.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

The trap door in the gallery.

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

It steals good. Come on. We made it. We lay across the trap, exhausted, while below us, the rats took over the entire tower. I could hear them howling and fighting over our food supply, our water, our leather, and all about us. The others screamed and glared in at us, swaying in a tangled mass, hypnotized by the ever turning light. By morning, the air in the little room was horrible. Until now, we'd been getting air from the tower below. Now that was sealed off and so was all our food and water. We lay exhausted, panting, waiting, waiting. The hours crawled on. I was almost dozing from fatigue when I heard something that brought me to my feet.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

Would you like to come in, my beauty.

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

I hold the powers of life and death.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

And I can let you in, you know.

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

Auguste was standing by the glass. And in one hand he held a big wrench. He was tapping the glass gently. Not quite hard enough to break it. I eased myself to my feet. And slowly, very slowly. He strode toward him.

[Louie or August (companions of the main character)]

All I have to do is tap just a little harder. And strong.

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

So there I was. A lunatic and a coward for company. And all about. Watching our little drama. The rats. The following day we lay thirst, tormented, starving. Waiting. Waiting. And the following night, I again tended the light. But the small supply of spare wicking we kept in the gallery had become. And quite suddenly, at about. About midnight. The light went out. There was nothing I could do. Wicks were stored three levels below. Nothing I could do. Nothing. From time to time, I'd strike a match to see the clock. And when I did. It lit up the million red eyes about us. All about us. Watching. Waiting. Below. It had grown quiet. They'd cleaned us out. And now they too were waiting. All waiting. And then the rats, quite suddenly. Were silent. And then I heard it. Then I saw the sky. And the stars. The rats were gone. I went to the glass. Out there on the water, a small freighter. A banana boat. Came softly and innocently at us. The light was out. They didn't know. I. I wanted to open the windows. To call out to them. To warn them somehow. But I was afraid. What if the rats were hiding from me? Tricking me? And so I waited. She grounded very softly on a reef not 200 yards from the quay. Grounded so gently that the man playing the cornet. Was he a passenger? A crewman off watch. Didn't even stop playing. They tried washing her back off. I could have told them to save their fuel. The tide was rising. Would have floated her free. And I waited. That's all. That's the story. The sun came up. And there wasn't a rat on the whole key. Every last one of that terrible army had deserted us. Gone back to sea on their new ship. Auguste insane asylum. He never recovered. And Louis? They took him into Cayenne. Where he died of blood poisoning from his bite. Life on Three Skeleton Key isn't bad these days. But sometimes when I see a strange vessel approaching. I get a little nervous. Can you blame me? Somewhere on the seas. There's a little banana boat without a crew. That is, without a human crew.

[William N. Robeson]

Suspense. In which Vincent Price starred in William N. Robeson's production of Three Skeleton Key written by George Tudous and adapted for Suspense by James Poe. In just a moment, the names of the supporting players and a word about next week's story of suspense. Supporting Vincent Price and Three Skeleton Key were Ben Wright and Lawrence Dobkin. Sound patterns by Tom Hanley and Bill James. Listen. Listen again next week when we return with another tale well calculated to keep you in suspense.

[Main Character (possibly the lighthouse keeper)]

America listens most to the CBS Radio Network. Sam.