Review: 'The Return of the Moresbys' - CBS Radio Mystery Theater

So, when this story started out, the idea of a man wondering if his wife could come back from the dead as an animal (a bird, a snake, a fat cat) took me by surprise! But it certainly intrigued - how would that add up in a mystery? Then, the main character, Richard Moresby, turned out to be a gold-digger, and his heiress wife ended up talking about the mystery of the universe, and I wanted to know even more. 

In this blog post, I'm sharing my thoughts on the CBS Radio Mystery Theater episode 'The Return of the Moresbys'. 

Episode Plot (Spoilers)

So, this silver-eyed guy Moresby meets this young lady called Una on the beach. He brushes her off at first - until he realizes she's crazy rich! When he realizes that, he's suddenly very interested in her, and he ends up marrying her. Only, Una turns out to be extremely spiritually curious, and ends up joining a temple under a certain Dr. Singh, who teaches her that the soul leaves the body upon death to enter the body of a small animal. Una even starts donating large amounts of money to Dr. Singh, which angers Richard Moresby. And things get even more ridiculous for Moresby: Una writes a last will and testament leaving 90% of her money to Singh's temple after her death. Richard tears up her will, and Una fights back, telling him that now she's not leaving any money to him at all - 100% of her wealth will go to Singh.

So, gold-digging Moresby decides to kill his wife (instead of, you know, talking to her and trying to persuade her) in order to get what is 'rightfully' his. Una correctly realizes that Richard's head over heels for her money, so Richard needs to prove otherwise - so she tells him to prove it by letting her leave her money to Singh. Naturally, Moresby's back to wanting to kill her. Una writes an ode to death, given her new beliefs, and Richard realizes it's the perfect pseudo-suicide note. Richard poisons his wife's hot cocoa, and Una dies realizing that her husband has killed her, so she promises she'll be back to make him pay. 

After her funeral, small animals start acting strangely towards Richard: a dog, a racoon, a bird, a snake. Meanwhile, Richard - newly widowed and crazy rich after getting his wife's money - is already asking another (married) woman out on a date. But paranoia about his wife possibly returning as a small animal keeps him from going on the date. And then the cat pops up in the cellar. Fat, white, shaggy fur - and somehow he knows it's Una (also, he's very drunk). He tries to shoot the cat, but ends up breaking his leg, and then shooting his leg. Somehow he ends up in the hospital, and talks to a journalist.

Journalists check out the cellar to see if they can find the cat. They do find it, and just in time to see it making a meal out of a silver-eyed mouse (maybe Moresby died in the hospital and became a rat!).

Overall Thoughts and Review

Honestly, it was cool to listen to an episode from the perspective of the bad guy! He was thoroughly unlikable, and he did do something horrible to his wife, so it was easy to want him to get a serving of cold hard justice. This Richard Moresby had no redeeming qualities, as far as I heard, and so I didn't want him to win - but I also didn't feel enough of a connection with Una or Singh to feel that the payoff in the end was particularly powerful, either. Maybe it's because I felt that Una was extremely naive and not altogether smart about her finances or her relationship.

The plot was interesting up until he started getting harassed by random animals, because I didn't feel that that made a lot of sense given the set-up we were given. I don't think Una's soul could jump from one small animal to the next, so all of the animals that harassed Richard felt a bit out of place. (Unless cat-Una rounded up a set of random animals and told them to help her exact revenge on her murdering husband?) Apart from that, the final confrontation with the cat that might have been Una felt a bit anticlimactic. The main character basically just. Falls. Shoots himself. (Why didn't she strike while he was down?) He ends up killing himself (probably, if he's the rat?). I see the irony there, and I see the justice, but I do feel it was missing something.

All of that aside, though, it was a fun listen, and I'm looking forward to the next episode.