Underground on the Air

> In the darkness a Norwegian girl screamed, then sobbed. Two men heard her. They remained motionless. They knew she was being raped. But in Quisling Norway "no one shall interfere when a woman screams at night."

> The helmeted sentry crumpled with a guttural gurgle, presently lay still. Beside him a young Polish widow and her companion assessed their handiwork expertly, faded into the night. In sentry garroting, "it is better to work in pairs--a strong woman to do the actual strangling, and an attractive woman to divert the subject's attention. . . ."

Such scenes, underscored with bloodcurdling sound, helped make CBS's The Twenty-Second Letter (Wed., 10:30 p.m., E.W.T.) the most memorable radio program about Underground Europe. Last week, with its eighth episode, CBS announced that The Twenty-Second Letter was no longer a mere summer sustainer, would be extended indefinitely.

Author of The Twenty-Second Letter is CBS's most promising young dramatist, 27-year-old Ranald R. MacDougall. A former Western Union messenger, Florida fisherman (for food, not fun) and Radio City Music Hall usher, MacDougall started writing continuity for NBC in 1936, also did documentary programs on Americana for BBC. Free-lancing since last March, he persuaded Norman Corwin to let him write two This Is War programs. Then CBS signed him.

Since 1935, slender, slow-grinning Ranald MacDougall has believed he could write with the best of them. In The Twenty-Second Letter, he has.

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