Moon Over Morocco

Moon Over Morocco
Genre Comedy-drama
Running time 12 minutes per episode (10 hours in all)
Country United States United States
Language(s) English
Starring Robert Lorick
Robert Lesser
Dave Adams
Announcer Dave Herman
Writer(s) Thomas Lopez
Director(s) Thomas Lopez
Recording studio United States
Morocco
Air dates since 1974
No. of episodes 50
Website http://www.zbs.org/

Moon Over Morocco is a 1974 radio drama, the second in ZBS's Jack Flanders series. Originally broadcast as fifty twelve-minute episodes, the serial was written and directed by Meatball Fulton.

History

Following on the success of The Fourth Tower of Inverness, Fulton set about working on a sequel in 1973.[1] Fulton described the story "a mystery fantasy with a whiff of 'Casablanca' about it". It was set in Morocco where he spent a month recording ambient sounds and music for the production. Fulton stayed with the writer Paul Bowles in Tangier[2] and learned about Moroccan magic practices from him. Fulton recorded location sound throughout Morocco, including the courtyard of Bowles' villa in Marrakech. The production also used traditional Moroccan music recorded by Bowles for the festival scenes. The recordings helped inspire his writing, Fulton told Billboard magazine. "It's so real, you'll even be able to smell the flowers and spice and dry earth of Morocco. Ah, yes. Escapism at its finest," he said.

Synopsis

Jack Flanders arrives in Tangier on a search for sites that lie along "ley lines", undercurrents of mystical energy described in ancient texts. He meets Kasbah Kelly, an expatriate bar owner, and Kelly's assistant Mojo Sam and befriends one of the bar's customers, Sunny Skies. He also visits the Comtese Zazeenia, an expatriate holdover from Morocco's French colonial days and an old enemy of Kelly's.

Strange events begin to occur: Jack is pursued by owls, his hotel room crumbles away as the hotel disintegrates around him and a mysterious woman named Layla Oolupi warns him to leave Morocco immediately. Refusing to heed her warning, Jack instead travels to a music festival in Marrakech with Kelly and Sunny. Caught up in a traditional dance, Jack begins to disappear into an invisible world straight out of Moroccan legend. This first night, Kelly tackles him and prevents his disappearance, but the next night, Jack succeeds in completing the transition into the land of legend. Kelly's intervention causes Jack to (seemingly) split into two rival figures in this alternate world, a usurper Emperor (Hassan Bizel) and an upstart claimant to the throne, known as the Son of El Kabah.

Kelly, Mojo and Sunny search for Jack in our world, while the two Jacks confront one another after the "Son of el Kabah" completes a long journey through the Sahara desert, accompanied by Little Flossic (revisiting the "Little Frieda" role of The Fourth Tower of Inverness).

Music

In the series there are some musical interludes, including:

Credits

Cast

Crew

Production was made possible by Robert Durand. CD pressing made possible by John Romkey.

References

  1. ↑ "ZBS 'Inverness' Expansion". Billboard. 10 February 1973. p. 38. Retrieved 20 December 2015.
  2. ↑ Zounds! (The ZBS Story Part 2)

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, December 20, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.