Something a little different this time from the Radio Detective Story Hour. While this drama involves crime and deception, it is more about the excellent drama it presents. The story is one in which in the late thirties Americans were connected to each other through the “wired” device of the telephone. With the coming of radio, listeners shared a collective experience via a wireless device. Despite this radical change from wired to wireless, time still plays an important element in how we experience even though then we all experienced it simultaneously. Today, as a society we are no longer bound by time each experiencing films, news and so on within our own time given devices such as TiVo and Tablets, Computers, etc.
The drama was written in the late thirties by Irving Reis and speaks to the collective experience at that time. Tension and suspense builds around the constant intrusion of the time keepers.
Music under is “Old Folks” performed by the Ron Helman Jazz Ensemble.
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In a mood of serendipity, we honor of Dana Andrews January 1st birthday and the completion in late December 1941 of Vera Caspary’s novel of crime and romance – Laura. Dana Andrews was born Carver Dana Andrews in Mississippi. He headed west to try to make his mark as a singer in popular and operatic music. In Laura he portrayed detective Mark McPherson, who was in love in Laura Hunt. This version is from the Screen Guild Theater from 1945. I’ll also look at the life and times of author Vera Caspary.
In the spirit of Christmas, I offer this Christmas episode of Casey, Crime Photographer from 1947 starring Staats Cotsworth as Casey. The introduction is brief and if you want more history on the show, look for podcasts 41 and 110 or search for “Crime Photographer.”
A very powerful moral tale reminiscent of our society even today. The place is the room of the Night Editor of a tabloid newspaper as we meet young Dr. Lundgren and what has happened to his career due to a piece in the newspaper. I found this to be very engrossing and surprisingly violent for the period of production – 1949. Written by an advertising executive, Charles Lee Hutchings, this riveting story is one for our own time.
Though there are some who think the Eno Crime Club from 1931 is related, there is no connection between the Doubleday Crime Club imprint and that radio program. In 1946, the Mutual Broadcasting Company purchased a radio package from Doubleday given them permission to adapt certain Crime Club imprint books for radio drama and to use its name for new dramas not based on the books.
One usually does not think of Ray Bradbury as a writer of crime stories, but in his early writing career when he was trying to sell stories to various pulp magazines, he gave crime fiction a chance. One such story was called “Autopsy” on his manuscript, but was published in Detective Tales magazine and the title was changed to “Killer Come Back to Me!” by the magazine. The result was an interesting but somewhat lackluster story.
A previously uncirculated copy of an episode from the radio series, The Adventures of Sam Spade, has surfaced. The copy appears to have been hiding right in front of most eyes but was not in general circulation. It is called “The Dead Duck Caper” from February 2, 1947 and stars Howard Duff as Spade and Lurene Tuttle as Effie. Back story about Effie comes from this episode.
One of author Cornell Woolrich’s dominant noir themes was that of the avenging angel or “l’ange noir.” In this podcast, I look at that theme, how the author came to it and offer a selection from the radio series Suspense called “Angel Face” in which the theme emerges.
Normally known for her “Lord Peter Wimsey” detective novels, Sayers was an expert in creating short stories which could touch our psyches and take a “whodunit” and find us asking ourselves, “Who Is It?” She also wrote a series of short stories about a salesman cum detective whose name is Montague Egg. These stories came after the story presented in this podcast – “The Man Who Knew How.”
This time we escape to another adaptation of a novel by mystery writer Ken Crossen, who takes on Graham Greene’s novel of a “between the wars” thriller – The Confidential Agent. This adaptation was for the radio program Escape and is well adapted maintaining an exciting, fast-paced ride as a man tries to meet up with his contact without being murdered. I also look briefly at the scripter, Crossen, who himself was an accomplished mystery and science fiction writer.