Finally, I am back for a new podcast! Expanding the genre a bit to include crime in general, this week, a look at one of the better, but not so well known crime series in the fifties: Crime Classics. The series ran for 52 episodes only, but had the talents of Elliott Lewis (right) as producer/director, David Friedkin and Mort… (more…)
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While in England, one of John Dickson Carr’s earliest plays was one called “Devil in the Summer House” which was originally envisioned as a two-parter, but eventually reduced to a one hour play. When Carr came back to the United States due to the war and his need to register for the draft, he re-wrote his one hour play into… (more…)
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Detective fiction is full of examples of the woman-as-detective theme throughout its history. While the majority of the fictional detectives were men, there are flattering examples in which female sleuths regularly sought out clues and ultimately solved crimes. In radio, on the other hand, female detectives were usually somewhat vacuous or treated with little respect. Radio did have its share… (more…)
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Night Beat was one of those radio series that came over the networks in the early fifties just as the medium was beginning to toll its death knell for dramatic network drama. Yet the quality of many of the shows from this period were some of the best produced by radio. This journalist as detective serial starring Frank Lovejoy, whose… (more…)
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This week you’ll hear an audition episode of a series that apparently never aired. San Francisco Final was produced by many of the same personnel who brought Dragnet to the television. Though San Francisco Final is a very well written episode, it has many of the same elements of Dragnet in style and feel. The series starred Jeff Chandler who… (more…)
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Repeat podcast while I am on leave from July 2005. Charlie Chan was the creation of author Earl Derr Biggers (right) whose famous detective was best known in a series of films. But Chan also had a modest run on radio as you will hear in this podcast.
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Repeat episode (Sep 2005) while I take some time off. A look at an unusual Radio Detective – one doesn’t always think of this radio character in the detective vein, though he was indeed the investigator as much as a crime fighter. The Shadow is one of the best remembered radio characters from his pulp creation to radio and films.
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A look at another female radio detective series. This one had two big stars in Joan Blondell and Dick Powell, then husband and wife. The series, Miss Pinkerton, Inc. is based on the characters created by Mary Roberts Rinehart. Note: I’ll be taking a couple of weeks off – repeat programs will be appearing here the next two weeks. Background… (more…)
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In 1914, pulp fiction writer, Louis Joseph Vance, published the first in a series of mystery detective books starring Michael Lanyard, aka The Lone Wolf. Though Vance died before he could see the industry his books created in the thirties and forties, the books left him a successful writer. This week, a look at the radio serial, The Lone Wolf… (more…)
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One of the lesser known detective radio series, The Cases of Mr. Ace appears to have been in very limited run mostly on WNEW in New York in the late forties. The series was one of only two in which George Raft starred. I personally never really felt Raft was much of a radio actor. His onscreen persona is mostly… (more…)
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