Month: April 2012

EP0656: Barrie Craig: Sneak Assassin

William Gargan

While on vacation in Florida, Barrie investigates the disappearance of an old friend.

Original Air Date: November 21, 1954

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Radio Review: The Fire Chief Show with Ed Wynn

Ed Wynn

Ed Wynn didn’t find film and television success until 1949, by which time he was 63 years old and would continue to take on memorable film and television roles in the twilight of his life.  His most famous roles included being the voice of the Mad Hatter in Disney Alice in Wonderland and Uncle Albert in Mary Poppins.  His guest starring work on television would include The Twilight Zone, General Electric Theater, The Red Skelton Show, and 77 Sunset Strip.

However, this all occurred after Wynn’s 63rd birthday. However, Wynn had been performing since 1910. In the early 30s, Wynn began his career over the radio on the Texaco Fire Chief Program. His character was the perfect fool (a.k.a. The Fire Chief.)

The program was the first of three shows to be named after Texaco’s Fire Chief Gasoline. The gasoline was so named because it was certified by the government for use in emergency vehicles and Texaco’s selling point  to the public was its safety and reliability.

The product had little to do with the content of the show, which was pure Vaudeville.  Using announcer Graham McNamee as a straight man, Wynn fired off silly joke after silly joke in his oft-imitated voice. The show’s signature feature was Wynn “re-enacting” a famous opera like Carmen or HMS Pinafore. This would become Wynn’s long term gag and as his telling of Carmen had little bearing on the actual plot, he could re-enacted Carmen every week in later years. Another favorite spot was at the end, Wynn would answer (mostly likely made up) listener questions to hilarious results. In between, Donald Voorhees and his orchestra provide some wonderful musical bridges.

Wynn’s original Fire Chief Program, in my opinion, was not as good as many of the later radio comedy variety show, the Fire Chief of Program is worth listening to for historic reasons.

Most of the circulating episodes are from 1932 and early 1933, with a few from 1935. Old Time Radio from pre-FDR era is pretty rare and earliest episodes of the Fire Chief were recorded in the middle of Prohibition. In the opening of one show McNamee asked Wynn if he’d kept the Commandments this weekend.  Wynn replied, “Don’t be silly Graham, I always keep the commandments. My problem is with the Amendments.” (referring to the 18th Amendment.)

Secondly, Wynn’ s act is pure vaudeville.  Wynn insisted on performing before a live studio audience. Wynn was a consummate entertainer and performer. His son Keenan made the point that Wynn was not a comedian, but a clown, and that distinction shows. Thus, we shouldn’t compare to comedians like Abbott and Costello, Bob Hope, or Burns and Allen.  However, as a clown, Wynn was one of the best there ever was. His radio years in the 1930s show him in his prime as a performer and pioneer,which makes this show worth a listen.

Rating 3.5 out of 5.0 stars.

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Book Review: Black Orchids

Nero Wolfe had twice as many novels published as Sherlock before he ever broke into short fiction. However, author Rex Stout would create some of his most memorable stories in the Wolfe novellas. The first two of these are collected in Black Orchids.

Black Orchids

The title story for the collection was originally published as Death Wears an Orchid. Archie has found himself assigned to flower show duty to watch a new Black Orchid bred by Lewis Hewitt to see whether it wilts or not. Wolfe finally makes a trip down in person to see it. But then fate takes a hand when Archie triggers the murder when he picks up a stick, triggering a Rube Goldberg style murder, which is the least practical part of the story.

The stick that served as the trigger belonged to Hewitt. Wolfe offers to solve the case and protect Hewitt in exchange for all three of the black orchid plants, insisting on them in advance.

To hold on to his plants, Wolfe has to not only sift through blackmail and jealousies of orchid growers, but he has to endure not one, but two women living under his roof, all while keeping his client’s name out of the press. Wolfe has a clever and somewhat shocking way of doing this that makes for a great twist ending.

Rating: Satisfactory

Cordially Invited to Meet Death

New York’s Premier party planner, Beth Huddleston, engages Wolfe to stop malicious letters that are threatening to ruin her business.  Wolfe has her entire household under suspicion and sends Archie out to investigate. Archie finds a virtual mad house with a Chimp that blocks his way in unless he plays tag with him as well as bears roaming around. Their investigation is cut short when Huddleston dies of a tetanus infection with Wolfe only having learned one key thing: the secret to preparing great Corned Beef hash which Wolfe achieved through a precedent-breaking decision to  allow a woman suspect into the kitchen to help him.

However, her brother is convinced its murder. When Archie and the brother both get the same idea and proof is found that the death was no accident, Wolfe has little reason to be engaged as he has no client. However, when Cramer insults Wolfe by taking a dinner guest downtown for questioning, Wolfe not only resolves to solve the case. He plans to rub Cramer’s face in it.

Within the story, Archie offers a mystery as to why Wolfe sent some of the rare black orchids to Huddleston’s funeral and never answers the question. The question is left open though Archie offers readers their choice of potential theories. Archie confesses there may even have been some past association between Wolfe and Beth Huddleston, but that much of Wolfe’s past remains a mystery to him.  And the puzzle of the black orchids only adds to Wolfe’s mystery.

Rating: Very Satisfactory

Collection Rating: Very Satisfactory

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EP0655: Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Shayne Bombing Matter

 John Lund

Johnny is dubious when he investigates a case where a man has been accused of murdering his brother with a bomb.

Original Air Date: July 14, 1954

 

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EP0654: Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Everblooming Roses

A minister calls Holmes in to investigate the case of the ghostly repeated blooming of roses.

Original Air Date: May 16, 1948

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EP0653: Let George Do It: How Guilty Can You Get

Bob Bailey

George is called to a small community by a wealthy to stop him from being murdered. Suspicion quickly falls onto a doctor who prescribed poison and the dead man’s wife.

Original Air Date: February 19, 1951

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EP0652: Poirot: The Adventure of the Money-Mad Ghouls

Harold Huber

Hercule Poirot investigates a series of grave robberies.

Original Air Date: September 13, 1945

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EP0651: Barrie Craig: Life Line

William Gargan
Barrie Craig tries to save the bitter boyfriend of a young woman, who asked for his help, from a life of crime

Original Air Date:  November 7, 1954

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Book Review: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes continues to be incredibly popular to this day. It’s near the top of the free download list on Kindle. The Librivox Audiobook version has been downloaded 1 million times on Archive.org.

The book remains the most popular literature featuring the great detective beating all the novels and other collections handily. It contains 12 classic stories:

1. A Scandal in Bohemia
2. The Red-Headed League
3. A Case of Identity
4. The Boscombe Valley Mystery
5. The Five Orange Pips
6. The Man with the Twisted Lip
7. The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle
8. The Adventure of the Speckled Band
9. The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb
10. The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor
11. The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet
12. The Adventure of the Copper Beeches

Other than the unsatisfactory ending to, “A Case of Identity” each story is a true gem. They all have this wonderful mix of exciting action, clear-headed deduction, with sensational situations occurring frequently.

If you’ve never read the collection and you’ve only seen or heard adaptations of the story, perhaps the greatest benefit to be derived from reading the book is that most adaptations take stories from all the collections. What you get when you read these stories in the order they were published is how fresh and exciting the Holmes story and character was. There had never been anything quite like it and its clear in this collection that Doyle was still enjoying the character. The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes represents Holmes and Doyle at their prime. I found myself imagining what it might be like to pick up a copy of the book or be reading the original stories in the magazine if you’d never read a detective story before or if all you’d was Edgar Allen Poe’s C Auguste Dupin. How exciting it must have been for the first readers to encounter Sherlock Holmes.

Of course, even 120 years after the collection was published in 1892, Doyle’s masterwork stands well against any modern competitor in fascinating its readers.

Rating: 5.0 out of 5.0 Stars.

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The Top Ten Perry Mason TV Movies, Part Three

Previous: Part Two and Part One

3) Perry Mason and the Case of the Lady in the Lake (1988)

Okay, it’s not by Raymond Chandler but for a Perry Mason film, this one has got some nice twists. First of all, Perry’s Client is an ex-tennis player who is accused of killing his rich heiress wife played by none other than David Hasselhoff.

This is one of Perry’s more complex cases. It’s not just a matter of this current murder, but a twenty year old kidnapping plays a big role as well. The movie was the last for Paul Drake, Jr. (William Katt) and Michael Reston (David Ogden Stiers) and its certainly a memorable one with a big twist on the usual Mason ending.

2) Perry Mason and the Case of the Sinister Spirit (1987)

A horror writer invites famous guest to a hotel he owns after having written a novel where he obviously based characters on the guests and portrayed in an unflattering way. He calls them there ostensibly to sue for peace, but instead pulls a series of cruel practical jokes on them that bring up painful memories. For Publisher Jordan White (Robert Stack) this includes a reminder of the death of Jordan’s son in a swimming pool.

It surprises no one when the writer turns up murdered, thrown from the top of the Hotel and Perry’s hired by White to defend him. Paul Drake, Jr. is investigating. A witness who heard the dead man’s last word and saw him fall to his death is seemingly beset by supernatural occurrences, apparently being haunted. In what amounts to one of the most inexplicable scenes in all the movies, Perry impeaches the poor woman’s testimony. Decency aside, there was no real reason for this and it made Drake’s job harder.

However, the solution to the mystery, the story’s dramatic conclusion, and a spell-binding performance by Dwight Schultz make up for these little wrinkles.

1) Perry Mason and the Case of the Desperate Deception (1990)

Perry Mason takes on Nazi War Criminals. This is the basic plot of the story. His client his young Marine attached to the U.S. Embassy in Paris. The young officer is searching for the concentration guard that devastated his family during the Holacaust. He is led to believe he found the ex-Nazi at a health club. However, when the ex-Nazi is killed, suspicion points to the young officer who faces Court Martial.

Perry Mason heads to Paris to head up the defense. He and Ken Malansky find intrigue around every corner. Mason finds ex-Nazis, traitors, and Nazi hunters roaming Paris. Perry has to sort through more than four decades of deception to find the truth, not only to acquit his client but to bring long overdue justice to the perpetrators of heinous war crimes. A goal worthy of one Perry Mason’s top cases.

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EP0650s: Mystery Award Theater: The Screwball Division

The youngest and oldest detectives on the force turn to a drunk former detective to solve three murders that occurred at the same time.

Original Air Date: June 13, 1949

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EP0650: Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Jones Matter

 John Lund

Johnny investigates the theft of a $30,000 necklace from an aging, let alluring actress.

Original Air Date: June 30, 1953

 

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EP0649: Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Illustrious Client

Sherlock Holmes is brought in by the request of a certain noble client to protect the daughter of  a general from the notorious criminal, Baron Gruener.

Original Air Date: May 9, 1948

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EP0648: Let George Do It: Christmas in January

Bob Bailey

A controlling and manipulative gossip columnist is getting Christmas presents in January from people who despise him.

Original Air Date: January 29, 1951

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EP0647: Hercule Poirot: The Deadest Man in the World

Harold Huber

A crafty couple plan to use Poirot to provide a perfect alibi.

Original Air Date: July 19, 1945

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