Month: July 2016

EP1952s: Escape: Red Wine

Jeff Chandler
A detective goes searching for an American fugitive on a tropical isle.

Original Air Date: February 26, 1949

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EP1952: Dragnet: The Big Late Script

Jack Webb
Friday and Romero search for a kidnapped businessman.

Original Air Date: July 26, 1951

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Graphic Novel Review: A Secret History of Space

This graphic novel collects Issues 4-7 of Boom Studios’ Steed and Peel series based on the 1960s TV show, The Avengers. 

The four issues cover three separate story lines but there is a sense of them being tied together. The art is superb and really fits with the imaginative, often larger than life world of the Avengers as beautiful concepts are explored.

The first Issue features Steed and Mrs. Peal attending a masquerade ball with some dangerous intruders. It’s probably the simplest story in the book, but the art is very good, even though black and white are the predominant colors.

The middle issues are probably most speculative in the book in a plot that involves blackmail of high government officials, secrets from space, and time travel.

The final issue is typical of many actual episodes of the Avengers as Steed and Peal investigate a series of unexplained unwarranted suicides in a small Welsh town. The ending is a little quick, but the concept is well-realized.

Overall, this is a very enjoyable book for fans of the 1960s series. While being single issue stories does make the first and last issue slightly less complex than you’d otherwise expect, writer Caleb Monroe does a marvelous job capturing the spirit and feel of this classic series.

Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0

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EP1951: Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Night in Paris Matter

Bob Bailey
Johnny goes to Paris to retrieve a quarter of a million in stolen jewels.

Original Air Date: August 16, 1959

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EP1950: Boston Blackie: Blackie’s Car Kills a Woman

Richard Kollmar

Someone stole Blackie’s car and used it to commit murder. Blackie sets out to discover who did it.

Original Air Date: July 16, 1945

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EP1949: Richard Diamond: Escaped Convicts After Diamond

Dick PowellTwo criminals escape prison, with one determined to get his revenge on Diamond.

Original Air Date: July 9, 1949

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AWR0005: Meet Corliss Archer

Amazing World of Radio

Corliss secretly takes a babysitting job so she can raise money to buy her parents a gift.

Original Air Date: July 11, 1946

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EP1948: The Line-Up: The Lapinish Lighter-Upper Case

William Johnstone
Guthrie searches for the murderer who killed a woman in the park.

Original Air Date: March 27, 1951

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EP1947: Michael Shayne: The Case of the Popular Corpse

Jeff Chandler
Shayne is hired to find a missing woman.

Original Air Date: Sometime in 1948

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EP1946s: Nightbeat: Girl in the Park

Frank Lovejoy

Randy tries to unravel the secrets of a fearful young woman in a park whose boyfriend is about to be executed.

Special Rebroadcast Date: April 23, 1950

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Audio Drama Review: Too Many Have Lived

In “Too Many Have Lived,” the Hollywood Theater of the Air presents a half hour Black Mask Audio Magazine dramatization of Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade short story of the same title.

Sam Spade is hired to find a missing poet by a man who would very much like to marry the man’s wife. When the poet turns up missing, there are plenty of suspects around.

“Too Many Have Lived,” is a fine classic hard-boiled story. It’s no “Maltese Falcon,” but the Theater of the Era does a great job capturing the mood and it’s very well-acted and narrated with a decent amount of sound design. The story has a solidly clever solution that’s worthy of Hammett.

It also serves as a nice sampler for Hollywood Theater of the Ear’s longer works, including a collection of Black Mask stories.

This story is available for free to Audible Members through Audible’s new “My Content” feature and it also can be purchased by non-members for less than $1.50

Rating: 4 out of 5.

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EP1946: Dragnet: The Big Sophomore

Jack Webb
Working out of Juvenile division, Friday and Romero investigate a series of petty thefts.

Original Air Date: July 12, 1951

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EP1945: Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Lost by a Hair Matter

Bob Bailey
An ailing insured woman calls Johnny in for protection for fear that one of her relatives will kill her.

Original Air Date: August 9, 1959

When making your travel plans, remember http://johnnydollarair.com
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EP1944: Boston Blackie: The Worthington Pearls

Richard Kollmar
Just as he’s about to be searched by Farraday over another theft he hasn’t committed, Blackie learns the stolen pearls are in his raincoat.

Original Air Date: July 9, 1945

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AWR0004: Diamond Dramas

Amazing World of Radio
Two episodes of The Diamond Dramas.

In “The Yellow Eye,” Napoleon plans to cease a famous diamond during his occupation of Moscow but it comes at a high price. Original Air Date: December 2, 1935

In “The Highwayman’s Diamond,” the girlfriend of a Scottish robber has fears planted in her by an officer in the law, fears that appear to be confirmed when she sees a diamond ring on his finger. Original Air Date: November 4, 1935

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