Month: July 2019

EP2881: Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Stolen Portrait of The Duke of Massen

Charles Russell

Johnny goes to London to search for a missing Monet.

Original Air Date: April 1, 1949

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EP2880: Boston Blackie: Tom Robertson Poisons His Wife Over the Phone

Richard Kollmar

A man poisons his wife’s medicine and established his alibi by being on the other side of town.

Original Air Date: August 18, 1948
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AWR0079: Stars Over Hollywood: The Experiment (Summer of Angela Lansbury)

Amazing World of Radio

A doctor falls in love with the prisoner who’s volunteered for her medical experiment.

Original Air Date: May 24, 1952

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EP2879: Rocky Jordan: The Perfect Witness

Jack Moyles

A woman tries to shoot a man in the Cafe Tambourine. The man runs away and can’t be identified.

Original Air Date: March 19, 1950
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EP2878: Let George Do It: Sedan from the City


A sedan arrives from the city arrives in a small town and then its leading benefactor is gunned down.

Original Air Date: October 30, 1950

Rebroadcast Date: January 27, 1953

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EP2877: The Saint: A Real Guy (Listener’s Choice Standard Division #11)


Vincent Price

Simon investigates the death of a despised band leader.

Original Air Date: July 2, 1950

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Telefilm Review: Murder She Wrote: Lovers and Other Killers

In “Lovers and Other Killers,” Jessica travels to Seattle as a guest lecturer at an University. While there she hires a young man named David Tolliver (Andrew Stevens) as her secretary to help her keep up with her writing. When Tolliver is accused of murdering an elderly woman, Jessica takes an interest in the case.

What Works

One recurring thing done in Television shows, movies, and comics of the area is that someone is that a man is looking for a Doctor, a scientist, or other important person and is given either their title and last name and initials and last name. They go to meet them and gasp (dramatic music)it’s a woman. Given that this trope is used so often, it’s interesting to see it reversed as Jessica is confused and a bit uncomfortable at a man applying to be her secretary.

I really enjoy Andrew Stevens as Tolliver. He plays the character just right. He’s got good looks and a certain amount of charm, but you also have a sense that this guy is bad news. He professes a lack of interest in women his own age, saying he prefers older women. His receipt of gifts and money from the woman who was killed are consistent with that of a gigolo, but he insists it was her way of making it up to him for causing a car accident. However, he also has a bit of a liar, so you can’t take that too seriously.

Jessica has mixed feelings on Tolliver. On one hand, she appreciates, his efficiency and seems to like him. On the other, she’s clearly uncomfortable at how familiar he gets with her. She arrives from a morning appointment to find him in her hotel room and tells him never to do that again. He does it later in the episode and claims to have forgotten.

However, Jessica continues to maintain that despite David being a conman, he’s not a killer. Yet, we’re given reason to doubt throughout. Is David really attracted to Jessica or is he a predator that she’s well-rid of? The answer is never spelled out in black and white, even by the time the episode ends.

Peter Graves put in a typically solid performance as an old flame of Jessica’s who’s now a college professor who is clueless that his long-time secretary is in love with him.

I also liked Jessica’s first lecture session as we got to see a little bit of Angela Lansbury’s acting versatility.

The plot is well-done with a lot of twists and mis-directions and a genuinely surprising reveal of the culprit. Jessica also faces more peril in this episode than in any other this season.

Other Notes:

When Jessica picked up at the airport she by Grave’s character, she’s hold a baby which she hands off to two nuns from China. Had nothing to do with the episode, but my wife pointed out. there’s a major story there.

The title of the episode is a play on the 1970 comedy film Lovers and Other Strangers, though nothing in the plot of that film seems to tie into this one.

Overall:

A very good episode. While the police foil isn’t great, there’s a bit of life in Greg Morris’ portrayal of Lieutenant Andrews. He’s mostly functional but that’s an upgrade over the unnamed Sheriff from last week.

And that functional performance is more than enough with a great mystery and solid work by Andrew Stevens and Peter Graves.

Rating:4.5 out of 5

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EP2876: Dragnet: The Big Trunk

Jack Webb

Friday and Smith searching for a missing divorcee.

Original Air Date: September 7, 1954

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EP2875: Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Milford Brooks III Matter

Charles Russell
Johnny tries to protect the life of an insured man who seems determined to commit suicide and has named a notorious gangster as his beneficiary.

Original Air Date: March 25, 1949

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EP2874: Boston Blackie: Mrs. Trilling’s Maid is Murdered in Her Place

Richard Kollmar

A maid is murdered after a door-to-door salesman shows up at her employer’s apartment

Original Air Date: August 18, 1948

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EP2873: Rocky Jordan: The While Beetle

Jack Moyles

An acquaintance of Rocky’s arrives and dies in the Tambourine and Rocky learns he was carrying a rare white scarab.

Original Air Date: March 12, 1950

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AWR0078: Screen Guild Theater: Night Must Fall (Summer of Angela Lansbury)

Amazing World of Radio

The arrival of a mysterious stranger (Joseph Cotten) disrupts the world where an unhappy young woman (Angela Lansbury) works as a caretaker for her cruel and tyrannical aunt.

Original Air Date: March 27, 1952

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EP2872: Let George Do It: The Hand in the Coconut


A big-game hunter, one of George’s childhood hero’s, summons George to his ship to investigate the theft of his field glasses.

Original Air Date: October 23, 1950

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EP2871: The Fat Man: Murder Plays Hide and Seek (Listener’s Choice Short Division #3)

J. Scott Smart

A cabbie comes to Brad asking him to prove he didn’t kill a corpse in the back of his cab. Brad then finds the corpse missing.

Original Air Date: January 2, 1948

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Telefilm Review: Murder She Wrote: It’s a Dog’s Life

While Jessica is visiting her horse-trainer cousin down South, her cousin’s wealthy employer dies and bypasses his money-grubbing relatives to leave the bulk of his estate to his beloved dog. The dog is then accused of biting a neighboring farmer and then the dog is accused of a bizarre murder.

What Works

Dan O’Herlihy is only in this a few minutes as the wealthy patriarch who dies, but he plays a likable if eccentric old guy who’s beset by vultures. His delivery and timing in the video gives maximum impact.

Jessica remains likable and shrewd in her method of solving the crime. Suspicion her cousin is the murderer gives her a solid incentive to be involved in the case.

While the whodunit is made obvious, the how and why of the murderer’s plan are more interesting and Jessica unravels those well.

With Southern stereotypes abounding in this episode, I appreciated a scene where one character told another to stop acting like a stereotypical hillbilly.

Fans of A Life in Your Hands will appreciate when Jessica acts as Amicus Curiae at a Coroner’s Inquest so she can confront the murderer in a Perry Mason style.

What Doesn’t Work

The episode does rely a bit on stereotypes of Southerners including the somewhat dense Deputy Sheriff.

While in each of the previous episodes, I’ve commented (mostly positively) on Jessica’s police foils, the Sheriff in this story doesn’t make any impression at all. He’s generic (we don’t even learn his name) and aloof, and little more than a dumb local cop Jessica has to clean up after.

The same could be said of most of the characters. Even good actors like Dean Jones and Forest Tucker are given little material to work with. Other than the deceased millionaire, no character stands apart from stereotypical murder suspects. The most interesting character is the supernaturally-obsessed Morgana (Cathryn Damon.) However, she could easily become annoying if overused.

The identity of the murderer was obvious with every red-flag clue calling out one person. It didn’t help that the will made the SPCA the secondary beneficiary if anything happened to the dog. So while I could believe most of the family would gladly kill a family member or frame a dog for a few hundred thousand dollars, the entire situation made motive less plausible. Though not much less plausible than the motive we were given.

Interesting Note:

Two former cast members from F-Troop: Tucker (Sergeant O’Rourke) and James Hampton (Corporal Dobbs) appear together in one scene.

Overall:

Did Murder She Wrote go to the dogs in this episode? No It’s a serviceable hour of mystery which highlights Angela Lansbury’s ability to engage even on a weak script.

However, this episode is the weakest so far. The script and characters feel mailed in when compared to more interesting and better-developed episodes that preceded it. Still, thanks to Lansbury, it still offers a decent forty-five minutes of entertainment.

Rating: 3.25 out of 5

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