Category: Golden Age Article

Book Review: The Shadow: The Chinese Disks and Malmordo

While TV, film, and comic adaptations generally reign over their radio counterparts, The Shadow is one character who is (pardon the pun) overshadowed by the radio interpretation of the character, even though his appearance in pulp magazines predated it. The book version of the Shadow was a Mastermind, perhaps the most powerful of the mystery men who dominated the pulps in the era before the coming of the superhero.

Nostalgia Ventures had reprint rights to the Shadow novels in the 2000s. Just as they did with Doc Savage, they reprinted two pulp novels in each volume. I acquired the second volume in a sale a few years back. This volume collects two Shadow stories twelve years apart: The Chinese Disks and Malmordo.

In The Chinese Disks, a gang under returning Shadow foe Diamond Jim Farwell is using disks with Chinese characters on them as identification for members of his gang, while he plans a large heist. In Malmordo, a giant, rat-like monster-man known as Malmordo arrives in New York City on a boat from post-War Europe.

Both of these short pulp novels showcase the pulp Shadow stories at their best. The Shadow is not a lone wolf in his pulp iteration. He’s the Master of Men, and as such, he’s accumulated a large number of operatives, whom he calls on to do his bidding. In The Chinese Disks, these operatives are being gathered, and in Malmordo, they’re used to full effect to investigate a terrifying foe. While the Shadow’s lieutenants lack the color of fellow Street and Smith pulp hero Doc Savage, the Shadow’s men are perfectly suited for the more grounded stories of crime and ultimate punishment by the Shadow.

Overall, both novels have a lot going for them, with a good amount of mystery, atmosphere, and suspense. While this reprint is no longer available for retail sale, it’s certainly a worthy read if you can find it used or in a library. This is a great illustration of how the Shadow was not just a mainstay of radio during its Golden Age but also of pulp magazines.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.0

TV Series Review: Banacek

A previous version of this review appeared in 2018.

More than a decade prior to becoming universally associated with the character of Colonel John “Hannibal” Smith, George Peppard played Thomas Banacek, a Boston-based, Polish proverb-spouting insurance investigator. He makes a comfortable living solving cases the insurance company couldn’t crack, and collecting ten percent of the insurance company’s savings.

The series aired from 1972-74 and it focused on classic impossible mysteries. How does a football player on the field disappear in front of thousands of fans? How does a million dollars in cash vanish from behind a locked display case? How does $23 million in paintings vanish from a truck transporting it?

Banacek takes no case where the missing item is less than a million dollars in value. While a murder usually happens in the course of the investigation, it’s not guaranteed. The focus is on the big property crime, not on violence.

Banacek was part of NBC’s Mystery Wheel, so its original running time with commercials was 90 minutes, with the shows themselves running a shade over 70 minutes in length. This allows for plenty of development, particularly in the early episodes, without a lot of fluff. A grand total of seventeen episodes were released.

Throughout the series, Peppard was supported by Ralph Manza, who provided comic relief as Banacek’s chauffeur and erstwhile sidekick, Jay. Manza’s character would occasionally take a crack at the solution that would invariably be off-base. Murray Mattheson played Felix Mulhol, a bookstore owner who seemed to know everything about everything.

Banacek was portrayed as God’s gift to women, at least for those who weren’t looking for a serious relationship. Among the Banacek women was future Lois Lane Margo Kidder. However, scenes in bed were avoided throughout the series, as mere verbal hints were all that would be allowed.

The second season did see some changes. In the first season, the insurance company is more than happy to hand over six-digit checks in order to avoid seven-digit losses. However, in the second season, an insurance company exec tries to thwart Banacek with the help one of his own investigators, Carlie Kirkland (Christine Belford), who tries to maintain an on-again, off-again romance with Banacek while trying to beat him out of his exorbitant fees.

This was a bad move, as it tampered with the show’s dynamic, slowed down the stories, and didn’t add anything to the plot. Kirkland wasn’t particularly likable. In one story, she wormed her way into an investigation, asking to learn from Banacek while on a leave of absence from the company, and then tried to sell him out to her insurance company. The character didn’t appear in the last two episodes of the second season, since the episodes were set outside of Boston.

The second season disc for Banacek contains the original pilot, which shows a bit of the original conception. In the original conception, Banacek only works cold cases that haven’t been solved in sixty days, and the executive comments on how much money the insurance company has squandered on investigators’ pay and expenses searching for millions of dollars in gold. Perhaps this is why the producers went with a format where Banacek came on with a promise of reward soon after the items were stolen. It made more economic sense. In the case of the pilot, they ended up out all the money they paid the investigators plus the reward.

Peppard plays Banacek differently in the pilot. He is a quieter, less flippant character. He spends a good fifteen minutes straight at one point, on screen but saying nothing. He speaks with conviction, explaining why he hadn’t changed his last name to something less obviously Polish.

Jay and Carlie are also in the pilot. Jay is quite different. He owns a limo rental business based in Dallas rather than being Banacek’s employee, and simply drives him around. He also pulls a classic double-cross when he bribes the operator to listen in on Banacek’s phone call and overhears a key clue, which he used in hopes of collecting the reward. Definitely a different conception than the loyal albeit dimwitted character who’d appear in the rest of the series.

Overall thoughts:

Banacek is certainly not an essential mystery series. Unlike Columbo, Poirot, or Monk, Banacek is one of those shows you can take or leave.

Peppard is at his best as the wise-cracking detective who stays one step ahead of cops and official insurance investigators while hunting down items of unbelievable value.

The first season is a well-performed series with great mysteries, solid plots, and great solutions. The second season has too much airtime taken up by Carlie Kirkland and that drags down the stories. Still, even that season has the great entry, “If Max Is So Smart, Why Doesn’t He Tell Us Where He Is?” as well as the fairly good, “Rocket to Oblivion.”

Overall, I’d give the series three 3.5 stars out of 5.0 with Season 1 getting 4 stars and Season 2 getting a 3.

Availability: Banacek is now easier to watch. When I last posted a review of the series five years ago, it was very hard to get a hold of. Today the Complete Series is now available on DVD. For a sixteen-episode series and a pilot, the $54.99 price tag is a premium price compared to most other 1970s detective shows, even when taking into account the longer length. However, for fans of the series or Peppard, it may be a worthwhile purchase.

If you’re curious about the series, you can watch the series for free (Pilot not included) with ads as part of Amazon’s Freevee service by clicking here.

This post contains affiliate links, which means that items purchased from these links may result in a commission being paid to the author of this post at no extra cost to the purchase.

What Makes Death on the Nile a Masterpiece

A version of this article appeared in 2017.

There are many good pieces of detective fiction out there. You read the book, you watch the movie, and it’s a good time.

Then there are stories that are a cut above. You read the book, and you want to watch the adaptations or vice versa. The story’s so enchanting, the characters so compelling, and the themes so powerful that you just can’t get enough of it.

One such story for me is Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile. I watched the two filmed adaptations, I listened to the audio drama by the BBC, and then I read the book.

Knowing the ending and who did it didn’t “spoil the novel,” it allowed me to read it in a different way. Rather than focusing on whodunit, I could look for the subtle hints in structure and plot that pointed to the murder, and enjoy the atmosphere and find the themes that really make the book a masterpiece by the mistress of the genre, Agatha Christie.

Fair warning: I will be discussing the ending, so if you don’t know how it ends, I would recommend not reading any further until you’ve experienced the story. If you don’t want to read the novel, I’d recommend checking out the BBC Radio 4 version for accuracy, or, for pure entertainment value, the 1978 film version with Peter Ustinov is a delight.

1) The mystery is brilliantly conceived and executed.

A detective novel can be more than a good mystery, but it also has to be a good mystery to be a good novel. Otherwise, it’s a bait-and-switch.

Death on Nile is definitely a brilliantly plotted story. There are plenty of clues, as well as red herrings. The actual solution is one that is easily missed because Poirot makes a statement that seems to rule out the actual solution. But both Poirot and the reader make a mistaken assumption of something we didn’t actually see.

The book can trick readers, but it still plays fair in doing so. The solution really only surprises the reader (and to a degree Poirot) because of an incorrect but understandable conclusion. It’s a wonderfully written chase.

2) Linnet Ridgeway Doyle is a complicated tragic character.

Every murder mystery requires a corpse. In some stories, that’s pretty much all the victim is. However, the main victim is Linnet Ridgeway Doyle – and later Doyle is far more than that.

One big advantage of reading the book over the adaptations of it is that you get a better sense of who Linnet Ridgeway Doyle is. It’s easy to define her as simply being a rich woman who could have married any man she wanted but instead stole the fiancé of her good friend Jacqueline De Bellefort.

Yet, if you read the book, you get a sense that while this was something Linnet did, it wasn’t the totality of who she was. She was diligent in business and responsible in the way she took care of and tried to help those who were dependent on her. Her friend describes her as a “beneficent tyrant.” She was very much like the best of the gentry of a prior era.

However, Linnet is fundamentally destroyed by her own pride, even before she makes the decision to snatch Simon Doyle away from her poorer friend Jacqueline. She’s wooed by the Lord Windlesham, who really is fond of her. However, she rejects his advances because they both have country places, his having been in the family for centuries and hers she built herself. She fears going from being the Queen to being the Queen Consort. She never alleges that Lord Windlesham doesn’t love her. Part of her attraction to Simon Doyle is not only his looks but the fact he is poor and that she can dominate the relationship easily.

Her decision to go specifically after her good friend’s beau despite knowing how little her friend has and how much he means to her is her truly selfish moment. Poirot condemns it, drawing the parallel between her decision and that of King David’s decision to sleep with Bathsheba in the biblical book of II Samuel, and the parable the prophet Nathan told to David in response, about a man with many sheep stealing the only sheep of a poor shepherd. Poirot refuses to work for her, but he does try to stop what’s coming by approaching Jacqueline De Bellefort.

As the book’s events unfold, Linnet pays the price for her actions. Her ex-friend stalks her and her husband, reminding her of her guilt, and on her final voyage, she finds herself “surrounded by enemies” as she puts it. As we learn later, while her husband Simon pretends to adore her, it’s all a ruse. He resents her and only marries her so he can murder her and take her money. In the end, she’s killed while she sleeps by the man who she thought loved her. At the end of her book, her murder is the talk of the town at the ship’s port of call, but then is subsumed in other news and gossip of the day as she’s quickly forgotten, along with her wealth, charm, and beauty.

3) Poirot tries to use his powers to prevent a murder.

This book raises a fair question for Poirot. If your powers of deduction and observation are so great, why do you only use them to catch murderers rather than prevent murders? The nature of Poirot’s adventures is that he’s usually already present when the murder occurs. Aren’t there warning signs?

Yes, there are, and Poirot spots them and tries to head off the murder before it happens. His plea to Jacqueline De Bellefort to turn back and not let evil enter her heart is truly a memorable moment where Poirot makes every effort to dissuade the young woman from the path he sees her on but to no avail.

The book shows that Poirot’s gift and experience may give him an inkling that something bad is going to happen, but it doesn’t make him a psychic who knows every detail of a person’s life and what’s already been planned. Nero Wolfe often said that there was no way he could prevent murder, and this book shows why he made that assertion. Poirot has no clue the degree to which the conspiracy had already been developed, nor how it would be carried out. He only sees the public face. He tries to intervene. He does all he can, but it isn’t enough.

4) The book explores the perils of love.

Romantic love is exalted throughout literature. It’s a virtue in and of itself. Hercule Poirot recognizes the danger in this valorization of romantic love. When he sees Simon and Jacqueline speaking to each other before Simon goes over to Linnet, he observes that Jacqueline cares too much for Simon and that such care is “not safe”.

At first, it appears that this danger lies in her obsessive following of Simon and Linnet around during their honeymoon. But at the end of the story, it’s revealed that when Linnet became interested in Simon,Simon was irritated by her efforts, but he thought of the idea of marrying Linnet, murdering her within the year, and then marrying Jacqueline and living off her money. Jacqueline goes along with the scheme because she knows Simon will get caught if he attempts the murder on his own, because he doesn’t have the brains for it.

This shows Jacqueline cares more for Simon than he does for her, because he comes up with and pursues such an unnatural scheme. It also shows Simon isn’t worth that level of devotion. I’m not sure whether Christie was going for this, but Simon becomes the male answer to the Femme Fatale: a good-looking guy who attracts the ladies and leads them to ruin.

It also shows the dangers of love when it overrides everything. When it’s freed from ethics, morals, and even self-respect, romantic love can become poisonous.

In Jacqueline’s case, she kills three people (including Simon, to save him from facing prosecution in a third world country) before killing herself.

Christie tries to balance the scales in a very unusual way on the whole issue of love. The most bizarre part of Death on the Nile is that two couples get together and get engaged. The Karnak, a ship that has three murders occur on board, becomes a love boat.

The romances, while not particularly realistic, serve as a counterbalance to the unhealthy main relationships, as they have a redemptive quality to them. Tim Allerton forsakes his thieving ways to marry Rosalie, whose alcoholic mother was the victim in one of the murders. The other romance is surprising. Ferguson has been trying to court Cornelia Robson, an honest and straightforward woman, in the most obnoxious way possible. He’s a self-styled communist and social radical, of whom her wealthy cousin, with whom she’s traveling, would not approve. Poirot discovers that Ferguson is actually a wealthy aristocrat, which would earn the cousin’s approval. With Ferguson’s true identity revealed, Cornelia agrees to marry Dr. Besner instead, because she likes him and finds his profession interesting. It’s such a wonderful twist that Cornelia remains true to her character as an honest and forthright person who pursues what she wants rather than falling for the wealthy guy who she thought was a low-born vulgar man just because he turned out to be a wealthy vulgar man.

Sadly, the screen adaptations have messed with these romances, including eliminating Cornelia’s character entirely from the 1978 film.

Overall, Death on the Nile can be enjoyed as just the great mystery novel it is, but there are also some great depths to the story for those who want to find them.

This post contains affiliate links, which means that items purchased from these links may result in a commission being paid to the author of this post at no extra cost to the purchaser.

My Top Six Most Wanted Missing Old Time Radio Episodes

A version of this article was posted in 2018.

In podcasting, few things make me happier than getting word more detective radio programs have come into circulation. Over the last few seasons, we’ve revisited several series where I’d done every available episode only for more episodes to come available.

The list of series I would love to have new episodes for is vast. I’d love more episodes of series that have 90% of their episodes missing, such as The Fat Man and The Thin Man. I’d love episodes for shows for which we have only dozens of episodes out of hundreds, such as The Saint, Barrie Craig, and Nick Carter. I’d love more episodes of series where we already have most of them such as The Adventures of Philip Marlowe, Dragnet, Richard Diamond, and Johnny Dollar.

When it comes to specific missing episodes, the list is far shorter. We have no idea what the missing episodes are about, so in theory, one missing episode could be as good as another. Yet, we do have tantalizing details about some specific episodes, and I’m particularly curious about them. Here are my top six:

6) Dragnet: Production 1, June 3, 1949

We are missing the very first episode of Dragnet from the radio series that ran for six years and led to four different TV series, a major motion picture, and a successful spin-off in Adam 12. “Production 1” is one of only eleven lost episodes of the radio show, but it’s such a historic broadcast, and it’s a shame we can’t hear it. The only reason it ranks so low is that we do have “Production 2”, which gives us a hint of what “Production 1” was like, with its very different opening theme and somewhat different style. Production 1 isn’t Dragnet as most people know it, but it’s still the beginning of the series, and I’d like to be able to hear it.

Note: This episode is one various site frequently claim to have for sale, but when you listen to the episode, it’s actually “Production 2”.

5)Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Lonely Hearts Matter, Episode 4: April 28, 1956

The fifteen-minute Johnny Dollar serials with Bob Bailey are the best audio dramas of radio’s Golden Age. Thankfully, they are almost entirely intact, with only four installments missing. Three of these missing episodes are Parts Two or Three. If a chapter is going to be missing, one of these middle chapters is best, as most plot developments are readily captured in recaps.

However, “The Lonely Hearts Matter” is missing Episode Four. In my opinion, that’s the second-worst episode to be missing. The worst possible episode to not have is the final episode of the serial since you don’t know how the story ends. But Episode Four is critical, as it’s in this episode that Johnny begins to move towards the solution, and the drama of the final chapter is set up. As it is now, “The Lonely Hearts Matter” is not a satisfying listen. The leap from parts three to five is a huge one. We can read about what happened in Episode Four thanks to John C. Abbott’s definitive book on Johnny Dollar. However, there’s nothing like actually hearing the episode.

4) Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Curly Waters Matter, February 1, 1949

After the end of the serial era, the show resumed the typical half-hour format. Most episodes were entirely self-contained. So while we may not have all the episodes, we don’t need them to understand the episodes we do have. One exception to this is “The Curly Waters Matter”. This episode is missing and that’s bad for two reasons. First, it introduces Betty Lewis, who would be a recurring character for the last year and a half of the Bob Bailey era, as Johnny’s first and only ongoing girlfriend. In addition, the plot for next week’s program (“The Date of Death Matter”) is a bit of a sequel to this one. Many of the events are recapped, so you can understand what went on in that episode, but it’s disappointing we couldn’t hear these events for ourselves.

3) Let George Do It: George Meets Sam Spade, September 26, 1947

Dennis at the Digital Deli located a tantalizing ad from a newspaper for the radio series Let George Do It with the caption “George Meets Sam Spade.”

The radio show doesn’t exist in circulation (only one episode of Let George Do It from 1947 does), so we’re left with a lot of questions. Was this an actual team-up between George Valentine and Sam Spade despite being on different networks? Was it a guest appearance by Sam Spade actor Howard Duff on Let George Do It? Was it a situation where a parody of Sam Spade appeared, perhaps voiced by Elliott Lewis, who worked for Mutual around this time and could be a soundalike for his friend Duff? We’ll never know until the episode is found.

2) Dragnet: The Big Cop, August 2, 1951

This is the only radio/television episode of Dragnet from the 1950s to tackle the issue of police corruption. A listener emailed me with the theory that the radio and TV versions of this episode were being suppressed. It doesn’t require a conspiracy. Hundreds of thousands of hours of 1950s radio are missing. That said, I’d love to see how Dragnet dealt with this topic in the 1950s.

Note: This is another episode that is often listed as being available for sale, but the episode sold is an unrelated burglary case.

Since I first wrote this article, the Gotham Radio players produced a solid recreation (heard thirty-five minutes into this broadcast from WBAI). It gives the script a believable treatment and it’s a good one. I’d so love for the original to appear.

1) Matthew Slade: The Day of the Phoenix, Part Three, July 1964

This episode concluded the 1960s detective series Matthew Slade, Private Investigator. It aired in 1964, a couple years after the official end of the Golden Age of Radio. The absence of the concluding episode, “Day of the Phoenix”, is why I’ve held off on doing this series.

This episode is tantalizing because there’s evidence it exists. It’s listed in the Digital Deli’s log, and I saw the episode for sale on a now-defunct website that offered Old Time Radio MP3 CDs. I didn’t buy it because of the seller’s shady setup, but it does give hope that the show is out there.

We’re running out of great detectives that we haven’t done yet, so we may end up running Matthew Slade without “Day of the Phoenix”.

If you have any of these episodes, I’d love to hear them and to share them with my audience. Before emailing me, please be sure that you’ve listened to the episode and verified it is what it purports to be (particularly with the missing Dragnet episodes).

DVD Review: A Night to Remember

In the 1942 film A Night to Remember,  mystery writer Jeff Troy (Brian Aherne) and his wife Nancy (Loretta Young) move into their basement apartment one night and the next morning find a body in their garden. Even worse, the Mystery writer got into a fight with the dead man the night before. The couple discovers their apartment is full of secrets and a mystery worthy of one of the writer’s novels, but will they survive it?

The film has a lot going for it, with a solid cast in back of it including Lee Patrick and Sidney Toler in a non-Charlie Chan appearance as the local police inspector. It also has a good premise and a good dose of atmosphere, with some tense moments.

At the same time, A Night to Remember has some weak points including some pacing issues and leads who just don’t make you care that much about their characters as a couple, although Loretta Young is fun on her own. The mystery can also be a bit complex and hard to follow.

However, what may make A Night to Remember so forgettable is that it’s a very subtle satire of the amateur detective genre. It was from an era where comedies were often very broad. Neither Jeff or Nancy are the sort of broad comedic characters you’ll find in screwball comedies or the later satires Murder by Death and The Cheap Detective. The Troys are ordinary everyday people, with Jeff having a slightly above-average understanding of mystery solving. Thus they don’t bungle their way through the case is some uproariously hilarious way but rather in very subtle, everyday, ordinary ways.  One example is when Jeff does as so many amateur sleuths do, and suggests that the police pick up a suspicious character, he finds that the police had already picked him up. Having the police just do their ordinary work in believable ways and show up the mystery writer is one of the movie’s great sources of humor.

One critic said the film is hard to hate and I think that’s a fair description. It’s not a stupid or very offensive film. It’s an hour and a half of diversion that’s different from a lot of its peers but in a way that makes it forgettable. If its sort of low-key, subtle approach is something you’re curious about or if you’re a fan of either Aherne or (especially) Young, it’d be worth watching.

If you seek out the film, be warned: 1) A 1958 film about the sinking of the Titanic has the same name, and 2) The only legal way to purchase the film is a DVD from Collector’s Choice which lacks even the sort of menus that Warner Archive provides with their releases. Instead, the film auto plays all the way through and will continue to do so until you act to stop it.

Rating: 3.0 out of 5.0

This post contains affiliate links, which means that items purchased from these links may result in a commission being paid to the author of this post at no extra cost to the purchaser.

DVD Review: Sorry, Wrong Number

In Sorry, Wrong Number, the wealthy, bed-ridden Leona Stevenson (Barbara Stanwyck) is home alone and trying to find out what’s delaying her handsome, corrupt executive husband Henry (Burt Lancaster) when she gets a wrong connection and overhears two men plotting a murder. She begins making calls and discovers that her husband may have a secret or two.

As a film, Sorry, Wrong Number is a constantly entertaining viewing experience. Stanwyck received an Oscar nomination and Lancaster was in peak condition and perfectly cast as the charming, albeit weak, husband. The leads are supported by such talented stalwarts as Ann Richards, Ed Begley, Sr., and Wendell Corey. Harold Vermilyea’s role as Waldo Evans was riveting.

Like other noir-ish films of the era, such as The Killers, the Mask of Demetrios, and The Fat Man, much of Sorry, Wrong Number’s story is told through numerous flashbacks, which demand very versatile performances to quickly show character development. The cast delivers in every scene, showing believable character progression.

In addition, the film uses textbook noir storytelling techniques, with its brilliant use of light and shadow, as well as a superb musical score that really serves to drive the mood of the story right to its final climax.

The film is based on the breathtaking, and renowned, radio drama of the same name, and its failings come in the ways it strayed from the radio drama’s key premise. Mrs. Stevenson’s quest to stop the murderers, and find out who was endangered in the murder-for-hire call she overheard, gets waylaid by conversations with people wanting to share flashbacks of things that happened with her husband. Some moments seem silly and with little reflection, such as when Ann Richards’ civilian character, Sally Lord, is able to take her husband, an assistant district attorney, and a trained policeman escort through the heart of New York City without detection, and then also to a far more remote area, where she sticks out like a sore thumb.

However, the film’s flaws don’t stop it from being a solidly acted and directed piece that’s a must-see for any fan of noir films.

Rating: 4 out of 5

This post contains affiliate links, which means that items purchased from these links may result in a commission being paid to the author of this post at no extra cost to the purchaser.

How Radio Dramas Get Abandoned And How They Can Get a New Lease on Life

In my last article, I looked at five audio dramas that, while copyrighted, have been effectively abandoned by the rights holders. Why does this happen?

The first reason is that audio dramas are very hard to sell commercially. There are exceptions. The BBC, Focus on the Family, Graphic Audio, and Audible have found some success that most smaller producers have not.

For those smaller producers, it can be tricky finding enough buyers so that the product can be sold at a reasonable price. This is particularly true with physical media, but can even be true for downloads where the time, effort, and expense of marketing can make selling or continuing to sell CDs or downloads onerous. Rights-holders of forgotten properties would struggle to find a new audience for their products and put a lot of time, energy, and money into making their stories available, and likely lose money in the process for at least a few years.

The second reason is that copyright protections lasts too long. In the U.S. Constitution, Congress is given the the power “to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.” If, as soon as someone writes a book, a play, or a song, someone else could steal it for their own purposes without payment, it would discourage creative endeavors and stifle the progress of the Arts. According to the Constitution, preventing that is the reason for copyright laws.

However, copyright laws are not written with that goal. There are writers I’ve met who honestly believe that the current copyright law term of life-plus-seventy-years will allow their heirs to collect royalties long after they are gone. The truth is that for the vast majority of writers, their work isn’t commercially viable throughout their entire life, and it certainly won’t be seventy years after their death. The life-plus-seventy-year terms ensures that most creators’ works will be forgotten, which is exactly what’s happening to so many audio dramas, even after their creators gave up on being able to make a profit from them.

Current copyright laws were not written with the average creator in mind, nor with the general goal of advancing the arts and sciences, but rather to benefit the biggest copyright holders: Disney, Warner Brothers, and the like. Of course, it’s not a uniquely American issue. Long copyright terms are present across the globe. This makes the issue impossible to solve. Thus, while the law might be creating the problem, the law won’t be able to solve it.

Solutions

Despite the inability of governments to solve the problem they’ve created, audio dramas do find ways to be successful.

Companies with larger audio drama production capabilities have options others don’t. The BBC, with its worldwide fan base, can sell a dozen hours of dramatic performances for a single Audible Credit and still come out fine on the deal, even while smaller producers struggle with what Audible pays them. The children’s radio series Adventures in Odyssey can give fans of all ages access to its entire back catalog through a monthly or annual membership.

Other companies rely on the length of the recording. It’s worth noting that many of Audible’s forays into audio drama have been book-length adventures. Most of Audible’s original scripted audios clock in at over four hours in length. Audible gets big names involved, like Paul Rudd, John Cena, and Meryl Streep, and is able to create audio dramas which are great for long flights or long commutes. Even without the big names, Graphic Audio has managed to do something similar with its popularity among over-the-road truckers and those who travel long distances.

While such expensive options aren’t practical for independent producers, there are options emerging. Crowdfunding has been a game-changer for many podcast-based audio dramas, as support from sites like Kickstarter and Patreon have allowed many productions to be able to get something for the hard work they put into making these audio dramas available.

In addition, there’s a new app called Dramafy,which features hundreds of independent audio dramas for free, with ad-supported streaming or ad-free for a monthly or annual subscription. Dramafy splits its revenue with creators. This definitely provides some exciting potential for audio drama creators to make money from their work.

What can be done for audio dramas that remain copyrighted but have been abandoned? Those that have circulated in mediocre .mp3 files will most likely continue to do so. What could offer these works a better future? If a non-profit organization was formed to purchase rights of high-quality abandoned works from their creators and release them into the public domain. It would be a complicated process. In many cases, it’s hard to figure out who the rights owners or their heirs might be. Even then, it might be hard to convince the family. Any payment would be small, certainly smaller than the months and years that were often put into audio drama productions.

But if such an effort brought audio dramas unambiguously into the public domain, it would allow wide distribution. Educational institutions, radio stations, and non-profits could freely distribute them. Some might even find new fans in such a wide release. It’s a wild idea, but one that could allow audio dramas to have a more lasting cultural impact.

Five Copyrighted Radio Dramas That Appear to Have Been Abandonned

I’m going to be talking about actual copyrighted radio drama series which are: 1) under copyright, and 2) appear to have been abandoned by their possible rights-holders. Before writing about this topic, I should offer two disclaimers.

In the strongest possible terms, I discourage the unauthorized use, copying, or distribution of modern radio dramas wherever rights-holders are known and are selling the work. Beyond any legal ramifications or reasoning, there’s a simple fact that it is very difficult for audio drama producers to turn a profit and thus produce the materials we love. If we want to see more audio dramas produced, we’d better buy what we listen to, or listen to an authorized source that pays them a royalty, like Spotify, BBC Radio 4 extra, or the Dramafy app.

Secondly, I’m not a lawyer and I possess no inside information. While it appears that the owners have abandoned these projects, they could theoretically be reclaimed at any time by copyright owners, as the copyright is active. So I’m not encouraging any action whatsoever based on my speculation. Rather, these are observations and opinions, and should not be taken as legal advice.

Protected but Abandoned

While old-time radio enthusiasts love to debate old-time radio copyrights, the issue of copyright for newer radio programs of all sorts is pretty clear. Radio programs made between 1972 and 1978 are under copyright for 95 years, and after 1978, all radio programs are copyrighted for the life of the author plus seventy years.

There are several audio dramas that are being actively sold and marketed, such as the Star Wars audio dramas, the Louie L’Amour audio dramas, and The Adventures of Harry Nile. But there are several series that have fallen into neglect and are getting no official releases, and leaving fans to find the shows where they can.

Alien Worlds 

This thirty-episode sci-fi series about the International Space Authority defending the planet was a huge hit in the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand in 1979 and 1980. Later, the series had a presence online and promised to turn the radio programs into 3D animations, but these plans appear to have fallen through, as the website disappeared without a trace. Someone call the ISA.

The Sears Radio Theater

While its successor series The Mutual Radio Theater has received releases through Radio Archives and Radio Spirits, this 1979 series, which featured five nights a week of radio dramas in different genres with a different host each night, has languished, leading to a lot of recordings of variable quality.

CBS Radio Mystery Theater 

This series was emblematic of the 1970s radio revival and ran for eight seasons, producing 1,399 episodes. The series had a bit of revival and a series of reruns in the late 1990s. But it never had an official home release. Radio legend Himan Brown was frustrated in his later years by the proliferation of cheap recordings of his project, and in the mid-2000s tried to get fans to sign up to express interest in a subscription service for home audio releases. Of course, by then, Brown was trying to close the barn door after the horse had run away, as there were already far more collectors and sellers selling copies of his work. Since he died, none of his heirs have tried to cash in on the series, and the 1,399 episodes are available in multiple places on the Internet.

Seeing Ear Theatre

Seeing Ear Theatre is proof that a production doesn’t have to have been on the radio in the 1970s or even more broadcast radio. In the late 1990s, the SciFi channel (not yet renamed the SyFy Channel by the kewl* kids), the Sci-Fi channel decided to experiment with bringing back science fiction audio dramas on their website. I remember being excited, and, like millions of other science fiction fans, clicking the link to listen. Most of us had the same experience. We’re reminded that this was the 1990s and Internet was not really good for much other than Instant Messaging and reading web pages with pixelated images because we had dial-up motives and even streaming a real audio file was too much for it to handle.

To be fair, the Sci-Fi channel did try to make some of the audio dramas available beyond the few people able to actually stream them via the most advanced technology of the day … double-sided audio cassettes. (Not even CDs?)

However, the audio tapes are out of print, although you might find one on eBay. The series was saved from being totally forgotten by a few fans who managed to listen to them.

2000x

2000x (also known as Beyond 2000) was a prestige audio drama series for NPR broadcast at the turn of the 21st Century. It was a 26-episode series containing hour-long episodes, with a total of 49 stories, featuring stars of the day like Richard Dreyfuss and Robin Williams, and even tossing in an appearance from Golden Age radio legend Jackson Beck. There was a CD release of several episodes that has long since gone out of print and no indication that anything is being done to make the series broadly available.

We could list more series but I think the point’s made that quite a few really interesting audio dramas are technically copyrighted but not being officially cared for. Next week, we’ll take a look at why this is.

*Ironic and intentional misspelling.

Six Old-Time Radio Stars Who Appeared in Classic Disney Animated Films

Listening to old-time radio can often offer the benefit of letting you see or hear stars of other classic entertainment in a new light.  For example, I grew up watching Lionel Barrymore play Mister Potter in It’s a Wonderful Life. However, his career was far more diverse and interesting than that. His radiography provides a glimpse, as he starred as The Mayor of the Town, played Doctor Gillespie in the Doctor Kildare series, and served as host of the Hallmark Hall of Fame.

The same can be drawn with any number of older projects, whether you’re talking about 1970s movies or television programs. For the purpose of this article, we’re focusing on classic Disney animated films because they constitute some of the media most likely to be shared across generational lines.

Generations of children have enjoyed the work of Verna Felton. She’s probably best known as the Fairy Godmother in 1950s Cinderella. But she was in many films, from Dumbo to Lady and the Tramp to The Jungle Book. On radio, she had a long history of playing various characters, particularly of the motherly sort. She played the mother of singer Dennis Day both on the Jack Benny program and A Day in the Life of Dennis Day. She also was a regular on the Red Skelton show as the grandmother of Red Skelton’s mischievous child alter ego Junior.

Ed Wynn and Jerry Colona were a zany double act as the Mad Hatter and March Hare in the 1951 film Alice in Wonderland. However, each had an equally zany career over radio. Wynn hosted multiple radio programs and was known for his unmistakable voice and his frequent routine where he would offer his own interpretation of foreign-language opera lyrics. Colona was the mustached radio sidekick of Bob Hope. Whenever “Professor Colona” was announced, listeners knew the humor was going to get bonkers fast.

Betty Lou Gerson is remembered for voicing one of one of the most iconic villains of all time, Cruella de VilHowever, Gerson made an astounding number of old-time radio appearances. She was the voice of the president’s secretary on Mister President, and as a character actress appeared in every conceivable type of radio program during a career that dated back to the 1930s, including comedies, soap operas, and crime programs. She was one of the most versatile talents in the Golden Age of Radio.

Phil Harris is known to millions of kids through his role in The Jungle Book and his iconic song, “Bare Necessities”, in addition to voicing characters in the Disney Films The Aristocats and Robin Hood. However, Harris’s radio career was epic, with sixteen seasons working as the band leader on the top-rated Jack Benny program and playing a character as Benny’s cool band leader. Harris would later spin this off into a successful sitcom with his wife, The Phil Harris and Alice Faye Show, which would be a mainstay for NBC for six years.

Jim Jordan played Orville in The Rescuers. Orville was an albatross who transported the mice from the rescue aid society to rescue a little girl being held in the Louisana swamps. Jordan’s most famous radio role was as Fibber McGee in the signature Fibber McGee and Molly, a series that ran for twenty-four years and was one of the most beloved comedy programs of the Depression and World War II eras.

We could cover many more performers who lent their voices to Disney films also had substantial careers in radio and fans of their performances in these films may find an even deeper appreciation for them by doing a deep dive into their radio work.

Four Treasures for Fans of Golden Age Entertainment on YouTube

YouTube hosts a massive number of videos (800 million). On that massive site, there’s a lot that’s bad and a lot that’s good. Yet, if you’re a fan of the Golden Age of Entertainment, there are some things to specifically look out for, some treasures you might find among the flotsam and jetsam of YouTube. Here are four things worth checking out:

The Colgate Comedy Hour:

The Colgate Comedy Hour was a massive comedy program, hosted each week by different comedy legends including Abbott and Costello, Martin and Lewis, Eddie Cantor, and Jimmy Durante, among others, in programs featuring live comedy and music. The programs didn’t have their copyright renewed and became public domain and a lot of them landed on YouTube. Watching them is definitely a time capsule experience with some fun performances as well as a few hiccups. Many of the Martin and Lewis episodes have survived. There’s a YouTube playlist with twenty-eight of them. Given the short-lived nature of the Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis partnership and its lasting cultural impact, these are worth a look.

The Abbott and Costello episodes have served to confuse some fans to the benefit of sellers of DVDs. Many DVDs with public-domain episodes from their Colgate Comedy Hour sketches were labeled as part of “The Abbott and Costello Show.” However, the Abbott and Costello show was a separate production with fifty-two half-hour episodes that are copyrighted and sold by others. So it’s the difference between a live TV show starring Abbott and Costello, and a taped show called The Abbott and Costello Show. I’d clarify further, but this will turn into a column equivalent of Who’s on First

Commercials and PSAs:

Golden Age stars often found their way into commercials and PSAs, particularly when targeted to an older audience. Consider Jim Jordan (aka Fibber McGee) cutting an ad for the AARP, or Jack Webb urging people to sign up for medicare, Edgar Bergen and his dummies Charlie McCarthy, and Mortimer Snerd promoting Parkay. Jimmy Durante poking fun at his tendency to mispronounce words in a Corn Flakes commercial, or Bing Crosby making an earnest plea for Ducks Unlimited.

Commercially Unviable Entertainment Gold 

YouTube takes down a lot of copyrighted material at the request of the rights holders. However, there’s a lot of television from The Golden Age that’s technically under copyright but is not commercially viable. So there’s no one filing takedown requests on what are effectively orphan works and these TV programs find a home on YouTUbe.

While many believe that classic stars faded from the public conscience after the end of the Golden Age of Radio, these programs show how many continued to have interesting careers filled with fascinating appearances and team-ups.

Durante got to see his impact on younger generations of comedians and musicians when he teamed up with a young Bobby Darin, who did an uncanny impersonation of Durante. Durante also got to a duet on “Old Man Time” in 1965, an appropriate choice for two entertainment legends that were near the end of amazing careers.

Edgar Bergen and his wooden pal Charlie McCarthy also had a long career that extended to close to the end of the 1970s. McCarthy ribbed Orson Welles at his AFI lifetime achievement award, crossed swords with Dean Martin and often made fun of Bergen for his lips moving.

There were also some special moments honoring the Golden Age of Radio while stars were still living. In a segment from a 1978 special honoring the 75th Anniversary of Kraft Foods, hosted by Bob Hope, brought the Great Gildersleeve (aka Harold Peary), as well as Bergen and McCarthy, to viewers’ screens to pay tribute to those good old days.

4) Reaction Videos

There’s nothing quite like discovering something wonderful for the first time. There’s a special moment where you see a movie and it blows you away on that first viewing. While your understanding of a piece of art might deepen, there’s no chance to really experience that excitement for the first time.

The closest thing to it is watching someone else experience it for the first time. That’s why I have enjoyed quite a few YouTube reaction videos reacting to classic works. Short-form reactors will most often watch skits from Abbott and Costello, particularly Who’s on First.

Others react to movies. There’s a joy in seeing someone discovering a brilliant work like Casablanca or Twelve Angry Men for the first time. However, my favorite film to see a reaction to is It’s a Wonderful Life. I was part of a generation that grew up on this film. When It’s a Wonderful Life was considered in the public domain, it was on all the time and I loved it as it kid. It aired not just at Christmas time, but programming-hungry networks showed it at any time of the year. In fact, I remember watching it in July. Doubtless this is true of many folks who grew up before 1993 (when Republic Pictures pulled a legal rabbit out if its hat to force It’s a Wonderful Life out of the public domain). Truth is I can’t even remember what it was like to have not seen this movie.

That’s why I love reactions to it: to see the bits of the film that surprise them, that move them, and how they see these characters that I’m so familiar with. It can also help me see it in a fresh since I watched it so many times when I was a child and they’re coming to the film the first time as an adult. Seeing someone whose often very different from me connect to a movie I love and seeing what they see has not only allowed me to vicariously share their experience but also often deepened and enhanced my appreciation of the film.

Book Review: The Golden Box

In the Golden Box (1942) by Frances Crane, Jean Holly returns to her small town to care for an ailing relative.The town matriarch dies, and then it appears that a servant has hanged herself, although some think foul play is involved. As it so happens, a detective friend named Pat Abbott comes down to get to the bottom of what’s really going on.

The book is officially listed as the second in the Pat and Jean Abbott mysteries, although that’s a bit of a misnomer, as they’re not married in this book. However, it’s the earliest available book featuring the two I could find.

The book has one glaring problem – for most of its length, it’s very boring. The characters and locale are mostly just there, functional, and nondistinct.The dialogue is much the same, and it makes for a monotonous and tiresome read. Even the relationship between Jean and Pat isn’t all that interesting, and there’s no real hint of a romantic spark between the future married couple. I found myself thinking I’d rather read another Larry Kent book than this. Yes, the book I reviewed was a bad book, but at least it was bad in an interesting way. This book could have been livened up an exposition leprechaun popping up out of nowhere to cut a few dozen pages from this book.

The book does have a few good points. The mystery is slow getting started but is actually fairly good. Jean does have a few moments where her personality shines through, such as when she complains about how unattractive men who do the dishes are (hey, it was the 1940s), and Jean as narrator shares her thoughts on the mystery and helps to stimulate the reader’s interest as well.

Still, The Golden Box is a bit of a slog to get through. That said, I’m not entirely writing off the possibility of reading another novel in the series. This one feels a bit atypical. Jean being at home with her own extended family puts her clearly on the inside with all of the murder suspects and supporting characters, knowing them and integrating back into that world.It’s an awkward position for a secondary character/narrator in a mystery novel. I’d be curious how the characters would play in a less pedestrian setting, and after they’re married.

The Pat and Jean Abbott Mystery series went on for more than 20 novels and while none are classics, it’s hard to believe they were all this dull.

Rating: 2.25 out of 5

 

The Top Eleven Big Finish Stories of 2022, Part Two

Continued from Part One.

We continue the countdown with my top five Big Finish stories of 2022:

5) Wulf by Aaron Lamont, starring Lisa Bowerman, from Doctor Who: The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield: Blood and Steel

In the previous story, Professor Bernice “Bennie” Summerfield (Lisa Bowerman) nearly escapes a mass conversion of 1930s German civilians into Cybermen. All the poor unfortunates who were kidnapped into the metal monsters have perished. However, one survives partially converted, and makes it back to his small country village to try to re-integrate into the community.

This is a solid, emotional piece of story-telling that manages to set out a scenario than really explores the consequences of it. This is smartly written and keeps the Doctor mostly out of the story; even Bennie only comes in relatively late. This gives the supporting guest cast a chance to shine, as well allowing the soundscape to enhance the story. Wulf challenges some of the Doctor and Bennie’s beliefs about the Cybermen in a way that’s more intelligent than many modern series’ attempts to do the same. The time period really enhances both the sense of peril and the reactions of the characters. Wulf is a moving, gut-wrenching piece that uses both the characters and the setting to tell a touching and tragic tale.

4) Earthbound by Nicholas Briggs, starring Mark Bonnar, from the box set Space 1999: Earthbound

Commander Koenig (Bonnar) has enough to worry about just trying to keep Moonbase Alpha functioning. But Commissioner Simmons (Timothy Bentick) is frustrated by the lack of effort toward finding a way back to Earth, even though returning to Earth would be so impractical that there’s no point in anyone on Alpha dedicating their efforts to it. Simmons organizes a small mutiny that forces Koenig to call a referendum on whether to begin Project Earthbound to return to Earth.

This and the plot of the next story were covered in a single episode, but as he did in writing the pilot episode, “Breakaway,” script editor Nicholas Briggs makes a smart call to expand the story into two episodes. While many stories in the era could be padded, some definitely needed room to breathe, and the referenda storyline definitely fell into the latter category. In particular, whenever a vote is called for on a ship or military base, in a sci-fi series, it seems out of place, as that’s not how those organizations function and the vote is run in a way that’s hard to take seriously.

Here, everything is given proper weight. Moonbase Alpha’s very unique situation, where they’re no longer within their mission perimeters (having been blasted into deep space), and they have a civil political figure on board, makes this far more plausible. The debate is handled well, and we get to see the aftermath and effect of the vote. The way the vote happens has social commentary elements without feeling hackneyed or ham-handed.

This is a solid piece of drama that just happens to be set in space.

3) If I Should Die Before I Wake by John Dorney, starring Paul McGann and India Fisher, from Classic Doctors, New Monsters, Volume 3
The 8th Doctor (Paul McGann) and Charlotte Pollard (India Fisher) were a marquee Doctor/Companion team at Big Finish in the 2000s. They were reunited in five stories, including their own separate box set. To my mind, this is the best story.
The Eighth Doctor is telling Charley a bedtime story, a story where she dies. Why? And why is Charley trying so hard to thwart him?

This script focuses on the modern series monsters, the Dream Crabs, but still manages to recapture that early 2000s feel of the Eighth Doctor and Charley and what made that pairing work. There are also touches of other classic Charlotte Pollard stories. In many ways, this feels like a sequel to Solitaire, one of John Dorney’s earliest Big Finish scripts.

At the same time, India Fisher is on top of her game. I don’t think she’s ever been better. Overall, this has a great puzzle, a superb script, two great performances from the leads, solid direction, and a really great dreamscape sound design.

2) The Ravencliff Witch by David Llewelyn, starring Tom Baker

The Doctor (Tom Baker) arrives at a small seaside village where strange disappearances are happening at the local power station, which has a very hush-hush attitude about its source of energy. The village is haunted increasingly by a menacing visitor known as the Ravencliff Witch.

The atmosphere is superb, with both the sound design and Jamie Robertson’s music doing a great job to set the tone for the piece. The story has some good turns, although it’s by no means groundbreaking. This is a story that does take its time and builds up tension nicely. It also features well-thought-out and well-developed supporting characters who are all played by excellent actors. Tom Baker also is solid in a performance that’s one of his more serious takes on the Doctor. His last few minutes in the story are really well-done and beautifully subtle.

This is a superb story: spooky, engaging, and with some wonderful character moments throughout.

1) The Auton Infinity by Tim Foley, starring Peter Davison

The Auton Infinity is an example of a classic, massive Doctor Who Anniversary special, a six-part story celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Peter Davison premiering as the 5th Doctor. It includes the Brigadier, the Autons, and a host of surprise companions and guest characters. Several of these stories have crashed under the weight of their own bloated plots, while others make for a delightful romp almost of themselves.

The Infinity of the Autons is one that really nails it. It’s well-paced, and rather than padding out the running time as many stories in the classic era do, it’s full of great surprises and surprising reveals. Each of the five cliffhangers is superb, with the second being a particular standout. The acting is very good, with Peter Davison turning in a multi-faceted performance. Jon Culshaw does yeoman’s work in portraying multiple characters. Howard Carter’s music is glorious. It’s pitch-perfect to the 1980s and true to the era.

While this is a love letter to the entirety of Davison’s TV run, it doesn’t have that sort of condescending approach that can turn off listeners. It’s the type of play that’s fan-pleasing without coming off as fan service. The Autons Infinity never stops being a good story. This is a well-made and thrilling production that really makes every minute of the three hour runtime worth it.

The Top Eleven Big Finish Audio Releases of 2022, Part One

The last few years, I’ve completed rankings of the top ten individual stories from the British audio drama producer, Big Finish. This year, I’m doing a top eleven list due to a special circumstance in this year’s story that we’ll talk about in this post.

As usual, I can’t claim to have listened to ALL of Big Finish’s magnificent output. My listening has been mostly to its Doctor Who and related ranges (for which Big Finish is most famous), but I’ve also listened to their Sherlock Holmes, The Avengers, Space 1999, and UFO releases. As the late great Regis Philbin once stated, “I’m only one man.” So I haven’t heard everything.

I’ll also warn that there’s some continuity notes ahead because as good as these stories are, most come from series that are not quite as straightforward as in years past.

11) I, Kamelion by Dominic Martin, read by Dan Starkey

This story is a bit of a surprise. It came as an interlude (aka an hour-plus long audiobook) for those who bought The Fifth Doctor Adventures: Forty, Volume 1, the first of two box sets to mark the fortieth anniversary of Peter Davison debuting as the Fifth Doctor. But this one is interesting and it features an unlikely hero: Kamelion.

Kamelion was a shapeshifting robot introduced in Davison’s second season. He was to be a companion for the Fifth Doctor, but the robot didn’t work. He was brought back over audio by Big Finish a few years back in a series of stories. My problem with that series was that it made Kamelion the central focus, and only served to show him as a problematic figure who constantly made life difficult for the TARDIS crew. Leave it to Dominic Martin to give us a story that gives Kamelion his due.

Kamelion finds himself having become an actual human being, not (as happened on the TV series) just disguised as one. He has to figure out what happened, and several peoples’ lives, including that of the Doctor and Turlough, are on the line.

The story is emotionally satisfying and explores Kamelion’s character in a very effective way, as well as showing how he relates to the other characters. While other stories have had robots inhabit human bodies, I thought that writer Dominic Martin added some really nice touches in exploring what that would mean to the robot.

Kamelion is a disliked or at least disregarded companion, but this story at last gives him a chance to shine and to make a difference in the best way possible. This was just a real treat to listen to.

10) The End by Rochana Patel and starring Jacob Dudman from The Eleventh Doctor Chronicles: Geronimo

This is part of The Eleventh Doctor Chronicles in which actor/impressionist Jacob Dudman portrays the Eleventh Doctor, who was portrayed on television by Matt Smith. In this story, the Doctor and his new companion Valerie Harper (Safiyya Ingar) arrive on a spaceship in peril twice simultaneously. In one timeline, the Doctor has been poisoned; in another, it’s Valerie. Together they have to solve the mystery of what’s going on.

This story has a lot going for it. The concept puts a fresh twist on the sort of time-wimey madness that happens in Doctor Who at all levels, while at the same time really exploring the characters of the Doctor and Valerie as they are pushed to the edge in multiple ways. The same is true of the guest cast, who are immaculately written in this story.

9) The Outlaws by Lizbeth Miles and Starring Steven Noonan from Doctor Who: The First Doctor Adventures: The Outlaws

This story sees the debut of Stephen Noonan as Big Finish’s new First Doctor (who was played on television by William Hartnell), with Lauren Cornelius playing Dodo (originally played on television by Jackie Lane) and featuring comedian Rufus Hound playing the villain, the Meddling Monk.

The Doctor and Dodo arrive in thirteenth century Lincoln, as England is under attack by King Louie and the Sheriff is having to deal with constant attacks from outlaws.

There’s a lot to like about this. It does a great job capturing the feel of a Hartnell-era historical. The story leans more into the comic rather than the tragic style of historicals. There are some really fun, delightful moments, with a few deaths to bring things back down to Earth.

Stephen Noonan is superb. He plays the first Doctor with a twinkle in his eye that comes through the audio. He does such a great job capturing Hartnell’s Doctor, even turning Hartnell’s “mistakes” into part of the performance.

Rufus Hound once again is excellent, playing in a scheme that’s a bit more consistent with where the Monk began as a character. Hound and Noonan are particularly fun together, with superb performance chemistry.

8) The Prints of Denmark by Paul Morris and starring Wendy Padbury and Rufus Hound from Doctor Who: The Companion Chronicles, The Second Doctor, Volume 3:

The Monk is on a mission and runs into Zoe Herriott (Padbury) at a museum. Finding out she’s a companion to the Doctor, he decides to bring her along for the ride. Will Zoe be able to turn the tables on the Monk, or will she inadvertently change Earth’s history forever by being led down a path one step at a time by the Monk?

There’s a lot to like about this story. Rufus Hound is given free rein in a story that really fits his characterization perfectly. As the human computer, Zoe becomes the perfect straight man in a lovely double act. Their interactions are perfect. I particularly enjoyed the irony of the Monk challenging the absurd cosmology Doctor Who portrays that makes time practically sentient while Zoe defends it.

The story is a brilliant continuity deep cut on the Monk’s original appearance on Doctor Who. There are also all sorts of interesting side features and Rufus Hounds gets to show a nice bit of flexibility, even appearing as himself.

This is the funniest Big Finish story in an age.

7) Death Will Not Part Us by Alfie Shaw Shaw and read by Adele Anderson. Released as Part of Doctor Who Short Trips, Volume 11
&
6) Rewind written by Timothy X Atack and starring Jonathan Carley. Released as Part of Doctor Who: The War Doctor Begins, Volume 3
These stories each achieve the same thing and do it in their own way. The Time War is a huge event in modern Doctor Who, as this was between the Daleks and the Time Lords that spanned countless eons and found the entire universe as a battlefield, with other species constantly having their history rewritten or being written or out of existence, all while time-altering weapons wreak untold mischief. While Big Finish has many stories set during this period, few have really captured the horror and emotional trauma this would bring to those unfortunate enough to find themselves caught between the two sides These stories do so brilliantly.
“Death Will Not Part Us” is a short audiobook. This story follows a woman whose planet was wiped out by the Time Lords, but she finds a weapon that allows her to rewind time and start again and even strike back at her enemies. It’s powered by the days of her life. Each time she fires the gun, she loses part of her past, but it’s a sacrifice she’ll make to save her world. This is a great story of an ordinary person getting caught in a war between two sides led by mad beings who believe they should control all reality.
“Rewind” is from The War Doctor Begins series which stars Jonathan Carley as a younger version of the character played by the late John Hurt on television.

This story follows Ignis Able (Sarah Moss), a poet and minor local government official focusing on arts and self-fulfillment when the Daleks come and invade to destroy her entire planet, and they do so over and over again, with her reliving those last hours in a continual loop, until she sees a light from the tower to investigate.

This is a great concept that does a few important things for the Time War. By being narrated by Ignis, you get a feeling of how the War affects those races caught in the Time War from the inside, and the horrific nature of it. At the same time, you also get a feeling for why the Doctor feels such guilt about his actions in the Time War. The Doctor is completely in character. He’s not trying to be cruel, but nonetheless, his actions help lead to pain and suffering.

I can’t say enough good things about Sarah Moss’ performance. She does a great job bringing Ignis to life. She’s brave, but has a poet’s soul.  She’s a mix of grit, sensitivity, creativity, and maybe just a little bit of impracticality. The ending is very bold and leaves the listener with a lot to think about.

To be continued next week.

Streaming Review: The Glass Onion

A multi-billionaire (Edward Norton) throws a murder mystery party for his closest associates (played by an all-star cast of Kate Hudson, Dave Bautista, Kathryn Hahn, and Leslie Odom,Jr.). Everyone is surprised when his estranged business partner (Janelle Monae) shows up, along with the world’s greatest detective, Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), who also starred in the previous film (Knives Out).

The setting, location, and all-star cast are evocative of the great Agatha Christie adaptation films starring Peter Ustinov, particularly Evil Under the Sun. There are some really solid performances, most notably Craig, who really shines in every moment on-screen. Also, the film features welcome cameos by the late Angela Lansbury and Stephen Sondheim, which are sadly brief, but relevant to the plot.

The film is not the equal of its predecessor for a number of reasons.

As a matter of personal taste, I didn’t find setting the story in the midst of the pandemic to be in good taste. It has minor relevance to the plot but wasn’t essential. There’s a reason why the flu pandemic of 1918 was practically forgotten in the public consciousness until COVID-19 hit. It wasn’t a great time to live through and people would rather forget it. This isn’t to say that the pandemic should never be on film, but this is a classic case of “too soon”, particularly for a mystery movie that should have an escapist feel to it. Featuring masks and even having a scene on CNN with mounting death tolls and cases cuts against that.

The movie has a twist that’s revealed more than an hour in that leads the story to cut back and recontextualize some previous scenes. I’ve seen this technique used before but not in a mystery film. I’m not opposed to it, but I think it takes too long in this film and hurts the pacing. It’s also a case where the new context leads to scenes that are less entertaining and interesting than the ones in the original context.

The film also has a problem with its characterization. I blame social media and the illusion it creates, that we “know” people, including famous people, from their Instagram posts and Twitter accounts. In The Glass Onion, it feels less like human beings are getting together and more like social media profiles are. This surface-level characterization shows up in a well-worn plot element being introduced, and again with an even more tired method of saving one character’s life, a method that had been debunked on Mythbusters more than a decade ago. The plot would make this a fitting subject for a YouTube series such as How It Should Have Ended or Pitch Meeting.

Add to that an ending that leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and I really left with a less-than-stellar viewing experience, despite some high points. I loved Knives Out (review here) but I have mixed feeling about The Glass Onion. It left me pessimistic about getting good detective movies in the 2020s .

Rating: 3 out of 5

 

The Glass Onion is available to streem for free on Netllix.

My Top 10 Old Time Radio Podcast Episodes of 2022

In 2022, we played 312 regular daily episodes of the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio, plus several specials and also twenty-nine episodes of the Amazing World of Radio. From these, I’ve chosen my top 10 podcast episodes of 2022:

10) Sam Spade: Caper with Two Death Beds (EP3849)

Sam is hired by a client who needs a deathbed statement to clear himself of a murder. Then everything goes sideways. This is actually a really clever mystery, with Spade doing some great detective work and coming up with a clever way to catch the real killer.

9) Burns and Allen: Gracie Sends Sam Spade to Jail (EP3950s)

Gracie Allen hears an episode of Sam Spade on the radio and becomes convinced that Sam got the solution wrong. She sets out to harass Sam (as actor Howard Duff) into clearing the innocent radio murderer. Gracie is at her most hilarious, and plays well of Duff. The production is great to start to finish and all the little touches, including Bill Goodwin working a pitch for Maxwell House coffee right into the story.

8) Dangerous Assignment: Find Champlin and his Reel of Tape (EP3923)

Steve is sent to Istanbul to find a reporter and listen to a reel of tape with sensational information on it. However, the reporter is found dead and the reel of tape provides a clue of some danger but leaves Steve with a lot of questions and very little time to find the answers. This episode has a lot going for it. Steve has to do some of his cleverest detective work as he’s racing against the clock. The ending is superb with an exciting high-stakes race to the finish. Easily the best Dangerous Assignment episode we played this year.

7) Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Paul Gorrell Matter (EP3829)

An insurance company has a lead on a man guilty of robbery and murder. They could turn this information over to the police, but the insurance company is afraid they won’t get their money back. Instead, they have Johnny take a cross-country road trip with the killer and two other motorists. Johnny knows this is a bad idea, but the insurance company insists, and Johnny gets to find out how bad an idea it is.

6) Man Called X: The Plot to Kill the NATO Pact (EP3737)

The Man Called X has to thwart an ex-Nazi scientist to stop the mass extermination of NATO leaders at a conference in Lisbon. Great action and a superb high-stakes story.

5) Mr. Chameleon: The Titled Husband Murder Case (EP3802)

By the fall of 1950, Mr. Chameleon had become a highly popular but also ludicrous program, full of the over-the-top characters that were typical of programs produced by Frank and Anne Hummert. In this one, the series really leaned in, and the lead character played to the maximum the absurdity of fake noblemen, gold diggers, and the social-climbing wealthy family that deserves them.

4) Suspense: The Khandi Tooth Caper (EP3795)

This hour-long episode of Suspense was an adaptation of two episodes of Sam Spade from 1946, in which two characters from The Maltese Falcon, Kasper Gutman and Joel Cairo, return with a brand-new MacGuffin to hunt – a valuable piece of dental work. Oh, and because the showrunner of Suspense was Robert Montgomery (who starred in the film Lady in the Lake), we got a Philip Marlowe cameo in a Sam Spade story. While the story isn’t equal to the original and repeats a lot of the same beats, it’s nonetheless an entertaining hour of radio. It also serves as a nice exploration of Spade as a character, and we get to see differences between Howard Duff’s take on Spade and the previous literary and cinematic takes on the character.

3) Sam Spade: The Dry Martini Caper (EP3885)

Sam is called by a lawyer who wants Sam to protect him, but the man is gunned down right before Sam’s eyes. Sam has to figure out which of the horrible people in his would-have-been client’s life committed the murder. This story walks a really fine line because it manages to be entertaining while featuring characters who are the worst. Yet, it manages to do this in an entertaining way, with some of the greatest insults uttered this side of Pat Novak for Hire. Howard Duff does a great job portraying how irritated Spade gets in this episode.

2) Tales of the Texas Rangers: Cactus Pear (EP3704)

Ranger Jace Pearson is one tough hombre. We have played multiple episodes where he continues on despite having been shot and requiring hospitalization. This episode best showcased the strength of Pearson and the Texas Rangers. The first part of the episode is a standard criminal investigation. The second part is an epic hunt for Jace to get his man before he crosses the Mexican border. Jace’s quarry is a cunning criminal with a big head start. This is an episode that shows that while you can evade the Texas Rangers, you have no margin for error when facing them.

1) The Man Called X: Operation Cabal (EP3785)

“Operation Cabal” ended The Man Called X’s eight-year odyssey as an on-again network-hopping radio spy/adventure program. The episode left open the possibility of a return but no episode could have beaten this one for a thrill-packed, insane finale. The Man Called X, the paragon of Democracy, faced his most dangerous and diabolical opponent in a shocking twist that makes for one of our most wild episodes.

Do you disagree or have other episodes you enjoyed more? Feel free to comment here or on social media.