Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio! A podcast featuring the best vintage detective radio programs. Each week from Monday through Saturday, we feature six of Old Time Radio's great detective series from the beginning of the show to its very last episode. And as a bonus, twice a month we also post a public domain movie or TV mystery or detective show video.
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- Your host, Adam Graham
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YOURS TRULY, JOHNNY DOLLAR THE FALCON DANGEROUS ASSIGNMENT DRAGNET MR. CHAMELEON ELLERY QUEEN… and more!
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Book Review, Golden Age Article, Nero Wolfe
Book Review: Death on a Deadline
by Yours Truly Johnny Blogger • 1 Comment
Robert Goldsborough’s 2nd Nero Wolfe novel began poorly but improved to mediocrity by the end.
Wolfe is concerned that a Scottish newspaper baron with a reputation for sensationalism will purchase the Gazette, Wolfe’s long time ally and source of information. Wolfe sets out to prevent it. However, when one of the principals in the Gazette is killed and everyone else thinks its suicide, Wolfe concludes that it’s actually murder and sets out to prove it.
The first third to half of the book is carnival of flummery. To start with, Goldsborough brings partisanship into the book. Notice, I send partisanship, not politics. In finding out about the misdeeds of the news tycoon, Wolfe learns from Lon Cohen that McLaren’s papers have consistently endorsed Republicans and Wolfe expresses his disapproval of endorsing Republicans and includes this as a talking point in his full page New York Times ad. (more on that in a bit.)
Politics is nothing new to Wolfe’s world. Wolfe books include anti-Communism, anti-McCarthyism, concern about civil liberties, and civil rights. Even individual political figures such as J Edgar Hoover, Joe McCarthy, and Richard Nixon. However, in each of those cases, he was upset about their specific action. Wolfe never expressed loathing of an entire political party in Stout’s work.
Of course, a progressive could argue that the Republican Party of Stout’s age was more diverse and the modern version was more uniformly wrong by Wolfe’s standards. However, this case is never made. Rather, Wolfe is presented as a partisan with unexplained animus against an entire political party. And this animus was never actually raised again and had no relevance to the plot. Indeed, had Goldsborough merely had Wolfe object to shotty journalism, the story would have lost nothing and he wouldn’t have violated the Wolfe character.
Beyond partisanship, Wolfe’s scheme of putting a full page ad in the New York Times was dumb. Doubtless, Goldsborough remembered the countless times Wolfe placed display ads in the paper, but never a full page ad for something that really didn’t need it. The point of the full page ad was to get public attention so Wolfe could meet with people involved with the Gazette and the attempt to sell it to prevent the sale to McLaren. However, Wolfe could have run a smaller ad, or given his notoriety sent in an op-ed and saved the money. In addition, we get to read the ad and it’s dull and sounds nothing like anything Stout’s Wolfe would have said.
Archie is even more vapid when he bets Wolfe $10 that the Times won’t publish the ad. Given that Archie has read The Times for years, this was just a stupid bet and it’s unbelievable Archie would have proposed it. Like most attempts to reconstruct the Wolfe-Archie magic in this book, this one fails.
Goldsborough also has mixed success at updating Archie and Wolfe to the 1980s. On one hand, it’s reasonable to imagine that Archie would want a personal computer and Wolfe not wanting to do it. Stout’s Wolfe objected to buying newer cars and buying Archie a new typewriter. However, in one lazily written scene where Wolfe shows respect to a woman, Archie wished he had a VCR so he could record the moment. However, as he was not watching this on TV, he really meant he wished he had a video camera.
The mystery itself was decent but forgettable. There was no suspect, client, or interview in this story that was memorable. Wolfe performs no stunning act of showmanship. There was no big surprise twist in the investigation. It was bland and the solution we were presented strained credulity.
The best thing about this novel for the person who has read Stout’s Wolfe is that it truly makes you appreciate all the little touches Stout put in that make reading his Nero Wolfe stories so memorable. One thing this book made me notice was the way that Stout chose dinner conversations. Stout’s Wolfe talked about a wide variety of topics from agriculture to histories of the ancient world, to obscure scientific questions, and anthropology. I never knew what exactly Wolfe was talking about, but I felt like this was the type of thing a well-read genius would discuss. Unfortunately, Mr. Goldsborough’s line of conversation for Wolfe seems far more limited with him mostly talking politics, political books, American history, and sports. Yes, Nero Wolfe discusses whether College athletes should be paid at the dinner table in this book.
While dinner conversation is prosaic, I do give Goldsborough credit for one thing: Compared to the last book, Goldsborough’s Wolfe reads in a more Wolfian manner based on the titles of the books of Wolfe mentioned.
Still, I admit being eager to see Wolfe hold a confab and name a murderer when I got to that part of the book. Goldsborough’s book allows you a chance to see Wolfe and Archie in action. If you can get past all the flummery and just think about better Nero Wolfe stories, you may enjoy this book more than I did.
Rating: PFui!
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Dragnet, dragnet add, Podcast, Procedural
EP1382: Dragnet: Production 10 (aka: The Maniac Murderer)
by Yours Truly Johnny Blogger • 0 Comments
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Friday and Romero search for a man who has already brutally murdered two women.
Original Air Date: August 11, 1949
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CBS, Podcast, Yours Truly Johnny Dollar, YTJD Add
Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Dixon Murder Matter (EP1381)
by Yours Truly Johnny Blogger • 0 Comments
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Johnny returns to where he investigated last week’s missing person’s case to solve the murder of a young woman.
Original Air Date: June 16, 1957
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Mutual, Nick Carter, Podcast
EP1380: Nick Carter: The Case of the Demented Daughter
by Yours Truly Johnny Blogger • 0 Comments
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Nick Carter is suspicious when a wealthy young woman believe she’s going insane.
Original Air Date: May 28, 1946
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CBS, Philip Marlowe, Philip Marlowe OTR, Podcast
EP1379: Philip Marlowe: The Last Laugh
by Yours Truly Johnny Blogger • 0 Comments
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Marlowe attends the reading of a willing only to find the testator very much alive–but not for long.
Original Air Date: April 2, 1949
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Easy Money, Forgotten Detectives, NBC, Podcast
EP1378: Easy Money: Football Pool Racket
by Yours Truly Johnny Blogger • 0 Comments
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Mike Trent is forced to work for a football pool kingpin to find the truth of how multiple winning tickets are being cashed.
Original Air Date: October 3, 1954
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Mutual, Podcast, The Saint
EP1377:The Saint: The Saint Goes Underground
by Yours Truly Johnny Blogger • 0 Comments
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The Saint’s plane lays over for repairs in a small New Mexico town where everyone is hinting he should leave if he cares about his health.
Original Air Date: July 31, 1949
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