Month: January 2019

EP2736: Boston Blackie: Black Loves Helen Carver

Richard Kollmar

Blackie appears to have thrown Mary over for a woman he just met.

Original Air Date: February 4, 1948

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EP2735: Rocky Jordan: Memento from Adelaide

Jack Moyles

Rocky finds out he’s the beneficiary of a $40,000 insurance policy from a woman who he barely knew and who also claimed to be his wife.

Original Air Date: September 25, 1949

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EP2734: Stand by for Crime Eddie Flores Frame-Up

Glenn Langan

A young man is found by a car containing a young couple who were brutally murdered and runs away. He asks Chuck to help clear him.

Original Air Date: 1952

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EP2733: Mister Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons: Murder at a Mile a Minute

So lost, I'm fading

photo credit: Greyframe So lost, I’m fading viaphotopin (license)

A wealthy man is murdered by a motorcyclist passing at high speed.

Original Air Date: December 6, 1951

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Video Theater 148: Dragnet: The Big Threat

Friday and Smith investigate a robbery where the victim is unwilling to testify due to threats from the robbers.


Season 3, Episode 37

Original Air Date: May 13, 1954

TV Series Review: The Prisoner

“I’m the new Number Two.”
“Who is Number One?”
“You are Number Six.”
“I’m not a Number, I’m a Free Man!”

Most episodes of the 1967-68 series The Prisoner begin with this meeting between the hero of the series (Patrick McGoohan, who also created the series and wrote several episodes) and his antagonist of the week.

The Prisoner is about an unnamed British secret agent who abruptly resigns and returns home to pack for a trip to Bermuda and is gassed and wakes up in the Village. On its face, the Village is a pleasant, happy community set in a gorgeous environment. In reality, it’s a police state where everyone goes by numbers instead of names.

The organization that runs the Village wants to break Number Six and obtain the valuable information stored inside his head, beginning with an explanation for why he resigned. The Village is administered by Number Two, who also directs the Village’s campaign of psychological warfare against the Agent, designated by the Village as Number 6. Each week, there’s a different Number Two to serve as a foil for Number 6, although some Number Twos repeated.

Patrick McGoohan turns in a stunning performance at every turn, capturing the character’s default defiant mode, but also the reactions to all of the Village’s attempts to break him really make them believable.

The rest of the cast is generally solid, including the rotating Number 2. Each actor brings something different to the role, but my favorite is Leo McKern (who would star in Rumpole of the Bailey.) The penultimate episode, “Once Upon a Time” becomes a two-hander between McKern and McGoohan for almost the entire run time and it’s an acting tour de force.

The series has solid writing, but not all stories are episodes are created equal. McGoohan said  he only wanted to do seven episodes of the Prisoner but the network (ITV) wanted more than that in the series. Thus, seven episodes would be considered essential and the rest merely filler. McGoohan didn’t specify which episodes were the essential ones. The popular fan theory is  the first six episodes to be filmed plus the finale were all McGoohan wanted. However,there are other theories including the idea McGoohan didn’t want hour-long episodes at all, but seven ninety minute episodes, with each containing elements of two of our existing episodes.

Regardless, there are episodes rife with social commentary and deeper meanings and there are episodes that are little more than superb 1960s Spy programs littered with sci-fi content. The only episode I  didn’t care for is, “Do Not Forsake Me All My Darling” which features Number 6 swapping minds with a man known as the Colonel and then being taken back to his life in London as the Colonel and is having to try and convince someone that he really is himself. The reason the story was written this way was so  McGoohan could appear in just the opening and final scenes and therefore be able to take off from filming to go  film the movie Ice Station Zebra. Creative decisions made for reasons like this rarely go well.  The story isn’t horrible, it’s just a bit middling for a great series.

The production values on this series are superb.  Visually, the series stands up better than anything I’ve seen from the 1960s. Portmeirion in North Wales was an absolutely fantastic location for most of the Prisoner’s location work.  However,  there’s a lot of real workmanship involved with every episode. In an age when many TV dramas were just point and shoot, there’s some deliberate choices made to frame shots to communicate the mood and add layers to the story.

The Western episode  of The Prisoner, “Living in Harmony” was well-filmed and felt authentic in the setting, costuming, and most of the characters.

The Prisoner has other weird and wonderful touches such as inventing a new sport named Kosho in which Number 6 and his opponent bounced around on trampolines wearing kimonos, helmets, and boxing gloves while trying to knock each other into a pool. Then there’s the episode where the Prisoner showed that week’s Number Two doing some great martial arts moves…for no apparent reason.

Not everything weird that the Prisoner tries works. The ending, for example, was so controversial  McGoohan had to go into hiding for several day after its airing. To this day, lots of people  think it was a horrible way to end the series. However, its oddness and the questions it raises does fit the rest of the series, and fans overall give the episode an 8.1 out of 10 on IMDB.

The Prisoner is a television experience.  It’s incredibly rewatchable, and not just because there are only seventeen episodes, but three alternate viewing orders have been recommended by various fans over the years to better enjoy the series. Overall, this is an unforgettable classic.

Rating: 4.75 out of 5

Currently, the series is available to watch for free for Amazing Prime subscribers.

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EP2732: Dragnet: The Big Saw

Jack Webb

Friday and Smith investigate a bank robbery.

Original Air Date: April 6, 1954

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EP2731: Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The All Too Easy Matter

Mandel Kramer

Johnny is called in to investigate when six properties by the same person have all been torched. The insurance agent suspects the owner but Johnny thinks that’s too simple.

Original Air Date: June 17, 1962

When making your travel plans, remember http://johnnydollarair.com

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EP2730: Boston Blackie: Five Bullets for Don Anderson

Richard Kollmar

Blackie finds body, leaves the scene, and runs right into a policeman.

Original Air Date: February 18, 1948

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EP2729: Rocky Jordan: The Nile Runs High

Jack Moyles

A man in a boat gives Rocky a warning and then dies.

Original Air Date: September 18, 1949

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EP2728: Stand by for Crime: The Kidnapper’s New Shoes

Glenn Langan

The son of one of Chuck’s friends is kidnapped, and the kidnappers want him to deliver the ransom.

Original Air Date: 1952

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EP2727: Mister Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons: The Poisoned Sandwich Murder Case

So lost, I'm fading

photo credit: Greyframe So lost, I’m fading viaphotopin (license)

A law student calls Mister Keen for help, but Keen and Mike find him dead from eating a poisoned sandwich.

Original Air Date: August 17, 1951

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Book Review: Body Under the Bridge


Paul McCusker’s Father Gilbert was the lead character in a series of radio plays for Focus on the Family’s Radio Theater. McCusker brings the character back in the novel, “Body Under the Bridge.”

“Body Under the Bridge” has a stunning opening as Father Gilbert confronts a man who’s about to jump off the roof of Gilbert’s church. The man jumps, leaving an object behind. However, Gilbert finds out no one saw the man in the church, and he was committing suicide by another method somewhere else. However, Gilbert still has the object. At the same time, a long-dead body is found at the site of a contentious construction project.

Overall, McCusker’s written a strong mystery. He’s woven an intricate narrative going back hundreds of years, with a complicated web of dark secrets that’s ensnared many of the town’s  inhabitants. The story has a lot of well-done atmospheric moments that increase the tension.

We introduced to a slew of characters, most of whom are likely suspects, and we never quite know who to trust besides Gilbert. The story has several great twists and never drags for a moment. Gilbert is well-written and is believable both as an ex-cop and as a priest.

The reader should be aware this story leans more to the supernatural stories Father Gilbert appeared in such as, “Dead Air,” and does have some disturbing sequences. However, it does mostly steer clear of the melodrama around Gilbert’s family life that  hurt later episodes of the series.

For fans of the original series, this book is a much-welcomed addition to the Father Gilbert canon. If you like detective stories with a supernatural twist, you can also enjoy the book even if you’ve never heard the radio series.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

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EP2726: Dragnet: The Big Confession

Jack Webb

A man comes in and confesses to murder. Friday and Smith to have to verify if the confession is true.

Original Air Date: March 30, 1954

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