Month: December 2020

EP3326: Under Arrest: Barber

Captain Scott investigates the missing criminal husband of a policeman’s daughter.

Original Air Date: November 7, 1948

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EP3325: Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Soderbury, Maine Matter (Unedited Drama Portions)

Edmond O'Brien

Johnny goes to a small town in Maine to investigate the murder of a controversial insured man.

Unedited Drama Portions of Program that Aired: June 2, 1951

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EP3324: Mystery is My Hobby: Death of an Old Prospector

While vacationing in Arizona, Bart and the Inspector stumble onto the body of a prospector and Bart suspects murder.

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EP3323: Man Called X: Passport to Danger

Herbert Marshall

Ken goes to Luxembourg to stop an attempt to smuggle war criminals into the United States.

Original Air Date: March 7, 1948

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EP3322: The Fat Man: Murder Stalks the Dead (AU)

Brad is hired by an old army buddy who’s fiancee has become disappearing without explanation. His efforts to follow her lead him to a graveyard where he saw a moving gravestone.
Original Air Date: September 23, 1954

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EP3321: Crime Photographer: A Tooth for a Tooth

Stats Cotsworth

A veteran rewrite man for The Morning Express confides to Casey and Ann that he fears that he’s going to die. The man then disappears.

Original Air Date: July 15, 1946

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TV Episode Review: The Hardy Boys: Welcome to Your Life

The new series of the Hardy Boys kicks off with the episode, “Welcome to Your Life.”

The series makes a lot of changes to the Hardy Boys formula and characters. For those who have never read the books, the Hardy Boys were two teenage boys: Frank (age 18) and Joe (age 17) living in the upstate New York town of Bayport. Their father is Fenton, a private detective, and their mother is Laura, a librarian.

Frank and Joe are not complex characters in the book. They are distinct. Both are smart and physically capable, however Frank is more of a geek and more cautious, and Joe is more physically capable and more given to making rash, impulsive decisions.

The TV series takes things in a different direction. It looks to be set in the late 1980s where Frank and Joe (Rohan Campbell and Alexander Elliott) live with their parents in “the city.” Frank is sixteen and Joe is twelve. Frank is a nerd, but he’s also a good baseball player. We spend the first few minutes of the series seeing the boys interact with their mom who is then killed in what appears to be an auto accident. On top of that, their father Fenton (James Tupper) decides to move them back to their mother’s hometown of Bridgeport for the summer. At first blush, this seems incredibly insensitive, but its for their own safety due to information it’s implied he’s hiding.

In Bridgeport, they meet their grandmother (Linda Thorson) who is glad to see them and eager to go about the business of micromanaging their lives. They also meet the townsfolk who are mostly friendly, even though we’re given some hints of something suspicious a few times. And both a flashback prologue and a couple moments later on hint at the ongoing mystery the Hardy boys are eventually going to resolve to solve.

This first episode doesn’t do a lot for me. There’s definitely room to flesh out the Hardys and make them more three dimensional. However, the writers seemed to have approached this using the most cliched methods of modern storytelling. Killing off a parent as a plot point and in order to make the characters more relatable is the most overused tool of modern writers. And here it’s handled in such an uninspired way that it feels obligatory.

At the same time, the change in ages also changes the dynamic in ways that don’t work well. In the book, Joe and Frank were peers. Plus they’ve made Frank not only a genius nerd but a talented athlete, leaving Joe’s defining characteristic as “the younger one.” Which is a bit of a step back from the balance in the books, not a step forward.

Probably, the biggest problem with this first episode is its length. It’s over forty minutes and feels padded. It ends on a strong note, but in order to get to that note, it has a lot of time where it’s dragging through its runtime to get to the punchline. This particular episode would have been better at 20-22 minutes, which is more typical for a kid-centric TV series. Based on this episode, I’m also skeptical that the writers have enough mystery and enough twists to justify the thirteen-episode, season-long plot arc.

That said, no performances were bad. The interesting clues left me a bit curious to see what will happen next. I’ll watch at least one more episode to see if the series picks up its pace and moves beyond all the set up in this first episode. This may turn out to be a good series when it’s all said and done, but this first episode was rough.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

EP3320: Under Arrest: Max Kemp

An old childhood friend of Captain Scott’s girlfriend is in town, but Captain Scott is suspicious because he’s serving as a driver for a known racketeer.

Original Air Date: September 5, 1948

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EP3319: Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Lillis Bond Matter (Unedited Drama Portions)

Edmond O'Brien

Johnny goes to Chicago to investigate the disappearance of a bank’s messenger and $80,000 in cash.

Unedited Drama Portions for Program that Aired May 26, 1951

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EP3318: Mystery is My Hobby: Madame Valentine


A wealthy widow calls Barton Drake because she fears she’s going to be murdered by one of her relatives. She’s then poisoned in his presence.

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EP3317: Man Called X: Storm Over the Alps

Herbert Marshall

Ken goes to Switzerland to stay at the home of a master counterfeiter who insists he’s retired, but who Ken suspect is behind a counterfeiting operation he’s investigating.

Original Air Date:February 29, 1948

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EP3316: Fat Man: Murder Wears a False Face (AU)

A woman reports her fiance has disappeared and sent her a threatening letter.

Original Air Date: September 16, 1954

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EP3315: Crime Photographer: Reunion

Stats Cotsworth

The ex-wife of a famous sculptor is missing and Casey and Ann suspect foul play.

Original Air Date: June 3, 1946

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Video Theater 193: Racket Squad: The Christmas Caper

A lovable old man is roped into working for a fraudulent charity Santa ring.

Original Air Date: December 25, 1952

Season 3, Episode 15

Streaming Review: The Inner Circle


The Inner Circle is a 1946 film inspired by the 1944 radio series Results Incorporated. Private Investigator Johnny Strange (Warren Doughlas) is on the phone placing an ad for a new secretary when a young woman named Gerry (Adele Mera) who seems perfect for the job walks in and practically hires herself. Johnny agrees as she seems to be perfect for the job. The scene is almost verbatim what happened in the first radio episode. But that’s where the plot diverges.

Before she can properly settle in, Gerri takes a call and tells Johnny it was from a woman wanting to hire him. Johnny goes to meet the woman who turns out to be a mysterious woman in a dark veil, speaking with an exotic accent. Johnny and the woman stumble on a dead body. The woman knocks Johnny out and then we learn she’s actually Gerry. Gerry than pretends to have followed Johnny and tells the police a false story that exonerates Johnny, but Johnny is determined to find the truth before the police figure out the self-defense story Gerri told was false.

There was a lot like about this film. The B-movie detecitve stories could follow into the trap of being formulaic. The twist on this story makes it a nice break for that. Throughout I was really intrigued by what Gerri’s role in the murder, and there’s some great tension as she is trying to throw Johnny off her trail. The lead actors and supporting players all performed well, even though there was only one actor that is recognizable to a significant number of viewers-William Frawley (aka Fred Mertz from I Love Lucy who played Johnny’s police foil. Although big fans of 1930s films might appreciate the appearance of Ricardo Cortez.

The one thing I didn’t like was the denoument scene where Johnny arranges with a police Lieutenant to expose the murderer on the air. While I appreciate the nod to the age of radio drama. The scene was convulted, awkward, and lacked logic, even by B-movie detective standards. Still, that scene doesn’t spoil a really intriguing film that moves at a nice pace and tells a good story.

Rating: 4.0 out of 5

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