Author: Yours Truly Johnny Blogger

The Falcon: The Case of the Rich Racketeer (EP4341)

Les Damon

Today’s Mystery:

A racketeer hires The Falcon to protect him in a forest cabin, but is killed before Waring arrives from New York.

Original Radio Broadcast Date: November 5, 1950

Originating from New York

Starring: Les Damon as the Falcon

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Dangerous Assignment: The Missing Diplomat Story (Video Theater 267)

Steve Mitchell embarks on a high-stakes mission to locate a missing European diplomat and recover top-secret records. As tensions rise and loyalties are questioned, join Mitchell in the bustling streets of Barcelona, where every corner could hold a clue or a deadly trap.

Season 1, Episode 17

Original Air Date: December 1951

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Dragnet: The Big Man, Part Two (EP4340)

Today’s Mystery:

Having gotten key information, Joe Friday and Ben Romero join an interdepartment task force to bring down the top narcotics dealer.

Original Radio Broadcast Date: January 19, 1950

Originating from Hollywood

Starring: Jack Webb as Sergeant Joe Friday; Barton Yarborough as Sergeant Ben Romero; Herb Butterfield

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DVD Review: I Wake Up Screaming

In 1941’s I Wake Up Screaming (also known by the title Hot Spot), a waitress-turned-rising star (Carole Landis) is murdered just before she was set to travel from New York to Hollywood to begin a film career. She had used at least four men to get where she wanted to go but the suspicions of the man in charge of the case, police detective Ed Cornell (Laird Cregar), fall on Frankie Christopher (Victor Mature), a sports and entertainment promoter who’d plucked her from obscurity but had been left high and dry by her latest career move. Betty Grable stars as the dead woman’s sister, who knows more than she lets on.

I Wake Up Screaming is a must-see for fans of classic film noir, with a moody atmosphere backed up by its clever lighting and blocking. The mystery is engaging and is a cut above typical plots. There are many suspects and secrets that make it hard to know who we’re even supposed to be rooting for, let alone who did it.

The cast is outstanding. Grable was a top performer known for musical comedy roles, stretching herself into film noir and turning in a believable and relatable performance. Mature was at the beginning of a long-successful career as a leading man. Landis was perfect as the woman on the make. The supporting cast is great, with Elisha Cook, Jr. (best known for playing Wilmer in The Maltese Falcon, which was released the same month as I Wake Up Screaming) playing the desk clerk alongside such reliable supporting players as Alan Mowbray, Allyn Joslyn, and William Gargan.

Yet, what makes this film stand out from the pack is Laird Cregar’s performance as Ed Cornell. Cregar was only 28 when the film was made but is absolutely believable as a veteran cop who always gets his man. Yet, he’s hardly a comforting figure. In fact, the murdered woman’s sister identifies Cornell as a man whom she’d seen looking at her sister from outside the restaurant window back when she was a waitress, something that Cornell shrugs off, and is easily dismissed, as he had an airtight alibi and claimed that he just liked to keep an eye on what was going on in the area where he lived. Cornell is also unshakable in his declaration that Frankie Christopher committed the murder which makes you wonder if he did it. At the same time, you wonder if his judgment is clouded somehow. More than anything else, even though he represents the law, there’s something sinister about him. The movie gives Cornell an ability to show up out of nowhere that would make Batman envious. There’s also an underlying sadism about the character that’s unnerving. In one particularly chilling scene, Cornell gets Christopher to give him a ride home and passes the time in the car cheerfully talking about Christopher’s inevitable execution.

Cregar’s performance is mesmerizing, and one for the ages. It’s Oscar-worthy, although the competition for the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award that year was tough. Sydney Greenstreet got nominated for his iconic role as Kasper Gutman and lost.

It’s worth noting that both Kregar and Landis’s careers and lives were tragically cut short, so seeing them in the same film is both a treat and adds some poignancy to the viewing experience.

The film has a few weak points. As the ostensible male lead, Victor Mature is merely competent, but he doesn’t have to be any better than that, with the script and the supporting cast he’s given. While Landis and Grable turn in good performances, their level of glamour does require a bit of suspension of disbelief to buy into them as “just ordinary working girls.” But this wasn’t sort of portrayal wasn’t uncommon for the time.

It should be noted that the DVD includes some decent extras, including a deleted scene that has Grable singing, which reflects a previous version of the script that had Grable working as a song plugger – a person working in a department or music store singing songs to demonstrate to customers interested in purchasing sheet music. The scene would have been so discordant in the final cut. As a preserved deleted scene, it’s an interesting curiosity featuring Grable singing and also highlighting a forgotten way that people make a living.

All in all, I Wake Up Screaming is an underrated classic of the noir genre and a must-see for Laird Cregar’s performance alone.

Rating: 4.75 out of 5

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Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Phantom Chase Matter, Episodes Eight and Nine (EP4339)

Bob Bailey

Today’s Mystery:

Johnny and the wife of the man he’s pursuing find themselves stranded on an isolated island by fugitive embezzler.

Original Radio Broadcast Dates: October 25 and 26, 1956

Originating from Hollywood

Starring: Bob Bailey as Johnny Dollar; Michael Ann Barrett; Jack Edwards; Ben Wright; Virginia Gregg; Don Diamond; Forrest Lewis; Richard Crenna

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Mr. Chameleon: The Picture on the Wall Murder Case (EP4338)

Karl Swenson

Today’s Mystery:

A philandering portrait painter is murdered.

Original Radio Broadcast Date: May 11, 1949

Originating from New York City

Starring: Karl Swenson as Mister Chameleon

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This is the Story: Remember Anna Zenger (AWR0241)

Amazing World of Radio

Today’s Story:

In the early 18th Century in colonial New York, Anna Zenger tries to save her husband, printer Peter Zenger, while also trying to safeguard the freedom of the press.

Original Air Date: October 18, 1949

Originating in Hollywood

Starring: Rosalind Russell as Anna Zenger

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Dangerous Assignment: Ghost Ship (EP4337)


Today’s Mystery:

Steve is sent to locate a phantom ship that’s smuggling supplies to guerillas in the Philippines and attacking local fishing boats.

Original Radio Broadcast Date: March 11, 1953

Originating in Hollywood

Starring: Brian Donlevy as Steve Mitchell; Herb Butterfield as the Commissioner

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Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Phantom Chase Matter, Episodes Six and Seven (EP4336)

Bob Bailey

Today’s Mystery:

Johnny wakes up in Barbados after being knocked out, and finds himself no closer to apprehending the junior partner of a New York investment firm who is accused of embezzling $120,000.

Original Radio Broadcast Dates: October 22 and 24, 1956

Originating from Hollywood

Starring: Bob Bailey as Johnny Dollar; Michael Ann Barrett; Jack Edwards; Ben Wright; Virginia Gregg; Don Diamond; Forrest Lewis; Richard Crenna

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The Falcon: The Case of the Double Exposure (EP4335)

Les Damon

Today’s Mystery:

A man is murdered soon after his business partner was killed, and the contingency beneficiary hires Mike to prove who hired the killer.

Original Radio Broadcast Date: October 29, 1950

Originating from New York

Starring: Les Damon as The Falcon; Ken Lynch as Sergeant Corbett; Maurice Tarplin; Mandel Kramer

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Sherlock Holmes: The Elusive Agent (Complete Adventure) (EP4334s)

Today’s Mystery:

The year is 1913 and international tensions run thick. Sherlock Holmes’s brother, Mycroft, calls him out of retirement to secure the return of stolen plans for an experimental tank.

Original Radio Broadcast Dates: March 21, 28, and April 4, 1949

Originating in New York

Starring: John Stanley as Holmes; George Spelvin as Watson

We’re joined by special Guest Tom Fox of the Compliance Podcast Network and the Adventures in Compliance Podcast

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Dragnet: The Big Man, Part One (EP4334)

Today’s Mystery:

Friday goes undercover in a narcotics gang to get to the get a drug kingpin.

Original Radio Broadcast Date: January 12, 1950

Originating from Hollywood

Starring: Jack Webb as Sergeant Joe Friday; Barton Yarborough as Sergeant Ben Romero; Sidney Miller; Herb Butterfield; William Conrad; Peggy Webber

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Telefilm Review: Dante: Opening Night

In last week’s article, I highlighted TV programs that were not easily accessible due to copyright. Among them was Dante, the series starring Howard Duff as Night Club Operator Willie Dante.

However, after writing the article, I was tipped off that the series was available online. The British company Talking Pictures TV is a Television program that features rare old programming and broadcast in the UK. It runs a website called TPTV Encore where you can access some of its back catalog on-demand. Some of its programming is limited release and is limited to viewers in the UK and Ireland. However, some of its productions are available worldwide, and so as a U.S. Viewer, I can watch Dante. 

Since I can watch it, I figured I should review it.

Background:

Dante was a recurring feature on Four Star Playhouse, a 1950s Anthology Series. Dick Powell originated the role of Wille Dante, the operator of an illegal gambling room. The eight episodes featuring Dante aired between 1952 and 1956. A YouTube Compilation of all 8 Powell episodes is available to watch here.

In Fall 1960, Dante came to NBC TV with Howard Duff tanking over the role of Willie Dante as Powell was getting older and also moving into more behind-the-camera work.

How to Access:

To access the show, you go to the website and register for free. Once you’re registered, you can click on the “Four Star Productions” link at the top of the page which leads to a whole lot of tantalizing television, much of which isn’t available to stream anywhere else including episodes of the 1960s cult hit Honey West and Burke’s Law along with a good number of tantalizing programs that aren’t available for free streaming elsewhere.

The first episode that’s available is entitled, “Opening Night.” According to Wikipedia, this is the second episode of the series and if the plot summary is correct, that makes sense. There are some brief commercials before the show starts as well as at least one midroll ad when I watched.

The Plot:

It’s the opening night for Dante’s new San Francisco nightclub, Dante’s Inferno. Dante insists that’s all that’s happening. There’s no gambling. He’s gone strictly legitimate. The police, encouraged by an ambitious DA don’t buy it, and neither does an ambitious gangster who knows Dante from the old days and is determined to force to make Dante a partner. If Dante doesn’t, it could lead to a murder with Dante set to take the fall for it.

Review:

This feels like a proper series opener as we’re introduced briefly to Dante, given hints about his history as well as meeting his two sidekicks for the series Alan Mowbry and Tom D’Andrea.  Much of the first half of the program is concerned with the District Attorney’s suspicions and establishing the character. Here is a point where the series was betrayed by its half-hour length. There’s not really time to do the sort of introduction the show’s trying to do while also having a crime adventure pop up for Dante in the second half of the program.

Howard Duff’s performance was what ultimately made the difference. Duff, who is most famous for playing Sam Spade on the radio, is just as capable here. Managing to make Dante a multi-faceted character and portray him as a cool customer who exercised a wry sense of humor while dealing with the inquiries of the press and overly suspicious police officers while jumping into action as the big man of action in the final minutes of the story.

While the main story resolves, the episode leaves us with key questions such as whether Dante has really given up illegal gambling and if so, why. The episode leaves viewers wanting to see more, although I don’t know whether these questions will be followed up long-term, They may have spent too much time on set-up, it does deliver an exciting ending and Duff’s performance makes it a decent watch, and an intriguing start to the series.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Phantom Chase Matter, Episodes Three, Four, and Five (EP4333)

Bob Bailey

Today’s Mystery:

In New Orleans, a nasty informant has promised to take Johnny to an embezzler who made off with $120,000.

Original Radio Broadcast Dates: October 17, 18, and 19, 1956

Originating from Hollywood

Starring: Bob Bailey as Johnny Dollar; Marvin Miller; Junius Matthews; Herb Ellis; D. J. Thompson; Herb Butterfield; Tony Barrett; Barbara Eiler

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Mr. Chameleon: The Case of Murder and the Attractive Shoplifter (EP4332)

Karl Swenson

Today’s Mystery:

An attractive young shoplifter, who lives in a boarding house without a basement, is stabbed to death on a busy street.

Original Radio Broadcast Date: May 4, 1949

Originating from New York City

Starring: Karl Swenson as Mister Chameleon

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