As we approach our 1000th regular episode, we’ll be taking a look back at some of the best episodes we’ve brought you over the last 3 1/2 years. I decided it’d be best to do this by category beginning with the most exciting. Next week we’ll discuss the most humorous.
10) Let George Do It: High Card
In this episode, four men have been implicated in the murder of a beautiful woman and there’s not proof on any of them. So, they come up with a desperate gambit. They decide to draw and the person who gets high card will write a confession and commit suicide. George arrives and discovers the game and finds out the draw was rigged. Now, George has to prevent the suicide and reveal the guilty party.
9) Sherlock Holmes: The Elusive Agent, Parts One, Two, and Three
While the John Stanley Sherlock Holmes series wasn’t among my favorites, this three part spy serial was definitely a highlight of the show’s run with plenty of twists and turns in search of missing submarine plans.
8) Studio One: The Thirty-Nine Steps
This radio retelling of the Alfred Hitchcok movie version of the Graham Greene classic finds Glenn Ford playing a Canadian caught in a web of intrigue and espionage in the Scottish countryside. So suspenseful and fun.
7) Nero Wolfe: The Case of the Calculated Risk:
The radio incarnation of Wolfe was notorious for its deviation from portrayals of Wolfe in the corpus. This worked to some advantage in this episode which begins with a man who claims to have been framed for murder and involves a crooked card game. It ends with one of the most exciting gambits between Wolfe, Goodwin (Mohr), and the murderer.
6) Box 13: Find Me, Find Death:
Dan Holiday got plenty of crazy letters, but this one took the cake. The letter writer informed Holiday that he would kill him in 4 days and that if he went to the police, he’d kill Holiday sooner. Holiday’s challenge is to find the madman–without finding deat
5) Let George Do It: The Hearst Was Painted Pink:
George is told to court the girlfriend of a dangerous mobster by another dangerous mobster who threatens his life and that of Miss Brooks. He quickly finds himself int he crossfire.
4) Sherlock Holmes: The Paradol Chamber
Has a female scientist in the 19th century discovered the secret to teleportation? When Watson and Holmes investigate in this Rathbone-Bruce episodes, they find themselves up against a most deadly foe.
3) Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Yankee Pride Matter
Johnny Dollar (Edmund O’Brien) goes to Singapore to investigate some constantly delayed cargo. It builds up to a challenge that requires Dollar to get tougher than he’s ever gotten before.
2) Box 13: Hare and Hounds
This is a very tense and suspenseful story as Holiday finds himself framed for murder, with the local police hunting for him, along with the real killer. His job is to stay alive. It’s one of Holiday’s cleverest adventures.
1) Lux Radio Theater: To the Ends of the Earth:
The Lux Radio Theater of this underrated Dick Powell classic was our 500th episode special was a stunner. Powell reprises his screen role as Narcotics Commissioner Michael Barrows who witnesses a Japanese sea captain throwing 100 slaves overboard to cover up a narcotics ring. Barrows is determined to get justice and sets out on a globe trotting adventure to break the ring and capture the murderous captain.
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Sherlock Holmes returns from the dead to solve a locked room murder.