As an adjunct to our Amazing World of Radio summer series featuring old time radio programs that include 1966 Batman Villain actors in them, I’m reviewing TV detective and mystery programs in which these actors appeared as much as possible this month.
First off, we focus on Barbara Rush on Murder She Wrote. Ms. Rush appears in the 1987-88 Murder She Wrote Season 4 season premiere. Ms. Rush plays Eva Taylor, a fashion designer who is one of the innumerable friends of Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury), and has invited her to Paris for the unveiling of her brand new collection, which promises to put her fashion label on the map.
The problem? Eva’s in debt to a ruthless French businessman (Lee Bergere)Â who has underworld ties she doesn’t know about. On the eve of her debut fashion show, he shows up and gives her a choice: either sign a contract to make him a 50-50 partner in her business or he’ll repossess everything. She signs away half her business and after the show, she tells Jessica, who she foolishly didn’t tell in the first place because she was afraid Jessica would think she’d only invited her to Paris to hit her up for money. Jessica, being Jessica, says she’ll confront the shady businessman and get this straightened out, but when they go to find him, they find he’s been murdered. Suspicion soon falls on Eva, and it’s up to Jessica to clear her of the killing.
You might think that if the season premiere of a television program, one that had spent two straight seasons ranked in the top five in ratings, was going to have an episode set in Paris, that it would be filmed on location. It was not. This was filmed on the Universal backlot, using American actors playing French parts, which might have been the only real glaring weakness of the episode.
All in all, this is an example of a typical Murder She Wrote episode. By no means is it among the program’s standouts, but “A Fashionable Way to Die” delivers an intelligent and diverting and fun mystery with our heroine’s keen mind on full display.
Rating: 3.75 out of 5
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We begin a series looking at radio performances by actors who played villains in the 1960s Batman TV series. This week, we focus on Barbara Rush, who was the guest villain in the Season 3 episode “Nora Clavicle and the Ladies’ Crime Club”.
For this week’s old time radio program, we bring you the Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of Great Expectations, in which Barbara Rush plays a featured role.
An eccentric and twisted elderly woman takes an interest in an orphaned boy. When he grows up, he receives an unexpected inheritance.
Starring: Rock Hudson as Pip; Barbara Rush as Estella; William Conrad; Jeanette Nolan; Alan Reed; Peter Votrian; Susan Seaforth; Christopher Cook; Parley Baer, Vivi Janis; James McCallion; Lillian Buyeff; Norman Field; Howard McNear; Leo Britt; Edward Marr
Original Radio Broadcast Date: October 12, 1954
We then discuss the controversial “Nora Clavicle and the Ladies’ Crime Club”.
A nun becomes convinced that a condemned woman stranded at her Norfolk convent in the midst of torrential rains is innocent. Can the nun save her before her looming execution?
Original Radio Broadcast Date: November 9, 1953
Originating in Hollywood
Starring: Claudette Colbert as Sister Mary; Barbara Rush as Valerie Carns; Norma Varden; Paul Frees; Mary Flynn; Herb Butterfield; Ottola Nesmith; Dan O’Herlihy; Joseph Kearns; Leo Britt; Jeanne Wood; Lois Corbett; Yvonne Peattie
For around a decade, the number of episodes of the 1950s Dragnet TV series circulating out there have remained consistent, with no new episodes to be found, and more than 200 of the 276 TV episodes still missing. Then, a few weeks ago, three of them dropped on YouTube, on the channel of a company named Movie Craft. I decided to review one of those episodes, “The Big Bed”.
“The Big Bed” was broadcast on June 5, 1958, and it was the thirty-sixth episode of Dragnet’s 7th season. In it, a woman reports her brother missing. Joe Friday (Jack Webb) and Frank Smith (Ben Alexander) investigate and find him in a scene that’s a bit intense by the standards of other existing episodes of the 1950s series. They then set about the work of finding the killer.
It has to be said that even in its seventh season, the original Dragnet TV series was still a very good television. True, it didn’t have the innovative edge of the early radio or TV series, but I think you’d be hard-pressed to say the quality of the series had declined from what we saw in season four. It managed to tell a sharp, realistic police investigation in twenty-six minutes of airtime. It had evolved to be a reliably good program and would remain so until the eighth season.
The episode did include a nod to Dragnet‘s only big attempt to build an ongoing storyline into the season, as Smith was studying for his Sergeant’s exam. The next season, Friday would become a Lieutenant and Smith a Sergeant, and it wouldn’t change much other than the opening logo. In isolation, the scene is amusing, but it’s tough to imagine anyone cared about this storyline even back then.
The episode features a guest appearance from William Boyett as Lt. Mort Geer, which is an Easter Egg, as Boyett is probably best remembered for his major role in the 1960s Dragnet spin-off Adam-12, as Sergeant MacDonald. This certainly calls to mind Webb’s 1960s productions. Yet, it wasn’t the only thing. While the series was just as good as an episode of three seasons prior, the series had changed stylistically. In many ways, Dragnet seemed to have evolved in the direction of what it would be like when it returned to TV in 1967,after a seven-and-a-half-year absence.
It really would be fascinating to see more episodes from these later seasons become available, so we can really get a feel for the evolution of the series during this era. Overall, this episode was a welcome addition to the ranks of circulating Dragnet episodes.
When a precious emerald known as the Green Eye of Calcutta vanishes, along with its owner Albert W. Winkler, Johnny is plunged into the bizarre home of Wilbert Kenworthy Blossom. As he navigates through the cluttered abode filled with treasures and trash, can Johnny recover the priceless gem and bring a killer to justice?
Original Radio Broadcast Date: January 20, 1957
Originating from Hollywood
Starring: Bob Bailey as Johnny Dollar; Howard McNear; Herb Ellis; Herb Vigran; Junius Matthews; Herb Butterfield; Frank Gerstle; Johnny Jacobs
