Category: Golden Age Article

DVD Review, Golden Age Article

DVD Review: Pie in the Sky, Series Three

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The Third Series of Pie in the Sky sees Richard Griffin return as Chief Inspector/Restaurant Chef Henry Crabbe. Unlike the first two ten-episode series, this series and the next only featured six episodes.

I’d describe this particular series as mellow compared to the two that came before. From its gentle theme song to its stories which leave plenty of room for character development and light human drama to its lovely small town setting, the show was a series that’s unafraid to walk on the mild side. Only one homicide occurs in the six episodes.

The series kicks off with a shake-up in the first episode as the criminal who has been key to Crabbe being blackmailed by his superior Assistant Chief Chief Constable Freddy Fisher (Malcolm Sinclair). This had been the only reason Crabbe remained on the force while also working at the restaurant. However, a new complication is added in that policies have changed and he can’t take early full retirement and has to wait three more years to do so. This is not nearly as interesting of a hook and the thing I least liked.

Overall,  even though the mysteries were not homicide, they were generally interesting and well-written. My favorite mystery was  in the episode, “The Other Eden” where Crabbe was tasked with solving the mystery of several stolen gardens and had to deal with a national department that was trying to claim jurisdiction.

Beyond that, the character work in the series was pretty good. Crabbe and his wife Margaret (Maggie Steed) do have some clashes. She technically owns the restaurant (due to regulations that forbid him from owning it as long as he’s still a policeman) and they have a bit of a battle of wills over her desire to save money by cutting corners on the ingredients. They also have to deal with a super strict health inspector threatening to close down  their restaurant and a bank manager who’s not too certain about giving them another extension of credit. It makes for interesting viewing since we’re invested in the characters and we get to see the way that Margaret and Crabbe approach problems differently.

The second episode, “Game Pie” sees some nice character moments for Fisher. Through the first two series, Fisher had been portrayed as the  ambitious police officer who was more concerned about his career and looking good with his superiors than with doing the right thing. However, when he’s implicated in an apparent accidental death, many of his fellow senior officers take steps to protect the department and put him at a distance, this brings out a different aspect to him.

There were some changes as well in the kitchen staff with Nicholas Lamont joining the cast as the new assistant chef and ex-con Gary Palmer who replaced the old chef Steve Turner.  Other than having a bit of a chip on his shoulder, I didn’t get much of a feel for Gary as a character. Though, it should be noted the kitchen staff characters, while having some distinct characteristics, were much more functional than anything else.

Overall, this series is a likable bit of television with solid acting, particularly with the leads, good stories, and makes for easy viewing.

Rating: 4.0 out of 5

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DVD Review, Golden Age Article

A Look at the First Two Episodes of T and T

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T and T was a 1988-91 syndicated television series starring Mr. T as T.S. Turner, a former boxer who was wrongfully convicted of a crime until attorney Amanda Taylor (Alexandra Amini) clears him. He becomes a private detective and teams up with her to help the wrongfully accused.

As a kid, I loved Mister T and but never got to watch more than a  few minutes of the show as at that age, I never had control of the television. So I was curious to find out what I missed when I found it streaming on Tubi.

T and T was from an era where Canadian-produced first-run syndication series were quite popular and this was a half hour program which could come in handy for local TV stations looking to fill a block of programming. The budget for the show is modest and the show definitely looks of its era.

The child actors and supporting actors on this series range from competent and professional to either monotone or over the top. Ms. Amini comes off a bit flat in the first episode, but in the second, I think she’s much better.

Mister T. carries the show in these first two episodes. Mr. T’s charisma and warmth make Turner an endearing character. Turner isn’t quite the larger than life character of Mr. T’s most famous roles, Clubber Lang and B.A. Baracus. He’s slightly more down to earth. He’s a professional who cares about people, does his job, and carries himself with style. In these first couple episodes, Turner spends a lot of time wearing nice suits and the look really works for Mr. T.

The first two episodes are, “Extortion in Chinatown” and “Mug Shot.” The first involves Turner and Taylor trying to help a shopkeeper and his son in Chinatown. “Mug Shot” finds Turner and Taylor trying to help out a teenage boy who was duped into delivering crack.

These are pretty boilerplate detective show plots and the story plays out in a typical manner. The storytelling is workmanlike and not all that surprising. Like a lot of Mr. T projects during this era, T and T is concerned about teaching good morals, with the high popularity of Mr. T among 1980s youth. These episodes weren’t too preachy, but there were a few pieces of dialogue that were a bit off. (Though it could have been the acting.)

The show was hurt by its half hour length. By nature of the format, both Turner and Taylor were working together and operating in very different worlds. I don’t think there’s enough time to do this properly in the half hour runtime. I did find that there was a four part story (originally a TV movie) and I might check that out in the future.

Overall, T&T is an okay show. If you like Mister T and are intrigued by the idea of him as a 1980s private detective and are willing to overlook a few production quality issues, this is a fun show to watch, and the half hour length makes it a quick fast-paced watch.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

T and T is available for streaming on Tubi for free with ads.

Audio Drama Review, Golden Age Article, Sherlock Holmes

Audio Drama Review: The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (BBC)

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There have been multiple books as well as an American audio series from Jim French Productions released under the name, The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. This BBC version was a little late to the party airing between 2002 and 2010 on BBC Radio 4, but is certainly a memorable take.

The sixteen episodes (eapproximately 45 minutes in length) eac tell a Holmes story based on some reference in an original Sir Arthur Conan Doyle story. The last story, released in 2010 was a two-episode story that harkened to a previous Further Adventure.

Each of the stories is written by Bert Coules, who does a great job capturing the spirit and feel of Victorian times. Given their release date, there’s very little revisionism to suit modern fancies and tastes.

The soundscape is minimal but sufficient for capturing the Victorian era. The supporting actors are really superb, boasting a very solid professional cast. I’m no expert on British Television but Mark Gatiss, Siobhan Redmond, Stuart Milligan, and Tom Baker (Doctor Who actor who also played Sherlock Holmes) were all names I recognized. Even those I didn’t know gave compelling performances.

I will admit it took me a while to settle in on Clive Merrison’s Holmes. While he had appeared in adaptions of all the classic stories, I’d not listened to them. Still, I think he does do a good job with his own take on the character, which is  true to tradition and I’ll have to seek out more of his work.

Most of these stories are quite solid although I have my favorites. “The Savior of Cripplegate Square” is a great listen due to Tom Baker’s superb guest performance and the way Holmes as a young detective finding his way. I also quite enjoyed “The Abergavenny Murder”  is an unusual case because it mostly is Holmes and Watson (played by radio legend Andrew Sachs) trying to solve the death of a man who died at 221B Baker Street before the police arrive. Other than “the client” being heard briefly, the play is just Holmes and Watson and is a great opportunity to examine how they work together as well as a bit of their personal relationships.

Overall, if you’re a fan of the original Doyle stories and want to hear stories in a similar style performed by a top flight cast and crew, this product is a much listen.

Rating; 4.5 out of 5

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Golden Age Article

App/Service Review: Hoopla Digital

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Hoopla is a service offered in hundreds of libraries across the United States and in Canada. Its coverage map is mostly in the East, Midwest, and on the West Coast. My local library offered it and then discontinued it. I found Hoopla to be such a valuable service, I got a non-resident library card at a library in another part of the state just to be able to access it.

Hoopla is a massive repository of comic books, audiobooks, ebooks, and movies/television series totaling some 500,000 items. When an item is checked out the producer of the item earns a royalty. In general, it has an advantage over the most popular library service Overdrive in the size of variety of offerings. However, unlike Overdrive, there’s a cap on the number of items you can check out in a given month. 

That sheer amount of items is both a blessing and a curse. There’s a lot there but it can be hard to sift through to find what you want.  In this review, I’m going to talk about items that will be interesting to folks whose interest runs along the nostalgia/mystery/detective lines as well as general audio drama. If your local library has Hoopla, it’s a great service to use and even if it doesn’t, you may want to think about getting a non-resident card at a library that will give you access like I have. This is a very good option to consider with the current pandemic.

Audiobooks/Audio Dramas: The biggest portion of Hoopla’s collection is its audiobooks and many of these are audio dramas. You can check out audio dramas for 21 days. There’s a lot to recommend:

Radio Archives LLC: Radio Archives is a company that sells high quality old time radio sets on CDs and downloads, as well as pulp audiobooks. They have a wide variety of different sets. There are a lot of well-known individual shows to listen to including The Great Gildersleeve, Let George Do It (Vol. 4 features two uncirculated episodes we didn’t play on the podcast), and Dragnet. However, they also offer their Radio Archives Treasures and Archive Masters which offers a sampling of a wide variety of old time radio programs which can be great for those curious about what’s out there to listen to. It also gives you a look at the quality of their audio remastering which is a selling point with the company.

The audiobooks are also worth a listen. They offer a lot of well-done readings of pulp fiction books featuring characters such as the Spider and the Black Bat. In addition, there are performances of the Wild Adventures of Doc Savage which are modern books by Will Murray written based on unpublished Doc Savage story ideas. In addition to this, there are two audiobooks with new Box 13 and Night Beat stories that are worth a listen.

The Twilight Zone Radio Dramas: Twenty-nine six-episode, amounting to 174 episodes of the Twilight Zone radio series produced by Carl Amari are available to be checked out on Hoopla with appearance by well-known actors like Adam West, Adam Baldwin, Jason Alexander, Beverly Garland among those who start in the radio version of the classic TV series.

LA Theatre Works: LA Theatre works has been producing classic and contemporary drama for nearly forty years. I’m personally not into much of their contemporary drama, but enjoyed their takes on stories like The Mask of Zorro starring Val Kilmer, The Brothers Karamazov, as well as and two of their Sherlock Holmes adaptations. There’s also a couple of very good historical by legendary radio writer Norman Corwin: The Rivalry (about Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas) and Together Tonight (a Corwin play about Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamilton, and Thomas Jefferson that LATW dusted off in light of the success of Hamilton.)

Big Finish: Big Finish Audio dramas are there including their licensed Doctor Who audio dramas and spin-offs as well as licensed audio versions of Dark Shadows and Blake’s 7.  Their Doctor Who range includes their first fifty monthly releases including such acclaimed stories as The Chimes of Midnight, The One Doctor, and Jubilee from 1999 to 2003, along with some more recent releases in their lost stories range as well as for the Fourth and Eighth Doctor Adventures. Among the highlights of the lost stories are the First Doctor Box set with the beloved historical “Farewell, Great Macedon” and the Fourth Doctor lost stories featuring “Foe from the Future.”  They also offer the first eight series of the Victorian spin-off Jago and Litefoot. 

Hoopla also carries Big Finish’s Sherlock Holmes range which includes David Stuart Davies appearing in audio adaptations of two one-man plays he did both in London and on tour and then Nicholas Briggs taking over as Holmes in a variety of plays and Big Finish’s first Sherlock Holmes box set. 

Graphic Audio: Graphic Audio has a different approach to most audio drama companies. They have full casts with sound effects, but rely on narration and their performances do feel more like performed audiobooks without the constant use of, “Said.” They have a vast catalog they’ve made available for check out through Hoopla with several different series including Westerns, Fantasy, and Science Fiction. Based on the ratings on their website, it seems the majority of their works are made with mature listeners in mind, although they do have a few works that fall into more of a PG-13 rating.

They also produced several adaptations of Marvel Comics including classic comic storylines like Secret Wars, Days of Future’s Past and Kraven’s Last Hunt. They also adapted some Marvel text novels to audio. 

Black Mask Magazine:  Black Mask Magazine was the premiere source for hard-boiled private eye fiction during the 1930s and 1940s. There have been several audiobooks published. Generally, audiobook will collect multiple works. The readers are all talented and do a great job bringing the stories from 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s to life. One volume contains the original serialized version of The Maltese Falcon, which has a few differences from the novels. You can hear forgotten characters or once with more history like Flash Casey. There are also a few Black Mask Audio Dramas that adapt short stories including a Hammett Spade story but most of these are half an hour, so it’s hard to justify using a credit for them.

Colonial Radio Theater…And The Rest: There are a few Colonial Radio Theater releases distributed there. There are Christmas releases like The Holly Tree Inn and Jimmy and the Star Angel. Also, there are a couple Ray Bradbury adaptations: Dandelion Wine and Something Wicked This Way Comes. Also Tom Swift and His Motorcycle and All Four One. There’s no Powder River or the Historical epics that Colonial Radio Theater is known for doing. There’s also a lot of miscellaneous audio dramas. I stumbled on Sid Guy, Private Eye on Hoopla and also found a BBC audio adaptation of 1984 starring Doctor Who actor Patrick Troughton.

If I have one complaint about Hoopla as well as libraries and booksellers in general, it’s the lack of ease in sorting when something is an audio drama or dramatized audiobook vs. a single reader audiobook. Those who love audio dramas like to find them, and those looking for a single reader audiobook may get annoyed when they get them.

Books:  Books also check out for twenty-one days. Hoopla has a decent library of books with a lot of popular books and recent best-sellers. Perhaps the most interesting selection of books for mystery fans is the significant library of Mysterious Press offerings. These include a lot of older previously out of print series such as Mr. and Mrs. North, Michael Shayne, and Ellery Queen. They also added a few Perry Mason books to their collection to coincide with the recent HBO program. You can also find Robert Goldsborough’s continuation of the Nero Wolfe stories if you so desire. 

Comics: Comics also check out for twenty-one days. Hoopla has a wide variety of Graphic Novel collections from both Marvel and DC, including a lot of older property from a wide variety of different eras. In addition, it also features comics from a lot of smaller presses including a lot of licensed properties including Star Trek, Steed and Mrs. Peel, and Doctor Who.

Music: Music collections check out for seven days. They have a pretty good variety. For nostalgic listeners, there’s plenty of CDs from the old legends like Crosby and Sinatra. In addition, they have a very impressive collection of both Motion Picture and Broadway Soundtracks going back decades. I’m not certain this might compare to a very good music service, but for free, it’s not bad, at least if you don’t mind the seven day limit.

TV/Movies: Television shows and movies check out for three days. This is better than most other library video services I’ve checked out, but it’s still a library video service. There are a few good movies and TV shows on here, but as of this writing the big feature film is the Robin Williams comedy License to Wed which got a 7% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 5.3 rating on IMDB. So mostly the films tend to be okay to lesser regarded films that are a few years old. Hoopla used to stock a lot of second tier Disney movies, but those have moved to Disney Plus.

The same is true of the television shows, although there are some better ones. There’s Poirot, Foyle’s War, and the Italian version of Nero Wolfe with subtitles. I generally haven’t watched many TV episodes for a couple of reasons. First, many of these are on streaming services I have and each individual TV show like each movie costs a credit and I just haven’t been able to bring myself to spend a lot of credits that might be better spent in other areas of Hoopla.

The main reason to get Hoopla would be for its top tier audiobook/audio drama collections, as well as its comics, and a few of its books. The music is pretty good, but I probably wouldn’t get Hoopla just to listen to the music. And the TV and movie selection is definitely not a selling point.

You can get Hoopla from your local library or from an out-of-area library that offers non-resident cards. Once you have it, you can download the app for your mobile device through your app store and if you are interested in the videos, you can get the Hoopla app on Roku.

DVD Review, Golden Age Article

DVD Review: The Avengers: The Complete Emma Peel Megaset

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Three seasons of the Avengers passed prior to Emma Peel (Diana Rigg) becoming John Steed’s (Patrick Macnee) partner in fighting crime and espionage. After she left the series, it carried on with a new assistant for Steed for another thirty-two episodes. Yet to many fans, if they think of the Avengers as anything other than Marvel Comics’ superhero team, they think of Steed and Peel. The Avengers was that rare British TV show that came to America and became a success in prime time television.

Steed worked for British Intelligence. Emma Peel was the latest civilian drawn into Steed’s orbit. She had inherited wealth, but also had a keen scientific mind, along with amazing martial arts skills.  

This DVD release collects all 52 episodes comprising the Black and White Season 4, the color Seasons 5 and Season 6, and her departure story in the first episode of Season 7. 

The series had them dealing with a wide variety of different threats, including some that were science fiction. The series was always stylish. Steed’s Bowler hat and umbrella and luxury cars mixed with Diana Riggs iconic style made for a compelling combination. The opening to the color episodes could easily be repurposed as a high-end champagne ad.  

The Avengers had a tongue in cheek feel that  grew as the Emma Peel went on. The fourth Season may be the best from a dramatic standpoint. The episodes were often tongue in cheek, but more grounded than some of the color episodes. When the series went to color, there seems to have been a thought that there wasn’t much to it, if the plots weren’t going to be as outlandish as possible. The plots ranged from elaborate revenge plots to towns populated by assassins, dance schools that were training killers, cyborg killing machines, body swapping, mind control, shrinking technology, underground cities, and even killer Christmas Trees. One episode paid homage to the iconic 1960s Batman show by having Mrs. Peel holding up Comic Book action words like, “Pow!” To be fair, this makes slightly more sense in context of the episode but not a whole lot more.

McNee was great as a leading man, providing great humor, but Riggs is ultimately what made the Avengers work so well. Mrs. Peel was a fun character with a lot of facets as a scientist, heiress, and fighter. Riggs’ acting ability is absolutely superb. She’s able to play both the serious and the playful aspects of the show. The strength of how good she can be is seen in an episode like, “The House that Jack Built” where Steed is mostly absent and Peel is trapped in a house meant to destroy her. She walks about the house in silence and sells the eeriness of the situation.

The set lacks a lot of bonus features, but it’s priced reasonably on Amazon at around $20 for more than fifty episodes. The episodes are a mixed lot. Some black and white episodes are bit dull, and more than a few color episodes that are a bit too silly or over the top. But those are matters of taste. At the end of the day, The Avengers is an iconic classic.

Recently Diana Rigg passed away after a long career that included appearing in a James Bond film as well as working on more modern hit TV shows like Victoria and Game of Thrones. If you want to see how she rose in stardom and why after such a long career, this is the role many remember her best for, this is a must-purchase. It’s also essential if you’re a fan of 1960s spy and adventure shows.

Rating: 4.25 out of 5

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Audio Drama Review, Golden Age Article

Audio Drama Review: Black Jack Justice, Season 8

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Black Jack Justice eighth season was released monthly between September 2012 and March 2013, once again featuring Christopher as Jack and Andrea Lyons as Trixie Dixon, Girl Detective.

The series at this point was in a nice groove and the first four episodes reflect the typical episodic nature of the series up until this point. In “Jawbone of an Asp,” they find themselves drawn into the middle of an academic controversy.  In “Two is Too Many,” they end up trying to see if long-time underworld supporting character “Freddy the Finger” Hawthorne and his cousin have inherited a fortune. And in the best episode of the season, “The More Things Change,” the duo are hired by a woman who wants them to prove her fiancé to be virtuous.

The final two episodes are inter-related. “The Late Mr. Justice,” grabs the listener’s attention as Jack informs us that he’s about to die and explains how he got to this point. An old-time gangster Jack sent away has been released and is out for blood, having taken Jack’s girlfriend hostage. The gangster threatens to kill her if Jack doesn’t show up at an old abandoned theater. There’s some great noirish feel that leads to a solid finale.

The second episode has Trixie in an empty office wondering what happened to Jack after the events of the last story and whether he’ll be back. A boyfriend comes from a big agency with a clients…and with hopes of  becoming Trixie’s new partner if they uncover a missing will. A wealthy woman supposedly left it, cutting a repentant black sheep in for part of her estate. This was a good story that Trixie managed to carry quite well but I had a couple problems with it. Innuendos which Trixie used occasionally in most episodes were way overused as if writer Gregg Taylor was leaning into them a bit much.  In addition, this is the second story in six episodes involving a will. But other than that, it was a pretty good finale with a nice revelation to wrap up Black Jack Justice’s Eighth Season.

Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0

Black Jack Justice Season 8 can be downloaded for free at Decoder Ring Theatre.

Book Review, Golden Age Article

Book Review: The Court of Last Resort

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The Court of Last Resort tells the story of how Perry Mason creator Erle Stanley Gardner established a team of experts who investigated cases of people sent to prison where evidence indicates justice wasn’t done and some of the cases where their investigations helped correct the injustice.

The story begins after Gardner helped to address the case of a wrongful conviction in California. He then formed his team of men who didn’t need either fame or money and the project began as a regular column in the magazine Argosy. 

The secret of the Court of Last Resort’s success was that while the column and the organization of experts were known as the Court of Last Resort, Gardner believed the real court was the average citizen. Through the articles in Argosy, pressure was brought to bare on politicians and parole boards to take a look at the case of individuals that society had forgotten.

The first 70% of the book is dedicated to examining the various cases the court took on, but it’s more than just a rehearsal of cases. Gardner goes into some detail on the challenges this group faced, ranging from the rather mundane (how to make this work in a magazine), to how and why they faced opposition and occasionally  support from local officials.

Gardner is a skilled writer and manages to keep a sensible tone, and a great ability to empathize with his subjects including those who weren’t fans of the Court of Last Resort, and see things from his perspective. He avoids broad-brush allegations of corruption or prejudice, only calling those out when the evidence warrants it. Otherwise to help the readers understand why things go wrong due to challenges faced by everyone from the cops on the beat to prosecutors and prison wardens. He eschewed turning human beings to caricatures.

The book then takes a turn. As Gardner has discussed different problems in criminal law, he turns to prescribing solutions for the last thirty percent of the book. To be fair, he remains honest, even-handed, and examines issues from a variety of perspectives. The problem for modern readers is that this portion of the book is a sixty-eight year-old public policy treatise.

Unless you’re an expert on the minutiae of modern criminal procedure, it can be hard to figure out which, if any, of Gardner’s proposals were ever implemented. Several, I knew for sure, haven’t been. If you think he makes a good case for a particular reform, you may think America made a mistake by not following his advice. While some of his ideas are interesting, I wasn’t expecting this to turn into a policy reform book, so I could probably have done without that section.

Still, the cases that are chronicled are pretty interesting and Gardner is an entertaining writer to read. It’s also fun to learn of the Perry Mason writer’s real passion for justice. Overall, this may be a book you’ll enjoy.if you found the Court of Last Resort TV interesting or you’re a fan of Gardner or of the history of real-life efforts to clear the wrongfully convicted.

Rating: 3.75 out of 5

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DVD Review, Golden Age Article

DVD Review: Forgotten Noir and Crime, Volume 12

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Forgotten Noir and Crime, Volume 12 collects another three rare low-budget films.

First up is The Treasure of Monte Cristo: A seaman (Glenn Langan) on shore leave is swept up into romance and marries a mysterious woman (Adele Jurgens) and then finds himself framed for murder. This is a clever plot and it’s gutsy for a low-budget film to try to write a modern-day sequel to one of literature’s great classics. There are nice location scenes and Langan and Jergens (who would later marry) are both pretty good. The rest of the acting is uneven and some plot points are not well-realized, including a confusing escape sequence. Still, this is a fun story.

The second film is Roaring City, the second of the Dennis O’Brien films which adapted two Johnny Madero radio scripts per film. Hugh Beaumont does seem to settle into his role as the tough talking private eye, strolling casually through scenes pipe in hand and finding a way to deliver the over the top hard boiled lines with as much credibility as he could muster. Similarly, Edward Brophy settles into his role as sidekick/roommate/drunk Professor Schicker.  The film is fun and breezy but not without errors. Outside of Beaumont and Brophy, the acting is so-so and there’s a pretty significant continuity error in the second half. O’Brien tells the Professor he’s agreed to go on a date and pretend to be a woman’s husband before he goes on the date and then after he’s inevitably framed for murder, he tells the Professor all over again as if he hadn’t told him the first time. Still, if you can get past hiccups like this, it’s not a bad way to spend about an hour.

The final film is Sky Liner, which is about a murder occuring mid-flight and being investigated before the plane lands. This is a film with silliness that includes ridiculously fast autopsies, but it’s a good setting and with a breezy pace that’s a tad under 50 minutes. There is a longer version of the film that includes a juvenile song number and a subplot about a newlywed couple. I can’t help but feel that this is probably the best cut of the film.

Overall, these are pretty good, low-budget films. They’re quirky and fun. There’s plenty of flaws to be found, but also fun elements that will bring a smile to the face of classic film buffs.

Rating: 3.75 out of 5

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Audio Drama Review, Golden Age Article

Audio Drama Review: The Twilight Zone Radio Dramas, Volume 8

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The eighth volume of Twilight Zone radio dramas features six more stories adapted from the classic TV series.

“The Long Morrow” is about an astronaut who is chosen for a long-term deep-space mission because he has no attachments to anyone on Earth. Right before he’s scheduled to leave, he goes on a date, meets a woman, and falls deeply in love with her. He’s to go into a stasis capsule and not age during the whole voyage. There’s a lot I like about this story. The romance and character stuff is engaging, but they also explore some interesting sci-fi concepts that a lot of the “going into stasis until you arrive on a new planet” stories kind of ignore. It’s an all-around solid listen.

“The 7th is Made of Phantoms” is about an Army National Guard Unit in the 1960s that’s on maneuvers and finds itself interacting with the Battle of Little Big Horn. This is one of those stories that I just don’t get the point, the moral, or the lesson. There’s no explanation or hint of one, so it’s a very unsatisfying story.

“Mirror Image” is a really unsettling tale where a woman with an apparently poor memory at a bus station comes to believe she has a doppelganger who is trying to take her place. There’s little atmosphere or real explanation of what’s going on, but it really builds tension and atmosphere to make it a worthwhile listen.

“A Thing About Machines:” A man who lives alone seems to be constantly at war with his machines and for his machines, the feeling appears to be mutual. This one doesn’t work for me because the machines only go so far, and since we’re not dealing with like a computer or artificial intelligence, it’s just a bit silly.

“The Last Night of Jockey”-A disgraced jockey gets one wish and wants to make himself a big man. This is an interesting story and it works as a morality tale. It’s an interesting theme that the Twilight Zone examines where a protagonist thinks they need just one break in order to escape their failed lives, they get a break, and ultimately they prove that fundamentally their own character flaws led to their downfall.

“The Fever”-A tightwad (Stacy Keach) is afraid his long-suffering wife will get hooked into out-of-control gambling when they win a free trip to Vegas. So, of course, it happens to the husband instead. This has been a pretty common plot, though this has a supernatural twist. The success of the production ultimately comes down to Keach’s performance.

The stories in this set are fine, but I’d only say “The Long Morrow” and “Mirror Image” are very strong pieces. This is one collection where it may make sense to go on audible or the Itunes store and purchase your favorite episode as a standalone, because the quality in this set is a bit mixed.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

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Book Review, Golden Age Article

Book Review: The Misadventures of Nero Wolfe

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The Misadventures of Nero Wolfe is an anthology of parodies, pastiches, and a few other things that are hard to categorize, all inspired by Rex Stout’s greatest literary creation. I’m going to give a detailed look at everything in the book.

“Red Orchids” by French Author Thomas Narcejac finds Wolfe out from the Brownstone to investigate a case with the promise of a rare, red orchid. This translation by Narcejac does a fair job capturing the Wolfe-Archie relationship, but there’s too much emphasis on Wolfe firing Archie, which wasn’t nearly as much of a thing in the novels. It’s not a bad read at all.

Next, we get an excerpt from Marion Mainwaring’s book Murder by Pastiche. The book contains several pastiches of detective characters solving mysteries. Here we get a flavor for how the Wolfe pastiche works and the author does a great job capturing both Archie and Wolfe. It was well-written and made me want to read the whole book.

I should not like “Archie Hunters” as much as I do as it’s a bit ham-fisted. It involves a parody of Mike Hammer meeting up with Nero Wolfe. Writer Jon L. Breen states he was not a fan of Mike Hammer. This is hardly a necessary statement when he named the parody Mack Himmler. In addition, Breen (through Wolfe) gives us the moral of the story. I think makes it work is the degree to which Mr. Breen commits to it. While he’s having Wolfe make a broadly political (not partisan) point, it’s so in keeping with Wolfe’s voice and something I could actually imagine Wolfe saying.

“The Frightened Man” is a pastiche that uses different character names but is inspired by Wolfe. It’s a solid entry, though a bit short for my tastes.

As to the first Chapter of Murder in E Minor by Robert Goldsborough, I’ve had my issues with Goldsborough’s Wolfe books, but this is the one is good. It does a solid job capturing the feel of Stout’s work. The first chapter is well-written and I wouldn’t mind reading the book again.

“The Purloined Platypus” finds Wolfe and Archie solving the mystery of a museum theft in the present day. It’s a good story, but the mystery is more okay, and the author is fine but not brilliant at capturing the voices and transferring the main characters to the 21st Century. However, I’m a bit prejudiced as its hard for me to wrap my head around the idea of Archie taking pictures with his phone and finding information on the Internet.

“The House on 35th Street” and “The Sidekick Case” are two of the parodies that were run by the Saturday Review. Both are short, but I think this is a case where brevity is the soul of wit. “The House on 35th Street” pokes fun at the conventions of Stout novels, while “The Sidekick Paper” takes on bad word usage in a way that you could believe Wolfe actually would.

“The Case of the Disposable Jalopy” is a parody with Wolfe and Archie in a futuristic world where both have aged (contrary to Stout’s general practice.) Archie no longer has his photographic memory and Wolfe’s mental powers have gone downhill. In addition, due to automation, most jobs have been eliminated with people living on a negative income tax and Fritz forced to buy lower class food on a budget. This is very much a sort of a Saturday Night Live sort of take on Nero Wolfe (from when Saturday Night Live was actually funny) and it’s a solid piece of humor. It’s committed to its premise, and the humor is far more hit than miss, although one of the jokes feels a bit tasteless. Overall, it’s a fairly solid parody.

 “As Dark as Christmas Gets” finds a Nero Wolfe fan who believes Nero Wolfe is real and hopes to gain his favor. Leo Haig is brought in to solve the mystery of a Cornell Woolrich manuscript that disappeared at the Christmas Party. This was a good story with some intelligent dialogue and fairly drawn characters. Haig’s Archie Goodwin character Chip is more vulgar than Archie, but not so much it got in my way of enjoying this short.

Next up is, “Who’s Afraid of Nero Wolfe” and the lead detective Claudius Lyon is the answer to the question. Lyon, like Haig, believes Wolfe is real, but is afraid of getting sued by him, so his detective work is strictly amateur which also avoids the requirement of a license. This is a fun story about a search for a missing poetry contest winner from several years back. It revolves around word play and as far as a mystery goes, it works. I enjoyed all the little twists that Loren Estleman took on the Nero Wolfe world, starting with Lyon being located in Flatbush.

In “Julius Katz and the Case of the Exploding Wine” writer David Zeltserman takes a few of the ideas from the Wolfe story and adds a whole lot to it. Katz has an Archie, but Archie in this case is an AI in a tie clip that advises Katz who is a wine-drinking gambler with a fifth degree black belt. However, like Wolfe, Katz is lazy and needs prodded to go to work. I enjoyed this and all of the twists and turns. There were characters who had very definitive counterparts in the Wolfe stories (ex: Detective Cramer), but others you have to guess at.

“The Possibly Last Case of Tiberius Dingo” is an original short story for this collection that finds a Wolfe-like detective in a state of semi-retirement but tempted to take on one final case. The writer isn’t as immersed in the Wolfe canon as other contributors and it shows but not too much. The story is still an entertaining read with some clever twists. I found the ending uncomfortable, but other than that, this was fine.

The book has a section entitled potpourri, which is a bunch of miscellaneous bits and bobs about Wolfe.

“The Woman Who Read Nero Wolfe” is a delightful short about an intelligent 500 pound circus woman who takes to reading Nero Wolfe and then has to solve the murder of a young woman she’d taken under her wing. Pithy, fun, and has a superb twist. 

“Sam Buried Caesar” is from a series of short stories about a police inspector who named his children after famous detectives. This is the story of ten-year-old Nero Wolfe and the detective agency he founded with his friend and assistant Artie. This originally appeared in Ellery Queen Magazine and a story like this poses a unique challenge because it’s got to be true to being a story about kids, without boring the adults. This story nails it and was just a lot of fun to read.

The book includes Chapter 24 from Rasputin’s Revenge. Writer John Lescroat posited that Nero Wolfe was the illegitimate son of Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler and born under the name Auguste Lupa. This chapter appears to be from the end of the mystery where Holmes, Watson, and Lupa are talking. This is fine and features interesting interactions. 

Joseph Goodrich adapted a couple of Nero Wolfe stories to the stage and the first scene of Might as Well Be Dead is included. This is probably as close to seeing the play as most of us are going to get as these haven’t been widely distributed or performed. The play appears to have some good ideas like having Archie as an on the on-stage narrator and really seems to condense the initial client interview from the book so the action can get moving. Other choices I’m less sure of, but they might make sense in the context of the full play. Its hard to evaluate it based on one scene.

The final short story by Robert Lopestri is amusing tale of two grandparents telling their granddaughter what it was like to live next to Nero Wolfe and why they eventually decided to move away. It’s an amusing and clever take.

While I have criticisms of many pieces in this book, I liked them all. If you’re a Wolfe fan, this book is for you. Taken together, the book is a fantastic tribute to Nero Wolfe and shows a bit of how Rex Stout’s work has been inspiring authors with the amazing characters and world he created.

Rating: Very Satisfactory

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DVD Review, Golden Age Article

Streaming Review: T-Men

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In the 1947 film T-Men, two Treasury agents (Dennis O’Keefe and Alfred Ryder) travel to Detroit and go undercover in an attempt to infiltrate and ultimately break a counterfeiting ring.

T-men was a very entertaining bit of noir. It has the same cinematographer as He Walked by Night, and if you enjoyed the look of that film, you’ll probably like this one as well.

It’s one of those procedurals like He Walked by Night which really strove to portray the real life work of the investigator. So there’s a lot of detail, a lot of different scenes and minor characters who pop-up as our heroes try to work their way to the top, through a long tangled web of the underworld from creating their criminal identities to solving the case and making the bust. 

The script is smart, well-written and well-thought out. Our heroes are in constant peril and we’re given a reminder of how much they and, by extension, real-life Treasury Agents risk in the course of their work. Throughout most of the time, the film takes a deliberate pace, but it definitely picks up in the last ten minutes as the case comes to a finale.

The acting is solid. Outside of O’Keefe, most of the cast is made up of veteran character actors who manage to play their parts without seeming over-the-top, campy, or too stereotypical. Wallace Ford as the Schemer may have been my favorite performance. The main rising star in this is June Lockheart (Lost in Space) who appears as one of the agents’ wives.

The criticisms I’ve read online have basically come down to complaints about it being a procedural noir made in 1940s. If you want something faster paced or less detailed, this may not be the film for you. However, if you appreciate the realistic procedural films of the 1940s, this is a must-see.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

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Currently Available for free Streaming with Amazon Prime or on Blu-ray/DVD with two other films.

Book Review, Dick Tracy, Golden Age Article

Graphic Novel Review: Dick Tracy: Dead or Alive

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Dick Tracy made a big arrest and got fired for it. However, the City by the Lake desperately needs cleaning up, so the City by the Lake calls him and he gets to work, and it’s not too long before he’s framed for a crime he didn’t commit, and hunted by dishonest cops, and needs new allies to clear his name and bust the rackets.

Dick Tracy: Dead or Alive can be a bit jarring. Dick Tracy looks and acts like he always did. Only in a city that despite its retro designs, is chocked full of modern technology. Of course, this may come off as less surprising to fans of the strip which has had to find a way to keep current while maintaining the timeless qualities of Tracy. This book doesn’t do a pretty decent job of it.

The book does a decent job re-imagining some Dick Tracy characters  without going too far or making them unrecognizable. When Tracy is on the run, he’s given his watch, which is introduced as a specially designed device that gets around spying technology.’

If I had a complaint about changes, it’d be with Tess Trueheart. Tess has always been a tough character to do and an easy one to turn into a two dimensional damsel in distress trope. However, this book turns into a more modern trope, that’s just as two dimensional.

The art is fun and very fitting for a Dick Tracy book. The story’s not a masterpiece. But at just over 100 pages, it’s a breezy, fun read that manages to capture the Spirit of Dick Tracy and provide a lot of great, two-fisted action and a few surprises along the way.

Rating: 4 out of 5

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Audio Drama Review, Golden Age Article

Audio Drama Review: Twilight Zone Radio Dramas, Volume 6

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The Sixth Volume of Twilight Zone radio dramas features six radio dramas that recreate classic episodes.

The Dummy: Bruno Kirby plays a ventriloquist who believes his dummy is alive. Trouble starts when he decides to replace his dummy with a new one.  Ventriloquist dummies are great in creepy stories, and I think they work particularly well over audio.

No Time Like the Past: Jason Alexander stars as a scientist who tries to change history three times to make a better world before giving up and deciding to go and live in history, where he falls in love with a woman who is fated to die. Some of the emotional beats in this story work, but the logic of both the scientist and the story are a bit strained. His attempts to change history were haphazard at best and doomed to failure due to his lack of planning. A theme of this episode is that history can’t be changed, but the overall point can be taken as, “History definitely can’t be changed if you don’t actually think through your plan.”

Still Valley: Adam West plays a Confederate sergeant who is given a chance to win the war through witchcraft. I do love Adam West, and he puts in a very good performance, and the story goes in a direction I didn’t expect. There’s some great atmosphere and nice music. This is a really easy listen.

King Nine Will Not Return: The story focuses on the pilot (Adam Baldwin) of a crashed bomber searching for his crew in the dessert.  The story itself is pretty good, with a nice twist, and a bit of unexplained spookiness at the end. But what makes this a standout is Adam Baldwin’s performance. This is his second Twilight Zone and once again, he’s got nearly all the lines and his performance is superb. These two plays convince me that Baldwin’s talents are underrated. If radio/audio were as huge in America as it used to be, Baldwin would be the guy I’d want to listen to all the time.

I Am the Night Color Me Black: A man (John Ratzenberger) is about to be executed for killing an abusive racist when strange things begin to happen. This one was definitely a very moody, suspenseful, and surrealistic play. It’s definitely a different role for Ratzenberger, who is best known for his work in comedies like the TV show Cheers. It’s well worth listening to.

The Incredible World of Horace Ford: A toymaker (Mike Starr) is literally transformed back into a kid when he visits his old neighborhood. This isn’t a bad story. It deals with the idea of the dangers of living an idealized past, and the importance of living your life in the present. It’s a recurring theme in the The Twilight Zone. But that also means its a story they’ve done in more interesting ways. In particular, I think of, “Walking Distance.” (Done on Audio in Volume 5.) This feels like a slightly inferior exploration of the same theme and a little too on the nose.

Overall, this is a pretty strong set. While the stories aren’t perfect, these feature a couple of my favorite stories so far, and everything else is fine.

Ratings: 4 out of 5

DVD Review, Golden Age Article

DVD Review: Forgotten Noir, Volume Seven

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Forgotten Noir, Volume 7 collects three B-movie mystery/adventure films from the 1950s, all of which had interest to me as a fan of old time radio.

The first is David Harding, Counter Spy. Based on the long-running Phillip H. Lord radio series, the film has a framing device of a commentator who blasted the government, having the idea of counter-espionage explained to him through a story that occurred during World War II as a Navy Lieutenant Commander is called in to find out how information is being leaked from a torpedo manufacturing plant. The framing device is unnecessary and the film has a few slower moments, but this is the best film in the set as it was made as a studio B picture for Columbia rather than as an Independent release.

Next up is Danger Zone. There’s some confusion around this movie. Some say it’s based on Pat Novak for Hire starring Jack Webb. It’s actually based on the Pat Novak for Hire ripoff Johnny Madero, Pier 23 also starring Jack Webb. Future Ward Cleaver Hugh Beaumont stars as Dennis O’Brien, who is Johnny Madero by another name. This movie adapts two different stories made over radio with little to link them, apparently to allow the option of splitting them to air on television. One of the stories adapts an existing radio episode, “The Fatal Auction” and follows the plot beat for beat.

The biggest change is that rather than having his confidant be a waterfront priest, Dennis’ go-to guy, Professor Frederic Schiker, is a Jocko Madigan-type drunk who lives with O’Brien, which does save on scene changes. I did miss the character’s chiding (which was a feature of both Pat Novak and Johnny Madero) and without that the performance is a bit flat. The stories are decent, but the acting is a bit off. Even Beaumont, true pro that he was, seemed to not totally believe the off-the-wall hard boiled lines he was being asked to deliver. It does make me appreciate the unique quality that allowed Jack Webb to deliver those lines with as much conviction as he did.

Finally, we have The Big Chase. I was interested in this film as it starred Mystery is My Hobby and Stand by for Crime star Glenn Langan and his wife (and Stand by for Crime co-star) Adele Jurgens as a rookie policeman and his expectant wife. The story does have some nice features. Langan’s character is given depth as we learned why he joined the force and why he wants to get into the juvenile division. Langan does a good job and plays his part without the more refined voice he does his most famous radio voice in.

The story features better talent than you’d expect with a film like this with Lon Chaney, Jr. playing one of the bad guys and Douglas Kennedy playing our hero’s police Lieutenant buddy. It also featured Joe Flynn (of McHale’s Navy fame) in one of his earliest film roles as a reporter in yet another unnecessary set of framing scenes. The film is called the Big Chase for a reason. It has a twenty minute chase scene that’s a lot of fun. It involves cars, trains, a helicopter, boats, as well as some fisticuffs, and gun play. It’s not perfectly executed but makes up for it with some nice location shooting which can cover a multiple of film-making sins for many fans.

The big problem with the film is that it is severely padded. It runs a little over an hour and has enough interesting material to fill somewhere between 25-35 minutes. The chase really gets started nearly 40 minutes in, and prior to that the pacing was positively glacial.

I was glad to watch the films, but this is one of those ones I couldn’t recommend for everyone. This is a film that you have to be an OTR buff to appreciate. We have a well-known radio series coming to film, an obscure radio series coming to film, and a star of two lesser known radio series playing a policeman in a slow, dull film that gives way to an impressive low budget chase. As the saying goes, if you like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing you would like.

Rating: 2.75 out of 5

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Audio Drama Review, Golden Age Article

Audio Drama Review: The Avengers: The Comic Strip Adaptations, Volume 4: Steed and Mrs. Peel

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The 1960s Avengers return in a series of four 50+ minute audio dramas. The dramas are based on comic strips written in the 1960s about the adventures of John Steed (Julian Wadham) and Emma Peel (Olivia Poulet.) These are based on the TV series starring Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg and are released by Big Finish Productions.

In “Listen Hear,” Steed is spiriting Emma away on his uncle’s boat to retrieve a mysterious invention the government can’t let fall into the hands of the other side. It was lost at sea along with one of the top British agents. Two foreign agents are also after the mysterious device, and both groups soon figure out someone else is trying to get it, too.

This story had just enough mystery, and a great deal of whimsical humor that fits  into this era of the TV show.

In “The Clown Has Two Faces,” top secret plans have been stolen from a scientist who only mentions the word “clowns,” which sends Steed and Mrs. Peel on separate trails. Both land at a sinister circus that’s been part of a foreign government’s plot to acquire the plans.

This episode does feel like one of the color Steed and Peel TV episodes. It’s got some fun characters, a nice chase, and good atmosphere. It works for a solid fifty minutes of entertainment. It just lacks the extra something special or memorable to take it from being a good story to a great one.

In “White Heat,” Steed and Peel have to find and stop a mad scientist who blew up a top British Agent and is threatening to unleash a giant fireball on London if not paid a big ransom.

In many ways, this is a standard (almost generic) Avengers plot. However, the key to this story and what makes it so good is the style and the charm. The way the villain is played is perfect, we get plenty of laughs without it becoming ridiculous or over the top. There’s some superb one liners here that led to repeated fits of laughter while I was listening to it.

This simply delightful and of the best stories in this range.

In “Now You See Him,” an investigation of scientists who disappeared mysteriously, seemingly into thin air, ends up setting Steed and Peel on the trail of a sinister magician.

This one moves a great pace with funny moments. The villain works great within the context of the Avengers. The ending sets up the sequel and is a bit hard to swallow. Still, this is a fairly good story to round out the box set.

Overall, I had a lot of fun listening to this set. It feels authentic to the era, without being overly derivative. If you loved the 1960s Avengers TV show or outrageous 1960s spy adventures, this is definitely worth a try.

Rating: 4.25 out of 5

The set is currently available as a download or CD at Big Finish