Category: Golden Age Article

Golden Age Article

Radio’s Most Essential People Countdown: #100-#96

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As I listen to radio in a wide variety of forms, I’ve noted that some people are essential. If they had not been involved, the Golden Age of radio would not have been the same. To me the 100 people on this list best defined this virtue.

Some of these are  lead actors, others are character actors-men and women who played (in some cases) Thousands of Roles with poise and professionalism, and others were hardly heard at all as their work was behind the scenes. Yet, they were all part of making the golden age of radio sparkle. They each brought something unique and wonderful to the table that made the golden age unforgettably.

Of course, any time you make a list like this, names get left off and in a few years, I may see some others who may be promoted to a higher spot, but based on what I’ve learned of radio over the last few years, this is a solid list. I hope you enjoy this series as we work our way to the top.

100) Vic Perrin

Vic Perrin’s first radio appearance was in 1943 for Free World Theater. He’d quickly become one of radio’s most vital character actors. He was a regular stock player for Jack Webb who was used constantly. He also appeared on programs such as Family Theater and Suspense. He continued to make radio appearances as the Golden Age headed to the twilight of its existence appearing regularly on Gunsmoke, Yours Truly Johnny Dollar, and Have Gun Will Travel. He also took on a rare recurring role as Sgt. Goerss on Fort Laramie. He also played a key role in Radio Revival attempts in the 1970s appearing on Rod Serling’s Zero Hour and the Sears Radio Theater. His voice work was also prominent in cartoons. He served a whole new generation of fans with his performance as Sinesto in the Super Friends, along with voicework for the 1978 Fantastic Four and 1983 Incredible Hulk animated programs

99) Jock McGregor

One of radio’s great behind the scenes men:  Macgregor’s writing, producing, and directing were behind some of radio’s most significant programs from the early 1940s to the mid-1950s including Murder Clinic, Nick Carter, The Sealed Book, X Minus One, and most famously Mysterious Traveler. 

98) Humphrey Bogart

Humphrey BogartBogart was first and foremost, a movie star.and one of the greatest of his or any other time. However, he showed time and time again that he was able to perform with the best of them on radio when his busy film schedule allowed. He adapted several of his movies to radio including The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The African Queen,  and To Have or Have Not as well as many of his Gangster roles such as Petrified Forest and Bullets or Ballots. These radio films are a rare treat for fans. Beyond these appearances, Bogart also starred in Bold Venture. Bold Venture was far from the best written radio drama with the oft-recurring plot of Bogart’s character Slade Shannon being played for a royal sucker by the underworld guest star of the week. That the show is so well-loved sixty years later is a testament to the sheer power of Bogart and Becall to overcome all odds, including those imposed by the writers.  

97) Dennis Day

Dennis Day made his first appearance on Jack Benny’s show in 1939 with the character of a naive young tenor. A character he played throughout an association with Benny that would extend for more than 30 years. In addition to his association with  Benny, the charismatic Irish singer had his own comedy show, A Day in the Life of Dennis Day.

96) Barton Yarborough

Barton Yarborough had several key recurring roles he was remembered for: Clifford Barbour on Carlton Morse’s long-running soap opera. One Man’s Family, Doc Long in I Love a Mystery, and Joe Friday’s first partner Ben Romero in Dragnet. Yarborough was the only person other than Jack Webb to narrate on Dragnet in the episode, The Big Ben which features Joe Friday being shot. At that point, Ben Romero takes over the narration. In addition to these feature recurring roles, Yarborough played countless character roles on radio. Most frequently he used his Texas twang to create a wide variety of characters who ranged from the amusing to the sinister.  Yarborough offered his services to equally wide variety shows ensuring his place as one of radio’s most essential performers. Yarborough died all too soon at the age of 51 after filming the first two television episodes of Dragnet.

Next week: #91-#95

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Book Review, Golden Age Article, Nero Wolfe

Book Review: Triple Jeopardy

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Triple Jeopardy contains three Nero Wolfe novellas originally published in 1951 and 1952. Without any further adieu, let’s take a look at them: 

Home to Roost: 

A young man suspected of being a Communist but who had told his Aunt he was really an undercover FBI agent was murdered and his Aunt and Uncle believe Communist agents did it and want Wolfe to find out the truth. A less engaging story that still manages to pack a punch with a surprising ending.

Rating: Satisfactory

Cop Killer:

A classic Wolfe story that finds two refugees from the Soviet Union who are in the country illegally suspected of murder after fleeing the crime scene which is the shop of Wolfe and Archie’s barber.  They take refuge in Wolfe’s home without Wolfe fully understanding the police want them. Wolfe’s sense of hospitality won’t allow him to turn them over to the police and Wolfe and Archie have to find out who the real killers are.

This is a story with a lot of fascinating features with us seeing their Barber shop. Some great interactions, including the police entreating Archie for a help with a difficult manicurist and Wolfe and Archie snowing Inspector Cramer by telling him that the suspects were there but in such a way he wouldn’t believe them. Archie explained to the frightened migrants, “They (Hitler and Stalin) tell barefaced lies to have them taken for the truth, and we told the barefaced truth to have it taken for a lie.”

Rating: Very Satisfactory

The Squirt and the Monkey:

This one begins with some strained credibility. For once, Wolfe is willing to take a job and Archie doesn’t want him to. A big shot on the Comic Strip, Dazzle Dan wants to use Archie’s gun to help recover his own stolen gun. He’s willing to pay Archie $500 for the use of his gun. Despite Archie pointing out that the most Wolfe could clear after taxes and expenses was $45, he’s off to the strange house that produces Dazzle Dan complete with monkey and an unusual cast of characters.

Through a complex series of events, a man is murdered with Archie’s gun, the client lies about why he’d hired Wolfe, and Cramer informs Wolfe that his license will be suspended. Once again you have to suspend disbelief as we’ve seen Wolfe insist on getting in writing what he’s being hired for multiple times.

However, this is when the story gets interesting. Wolfe goes to work in earnest and has his lawyer file a lawsuit against the client for a million dollars and begins an earnest study of the Dazzle Dan comic to unravel the mystery of what goes in the house that created him. 

Overall, there is much about this story that makes it unique. Unfortunately, Stout, has a lot in here that’s hard to buy, so I can only rate it:

Rating: Satisfactory

The stories vary in quality but solidly clever solutions and some great settings in the last two stories make this a solid read.

Collection Rating: Satisfactory

You can find all the Nero Wolfe books in Kindle, Audiobook, and book form on our Nero Wolfe page.

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Golden Age Article, Hercule Poirot

Telefilm Review: Death in the Clouds

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On the same weekend I watched Death on the Nile.
Hercule Poirot (David Suchet) visits Tennis’ French Open in Paris. On the flight home, an elderly woman is murdered right under Poirot’s nose with the apparent murder weapon, a South American dart gun, planted near his seat. Poirot determines to find the murderer and restore his reputation.

Suchet is wonderful as Poirot, turning in one of the funniest moments in the series with his attempt to re-enact the murder during flight to Paris.

The story really keeps you guessing. I give myself credit with Poirot stories not at being able to guess who the murderer is but who the murder victim is. It’s usually obvious as he or she sets multiple people up with a motive in very obvious way. I really thought somone else was going to get it, but she turned out just to be a suspect. The murderered woman is an enigma and Poirot must ultimately find out who she was in order to uncover who may have wanted to kill her.

In this Hastingsless-entry, Philip Jackson turns a good performance as Inspector Japp. Although I thought he got a little belligerent with the poor French Police whose offices he acted like he owned after the French blew a tailing attempt.
While like Death on the Nile and Murder on the Orient Express, the murder occurred in an enclosed transportation vehicle, the investigation occurs off the plane in France and England due to the limitation of air travel. The movie is rich in historic atmosphere. One of the most interesting historical images from the series were men playing at Wimbledon wearing long pants: a nice historic touch.
While of the two programs I watched that week, Death on the Nile was a little more fun.  Once again, I was reminded of the consistent and remarkable quality of these ITV productions and the sheer volume of films they’ve produced that makes Suchet as Poirot a force to be reckoned with.
Rating: 4.25 out of 5.00

This film, along with all Poirot Telefilms through Series 6, is available on Netflix Instant Watch as of this writing.

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Golden Age Article, Hercule Poirot, Movie Review

Movie Review: Death on the Nile (1978)

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In Death on the Nile, wealthy young heiress Linnet Ridgeway (Lois Chiles) is murdered on board a boat travelling down the Nile. The most likely suspect, a jealous ex-friend (Mia Farrow) from whom Ridgeway stole her fiance (Simon MacCorkindale) is eliminated because of being indisposed under the influence of morphine after shooting the dead woman’s husband in the leg. However Poirot (Peter Ustinov) does not find himself wanting for suspects as it seems everyone on the boat had a motive.

Death on the Nile was the second of three big screen adaptations made featuring Hercules Poirot in an eight year period from 1974-82. It has all the hallmarks of the other two Poirot films: luscious landscapes and an all-star cast. All three movies also have cases with very unique features  and in this one, no one but the most likely suspect has an alibi.

This was Ustinov’s first time appearing as Poirot and he does a marvelous job. His performance in Death on the Nile gave Poirot a great balance of dignity and humanity. While in Evil Under the Sun (1982), Poirot ends up getting played more comically, Ustinov gets it perfect here.

I’ve now seen all three films from this period and this was my favorite. All of them had features, but also some major flaws which slightly marred the experience making it so so. This is definitely not the case with Death on the Nile.

The cinematography and music is top notch. The all-star cast is used brilliantly playing as a solid team. Angela Lansbury is marvelous in her portrayal of a romance writer. And Mia Farrow turns in a fantastic performance as the menacing “spurned woman.” To top it all off, David Niven gives  a fantastic performance as Colonel Race, Poirot’s sidekick for this adventure and rarely has Poirot had better.

My only problem with this film is that Poirot’s initial theory seemed hard to swallow and harder still to believe Poirot would postulate. Still Agatha Christie asked us to believe it in a well-beloved mystery book, so I can’t knock it too much.

Rating: 4.75 out of 5.0

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Golden Age Article

Radio Review: Abroad with the Lockharts

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Whatever our circumstances, radio allows our mind to escape to another time, another place. Bold Venture, Dangerous Assignment, and The Man Called X frequently took us to exotic locales while Dimension X and other Science Fiction shows took us to fantastic new worlds.

However, during the Depression, a trip to Europe was probably as fantastic to most people as a trip to Mars for listeners in the 1950s. However, less than a year after the Crash, Gene and Kathleen Lockhart took listeners on such a fantastic trip in Abroad with the Lockharts.

Will (played by Gene) wants nothing more than to continue his annual tradition of taking a fishing trip with his friend Charlie while his wife wants to take a trip to Europe after having put up with several boring fishing trips. So she takes him to Europe ( a point that’s emphasized each episode in the opening.)

The episodes are a travelogue with the Lockharts encountering new situations on their boat trip and then later in the U.K. and Europe. Will encounters each new situation with characteristic trepedation and crankyness. However, each new encounter seems to end with him pleasantly surprised. But that doesn’t stop him from being cranky and reluctant at the next stop.

Kathleen places a few humorous bits. She has studied and prepared for their European trip, but her French fails her when  trying to purchase tickets. She is also somewhat flumoxxed when Will enjoys a somewhat risque show they attended in France.

The show is escapist in taking Americans who could never go to Europe on a grand tour. It is also optimistic. Abroad with the Lockharts is filled with friendly foreigners in every port who kindly introduce them to their different cultures. Even in countries that were governed by America’s once and future enemies, this optimism would prevail. In this way, Abroad with the Lockharts seemed to be part of a post-World War I move to increase understanding of the rest of the world in order to maintain peace: A noble aim that proved useless with madmen like Mussolini and Hitler running around.

Still, Abroad with the Lockharts remains an entertaining slice of life that still is worth a listen even 80 years after it first aired. There are 9 episodes available including the first seven and apparently the last two. The longest run of the series  Digital Deli could locate was 16 episodes but as they note, “There may well have been a twenty-six week, though we have yet to discover such a run. Given the format of Abroad With the Lockharts, once the couple boarded the S.S. Mauretius, there could have been any number of ‘modular’ adventures either aboard ship, or at their various European destinations.”

Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0

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Golden Age Article, Hercule Poirot

Telefilm Review: The ABC Murders

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The Fourth Series of Poirot from ITV was made up entirely of feature length Telefilms and the first of these was the A.B.C. Murders.

Hastings returns from South America in time to help Poirot solve a baffling and alarming mystery. A murderer sends Poirot a series of letters announcing murders and he’s going in Alphabetial Order from A to Z for both the last names of the victims and the cities where the murder is committed. At each crime scene, a copy of the A.B.C. railroad guide listing schedules for trains to each of Britain’s cities.

Being somewhat familiar with the plot from a far too abbreviated Poirot-less adaptation of the story on Radio’s Supsense, I knew whodunit but even so The A.B.C. Murders still managed to hold my attention. The film did a great job not only maintaining a high level of suspense, but also in creating believable reactions from the victim’s family and the genuine warmth between Poirot and Hastings was on display in a way it wasn’t usually in the one hour episodes of the series.

Nearly was perfect pitch in this adaptation with solid performance from David Suchet and Hugh Fraser as Poirot and Hastings, and Donald Sumpter turns in a memorable performance as Mr. Cusp. The only performance that seemed a little off was Philip Jackson whose Inspector Japp seemed a little grumpier than usual.

Overall, this was a fantastic telling of one Christie’s favorite stories and is rightly listed by Suchet as one of his favorites.

Rating: 4.75 out of 5.0

As of this date,
This film, along with all Poirot Telefilms through Series 6 is available on Netflix Instant Watch as of this writing.

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Book Review, Golden Age Article, Nero Wolfe

Book Review: And Four to Go

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What could be better than the numerous Nero Wolfe books including three Novellas? How about one featuring four? Well, it doesn’t quite work out that way, but there are still some worthwhile stories in the lot:
 
“The Christmas Party”
 
Archie connives to get a fake wedding license for a dancing partner who wants her to boss to marry her. The boss is being stubborn so Archie gets a fake marriage license blank with both their names on it to force the issue.
 
When Wolfe starts to get bossy and unreasonable in demanding Archie drive him to meet an orchid expert, Archie springs the marriage license on Wolfe and tells him that he’s getting married. Wolfe is displeased but Archie gets out of the errand.

Archie ends up attending the Christmas Party where the boss is murdered and Santa mysteriously disappears after the crime is committed. Archie also can’t find the fake wedding license which has him at risk of a forgery charge. When Archie gets home he finds out that Santa was none other than Nero Wolfe, spying on him and his supposed fiancée. To make matters worse, a jealous young woman who believes the woman Archie helped was the murderess demands that Wolfe connive to help frame the woman. Otherwise, Wolfe will have to endure the embarrassment of being exposed as Santa. Wolfe and Archie are in a pickle and it’ll take all of Wolfe’s wits to get them out.
 
The story’s plot is priceless and along with some memorable characters, I’ll give it a:

Rating: Very Satisfactory

“Easter Parade”
 
A wealthy philanthropist, who is also an orchid grower has developed a new species of orchid that he’s keeping under wraps. Wolfe has to see it, and the only chance he has is that the philanthropist’s wife is wearing one of the orchids. So he has Archie hire a two bit hood to snatch the orchid as the lady is exiting the church and entering the Easter Parade. The orchid snatch is done right as the woman dies and Wolfe finds himself in a pickle, as police want to find the orchid snatcher.
 
The best part of this story is the look back at the Easter Parade, an event that was much more widely practiced both in New York and across the country in years past. In essence, Stout gives us a portrait of the Easter Parade in its heyday. 
 
The plot itself has problems. While Wolfe can tend to childish behavior in pursuit of his goals, this one takes the cake. The action has several accomplishments. Wolfe’s reputation and his license are both put at risk. More than that though, the stunt is itself quite mean and both the lady and her husband are sympathetic characters who have dedicated themselves to the betterment of others and  have done nothing to agrieve Wolfe aside from refusing to let him look at a flower. The idea of hiring a criminal to assault two saintly people coming out of church on the holiest day of the Christian year does little to make one sympathetic as Wolfe and Archie try to avoid embarassment.
 
Of course, Stout could have turned this around a little bit with a clever solution, a dramatic stunt to find the real killer, some clever interaction between Wolfe and Archie. Unfortunately, the story is wrapped all too easily on the spur of the moment. with Wolfe barely moving a brain cell. The story was first published in the April 1957 issue of Look and has all the earmarks of being written to satisfy the commercial requests of a magazine wanting a story for its April issue rather than the cleverness of a typical Wolfe story. If another writer wrote it, I’d say it was flummery. However, as Stout wrote it, I must give it a:
 
Rating: Pfui
 
Fourth of July Picnic:
 
After the death of Marco Vukcic, Wolfe assumed a key role in ensuring the qualtity of Rusterman’s restauraunt with Wolfe’s cook Fritz providing some consulting assistance. A restaurant union leader seized on this to try and force Fritz into the union and this became an annoyance to Wolfe. In order to rid himself of the annoyance, Wolfe agrees to speak at the Union’s 4th of July Picnic.
 
However, before Wolfe’s speech, the man who’d been annoying him is murdered after having taken ill. Every speaker went in to the tent he was resting in for one reason or another including Wolfe, but police suspect someone came through the back of the tent because they’d rather not suspect prominent citizens of the crime (other than Wolfe and Archie). However, Archie knows that a woman was watching that back entrance and no one had gone in but withholds the fact because he’s annoyed by the police and didn’t want He and Wolfe to be held as material witnesses in rural New York. When Wolfe finds out about the witness, he has to solve the crime quickly or risk going back as a material witness to be held by a very unhappy and unfriendly district attorney.
 
While not up to the best standards of Wolfe Stories, it features a good amount of atmosphere and a clever enough solution to make it:
 
Rating: Satisfactory.
 
“Murder is No Joke”

If Murder is No Joke had been set at the fall, this would have been a four seasons collection. As it was, Stout appears to have abandonned the seasonal stories after two middling efforts. Murder is No Joke is a much more solid story.
 
A woman comes to Wolfe’s office concerned that her brother’s business is being destroyed by a woman who has some hold over her. She wants Wolfe to investigate her but doesn’t have the money to pay him. However, she offers to pay Wolfe to call the woman. Wolfe dials the number and is promptly insulted by the woman and then hears sounds that indicates violence has occurred. Archie calls the woman’s office and finds she has indeed been murdered with Wolfe and Archie as likely ear witnesses.
 
However, Wolfe has a sense that someone is trying to make a fool of him and sets out to uncover the truth of what really happened and how the suicide of a formerly promising actress plays into what happened. He sends Archie down to the office where the murdered woman worked to ask about correspondence from the actress who committed suicide.
 
The highlight of this story is when Archie wants to know why Wolfe is an investigating and Wolfe and Archie share a moment of detective zen when Wolfe opens Archie’s eyes to a key clue. All in all, the story has a good cast of characters and a solution that really shocked me. 
 
Rating: Very Satisfactory
 
Overall, Four to Go features two middling stories in between two solid ones that make up for their lack.
 
Overall Collection Rating: Satisfactory

You can find all the Nero Wolfe books in Kindle, Audiobook, and book form on our Nero Wolfe page.

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Golden Age Article, Movie Review, Sherlock Holmes

Review: Sherlock Holmes (2009)

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Sherlock Holmes stars Robert Downey, Jr. as Holmes with Jude Law as Watson. Holmes efforts lead to the capture of a cult leader and black magic practitioner named Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong) who has been on a killing spree through grotesque human sacrifices. At the same time, Dr. Watson is engaged and Holmes is doing his best to wreck the engagement to keep his much needed assistant at his elbow.

Before Lord Blackwood is executed, he promises Holmes that there will be three deaths that Holmes can’t stop that will change the world and drive Holmes mad. Watson declares Lord Blackwood dead, but then three days later Blackwood’s tomb has been found empty and the promised deaths begin.  Holmes has to unravel the puzzle and is plunged into a world of dark conspiracies and the occult as he searches for the truth. 

Perhaps the best way to describe the movie is to list some of its key deviations from traditional Holmes stories:

  • Holmes uses his fists far more than usual. True enough. In A Study in Scarlet, it does mention that Holmes is an expert boxer, but the thread seems almost to have been forgotten by Doyle in later stories. But in Sherlock Holmes , Holmes has as many martial arts moves as Jackie Chan. However, Guy Ritchie did a good job working Holmes thinking process into his fighting which made it easier to swallow.
  • He and Irene Adler are an item and Adler, rather than being a dancer who gets into a scrape with a Bohemian king, is an international criminal.
  • Holmes’ traditional portrayal as a drug addict is gone. And instead,  in this movie, we find Holmes having to guard against Watson’s gambling habit to make sure Mrs. Hudson gets the rent money.
  • Holmes is intentionally trying to sabotage the engagement of Mary Marston, not so in the books.

There are other differences. Holmes definitely doesn’t act like he lived in the Victorian era for one. Despite these issues, I found myself oddly enjoying the movie. Perhaps, it’s because there’s a long-running tradition of messing around with the character for dramatic portrayals going back to William Gillette who wrote the first dramatic adaptation. He asked permission from Doyle to marry Sherlock Holmes off and was told, “You may marry him or murder him or do whatever you like with him.”

And so it’s been. We’ve had all sorts of Sherlock Holmes films and television shows. There’s been a young Sherlock Holmes movie, there’s been an animated Sherlock Holmes Television series featuring Holmes in the 22nd Century with a robot Dr. Watson. We’ve had stupid Holmes and brilliant Watson movies, and of course our post-modern Holmes over on the BBC. There have been  pastiches that have taken the character in all directions.

Yet, the true Holmes of fiction is well known to most people, so while movies and television can play with Holmes’ character, they can’t really redefine it in the eyes of the public, just as Patrick Stewart’s King of Texas didn’t make anyone thing King Lear was really set in Texas.

Similarly, Robert Downey, Jr.’s Sherlock Holmes could best be understood by bringing one of fiction’s greatest heroes to the biggest moneymaking arena there is: The Summer Popcorn movie.  By this account, Sherlock Holmes was a fine film. It was an action packed thriller with plenty of plot twists and engaging story that holds your attention to the end. If there’s any film I’d compare it to, it’d be be the Basil Rathbone vehicle The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes which was a solid action thriller for 1939. Sherlock Holmes show how much more Hollywood has amped up its performance and how much more action audiences demand.

Perhaps, the story’s truest touch was the its portrayal of the close friendship between Holmes and Watson.  While not as warm as the Rathbone-Bruce or Brett-Hardwicke portrayals, or even the Ronald Howard and Howard Marion Crawford performances from the 1954 syndicated Television series,  the Holmes-Watson interplay between Downing and Jude Law was better than the BBC’s vision from Sherlock.

Overall, the results of Robert Downey, Jr. and Direct Guy Ritchie playing with the Sherlock Holmes character turned out surprising well, even if they won’t make me forget Basil Rathbone and Jeremy Brett.

Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0  stars.

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Book Review, Golden Age Article, Leonidas Witherall

Book Review: Beginning with a Bash

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Beginning With a Bash was the first Leonidas Witherall novel written by Phoebe Atwood Taylor under the pseudonym Alice Tilton, published in the UK in 1937 but not in the US until 1972 due to some dubious advise from teh publisher.

The novels opens with Leonidas, former headmaster of a private school down on his luck even though he looks like William Shakespeare accept for his glasses.. The depression wrecked his retirement funds and now he’s reduced to being a book store’s janitor. A former pupil who is also down on his look comes in on a Saturday. He’s been accused of stealing from his former employer and is wandering the streets with his last remaining valuable possession, a set of golf clubs. Very quickly, a body discovered near the store and it turns out to be the former employer, who was killed by a blow from a blunt object. The police quickly take Leonidas’ former pupil into custody who conveniently had a grudge against the dead man and was carrying a bag of gold clubs that would be perfect to bludgeon the man to death.

However, Leonidas doesn’t believe the young man is guilty and sets out to prove it by Monday morning and find the missing money to boot. Leonidas sets off with the book store owner but quickly acquires a motley crew of assistance including a Italian gangster and his star-crossed girlfriend who is also the sister of her boyfriend’s Irish rival and the dead man’s housekeeper, as well the widow of a former Massachusetts Governor.

This book is a classic vintage style madcap comedy mystery that sees Leonidas and friends going from one jam to another. The book is light reading with the gangster being more in the style of Damon Runyan than Francis Ford Coppola. The book does include a few regrettable uses of the n-word (although I should note that this may have been removed from some modern editions), but if you can get past that, it’s a fun and exciting story full of improbable twists and turns sure to amuse you for hours.

This book has been re-released for the Kindle by St. Swithin Press which has also re-released the last Leonidas Witherall novel, The Iron Clew as well as several other novels in Taylor’s Asey Mayo series.
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Golden Age Article, Hercule Poirot

Telefilm Review: The Mysterious Affair at Styles

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The Mysterious Affair at Styles is the oldest Poirot story. In fact, it is the only Poirot story that is in the public domain in the United States (though not the UK). 

Lieutenant Hastings is convalescing and visits some friends at Styles. The matron of the house is killed and suspicion immediately falls on her husband who is Before the matter is officially reported, Hastings seeks the help of Poirot,who is a refugee from Belgium adjusting to life in the U.K. Poirot has to unravel the multiple lies and deception that surrounded the murder and a new will that apparently has gone missing.

I wrote in my review of the Peril at End House, that the producers of Agatha Christie’s Poirot opted for a look that made the feature length episode look and feel like just a longer episode of the television. 

In the Mysterious Affair at Styles which led off the third series of Agatha Christie’s Poirot, they opted to step it up notch with beautiful shots of the British Countryside and World War I British life. Suchet showed his strength as a performer and his mastery of the Poirot character in his ability to make subtle changes depending on the character’s age. In Mysterious Affair at Styles, Poirot is far more obsessive compulsive, and is less adjusted to English life than Poirot did in the episodes set in the 1930s. 

While I think the transition to television lost a little bit of the charm of the book which had you suspecting everyone other than Poirot and Hastings at one point or another, Suchet is still masterful as Poirot and the improved quality makes it a pleasure to watch.

Rating: 4.25 out of 5.0

As of this writing, this film along with all Telefilms through Series 6 is available on Netflix Instant Watch.

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Book Review, Golden Age Article

Book Review: Red Threads

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We continue our review of Rex Stout’s non-Nero Wolfe mysteries with 1939’s Red Threads.

Red Threads is often presented as an Inspector Cramer mystery: A case where Inspector Cramer is the star and solves the case without any aide from Nero Wolfe. It’s understandable to do that, but lets be clear Inspector Cramer is not the star of this book.

Millionaire Val Carew is founded murdered in tomb of his late wife who was an Indian princess. Carew, who was considering remarrying a white woman, was found scalped.

Jean Farris is in love with the dead man’s son, Guy but becomes angry when he asks her to return a skirt jacket she’d made with rare genuine bayetta thread that Guy had given her from his own jacket. Farris storms off from after this odd request and is then knocked out and wakes up in her underwear with the skirt and jacket gone. She then discovers the reason for the interest in the thread: the murdered man had a thread of bayetta in his hand.

Jean resolves who robbed her and who committed the murder and clear her beloved. It is Jean, not Inspector Cramer who is the heroine of the story and focal point of the story. She makes for a charming and intelligent amateur detective who dominates the narrative and lifts the whole work. Cramer is merely John Law. Stout saw no reason to work up another New York City Police Inspector when he’d created a perfectly servicable one for Nero Wolfe.

Inspector Cramer is not an entirely unsympathetic character in the story. Cramer is an honest cop, even if his methods are not necessarily laudable. Forced to return from his first real vacation in years, Cramer takes to the case with bulldog determination and shows a certain cunning in catching a suspect even if it turns out to be the wrong suspect. And once Jean sets him on the right track, he ties everything up neatly.

I can’t really blame Cramer for missing the solution to this case. At least five people including Jean withheld evidence from him and only one of them was in on the murder. Kind of hard to get the right conclusion without the  right information.

The book’s portrayal of Native Americans was a subject of some concern, indeed the whole foreword to the book was consumed with a critique of this aspect of the book. Woodrow Wilson, the only full-blonded Indian in the story talks like he’s ready to appear in a Republic Western or take up duty outside of a Cigar Store. Stout would treat a Native American character by the same name with far more sophistication and respect thirty years later in Death of a Dude. To me, it was only a minor distraction because the character’s part is relatively minor.

The final chapter is a bit silly and overdone, but overall the Jean Farris character carried the story through with a little help from Inspector Cramer making Red Threads an enjoyable 1930s mystery even without Nero Wolfe.

Rating: 3.25 out of 5.0

Golden Age Article

Audio Drama Review: The History of Harry Nile, Set 1 (Volumes 1-4)

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There have been many attempts to tap into the magic of the Golden Age Detectives since 1962. Most modern radio detectives meet a somewhat quick exit unless they aired over British radio. The Independently produced Matthew Slade series lasted for about 13 weeks in the mid-60s. Canada’s Becker, House Detective survived for 13 weeks as well. In the 21st Century, the Canadian Decoder Ring Theatre has enjoyed great success since 2006, producing 48 episodes of Black Jack Justice.

However, for long lasting detective series, no one can beat Jim French’s Harry Nile. The show began airing in 1976 and ran through 1978 and then return in 1991 and continues air to this day. The show survived the death of original Star Phil Harper and continues with Larry Albert in the lead to this day. The show’s endurance for more than 20 years after its 1990s comeback and 35 years after it first aired is an amazing accomplishment.

In the History of Harry Nile, Box Set 1, we get to go back to the beginning. The History of Harry Nile series are in Chronological order based on story set. However, all but one of the 23 episodes were from the 1970s, and only three 1970s episodes are not included. The stories are set between December 1939 and Winter 1942.

We meet Harry Nile in, “West for My Health” which finds Harry in Chicago working as a private operative after quitting the force because he was tired of being the only honest cop in his department. However, he’s in for gambling debts of $8,000 with a racketeer and he has no way to pay. The racketeer offers Harry a choice: die or go to LA and commit a murder to cancel the debt. Harry opts to go to LA but is  never sure if he’ll go through with it.

This episode was never intended to be the start of a series of Harry Nile stories. It was a double length episode of, Crisis another French series featuring stories that would have fit well on classic radio programs such as “Suspense.” However, the audience demanded more Harry Nile and they got it.

The next episode aired but “Seattle Blues” was one of my least favorite of the series. Harry Nile is a hard luck private investigator, however the way, “Seattle Blues” played out, particularly on the heels of a downbeat beginning, Harry Nile skirted that fine line between “hard luck” and “loser.”

However, after this episode, the series falls into place. Harry relocates to Los Angeles and begins a far more even string of wins and losses. In the vast majority of episodes, Jim French and Phil Harper created a nearl y  perfect pitch recreation of the 1940s detective series with stories that would easily fit in to any number of detective series aired during the era with femme fatales, eccentric actors, horse racing, smugglers, and underworld characters.

Some notable episodes include:

“The Doomsday Book”-The story of a double-dealing daughter-in-law having walked out and the controlling mother-in-law who wants Harry to stop any blackmail attempt. The beginning bares a very strong resemblance to the Philip Marlowe novel, High Window.

“The Case of the Matinee Murder”-A young man from the wrong side of the tracks is accused of causing disturbance at the theater and finally murder. Harry tries to clear him.

“The Case of the Lisping Lover”- Harry is hired by a famous client who is mysterious about his identity and will only talk to Harry on the phone. However, the voice soudns like Humphrey Bogart. He insists a woman is blackmailing him, but what’s really going on?

“Stand-in For Murder”-Harry gets a job on a cruise disguised as a former silent film star who has received numerous death threats. Harry’s job is to be the decoy.

“A Little Out of Town Job”-Harry works off a speeding ticket for a friend by trying to solve the mystery of the disappearance of a beloved local banker.

“Angel’s Flight”-Very little mystery in this one but from a dramatic standpoint, it’s the best of the collection. It is set in December 1941 and leads up to Pearl Harbor. It captures the mood of the time perfectly.

“The Twenty Dollar Track Down”-Introduced Murphy who would become Nile’s equivalent of George Valentine’s Brooksie.

The series did a remarkable job recreating the golden age settings. It achieved an amazing authenticity. Most of the time, it would be hard to tell that episodes were recorded in the 1970s. Language and style were very consistent with few exceptions.

In this early collection, swearing is almost completely eschewed. The only episode to feature even mild expletives was, “Vacation with Bullets.” Harry’s world has more gray than the black and white of some of the golden age detectives. This was most apparent in the 1990s  episode “The Black Widow” which dealt with assisted suicide and artificial insemination (in 1941).   This was a somewhat jarring exception to a series that remained faithful to the times and the way stories were told in them.

In terms of quality, I’d place the series betwen, “Crime and Peter Chambers” and “Rogue’s Gallery.”  The program lacks the big-time stars of radio’s golden era such as Dick Powell and Howard Duff. The biggest star to grace these episodes was the late Kurt Kasznar. However, the series had a repertory Company feel to it with many actors making multiple appearances and Pat French playing a wide variety roles in these early episodes before Murphy became a recurring character.

Overall, these Harry Nile episodes are a great treat that began a well-done series that would enjoy almost unprecedented post-golden age longevity.

Overall Rating: 4.25 out of 5.0

Purchasing Information:

The set is available at French’s website for $49.95 on CD or as a digital download for $25.

The History of Harry Niles, Set 1 (along with Sets 4 and 5) are available on Audible for $19.95 for members or 1 Credit. I bought this set with my June Audible Credit ($14.95).

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Book Review, Golden Age Article

Book Review: Inka Dinka Doo

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In Inka Dinka Doo, Jhan Robbins writes a biography of Jimmy Durante, beginning with his birth to a large immigrant family in the family’s kitchen to his early days playing dives in New York as a ragtime piano players to vaudeville success and motion picture hits and misses all the way to his death in 1980.

To Robbins, its a mystery. In the introduction, he lays out well what the mystery is, “Durante wasn’t a singer like Sinatra any more than he was a comic technician like Bob Hope. He lacked the polish of Johnny Carson, the bluntness of Humphrey Bogart.  When malapropisms and errors were deliberately inserted into his scripts he would mispronounce the mispronunciations. Other entertainers squeezed laughs out of vulgarity but not he. What was his secret?”

Robbins had gotten to know Durante over more than 20 years. The book is chock full of stories that tell the tale of Durante’s uncommon decency and kindness. Robbins’ book could seem one-sided but as Robbins stated, he looked desperately to find Durante detractors but couldn’t find any. The secret to Durante’s success was his genuine warmth and heart which spills out over the nearly 200 pages in Inka Dinka Doo. 

We learn of Durante’s closest and deepest friendships with his longtime partners Lou Clayton and Eddie Jackson as well as Eddie Cantor. His rocky career during Prohibition and his even bumpier landing at MGM in the 1930s where he continually drew forgettable roles even after getting a high dollar star contract.  We learn of his career on radio and triumphant entry into the new age of television.

The book is littered with anecdotes that show Durante’s heart and spirit. Durante was an extremely friendly person. In fact, Hollywood tour buses made a point to stop by his house knowing that he would run out and greet the bus, sometimes with a pitcher of lemonade to sell. It was Durante’s friendliness that got him out of the speakeasy business as an undercover prohibition agent came to the door and asked for him. Durante came down and the agent greeted him by name and Durante responded warmly. Then the agent complained of not being admitted and Durante let the guy in and the agent gathered evidence and the The Club Durant was shuttered the next evening.

Robbins also wrote of Durante’s loyalty and concern for others. When a fading Buster Keaton was released by MGM, Durante pleaded with Louie B Mayer on Keaton’s behalf and won Keaton’s reinstatement. When attending  a Dodgers’ game, Durante silenced a heckler who was mocking young future Hall of Fame Catcher Roy Campanella because he was black. Durante was kind and considerate even though he pronounced Campanella’s name as “Cantorbella.”

The book is full of such stories and makes for a light and engaging read with chapters slice up perfectly in digestible chunks.

I’d offer two criticisms of the book. First, I think Robbins did a bit of an injustice to both Durante’s first wife (who left Durante a widower in 1943) in the degree of his negative portrayal of her. Much of the source material for this information appears to be Durante’s longtime friend Eddie Jackson who the first Mrs. Durante didn’t get along with. What Robbins ended up with was a somewhat one side portrayal of Jeanne Durante. In addition, as Robbins stated, Durante never criticized or spoke negatively of Jeanne and so Robbins’ portrayal of Jeanne wasn’t quite in the spirit of Schnozolla.

In addition, the book has a somewhat uneven quality to it. For example, Robbins writes in painstaking detail about the one flop after another that MGM put Durante into. He then tells us that Durante’s pictures from the mid-1940s were better, but mentions no film by name between In the Army Now (1941) and The Last Judgment (1961). The book also tells us little about Durante’s latter day career as a ballad singer, a remarkable new direction for his that occurred at age 66.  Of course, Inka Dinka Doo was released before Sleepless in Seattle which created new interest in Durante’s ballads with Durante’s performance of “As Time   Goes By” and “Make Someone Happy” featuring prominently in the film.

Overall, there’s more to Durante’s life and career than this 200-page volume provides, however Robbins wrote with obvious affection for his subject and this book is not a bad place to start if you’re interested in learning about one of America’s best-loved entertainers. The book is out of print but may be available at your library (or through an interlibrary loan) or also as a used book through Amazon.

Rating: 3.75 out of 5.0 stars.

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Golden Age Article

Carry Me Back to Old Mayberry

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Andy and Barney
Andy Griffith passed away at the age of 86. Griffith was the star of one of the most beloved programs in television history, The Andy Griffith Show. 

Griffith’s legacy was not limited to that, however. Prior to Andy Griffith, he was a solid movie actor with He had a second great series two decades after in Elia Kazan’s masterpiece, A Face in the Crowd (1957) and the comedic classic No Time for Sergeants (1958). Then nearly two decades after Andy Griffith ended, Griffith spent nine years as high priced yet thrifty great suited lawyer Ben Matlock, and then after Matlock ended he enjoyed a state of semi-retirement as a character actor who could still create magic in movies like The Waitress. 

That said,  none of Griffith’s other work has had near the impact on his fellow citizens than  those eight years in Mayberry.  In 1998, 5 million people daily tuned into reruns of the Andy Griffith show. I doubt that number has declined much. Along with I Love Lucy, Andy Griffith remains one of those few shows that have not been forgotten by the sands of time.

What makes Mayberry stay strong?

Barney Fife: Any analysis of the show has to begin with Barney Fife. His five seasons on the show were the best of the series. He brought home four Emmy Awards for the role.  And won another as a guest star. Barney was the lovable buffoon and braggart who provided the show’s greatest comedic moments in shows, “Barney Joins the Choir” and “Citizen’s Arrest.” However, he could occasionally pull off the great dramatic moment as he did, “Andy on Trial.”

Gentle Human Comedy: If I could use one word to describe the Andy Griffith Show’s comedy, it’d be “gentle.”  Comedy today is often about put downs, denigrating women, denigrating men, denigrating different religions or political viewpoints, but Andy Griffith was about the foibles of frail human beings just like us who made mistakes and had their flaws.

It’s a show that makes you laugh without leaving you to question whether what you laughed was really funny or just cruel.  On Andy Griffith, the comedy often came from efforts to spare people’s reputation and feelings.  The Andy Griffith Show made more people laugh with its efforts to be kind than most shows that have tried to obtain laughter through cruelty.

Love and Music: The show in the midst of its hilarity would often create a beautiful dramatic moment that would touch the hearts of viewers as parents, as children, or just as plain humans who could relate to what the characters were going through.

Music was an important part of Southern life and played a significant role in the program with Sheriff Taylor, the Darling Family, Rafe Hollister, or others.  It gave the show a feeling of authenticity.

The Truest Show on Television:  Our trips to Mayberry would invariably come with a moral. The insertion of morals into the show was quite intentional. One man even used it as Curriculum for a Bible Study and a Baltimore pastor used it to create a sermon series when he observed that every one of the gifts of the Spirit could be illustrated by an Andy Griffith show.

The program taught good morals while rarely being “preachy.” You’d laugh at the events, but then turn off the TV and then you’d come away with a nugget of truth.

Of course, the show is often considered unrealistic with its often idyllic portrayal of small town life. Yet The Andy Griffith Show was more about truths that endure rather than the passing reality of the moment.

The strongest criticism of Andy Griffith was  the lack of black characters. There was only one Black character with a speaking role in the eight year run of Andy Griffith. We should note that the problem was not limited to Mayberry. In the far more urbane Dick Van Dyke Show,  I recall only two Black Characters with speaking roles in the five seasons. I’ve also seen the first three seasons of Green Acres and again no black actors. This problem has more to do with a Hollywood culture that had failed to cultivate black stars and character actors than it does any racism on the part of the producers of Andy Griffith. 

More to the point, it doesn’t matter in the long run to the show’s staying power of the program as Rochelle Riley wrote for the Detroit Free Press:

 “For me, and for many generations before me, ‘The Andy Griffith Show’ was about our lives, regardless of color or background…

“My family didn’t watch ‘The Andy Griffith Show’ to count black people. We watched to see our way of life, one that included spending hours picking plums in the plum orchard, then sitting under a chinaberry tree eating them, or walking along ponds to collect cattails.”

And many generations after will continue to enjoy the simple lessons of life in Mayberry.

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Book Review, Golden Age Article, Nero Wolfe

Book Review: Three Doors to Death

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Three Doors to Death is a Nero Wolfe short story published in 1950 featuring three novellas published from 1947-49 in American Magazine.

It begins with a classic introduction from Archie Goodwin as he wants to avoid any confusion by strangers to the Wolfe genre who might think because Wolfe didn’t get paid in two of the cases that Wolfe makes a practice of solving murder cases pro bono. He also explains the symmetry of the stories. It does a great job setting the tone for what follows:

“Man Alive”

A fashion designer hires Wolfe because she believes she’s seen her Uncle at a fashion show. The problem? Her uncle committed suicide in spectacular fashion jumping into Old Faithful at Yellowstone National Park a few months before his partner does himself in. It turns out she was right about him being alive but not for long. Her uncle is murdered in her office and she becomes a suspect even though the police have no idea who the victim is. Wolfe has to find out who did it.  This one is solved with a clever deduction based on the behavior of one of the heirs.

Rating: Very Satisfactory

“Omit Flowers”

As a personal favor to Marko Vukcic, Wolfe undertakes to clear a former great chef of the murder of the boss’ husband and his heir apparent as head of a large chain of restaurants.  Wolfe has no lead, but  Archie makes a lucky guess that leads to startling information that the widow has been stabbed but she won’t reveal the identity of the perpetrator.

This is a very well-balanced story that shows Archie’s  intuitive reasoning in action. That allows him to uncover information another detective would have missed and that Wolfe absolutely needed.  The mystery is engaging and the identity of the actual perpetrator provided a solid surprise ending.

Rating: Very Satisfactory

“Door to Death”

Door to Death may be the crown jewel of this collection. When Theodore has to take care of his ailing mother and take an indefinite leave as orchid nurse for Wolfe, Wolfe is left with the full time job taking care of them. This because so intolerable that Wolfe not only leaves the brownstone, but gets in a car and travels to hire away Andy, the gardener of a wealthy family to tend the orchids. However, before Wolfe can get away with the replacement orchid tender, a dead body is discovered and Andy is the prime suspect.

Wolfe’s determination to find an acceptable replacement for Andy was enough to interest him in solving the case. However, when a young woman has the impertinence to call him Nero, Wolfe becomes determined to solve the case even as he’s being ordered out by the local police. Wolfe goes to extreme measures to get back into the house and obtain an opportunity to investigate it.

This was a very satisfying story that showed both Wolfe’s genius and self-awareness as Wolfe insists on staying away from home knowing that if he goes home, he’ll be impossible to get back out. And this is a case Wolfe wants to solve.

Rating: Very Satisfactory

You really can’t go wrong with any of the stories.  The whole collection is Rex Stout at his best and the best novella collection I’ve read so far.

Overall Rating: very satisfactory

You can find all the Nero Wolfe books in Kindle, Audiobook, and book form on our Nero Wolfe page.

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