Tag: mixed review

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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DVD Review, Golden Age Article

DVD Review: Dick Tracy (1990)

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Dick Tracy is a comic strip movie starring Warren Beatty as the famous detective Dick Tracy, as he tries to take down the criminal organization of Big Boy Caprice (Al Pacino) while avoiding the designs of Breathless Mahoney (Madonna.)

This film won three technical Oscars and deserved it. The world created for this movie is visually appealing with some stunning use of color and art deco touches as well. The make-up and costume design are top notch. In addition, Danny Elfman turns in a typically good score.

The story is decent if not spectacular. The final the twist at the end is good. The plot points related to Junior are taken right out of the comic and feel right in place. There are also some great actors in relatively minor roles including Dick Van Dyke, Dustin Hofffman, and James Caan. In addition, in a nod to classic detective movies, Mike Mazurki shows up.

There are three problems with the film. First, I don’t care much for Beatty’s performance as Tracy. He was going for strait-laced and upright but instead comes off as stiff. Al Pacino, on the other hand, gives a performance that is way over the top. I’ll never understand how he got nominated for an Oscar, a BAFTA, a Golden Globe, and a Saturn Award. For me, it was a grating, scenery-chewing performance that was more annoying than funny.

Second, there’s too much of Madonna singing in this film. One or two musical numbers, I can see. But she has five numbers in this film. They’re all well-written, but the only one that worked was, “Back in Business.”

Third, the film’s tone is inconsistent. It’s a movie that doesn’t know who its marketing itself to. I remember seeing happy meal toys for this movie and the bright colors and character of Junior would appeal to kids. On the other hand, some of the violence was too extreme for children and Breathless Mahoney is an over-sexualized character in keeping with Madonna’s 1990s brand. On the other hand, much of the plot, story, and characters doesn’t appeal to adults. The tonal differences means that sometimes, it feels like the characters are in different movies.

They were trying to imitate Chester Gould, who made Dick Tracy, the type of comic strip the whole family wanted to read by mixing elements that appeal to kids and adults to satisfy everyone. In the film, they seem to have succeeded in not fully satisfying many people at all.

That said, there are worse attempts to adapt a classic property. A lot does work about the film. Something Val Kilmer would prove six years later in The Saint. The film looks classy and has a great sense of style, with a lot of homages to its source material. If you’re a Madonna fan and/or you liked Al Pacino’s performance in this, you’re going to like it more than I did. For me, it’s a film that had a lot of potential but never fully lived up to it.

Rating: 3 out of 5

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Book Review, Golden Age Article

Book Review: Before Midnight

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Editor’s Note: A version of this review originally appeared 9 years ago.

How annoying can a client or set of clients get? Nero Wolfe finds out in Before Midnight.

After the death of a hotshot advertising executive, his firm hires Wolfe not to find the killer, but to locate the dead man’s wallet which contained the answers to a verse-guessing contest with $800,000 in prizes at stake.

The story plodded along. While some of the suspects were interesting, I couldn’t consider most of them as likely suspects for either the murder or taking the wallet. The focus was on the contestants, four of whom came from out of town. To go to a place you don’t know, commit a homicide, and evade detection by the police is a tough task, and nothing made me believe any of these out-of-towners would do it.

What held the story together was watching Wolfe’s clients from the advertising firm of LBA, who represented the most annoying and foolish clients Wolfe ever had the misfortune of taking on. There was a pleasure of seeing these guys in action that wasn’t unlike watching a trainwreck. Wolfe had been about his leisurely pace of crime solving for 20 years, LBA was in a mode of “hurry up and do something,” even setting a deadline for Wolfe.

Their battles with each other and Wolfe continue for most of the book. Toward the end, just when we’re expecting Wolfe to spend a few chapters and several glasses of beer unraveling the mystery, we’re thrown for a loop with a plot twist that leaves Wolfe reeling, embarrassed, and determined to get a daring soul who committed a murder right in Wolfe’s office.

The twist makes up for the weakness of the book, which was a letdown after the pure brilliance of Murder by the Book. Still with a twist ending and some classically annoying clients, I’ll give it a:

Rating: Satisfactory (4 stars)

Audio Drama Review, Podcast

Audio Drama Review: The Red Panda Adventures, Season 7

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At the end of Season Six, during World War II, the entire Canadian Home Team of superhuman allied soldiers was wiped out. The Red Panda (Gregg Taylor), in the guise of August Fenwick, had his plane explode while heading to Europe.

The first half of Season Seven picks up where Season Six left off with The Flying Squirrel (Clarissa Der Nederlanden) having to pick up the pieces. Missing her husband and crime-fighting partner,  Kit Baxter-Fenwick has to keep the city safe while expecting the birth of her first child.  It’s decided that neither the fifth columnist or the criminal element in Toronto should know of the Panda’s apparent demise so the android John Doe (Christopher Mott) pretends to be the Red Panda. Kit has to mentor John and also help him as he tries to move on from the death of his wife.

This first half of the season works really well. While Season Six tried to develop Kit/The Flying Squirrel, those attempts came off as a bit artificial. In Season Seven, we get some really good character development, as well as a nice mix of solid adventures that we’ve come to expect.

**spoilers warning**

In the second half of the season, we learn the Red Panda survived and we pick up his story with him imprisoned in a POW camp. However, before his capture, the Red Panda (I believe) used his mental powers to segment all he knew of being the Red Panda from August Fenwick so he could not be coerced into revealing information. Fenwick meets up with former Red Panda Operative now Army Captain Andy Parker and his commando unit. He teams up with Parker, and is able to get them out of prison using Red Panda powers and abilities while denying being the Red Panda. They then make their away across Europe to the season’s denouement where the two halves of the season tie together.

There were things about the second half of the season I enjoyed, like the reappearance of a character who was presumed dead, and I think the last episode is good. However, what happened  with the Red Panda/August Fenwick is convoluted and I’m not sure I understand it right. The plot also got repetitive with the denials of him being the Red Panda and members of Parker’s Rangers thinking he was.  It felt a bit padded at six episodes. The arc would have been better if it’d been only three episodes long.

Overall, this is a still a solid season, owing to the strong first half, but it’s the weakest of the seven seasons I’ve listened to so far.

Rating: 3.75 out of 5

You can listen to Season 7 of The Red Panda Adventures here.

DVD Review, Golden Age Article

DVD Review: The Complete PRC Michael Shayne Mystery Collection

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Most of the Michael Shayne films from the first half of the 1940s starring Lloyd Nolan have been on DVD for years. This DVD features five films released in 1946 and ’47 starring future Ward Cleaver actor Hugh Beaumont as Michael Shayne.

The earlier films were B pictures for Fox, however the Hugh Beaumont films were poverty row pictures, with low budgets and generally dodgy acting with no-name casts.

The restoration is phenomenal. While the typical poverty row picture from original prints looks grainy and even unwatchable, these films look superb, given the source material. The production team on the release went to a lot of work to make these look as good as possible. Given I watch so many DVDs of older material where it looks like a straight transfer was done to get them out and start taking money, I was really impressed.

Hugh Beaumont elevates the quality of these films. The ordained minister who would go on to play Beaver’s dad is miscast. But Beaumont’s an actor and pulls this off. An annoying lead can wreck one of these films. (See George Montgomery in the Philip Marlowe “B” film The Brasher Doubloon.) 

The films are helped by having good underlying stories. The Fox Shayne films adapted one of Britt Halliday’s Shayne novels. All five of the PRC films were adapted  from Shayne novels. Halliday was great at constructing mystery plots and these transfer over well when the producers don’t tinker with them too much.

In the course of five films, Beaumont was paired with three different actresses as Phyllis Hamilton. Hamilton was a composite of Shayne’s wife Phyllis in the novel and Lucy Hamilton, who became Shayne’s secretary after his wife died. Cheryl Walker played the role in three films, Kathryn Adams in Blonde for a Day, and Trudy Marshall in Too Many Winners.  Walker and Adams did fine in the role, but I found Marshall irritating, though it’s hard to tell whether it was the screenwriting or her acting, but she was a negative on that film.

The rest of the supporting actors range from competent to awful, reflecting the sort of variety seen on these hour-plus-long poverty row films.

As to individual films, Murder is My Business, Three on Ticket, and Too Many Winners were decent to good films with Murder is My Business being the best. Larceny in Her Heart was based on the novel Bodies are Where You Find Them which was going to be a difficult novel to adapt in this format due to its complex political subplot, which does get reduced to confusing nonsense. In addition, in the novel, Shayne’s wife Phyllis heads to New York and isn’t heard from again. In this movie, Phyllis returns in the middle of the movie and adds a plot complication that the film didn’t have time for.

Blonde for a Day is undermined by weak acting apart from the leads and once again is too complicated for the limited run-time of the film, though I did find it more visually pleasing than when I first rented a non-restored version off Amazon a few years back.

While Too Many Winners was not my favorite, it’s the most noteworthy. As part of the plot, Mike and Phyllis are planning a duck-hunting vacation which is disrupted by the mystery and the movie is obsessed with this point, even using drawings of Mike and Phyllis duck-hunting in the opening credits. This film also featured the most recognizable actors to appear outside of Beaumont in the entire series. John Hamilton (aka Perry White from The Adventures of Superman) and also veteran TV and film character actor Ben Weldon who has 249 acting credits on his IMDB profile.

Given two of the movies aren’t good, it’s hard for me to recommend the set for everyone. However, if you love Michael Shayne books, are a fan of Hugh Beaumont, or if you like poverty row, B-movie mysteries and would like to see a well-restored production, this could be worth checking out.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

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Audio Drama Review, Golden Age Article

Audio Drama Review: The Twilight Zone Radio Dramas, Volume 7

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The seventh volume of the Twilight Zone Audio Dramas adapts six more stories as audio dramas:

“Hocus-Pocus and Frisby” is the story of a small-town braggart and teller of tall tales who garners the attention of aliens from outer space who think his whoppers are true. This is a fun story, with a nice dish of the absurd.

“Cavendar is Coming:” An angel with a problematic track record is given one last chance if he can help an awkward young woman. This is just bad. The premise is stupid (and depressing), the story is nonsensical and the dialogue is unimaginative. The TV version had the benefit of featuring a young Carol Burnett as the young woman Cavendar “helps.” The TV episode was released in 1962 and was a backdoor pilot for an unrelated series. It does not hold up.

“The Little People:” Two members of a spaceship crew land on a planet that’s seemingly uninhabited and work on repairing their ship. However, one of them sneaks away and discovers there is life: tiny people with their own society, who he decides to oppress by pretending to be their god. This is a somewhat typical Twilight Zone story, with some nice details and even a computer that plays a role, as well as a solid twist.

“One More Pallbearer:” A wealthy man invites three people over for dinner who he blames for embarrassments earlier in his life. He has a scheme to make all of them apologize and beg him for shelter. This is  the best story in the release. While actor Chelcie Ross isn’t a household name, he’s great in the lead and manages to embody the pettiness and the damaged mind of the wealthy man. The story has not only a twist ending, but a double twist.

“The Big Tall Wish:” A washed-up boxer boards with a single mom and is beloved by her son. He decides to make a comeback and a hopeful boy makes a wish, the biggest wish (a big tall wish) but will it be enough for the boxer to win. This is a simple, wistful tale, with a downbeat conclusion.

“The Living Doll:” A tyrant of a father is infuriated that his wife spent money to buy his stepdaughter a doll at the department store. The father doesn’t like the Talking Tina doll and is shocked when Tina lets him know the feeling is mutual. He hears the doll speaking, but only when no one else is around. Probably of all the stories I’ve listened to in the first seven volumes, this is the one that fits most easily into the horror genre, though it’s definitely a more psychological horror.

Overall, this box set is a mixed set. “One More Pallbearer” and “The Living Doll” are superb, “Cavendar is Coming” is awful. The other three are between okay to good.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

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Audio Drama Review, Golden Age Article

Audio Drama Review: Sherlock Holmes Theatre

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In 2005, the Hollywood Theatre of the Ear released a series of Sherlock Holmes plays starring Martin Jarvis as Holmes, and Kristoffer Tabori as Watson.

First up is Sherlock Holmes. The play is written by William Gillette and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and its performed (as far as I can tell) unabridged from the original text. The play is solidly acted, but the main reason to listen to it is to hear the play exactly as it was performed when it was first written.

From a modern listener’s perspective, the play’s a mixed bag. On one hand, it is delightful to see how many bits from the Holmes stories get mixed into this play. On the other, it has a very slow pace and quite a few scenes that are not that interesting. The opening scene in particular seems to go on forever. This is a play that goes on well over two hours. Orson Welles took the text of the play and condensed it back in 1938 for the Mercury Theater, and I think that version is more entertaining.  This version is more authentic as it has so much in it.

Perhaps the biggest surprise is, while Holmes still does his deductive bits, the play makes him into a swashbuckling romantic hero. Doyle was not  proprietary about the character or canon and went places that many Holmes purists would frown upon to make a commercially successful play.

Next up is The Speckled Band. This play was written by Doyle alone and it expands on one of the best Holmes short stories.  The play changes the name of the woman who comes to Holmes for help from Helen Stoner to Enid Stoner for reasons that aren’t clear.

The play begins after Enid Stoner has died under mysterious circumstances just before she was about to marry. Much of the information about the elder Stoner sister’s death that was relayed in the client consultation in the short story, we get to hear discussed at a coroner’s inquest.

Perhaps the highlight of the play is that we get to hear more of Doctor Grimesby Roylott. Next to Professor Moriarty, he’s the most memorable villain in Holmes but we only get to see him for one scene in the short story and otherwise learn about his actions second hand.  In the play, we get to hear him in action. Dwight Schultz (A-Team and Star Trek) does a great job bringing to life this dangerous, maniacal, manipulative villain in a really unforgettable performance.

The play does have its weak points. A lot of the material does come off as fluff and padding. One of the silliest parts was where Enid needed someone to tell her to go and see Holmes and Watson, even though the play has her meet Doctor Watson at the inquest. Also, Roylott is undermined after he asks her to sign over her money to him and she refuses and he tells her this is her last chance and she’ll be sorry, and then comes back later in the play to make the same offer and once again is clear that it’s her last chance.

Like with the first play, The Speckled Band’s biggest selling point is its authenticity to the original Doyle play.

The collection concludes with Ghastly Double Murder in Famed Detective’s Flat, a one-act comedy play by Yuri Rasovsky. It’s essentially a three-hander with the premise that Holmes, Watson, and Mrs. Hudson are unlikable, amoral, hypocrites who secretly despise one another. When Holmes announces he’s going to retire to beekeeping and give up his rooms at Baker Street, leaving Watson without a meal ticket to help retire his gambling debts and Mrs. Hudson without a tenant. So the only thing to be done is for Watson and Mrs. Hudson to frame Holmes for murder. Rasovsky also inserts that Holmes and Mrs. Hudson had an affair.

In my opinion, this isn’t funny at all. Comedy is possible in Sherlock Holmes  but good comedy works when its consistent with the characters and draws its comedy from who the characters are. In this case, this is a cynical play that’s far less clever than it thinks it is. I question the decision to include it in this collection. The first two plays are going  to appeal to fans of Holmes and Watson who’d love nothing more than to hear the original Victorian plays. A lot of people interested in that would be turned off by Rasovsky’s one-act play and I doubt those who would be interested in Rasovsky’s play would be into 4 hours of Victorian Melodrama. The best thing about Ghastly Double Murder in the Famed Detective’s Flat is that is mercifully short, adding up to about 45 minutes. Although, it does feel considerably longer. If it were longer, it would seriously downgrade the set.

Overall, I’d recommend this collection if you’re interested in hearing full cast Victorian Sherlock Holmes plays. If you’re not interested in the final play, you can skip it and your life won’t be the poorer for it.

Rating; 3.75 out of 5

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DVD Review, Golden Age Article

Film Review: The Body Vanished

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The Body Vanished is a 1939 British film where a vacationing Scotland Yard detective inspector and his reporter chum stumble across a mystery at a country house where the butler discovers a body, which then disappears.

I was able to watch this film for free on Amazon Prime. It’s a fun comedy mystery and seems to be a Quota Quickie, which adds up to the equivalent of an American B movie. This works better than your average American “B” picture. While it is low budget and some of the characters are a bit broad, the actors all know their business.

I admire the economy of the story telling. This is 15-20 minutes shorter than an American “B” film and that makes it a better movie because the story moves at a faster pace and avoids the more annoying padding you’d see in many of the American “B” films of the era.

This is by no means a classic, or a must-see film. It is a competently done black and white mystery that doesn’t overstay its welcome. If you like B-movies or simple light comedy mysteries, this will be an entertaining enough use of 46 minutes, so it’s worth checking out.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Audio Drama Review, Golden Age Article

Radio Show Review: The Danny Kaye Show

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The Danny Kaye show starred singer/comedian Danny Kaye and premiered in January 1945. It remained on the air until 1946 and was sponsored by Past Blue Ribbon Beer.

Kaye was a talented performer, and the show was good whenever he was given an opportunity to sing, to do zany skits, or do things that suited Danny Kaye’s talents. Yet, the show didn’t often let Kaye do that in its first season.

The first seventeen episode January-May season had the series as half a good musical/variety show and half a lame sitcom about making the show.

The series featured Eve Arden and Lionel Stander as Kaye’s sidekicks. Arden was a few years away from stardom with Our Miss Brooks, and Stander could be fun in the right role. However, they’re not  given much to work with.

The first season has some groan-inducing and tedious moments, but it’s more than made up for by the hilarious moments and Kaye’s crazy singing.

The second season that began in the fall of 1945 saw some big production changes that made the show better with a focus on Kaye interacting with guest stars, and with Butterfly McQueen becoming the show’s main comedic regular for about one scene a week.

Unfortunately, while most of the first season is in circulation, the second season is scarce. Two of the available episodes are shows for which Kaye was absent during a USO tour and had Frank Sinatra and Jack Benny filling in.  While they both did fine, they were essentially doing their own thing.

However, those episodes we do have with Kaye show a much-improved series. There’s one episode from January 25, 1946 where Kaye is his own guest star.  The episode for March 1, 1946 with Orson Welles as the guest star is my favorite as Welles critiques and analyzes the song Kaye sings at the start of each episode. The Carmen Miranda episode (February 15, 1946) is also really fun as well.  The Arthur Treacher episode (May 24, 1946) is kind of ho-hum, but still these four episodes suggest that Kaye’s second season was a good improvement on the first one.

Overall, these episodes are worth listening if you’re a Kaye fan. If you do start at the beginning and are disappointed by the weaker parts of the first season, check out what survives of Season 2 for a better experience.

 

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

The Danny Kaye show is available for free download here. 

Book Review, Golden Age Article

Book Review: Boston Blackie

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Boston Blackie was the lead character in fourteen movies and two separate radio series’ in the 1940s and a TV series in the 1950s. Before that he was a character in a series of short stories by Jack Boyle, the first few stories were collected in the 1919 book called Boston Blackie.

In literature, Blackie was a master criminal. He was hardly alone in that as both the Lone Wolf and the Saint were reformed thieves. What made Blackie different is not only was he a thief but he was a thief written with exceedingly noble character. The book opens with an introduction where Boyle describing his first meeting with Boston Blackie in San Francisco after the San Francisco Fire where he was tenderly caring for children left homeless. Boyle highlighted his dedication to his own moral code and suggested readers were in no position to judge the man.

We learn that Blackie has a wife named Mary. This seems to be the one thing both radio and TV shows took from the book in naming Blackie’s girlfriend in both mediums. They are partners in life and in crime. Both are pillars of the criminal community.

They commit all sorts of crimes but stop short of murder. Blackie, Mary, and their friends live according to a criminal code of honor. And Blackie is the ultimate upholder of the code. In the first and best story, Blackie is robbing a safe when he meets the son of the owner, who is a poor little rich boy left all alone. Blackie manages to get the boy a better home life and bring his parents together while still getting away with a fabulous jewel.

Blackie has reasons that he thinks makes most of his crimes virtuous. He plots to steal from a ship as revenge on the ship owner for treating Mary’s father badly. Blackie gives up the fruits of one robbery to save a poor man being railroaded by the police. In keeping with the criminal codes, he goes to prison rather than turn in a criminal who killed someone.

The only tracking down of a criminal occurs when Blackie goes after a bigamist who got out of prison because of his practice of encouraging jailbreaks and snitching to the guards to get reductions in his sentence, getting several prisoners killed while escaping.

The police and prison officials are universally corrupt in the Boston Blackie stories. Framing people for crimes they didn’t commit and being willful sadists is part of the job description. In many ways, this reflects big city police corruption and plays into the distrust the public had for the police.

It may stem from writer Jack Boyle’s run ins with the law. Boyle spent 11 months in San Quentin and created Blackie while serving in Canon City near Denver.  Boyle’s stories embellished his criminal career, though. He actually was in prison for check forgery. (Source: In Search of Jack Boyle)

As a book, Boston Blackie has a twisted moral sense to it. Often times, I’ve heard old time radio police programs and various leaders from the era complaining about literature that glorifies criminals. I never understood the full thrust of what was meant by that until this book. I often imagined books that, like modern media, glorify sadistic murderers for being as bad as they wanna be. Boston Blackie instead glorifies criminals as honorable, saintly figures who live by a code of honor.

The book’s relation to the radio show and the later Chester Morris movies is a bit strained. While the Lone Wolf and the Saint shifted in literature, Blackie’s transformation from an honorable crook to straight-laced hero came exclusively on radio and film.  (Update: Curt notes in the comments that the last three Blackie stories which weren’t collected in this book saw a change in Blackie to the character he’d become in the 1940s films.) He began as a reformed thief in the Chester Morris movies. By the late 1940s, one episode of the radio series suggested Blackie had never been in trouble with the law at all.

The book comes from the same era as another book that launched a media franchise, Tracer of Lost Persons (See review here. Like Tracer of Lost Persons, this book has its share of pretty dated sappy melodrama. Unlike Tracer of Lost Persons, there’s far fewer surprises or goofiness to add to the entertainment value. The main draw of the book is if you want to see the origins of Boston Blackie as a literary character. On its own, the book doesn’t have a whole lot to commend it.

Rating 2.25 out of 5

Audio Drama Review, Golden Age Article

Audio Drama Review: Black Jack Justice Season Six Review

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After five seasons and thirty-six episodes, Black Jack Justice had established  the main characters of Jack Justice (Christopher Mott) and Trixie Dixon, Girl Detective (Andrea Lyons). Season six features a fair share of experimental episodes.

“Cops and Robbers” is a story told mostly by the supporting cast, “The Sky’s the Limit” is a story of a Poker game where the players try to suss out what happened on a case where no one has all the facts. “Man’s Best Friend is told from the perspective of the office dog, King.

Of the three, I think “Sky’s the Limit” was probably the best. It’s definitely fun to hear the story pieced together and to be learning details as the characters are. The ending is a bit ambiguous but it’s still a lot of fun. The other two stories have their moments but don’t work as well. The side characters are not as interesting as Jack and Trixie so that limited my enjoyment of “Cops and Robbers.” As for, “Man’s Best Friend,” the dog narration part landed flat. The approach seemed to be, “I’m a dog who thinks he’s a detective.” I think it would have been funnier had he been thinking more like an actual dog.

I personally preferred the other three episodes which were more traditional Justice and Dixon mysteries. “The Albatross” was my favorite as Lieutenant Sabian (Gregg Taylor) hires them to look into the murder of a black girl in a tenement which his superiors want him to lay off of. The episode examines the idea that certain unresolved cases haunt detectives, whether official or otherwise.  It’s a well-done episode.

Overall, while I’m not crazy about all the experimental episodes in this season, I still enjoyed it pretty well.

Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0

You can download Black Justice Season Six from Decoder Ring Theatre.

Book Review, Golden Age Article

Book Review: Dragnet Dailies Septemer-November 1952

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Dragnet was not only a radio program, a TV program, and a movie in the 1950s, it was a pop culture phenomenon that not only led to spin-off novels and board games but a daily newspaper strip that spanned from 1952-1955.

Single strips have surfaced. Lewis Lovehaug (aka Linkara) did a review of an Australian Dragnet comic book which appears to have been made up of several edited newspaper strips. A few strips have appeared on various blogs around on the Internet. There does seem to be disagreement on the start date with many websites indicating 1953 as the start date, but this appears to be inaccurate. As best I can tell, it started in June 1952 and continued through May 1955.

This book collects an entire storyline from September 22-November 8, 1952. The overall plot is a good, standard Dragnet story about a search for a drug ring with the first clue coming at the scene of a drug-related accident.

The story features Frank Smith as a young police officer rather than the middle-aged character we came to know on TV. The Dragnet strip began in the interim period between the time Barton Yarborough (who played Friday’s first partner Ben Romero) died and when Ben Alexander was cast as Frank Smith. Clearly, the idea of having Friday with a younger partner appealed to Jack Webb. In addition to the newspaper strip, on a radio show, a young Martin Milner was cast as Friday’s partner Bill Lockwood for a month, but it didn’t work out, with Milner entering the military during Korea foreclosing the possibility. The newspaper strip Frank Smith does have a resemblance to Milner with a touch of Jimmy Olsen thrown in. The one plot complication is Joe Friday having a young partner makes Joe Friday going undercover as a college student seem silly. Smith would have been a more natural fit.

The art is decent with a fair likeness of Jack Webb as Friday. To be honest, it’s tough to tell how much of the mediocrity in the art has to do with the art and how much of it has to do with the quality of the scan of the material.

If you’ve read other collections of major newspaper strips, such as those published by the American Comics Library, this will probably not be all that impressive. Collections of major strips are often carefully restored. The collections are readable public domain comic strips of fair quality.

In addition, the price of $7.99 for a 42-strip story is a bit steep. Still, if you want to enjoy Dragnet as a newspaper strip and want to own a physical book as opposed to downloading them online then you may enjoy this book.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

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Audio Drama Review, Golden Age Article

Audio Drama Review: The Mark of Zorro

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On the big screen, Val Kilmer played iconic heroes such as Batman and the Saint. In 2011, he added the role of Zorro in LA Theatre works presentation of The Mark of Zorro, based on Johnston McCulley’s novel The Curse of Capistrano.

The play opens with Don Diego de la Vega (Kilmer) trying to woo the beautiful Lolita Pulido (Ruth Livier) to be his wife as his father is pressuring him to wed now that he’s in his mid-twenties. Lolita isn’t interested because of his foppish, bookish nature, however she falls in love with the masked adventurer and vigilante Zorro (also Kilmer). The villainous Captain Ramon becomes a rival for Lolita while also trying to capture Zorro.

The play has some great professional sound design and music. The cast is generally good, though a couple are very broad and big for audio. Unlike another Hollywood Theatre of the Ear Production I reviewed (The Maltese Falcon), this doesn’t have each character narrating their own actions. Instead, the events are narrated by the landlord at the local tavern (Armin Shimerman) giving the effect of the story being told to you by your friendly barkeep Shimerman. This is a fun choice and the casting may be a bit of a nod to his role on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as Ferengi bar owner and landlord Quark. I also think the story story did a good job establishing the culture and values of the time.

This story strives for book accuracy probably more than any other Zorro work. That does mean there are some surprises. In most adaptations, Zorro is an action hero who romances his lady. In this adaptation, Zorro is first and foremost, a romantic figure sweeping Lolita off her feet and protecting her from Captain Ramon. The story is a bit more romantic comedy than an action tale, and the dialogue and plot isn’t exactly out of Jane Austen.

Don Diego is never revealed to be Zorro, even to the audience. Zorro’s secret identity is nearly as well-known to the public as Batman’s and Superman’s, so this is odd. It’d be like a Batman movie that never showed Batman was Bruce Wayne despite the audience knowing it. Again, I think this is an example of being loyal to the book, but it didn’t work for me.

Overall, though, this was a good time. If you’d like a Zorro tale with some adventure, political intrigue, and some cheesy romance, this is a well-acted and enjoyable way to spend a few hours.

Rating:3.75 out of 5.0

Book Review, Golden Age Article

Book Review: The Case of the Crime King

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The Case of the Crime King was Richard Deming’s second original Dragnet tie-in novel for the original 1951-59 TV series.

The book focuses on Lt. Joe Friday and Sergeant Frank Smith’s efforts to break up a robbery ring. The case begins with the arrest of a clever criminal who Friday and Smith catch and send to prison.

Word begins to leak out of prison that about a new statewide gang with plans to accumulate a fortune and use the money to get one big score that will leave them living like kings. Friday and Smith are sure their man is behind it, but proving it is another matter.

The stakes have never been higher in a Dragnet case file as the lives of thousands and the freedom of millions depend on Friday and Smith stopping this criminal gang’s plot.

Like in his first effort, The Case of the Courteous Killer, Deming manages to capture the spirit of Dragnet, only telling a more complex case. In many ways, the case calls to mind the 1954 Dragnet film which focused on a gang-related investigation, only there are no out-of-character moments for Friday or Smith and we get a more satisfying resolution. The criminal is genuinely clever and the narrative remains at a strong level throughout. Unlike The Case of the Courteous Killer, there’s not really a sag in the story.

Worth noting is that The Case of the Crime King acknowledged the existence of steamier sides of life and Los Angeles that the 1950’s series avoided as it includes references to prostitutes and the criminals use an adult movie theater as an alibi. Neither aspect is written about in a salacious manner, but it does signal a slight shift that would be seen in the 1960’s revival.

On October 5, 2019, a review was held in the City of Boise, in and for the County of Ada. In a moment, the results of that review:

Verdict:

I will say that while this book was a fun read, I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as the Case of the Courteous Killer. That case had a killer who came after Sergeant Friday and put him in peril. Here the criminals are dangerous but far more methodical. It also had less of Smith’s humor, which disappointed.

If you love Dragnet and you like mysteries of this era Dragnet: The Case of the Crime King is a worthwhile read and at $2.99 in the Kindle Store, it’s a great deal. It’s a well-written case that was probably better than most of the episodes aired during the original series’ final season.

Rating: 4.25 out of 5

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Golden Age Article

Film Review: Alias Boston Blackie

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I noticed Alias Boston Blackie was available for free viewing on Amazon Prime, which is a treat given Sony holds the rights to the Boston Blackie series and has not done much to make the films available. While this was released in April 1942, it’s the most Christmasy detective film I’ve seen from the 1940s, so much so I debated not reviewing it until Christmas, but since it might disappear from Amazon before then, I decided to review it now.

Alias Boston Blackie find Blackie (Chester Morris) staging a Christmas Eve show for prisoners.  Inspector Farraday (Richard Lane) comes along for the ride suspecting Blackie is up to no good. However, a bitter prisoner (future Academy Award nominee Larry Parks) claims he was framed. He decides to tie up a performing clown and take his place so he can get to the outside and enact vengeance on the men who framed him. Blackie needs to stop him before the prisoner gets Blackie and his sister (Adele Mara) in trouble.

What Worked:

Morris’ portrayal of Boston Blackie is the best I’ve seen.  This film avoids the worst fault of Blackie as a character as he can sometimes seem a bit “too cool for school.” Here Blackie is more grounded. The script acknowledges Blackie’s been to prison and Farraday sent him there. Blackie expresses an understandable note of annoyance at Farraday’s continued suspicion.

I also like Farraday in this one as he seems more competent and believable than in many of the radio episodes. Blackie still gets the better of Farraday several times throughout the story, but it feels less like Blackie is fighting a battle of wits with an unarmed man than it does in some later films.

Detective Matthews schtick as a bit of a dim bulb policeman works far better than it did in the later film A Close Call for Boston Blackie which I reviewed previously. He’s helped by Farraday’s competence.

There are fun antics and clever turns as Blackie has to dodge the police and find some way out of this mess. There were a couple moments when I was expecting the film to go one direction and it went somewhere else entirely, leaving me pleasantly surprised. It was both exciting and amusing.

George Stone made a decent showing here as Blackie’s sidekick Runt, delivering a few laughs, and never becoming annoying.

I like the Christmas vibe, which the film uses just right. While the movie’s not overly sentimental, it does maintain a holiday feel without overdoing it. It’s the type of detective movie you’d reach for around the holidays when you want their flavor without being drenched.

Also, we get to see the character of Arthur Manleder, who I’d only heard in the 1944 Summer radio series.  

What Doesn’t Work

Larry Park’s character is loathsome. Giving the escaped prisoner a sister who was one of the performers served a plot purpose of explaining why Blackie tries to reason with the guy so he can return the escapee without getting the sister in trouble. However, the guy’s response to Blackie’s overtures and his willingness to expose his sister to legal jeopardy to carry out this revenge plot makes me despite this character. That’s a problem as the movie’s focus eventually shifts to Blackie trying to uncover proof of the escaped would-be murderer’s innocence.

I also have to say the prisoner had his own private office as the prison’s “dramatic director” that he could access while guards were everywhere. This is one of the silliest plot ideas I’ve ever heard.

Being only sixty-seven minutes hurts this film as its more than forty minutes in when Blackie shifts from tracking down the prisoner to proving his innocence which makes for a bit of a rushed story towards the end.

Overall:

I enjoyed this quite a bit. It’s still a B-movie, but it’s a pretty well-done film despite its flaws. Chester Morris turns in a solid performance and most of the rest of the cast is on-point. It’s a fun, fast-paced film with fun comic moments. Watch it now, or wait until December and hope it’s still on Amazon to watch so you can enjoy it in all its Christmasy glory.

Rating: 4 out of 5

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