Nostalgic Mystery Radio

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Ep.92 Father Brown: The Mistake of the Machine Oct 08, 2021

Show notes

Rough and tough Hard-boiled detectives grab a lot of attention, but who would have a better insight on the nature of human evil than “a man who does next to nothing but hear men's real sins”?
Where could you find a more “soft-boiled” character than the parish priest. Mutual brought The Adventures of Father Brown to the air in 1945. Father Brown was the antithesis of the more celebrated soft-boiled detective, Sherlock Holmes. Where Holmes was a master of deduction, Father Brown relied on intuition based on his familiarity on men’s souls.
The Mistake of the Machine: A suspect is locked away, but has the prison governor got the right man?

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Ep.91 Agatha Christie's: The Unexpected Guest Oct 08, 2021

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The Unexpected Guest: A stranger discovers a woman standing over the dead body of her wheelchair-bound husband, gun in her hand. She admits to murder, and the unexpected guest offers to help her concoct a cover story.

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Ep.90 The Adventures of Sam Spade: The Bail Bond Caper Oct 02, 2021

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The Adventures of Sam Spade was a suspense/detective radio show starring Howard Duff in the colorful title role along with Lurene Tuttle as his secretary Effie. It was based on the private detective character created by Dashiell Hammett, well-known from the book and movie The Maltese Falcon. The show ran from 1946 to 1951. Duff was replaced by Steve Dunne in later episodes.
The Bail Bond Caper: A million-dollar robbery from an armored car puts Sam on the spot and in need of some bail himself! Originally aired June 27th, 1948.

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Ep.89 Tales of the Texas Rangers: Square Dance Oct 02, 2021

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Tales of the Texas Rangers, a western adventure old-time radio drama, premiered on July 8, 1950, on the US NBC radio network and remained on the air through September 14, 1952.
Movie star Joel McCrea starred as Texas Ranger Jayce Pearson, who used the latest scientific techniques to identify the criminals and his faithful horse, Charcoal (or "Charky," as Jayce would sometimes refer to him), to track them down. The shows were reenactments of actual Texas Ranger cases.
Square Dance: An awful murder is committed in the parking lot of a square dance.
Originally aired May 20th, 1951.

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Ep.88 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Eyes of Mr. Leyton Oct 02, 2021

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Sherlock Holmes, fictional character created by the Scottish writer Arthur Conan Doyle. The prototype for the modern mastermind detective, Holmes first appeared in Conan Doyle’s A Study in Scarlet, published in Beeton’s Christmas Annual of 1887. As the world’s first and only “consulting detective,” he pursued criminals throughout Victorian and Edwardian London, the south of England, and continental Europe.
From 1939 to 1946, Basil Rathbone played Sherlock Holmes with his friend Nigel Bruce on cinema and radio.
The Eyes if Mr. Leyton: Holmes tries to prevent a murder in an opium den.
Originally aired September 24th,1945.

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Ep.87 Father Brown: The Arrow of Heaven Oct 02, 2021

Show notes

Rough and tough Hard-boiled detectives grab a lot of attention, but who would have a better insight on the nature of human evil than “a man who does next to nothing but hear men's real sins”?
Where could you find a more “soft-boiled” character than the parish priest. Mutual brought The Adventures of Father Brown to the air in 1945. Father Brown was the antithesis of the more celebrated soft-boiled detective, Sherlock Holmes. Where Holmes was a master of deduction, Father Brown relied on intuition based on his familiarity on men’s souls.
The Arrow of Heaven: A trip to New York leads to a murky trail of blackmail and murder.

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Ep.86 The Adventures of Philip Marlowe: The Dude From Manhattan Oct 01, 2021

Show notes

Get this and get it straight. Crime is a sucker's road and those who travel it wind up in the gutter, the prison or the grave.
Philip Marlowe was Los Angeles's toughest detective in the groundbreaking series by Raymond Chandler that helped establish the "hard-boiled" detective subgenre.
The Dude From Manhattan: Marlowe's visiting a dude ranch for a western-style murder by horse-shoe! Originally aired July 2nd, 1949.

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Ep.85 Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot: The Bride Wore Fright Sep 30, 2021

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Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot: the world-renowned, moustachioed Belgian private detective, unsurpassed in his intelligence and understanding of the criminal mind, respected and admired by police forces and heads of state across the globe.
Since his inception over 100 years ago, Poirot has stolen the hearts and minds of audiences from Azerbaijan to Vietnam, and his celebrated cases have been recorded across 33 original novels and over 50 short stories.
The Bride Wore Fright: Poirot arrives at his apartment to find a woman in a wedding dress hiding from a dangerous groom. Originally aired December 7th, 1945.

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Ep.84 Dragnet: The Big Fake Sep 28, 2021

Show notes

Dragnet ran from June 3rd,1949 to February 26th,1957 on NBC at various times and days and starred Jack Webb as Detective Sergeant Joe Friday. Various partners throughout the show's run were Sergeant Ben Romero (Barton Yarborough), Ed Jacobs (Barney Phillips), and Officer Frank Smith (Ben Alexander).
Webb was the creator/Director of the series and wanted everything to be as authentic as possible, down to the last sound effect. The stories were based on actual police files and "the names were changed to protect the innocent".
Dragnet broke a few radio taboos as well, such as dramatizing sex crimes. Children also were killed on occasion as in the episode "Twenty-Two Rifle For Christmas". The series eventually went to television and ran there for many years.
The Big Fake: A drunk accuses a rookie cop of beating him up, robbing him. Originally aired June 1st,1950.

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Ep.83 Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None Sep 24, 2021

Show notes

And Then There Were None: Agatha Christie's famous detective story without a detective, adapted by Joy Wilkinson.

Ten guests are separately invited to an island by a person none of them knows very well, if at-all. When they arrive, it seems they have all been invited for different reasons. Nothing quite adds up.

An anonymous voice accuses each of them of having murdered someone. By the end of the first night, one of the guests is dead. Stranded by a violent storm and tormented by the nursery rhyme 'Ten Little Soldier Boys', the ten guests fear for their lives. Who is the killer? Is it one of them?

'And Then There Were None' was named the world's favourite Agatha Christie novel in a poll in September 2015.

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