Tag Archives: noir

Radio Detective Story Hour Episode 277 – Escape: Finger of Doom

Writer and critic Anthony Boucher was assembling short stories from current mystery writers in 1945 for a collection he was calling Great American Detective Stories and wanted to include one from mystery and noir writer Cornell Woolrich. Boucher chose for his collection, the Woolrich story called “Finger of Doom” which first appeared in Argosy magazine in 1940; one of only… (more…)

Radio Detective Story Hour Episode 265 – Suspense: The Night Reveals

In 1934 at the height of the Great Depression, writer Cornell Woolrich decided to try to reinvent himself as a writer. He had spent most of the late twenties and early thirties attempting to be the next F. Scott Fitzgerald and he was getting nowhere despite a number of novels and short stories behind him some of which had a… (more…)

Radio Detective Story Hour Episode 230 – Deadline at Dawn

Though there are not always good examples, “Deadline at Dawn” as heard over Suspense in 1948 was a shining example of radio noir. Taking a story from the father of noir fiction, Cornell Woolrich (William Irish), and adaptation by one of the best noirish scriptwriters, Irving Ravetch, it was the perfect marriage of true audio noir. One must also not… (more…)

Radio Detective Story Hour Episode 226 – Matthew Slade, Private Investigator

By 1963 all dramatic radio had abandoned American radio broadcasting going the way of music and talk programs. With the rise of television, the networks and sponsors didn’t want to invest in radio drama. The model in this country called for dollars coming in from sponsors to support dramatic radio. Pacifica Radio, a West Coast network of Public Radio stations… (more…)

Radio Detective Story Hour Episode 221 – Murder Without Crime

Guns of Navarone director J. Lee Thompson began as a playwright and sometime radio writer. This podcast I am featuring a radio play based upon his stage play and which was heard on the Molle Mystery Theater. This is an excellent example of a radio drama which uses full dialogue and vocal spacing to present an effectively chilling thriller. Music… (more…)

Radio Detective Story Hour Episode 209 – Cornell Woolrich and the Avenging Angel

One of author Cornell Woolrich’s dominant noir themes was that of the avenging angel or “l’ange noir.” In this podcast, I look at that theme, how the author came to it and offer a selection from the radio series Suspense called “Angel Face” in which the theme emerges. Many of Woolrich’s noir stories feature some variation of this “black angel”… (more…)

Radio Detective Story Hour Episode 182 – Ford Theater – Laura

The beginning of my “Laura-fest” starting with the Ford Theater production of the Vera Caspary adaptation of Laura. These are not the actors who appeared in the film and they will need to grow on you if, like me, you are a huge fan of the film. Some comparisons between film, Lux Radio Theatre version and this one. Music under… (more…)

Radio Detective Story Hour Episode 177 – John Lund

After doing a re-evaluation of my opinion of John Lund as Johnny Dollar, I have decided my original thinking was flawed. After listening to more of his portrayal as Johnny Dollar in the early fifties, have led me to raise the bar on his performance. Lund’s Dollar, while dark, is much warmer than Edmund O’Brien who preceded him and quite… (more…)

Radio Detective Story Hour Episode 175 – Molle Mystery Theater

Cornell Woolrich was one of the most dominant authors whose stories appeared on the many mystery series of the forties. In this episode of Leg Man from the Molle Mystery Theater based on the short story of the same name, we find Burgess, a tenacious reporter who is seeking out not only a story, but wants to figure out a… (more…)

Radio Detective Story Hour Episode 173 – Two Men In a Furnished Room

This week a rare story from the pen of William Irish, aka Cornell Woolrich, that as a radio drama is pure audio noir. The series on which it appeared was the Mollé Mystery Theater in 1946 starring John Beal (right) and Sam Wanamaker. It is an example of what biographer Francis Nevins calls Wollrich’s oscillation thriller. All the elements of… (more…)