Radio – TGA#32 – “Seven Keys to Baldpate” (1946) **1/2

Walter Pigeon is dreadful in this adaptation of the famous George M Cohan farce – stiff, dull, in a role that should be played with at least some verve, even if the character is passive a lot of the time. But I think part of the reason the Cohan play was so successful is that it is actor proof – there’s so much “business” going on, with Pigeon’s writer character being continually visited by other people who have keys: a hermit, local reporter, police sheriff, professor, gangster, etc. I have a soft spot for this play, with it’s bright construction and post-modernism (Pigeon is a trashy writer trying to come up with a novel in 24 hours and keeps meeting people who act like one of his trashy novels). Good fun – despite the awful lead performance. Martha Scott co-stars.