Radio review - "Suspense" - 2 versions of "The Black Path of Fear" (1943) and (1946)

 One with Brian Donlevy, the other with Cary Grant, same script basically from the Cornell Woolrich novel which works as a short story.

Wonderful sense of doom to start off with. Decent ending. 

Radio serial review - "Wings above the Diamantina" by Arthur Upfield (1939)

 A Boney novel adapted. Some dodgy race stuff but at least he's the hero. The mystery isn't bad. Everyone talks posh but they were like that back then. The version I heard wasn't credited but I think it was from 1939 with Ron Randell.

Radio play review - "Portrait of a Gentleman" by George Farwell (1940)

 Excellent play about the artist, forger, dandy and poisoner Thomas Wainwright. Great fun - terrific central character (spoilt, entitled, insane, self aware), decent action (poisoning various people including idiotic uncle and a girl who loves him). This should have been adapted for TV or a film.

Play review - "Lazy in the Sun" by Max Afford

 More serious Afford work (he was better known for mysteries) - an English woman arrives in post war Australia and has Thoughts on how spoilt and rich we were (to be fair she was tortured by the Gestaspo - she really should have been Italian, I don't think it happened that much to the Brits). She is shown otherwise by an Aussie who is blinded. Polemical but interesting in its discussion of where Australia sits in the world.

Radio review - "The Consulting Room" by Max Afford (warning: spoilers)

 Afford was famed for this thrillers but this is something different - the tale of a young married couple who check into a doctor's surgery and realise they are dead after having killed themselves. A variation on Outward Bound and all those afterlife plays but very effective. Afford was a good writer. He was very stong on married couples. And it has a point - about the importance of living. (Though is she able to have a kid with a terminal illness.)

Radio review - "Cause Celebre" by Terence Rattigan (1975)

 Rattigan's career had its up and downs but it's lovely he had a last big fat old hit with this account of the Rattenbury case. It's set in the 1930s so Rattigan knew how people talked. The material is about sex, repression, people going crazy - so in his wheelhouse. It feels a little fresher with more explicit references to sex, hookers, cocaine, impotence and so on. 

This is the 1975 radio version. It leaps around in time.

Radio play review - "The Lion in Winter" by James Goldman

 Splendid. This one was an LA Theatre works production. Alfred Molina as Henry II. It snaps, crackles and pops. Twists, viciousness, wit and fun. Eminently quotable. So much fun. Yet emotionally harsh too.

Radio review - "Hound of the Baskervilles"

 LATW version of the classic Sherlock Holmes piece which I've always loved. Great mystery. A mythical threat turns out to be more realistic and just as dangerous. Solid twists. Wonderful atmosphere. Canadian romantic lead. Watson and Holmes in good form.

Radio play review - "Dracula"

 An LATW version of the great novel. Lots of fun. Diary entry format worked well though there were a few characters to keep track of. This is such a great yarn: Jonathan Harker at the castle, death of Lucy, Renfield, Van Helsing, the final confrontation.

Radio review - "Dracula" by Bram Stoker adapted by LA Theatreworks

 Entertaining adaptation of the novel - it keeps its diary form. It spanks along and everyone has a high old time.

Radio play reviews - "Playback" and "Poodle Springs" by Raymond Chandler

 Props to the BBC for including these two stories in their Philip Marlowe series - the weakest novel and an unfinished novel. Neither have a strong story. Playback is Marlowe chasing after a girl on a train. Poodle Springs has him married and whining about being a kept man. For completion's sake. Poodle Springs especially he seems to be horribly abusive because his wife just wants to live in a nice house.

Radio play review - "The Long Goodbye" by Raymond Chandler (BBC play)

 Decent adaptation of the classic story. Removes Lisa, focuses on Terry and Eileen Wade. The characters of Roger Wade and Eileen come across very strongly.

Radio play review - Marlowe#4 - "The Lady in the Lake" by Raymond Chandler (warning: spoilers)

 Solid Marlowe - this was a decent adaptation but I think I preferred the book, where the lake sequences felt creepier and the cop antagonist scarier. Those are the two most memorable things about this. It only just hit me why this novel/story doesn't hit the great heights - the character of Mildred, who kills a doctor's wife and another man, is barely seen - most of what she does is off stage. If Chandler had found a way to keep her alive a little more I think people would go for this more. (NB I didn't have this problem with the enigmatic Reagan in The Big Sleep maybe because there were other vivid characters and also Marlowe was a newer version of Reagan).

Radio review - Lux Radio Theatre - "Each Dawn I Die" (1939) ***

The Cagney-Raft prison film goes to radio, with Franchot Tone instead of Cagney (and Lyn Bari instead of Jane Bryan) - but it doesn't really matter because the story is more driven by Raft's character than Tone/Cagney's.

Tone is passive a lot of the time - thrown into prison, befriended by Raft who kind of falls in love with him, then busts out of prison ostensibly to help prove Tone's innocence, changes his mind, changes his mind again after hearing Tone won't dob, then busts back in prison.

Raft's better on radio than I thought he would be, without his great "look" - but then, the role is perfect for him and his tight-lipped delivery. No one else gets much of a look in.

Two silly things about the film are even more glaring here without visuals and Cagney's extra star power - the confusing stuff about Raft being annoyed Tone told the cops, and Raft going back in to prison to get a rat and help Tone. But it moves fast and is fun.

Good primer on best Orson Welles radio performances at AV Club

Article is at http://www.avclub.com/article/beyond-war-worlds-12-other-times-orson-welles-rule-240736 - very thorough, good solid cross section.

Book review - "I Love the Illusion: The Life and Career of Agnes Moorehead" by Charles Tranberg (2005)

Agnes Moorehead had one of the greatest careers of any character actress of the 20th century - she came to acting relatively late in life, after starting a teaching career, but got work quite quickly: did particularly well in radio where she met a young Orson Welles who took her to Hollywood with him; she delivered two superb performances in Citizen Kane and Magnificent Ambersons that helped set her up for life in cinema; was the definitive lead in Sorry Wrong Number on radio, perhaps the most famous radio play of all and worked constantly in that medium as well; conquered theatre with Don Juan in Hell in the 1950s; then in the 1960s swept all before her as Endora in Bewitched. Never out of work, always liked, a true professional.

Charles Tranberg has done a very good job of covering her life, helped by access to her papers. His examination of her acting style and career is very thorough - the look at her credits is very well done.

To be honest though it wasn't a terribly interesting life. There's an old rumour she was a lesbian, which Tranberg debunks; I think this got started because Moorehead simply looked like people's idea of a lesbian - and it might have livened up the book. She was a Midwestern gal who was religious, adored her dad who died early, who worked very hard and had Midwestern morality - becoming increasingly publicly associated with right wing causes towards the end of her life. She had rotten luck with her love life, with several failed marriages; she was also a lousy mother, fostering a kid but barely spending any time with him, making him raised by nannies and at boarding school (this is the most upsetting section of the book - they had a falling out and the guy dropped out of her life and no one knows what happened to him). I think she just loved acting so much she was prepared to give her career priority over everything.

It seems she was an immacuate pro and complete actress, working hard and always prepared. She could be a pain in the neck over things like billing and respect and whinged a lot around the time of Bewitched. But she knew her stuff and was always respected. I just wish she hadn't been such of a dickhead. It's not the fault of Tranberg who has written a good book.

Radio review - Suspense #319 - "No Escape" (1948) **1/2

Jimmy Cagney says at the end of this episode he agreed to appear to promote road safety! He plays a guy who is on his way to accept a safety award and runs someone over. It's fun to hear Cagney but he's actually not that well cast - he's too strong and well, Jimmy Cagney like. Still, it has novelty.

Radio review - Suspense#314 - "Muddy Track" (1948) **

Edmond O'Brien is another tough talking guy who is framed for murder with Ann Blyth as the slinky dame. There's a shady guy as well. Fair run of the mill despite the horse racing setting.

Radio review - Suspense # 313 - "Death Sentence" (1948) *** (warning: spoilers)

John Garfield is sometimes an actor overlooked when talking of the great days of Hollywood despite an early death - he is overshadowed by other Warners tough guys like Cagney and Bogart - but he was good actor, as shown in this installment. A tough no-nonsense entry with Garfield as a dodgy guy involved with a shady lady. Raymond Burr is in it too.

Radio review - Suspense - "A Little Piece of Rope" (1948) ***** (warning: spoilers)

Astonishingly bleak episode where Lucille Ball stars as a not very successful actress in LA who makes her living posing as school girls enticing dirty old men into cars, conking them over the head and stealing their money. One night she is picked up by a man who turns out to be a serial killer... she tries to expose him without exposing herself, fails, so tries to kill him. Ultimately he kills her but then dies in a trap she sets for him!!

It's a powerful atmospheric tale with Ball very good in a completely untypical role and stands as an example of what was good about radio at its best.