Detective Old Time Radio Shows

Conflict is essential to any good story, but it is rarely as obvious as it is in crime fiction. The conflict in crime fiction rarely involve man against nature or the elements like a straight adventure story (but the Genre is broad enough to allow these elements in). Rather crime fiction is a man against man competition, but it is usually a tale of good versus evil.
crime fiction, both in Literature and on the radio, is a large category. At its most basic, it is a story that involves a crime of some sort, and the forces that attempt to bring whoever committed the crime to justice. This definition may be too broad- Fibber McGee wheedling out of a parking ticket or the Great Gildersleeve taking shortcuts on his income tax may be crimes as well as good stories, but hardly great crime fiction. So an important factor in crime fiction is the severity of the crimes. Which leads to the popularity of mysteries involving murder, the most severe crime of all.

Edgar Allen Poe is generally acknowledged as one of the earliest crime writers with his C. August Dupin stories of "ratiocination", the Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Mystery of Marie Roget, and The Purloined Letter. The first two stories involve murder, but the third introduces a new crime, blackmail.

While Poe and others began the world of crime fiction, no one had as much influence in making the genre popular than Arthur Canon Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. Holmes has become synonymous with Detective work. Arthur Canon Doyle would only write four Holmes novels and 56 short stories, but the stories and adventures of Victorian England's most spectacular sleuth didn't end there. The character has appeared in numerous works by other authors and in many different films and TV adaptations. And he has made a number of appearances on the Radio. Beginning in the 1930s, Holmes, and his partner, Dr. Watson, have been portrayed in numerous series and adaptations.

Edgar Allen Poe Weird Circle "Murder in Rue Morgue":

The Holmes stories are both praised and criticized for their formulaic conventions. The "Whodunit" detective story becomes a puzzle for the listener or reader as the audience tries to solve the mystery before the protagonist reveals the answer. English clergyman and mystery writer Father Ronald Knox half joking went so far as to publish a set of Ten Golden Rules for Detective Fiction. (Of course other authors make it a point to break as many of the rules as they can.)

Many times the sleuth in a rules based whodunit is an amateur detective, or one who has left the police force. Part of canon Doyle's inspiration for Holmes was the seeming incompetence of Scotland Yard, and Holmes began a long tradition of detectives showing up the professionals. Some of the greatest Whodunit characters are Agatha Christie's retired Belgian Policeman, Hercule Poirot, Crime Fiction writer Ellery Queen, Hearthstone of the Death Squad, and Philo Vance. Some of the common elements to these stories is that the detective, whether associated directly with the Police or not, tend to be somewhat aristocratic, and the crimes are committed against, and usually by, members of the British middle and upper classes.

Hercule Poirot:

Ellery Queen:

Hearthstone:

Philo Vance:

This very British fantasy of such polite murders and the detectives who solved them didn't set well with American sensibilities. The reaction would evolve into the Hard-boiled Detective.

The Hard-boiled style was born in the Pulp magazines of the '20s and '30s, and from there is was a short leap to the screen and the radio airwaves. The Hard-boiled school took an unsentimental view of violence and sex, many of the Western stories in the pulps were as hard-boiled as the detective stories. Among the earliest of the hard-boiled detectives was Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade, introduced in the story "The Maltese Falcon" in 1929. Spade would only appear in four other stories besides the 'Falcon, but it was the portrayal of the San Francisco-based detective in the film starring Humphrey Bogart that helped to invigorate the popularity of the hard-boiled detective during the 1940s and beyond.

Sam Spade:

Another hard-boiled character forever associated with Bogey is Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlow. Marlow first appeared in "The Big Sleep", published as a novel in1939, but elements of the character appeared in several of Chandler's earlier short stories (most of which would be rewritten and published as Philip Marlow stories.) Like most of the hard-boiled detectives, Marlow prefers to work alone, he is usually poor, but upholds his personal code of honor (not unlike the cowboy heroes of western fiction), he carries a gun, but will take a beating if it will lead him to solving the case. Although the hard-boiled detective has a strong sense of right and wrong, he holds most authority, especially the cops, in a degree of disdain- and the cops usually would prefer to keep the Private Eye out of the way as well.

Philip Marlow:

Other noteworthy hard-boiled detectives include The Falcon, The Fat Man, Barry Craig, Dan Holiday of Box 13, Danny Clover of Broadway is My Beat, Yours Truly Johnny Dollar, Johnny Madero, and Pat Novak for Hire.

Barry Craig:

Box 13:

Broadway is My Beat:

The Falcon:

The Fat Man:

Pat Novak for Hire :

Yours Truly Johnny Dollar:

In contrast to the loner hard-boiled detectives, the cops of the police procedural dramas are ultimately team players. The long drudgery of police work contrasted with the low-life criminals they have to deal with often gives them a hard out look on life that can make them just as tough as the most hard-boiled loner. Some of the earliest examples of the police procedural, like Police Reporter, Calling All Cars, and Gangbusters, were more than a little sensationalist. However the true crimes they dramatized where in fact gruesome and sensational in their own right.

Police Reporter:

Calling All Cars:

Gangbusters:

The most influential of the police procedural dramas was Jack Webb's Dragnet. The program was not immediately accepted by network executives.It was felt that the day to day stories of Policemen told "straight" wouldn't sell without resorting to melodrama.Dragnet became known for its high degree of realism along with the incorruptibility of the police officers it portrayed. Every aspect of police work was chronicled, from patrol and paper work, to investigation and the questioning of witnesses and suspects. The personal lives of the detectives was mentioned, but usually as background, not as central to the story. Webb would state in an interview "We try to make it as real as a guy pouring a cup of coffee."

Dragnet:

In direct contrast to the hard-boiled detectives and the hard edge of the real police dramas, we have the Soft-Boiled Detectives. The element that makes them Soft-boiled is that they aren't Hard-boiled! Think of them as "Murder for the fun of it!" Some of the Soft-boiled detectives fall squarely in the camp of the traditional, rules based mysteries from the Golden Age of Mystery Fiction, while others are more up to date, and even with a murder in the mix, a lot of fun.

In hard boiled detective stories the girl is usually either "the poor damsel in distress" that the detective is helping, or the Femme Fatale who makes even more trouble for our hero. However there are a number of "Dame Detectives "who are rather soft boiled (with nice soft curves!) Phyl Coe Mysteries was an early show that was sponsored by the Philco Radio Company and featured a number of promotions along with the mystery. The Candy Matson character was originally written as male role, but after a talk from the writer's mother-in-law, he cast his wife in the role instead! Candy had a few elements borrowed from Hard-boiled detectives; she tried to present herself as being completely mercenary in her detecting. But her adventures, even when they involve murder, tend to be light hearted enough to count her as soft-boiled. Mercedes McCambridge's portrayal of Marty Ellis Bryant in Defense Attorney and The Defense Rests (same character in both shows) is one of the most entertaining mystery shows available. Attorney Ellis always finds herself defending some one who has been framed for murder, and with the help of her News Reporter boyfriend, manages find the guilty party.

Candy Matson

Phyl Coe Mysteries:

The real appeal of the detective story of course isn't the crime or the criminal, but the solving of the crime. Often the victim himself and what has happened to him is unimportant to the enjoyment of the story. And this is so completely opposite of real life. But crime fiction is ultimately a fantasy, even the Hard-boiled detective. While solving the crime may require more or less intellectual power, the audience enjoys the illusion that they have the same of greater intellectual power of the detective.

As macabre as the subject matter of murder is, the appeal of the detective story, no matter what medium, is that the best are just plain fun. See also: Espionage in Old Time Radio.

Some of our Favorite Detective Compilations:

Rare Detective Shows	Hardboiled Detectives	Softboiled Detectives	Espionage & Spies
Detective Couples	Bungling Burglars	Fatal Females	Dame Detectives
Frank Lovejoy Collection	Jeff Chandler Collection	Jack Webb Collection	Bob Bailey Collection
Best of Dragnet	Agatha Christie	John Dickson Carr

Full list of radio detectives >>

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