Latest / Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas / Phillip Marlowe: The Black Halo (EP1325)

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Phillip Marlowe: The Black Halo (EP1325) · Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas

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Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho. This
0:35
is your host, Adam Graham. If you have a comment, email it
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to me Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net, follow us on Twitter at
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Radio Detectives, and become one of our friends on Facebook, Facebook dot com
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Slash Radio Detectives. Before we do get started, I do want to remind
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you we have a couple other great series out there. We have the Old
1:00
Tom Radio Superman Show. Currently Blaine Dollar is pinch hitting for me. You
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can follow that over at laser Andsword dot com. And then there is The
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War. As we continue our v E day week of programs. You can
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follow us at The War dot Great Detectives dot net. Well it's Tom now
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for today's episode of the Adventures of Philip Marlow. Today's episode the Black Halo.
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Somewhere in the cold, persistent rain that made the city itself seem a
1:34
thing of evil, a girl it disappeared and it was my job to find
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it. But before I did, I found Death and the Devil. From
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the pen of Raymond Chandler, outstanding author of crime fiction, comes as most
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famous character. As CBS presents the Adventures of Philip barlow and now with Gerald
2:04
Moore starred as Philip Marlowe, we bring you tonight's exciting story, The Black
2:08
halos Well. Three days an ugly starm had lashed at the West coast from
2:27
northern Oregon to the tip of lower California. And although it was only noon
2:30
when I drove up to the sprawling red brick house just south of Santa Barbara
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to meet a new client of mine, the black that was in the sky
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and the driving rain that was everywhere left the day bleak and wet and cold.
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Left at the kind of day that made you feel that logs blazing in
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a fireplace and a warm, dry robe were the only things that could matter
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to anyone. But when I got inside the house, Felix Drum, three
2:55
hundred and fifty uncomfortable pounds of executive in a wheelchair, his living importing perfumes,
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was very worried, not about the weather outside. Follow Julia Perry is
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gone. I want you to find her and bring her back. And the
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sooner you do that, the better, and the more I know, mister
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Drum, easier it'll be exactly who is Julia Perry? My assistant, very
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capable girl who in the past six months practically taken over my entire business.
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She handles most of the work from her cottage here on the grounds where she
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lives. She also has some little cabby hole in Los Angeles where she keeps
3:30
her files and some sample stock. Yeah, the address of that cabby hole.
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If I knew the answer to everything, I wouldn't have hired you.
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And anyway, it isn't important A hand me that little bar is thank you.
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When did you last see Julian, mister Drum? Three days ago?
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It was three days ago when she left on one of her regular weekly trips
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down to Los Angeles to be done perfumed. Usually she stayed away overnight,
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but the Beechwood Plaza hotel most of the time, and she was back here
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by noon the next day. I suppose you've already checked the beach with Plaza.
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H Yes, of course, my man Ruby, the one who showed
4:19
you in, is called the place a dozen times. But they only know
4:23
that Julia registered there three days ago and hasn't been seen. Sin. What
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about the girl herself, mister Drum, I mean a background friend's family,
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that sort of thing. As far as I know, Marlowe Julia has no
4:32
friends, no family either. They're just a sweet but smart little girl from
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someplace in Kansas. No bows, not even nice ones. Huh. I
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don't think she had the time. You see. When Julia first came to
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work for me, she wanted to get ahead, and I gave her the
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chance. She made good. Today she's as much my right arm as Ruby
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is my late Mister Drum. Did you notice anything unusual about Julia's behavior lately?
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Yes, and that's the reason I'm worried. But two weeks ago I
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saw changes and the girl Marlow, she seemed less spry, more preoccupied.
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Oh. I figured it was overwork myself, since the end of the year
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always means detailed and new reports, so I made no comment at the time.
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I say, tell me, mister Drum, what does she look like?
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Well? I have no pictures, but she's a blonde of medium Hiden
5:18
was wearing a plaid raincoat and little circle of a hat when she left.
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Altogether, she's sweet and simple, if that's what you mean. Yeah,
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you might if I stopped into the cottage on my way out. Hmmm,
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Marlow, you turn the place inside out if it will help any Only since
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I'm certain that Julia's in some kind of bad trouble, You'll be quick and
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finder. Julia Perry's cottage was strictly the fifty to fifty arrangement the Drumat mentioned,
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with one room office near the living quarters. In the office, I
5:57
found everything in his poper place, so I moved to the other the moment
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I stepped over the threshold, the white fluff that trimmed the quilted bedspread and
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the splash of color in the drapes said that Julia Perry had to be something
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soft and warm, And the half a dozen quietly tailored suits that were lined
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up in the closet like a squad of soldiers facing right told me that she
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was also simple and meat. I ran through the pockets of her clothes and
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all the drawers and closets in the room, trying to find something that would
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give me a lead that I was sure I had to have perhapter. Twenty
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minutes, I had found only a leather cigarette case, a package of peppermint
6:31
life savers in a maroon and gold monogram book of matches, the cover of
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which was half torn off, so that I could only be certain that the
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middle initial was a V and that an E or an F or on either
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end. But since the name and address of an La novelty company was on
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the inside, I bought the matches as a starting point, dropped them into
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my pocket and headed for the door. When I opened it, I was
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surprised to find Ruby, Drums, right hand man, purple scar and all
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standing in the rain, staring at me like my ears was spinning. You
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seem to be a very sorrow man, mister private detective, and you seem
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to be a very nosy one. What do you want? Help, Julia?
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Nothing else. Here's a postcard that came for this morning. It was
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mailed in La yesterday, h D. Julia tried to reach you at Santa
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Barbara one one eight one both yesterday and today, but got no answer and
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leaving I'm leaving town tomorrow. There's one little girl who fled life and having
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kansas to another. I would have enjoyed seeing you again or a bit before
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I moved on to who knows where? And Santa Barbara one one eight one
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not the number here? Yeah, it's Julia's private business phone? Or what
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do you think the postcard? Any help? Possibly? Tell me? Ruby?
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Why didn't you show this to mister Drum. I forgot about it until
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just now. You're a liar. Well, it's on account of the postcard
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was delivered here to the cottage, which is no man's land for you.
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Yeah, sort of. Mister Drum doesn't like people who work for him mixing
8:03
socially with each other. Well, maybe a sweet kid like Julia hasn't got
8:07
any use for the passes you've been making at Anne Hold. I like Julia,
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and even if she don't go for me, anything I can do to
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help her, I still do understand. Yeah, I understand. I'm not
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so sure I believe. Goodbye Ruby. It was pushing five o'clock and still
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raining by the time I got back to La and over to the Novelly Company.
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Once there, I presented the torn book of matches that I had found
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in Julia's cottage to a ball man with horizontal question marks for eyebrows and who,
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at the crickle of a five dollar bill, tore himself away from his
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racing farm long enough to check the files for set of maroon and gold initials
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that had a V in the middle. And it was six o'clock before I
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had the answer, which was E V e. They weren't initials, but
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the front name of Missus Eve Bentley, who lived in a villa at the
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swank Sunset Terrast Apartments, and, according to the gentleman who said he knew
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his oats, was a very classy. An hour later I was at Missus
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Bentley's front door, and while I made with the chimes and waited, I
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wondered just how much a guy who loves the ponies could know about women.
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But when the door opened, I had my answer, Yes, what is
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it? Missus Eve Bentley wasn't beautiful, but she was everything else, including
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a shimmering yard of gold hair piled high on her head and held in place
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by a knot of pearls that no boy scout at the time. Her face
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was wide blue eyes and open red lips on a backdrop of soft fair skin.
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She wore a black silk jersey dress that must have been sprayed on.
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She smiled when I said my name was Philip Marlowe and that I wanted to
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talk talk about what mister Morrow Julia Perry. Have you hear of her?
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No? I haven't, hm, So I'll try again. What do you
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know about Anne? Somebody from Haven, Kansas? Absolutely nothing. This torn
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book of matches says otherwise. I found them in Julia Perry's Julia Perry is
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missing. I'm a private detective. It was hired to find it, and
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the matches turned out for yours. How may I come in? What?
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Oh, missus Bentley? Maybe we are to start all over. Wait just
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a minute, mister Marlow, I may be able to help you. Did
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this Julia Perry deal in perfumes? That's right now? How did you know
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that? Because I just remembered something, and now I'm sure I can explain
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why my matches showed up with it. Just a minute, just a minute.
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You know, whenever I'm talking to a beautiful woman, somebody is always
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creeping around in the kitchen. Who is it this time? Really, mister
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Marlow. There's a storm outside, and there were windows and trees. You
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put those three things together. That noise could have been a branch scratching on
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a glass bean or somebody with squeaky shoes and a lot of curiosity, somebody
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like mister Bentley, for instance. I doubt that, mister Marlow. You
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see, mister Bentley's been dead now for three long years. Oh yes,
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well, you were saying something about the matches. Oh yes, this is
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Julia Perry must somehow rather gotten hold of them through my fiancee, Marvin Whittaker
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figure like two and two. Marvin is in the perfume business. Julia also,
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I think he mentioned her name once, said she was very clever for
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her girl who looked like somebody's kid's sister. That's it's all right. Where
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well? I find said fiance at his favorite bar and grill. But won't
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you have a drink mister tomorrow? No, thanks e, there there wasn't
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time now the bar and grill, the Blue Boar, Blue Witch boor,
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mister Marlowe. It's a very English spot over on Wilshire, opposite Arthur Murray
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studio. But before you dash, do you at least have a match?
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Yeah? Old book up and honey tongue covered all and I want you to
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keep them. After all, they brought us together, didn't they. When
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I got outside, I postponed my run between the rain drops over the Wilship
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Boulevard long enough to take a look behind the villa. There, in a
12:13
newly planted strip of clover lawn below missus Bentley's kitchen window, I found something
12:18
which was no surprise, two clear prints of a man's shoe. But from
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there on out I got nothing more than a lot of rain down the back
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of my neck. So ten minutes later I dripped into my car and headed
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for the Blue Boar and Eve Bentley's Gentleman for him. I located Marvin Whitaker,
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a handsome hail fellow well met and a white turtleneck sweater and whiting bridges
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behind a hot rum toddy in a corner booth that was pictures of steeplechase mounts
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against newly antique mahogany. And when I told him that I was looking for
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Julia Perry, he flashed a lot of glistening teeth at me, insisted that
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I joined him in a warming glass of spirits, and started to talk,
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gesturing all the time with a riding crop. Bye. Yes, old man,
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I know Julia Perry and pact almost did some business with her today.
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I mean, you were supposed to meet Julia someplace that's right at eighteen eighty
13:09
one Selma Avenue'll be precise. But she called me this morning and postponed the
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whole transaction indefinitely. Could you stop projecting long enough to tell me why?
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She didn't say, of course, it's of no father to me on a
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day like this. No sane man should be any father away from a Toddi
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than we are right now. So drink up, all boy. It'll do
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you a world of good. Yeah, yeah, but it will plug mister
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Whitaker. One more question. Did Julia ever speak of a girlfriend named Dan,
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someone she knew years ago in Kansas? No, I don't believe she
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did. Model a matter of fact, Julia never talks of anything but perfumes.
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Now, drink your drink, fellow, before it's chilled through. Thanks,
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but no thanks, old bean. I do have to run. Really.
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It was a twenty minute drive to the address on Selma. The rain
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had stop at the time I got there. The place was one of those
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once upon a time rooming houses that had been partitioned off into a couple of
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dozen two by four cubby holes just big enough with a very small businessman to
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Phillis Mountain pen In. When I got to the door and asked the scrub
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woman, it was a lot of wild red hair around two popeyes with Julia
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Perry. I knew I was moving in the right direction because the lady standing
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in front of me was anything, but come more important, she had just
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heard a pistol shot from the back of her house. Yes, that's right,
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a pistol shot, not over two minutes ago. I'm sure that Perry
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girl had time to do with it, because when I come from inside,
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I saw her rush out down these ships. Did she say anything? I
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don't know. She was going out of site before I could open my mouth,
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but I know it was her on account of that plaid copety hat you
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wear. Yeah, yeah, now which room is hers? Come on?
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Well that one day with a light showing under the door. But it's not
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she will be able to get in. I get cried. I will try
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again for luck. It's not the best one, but my business. Amen,
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Yeah, dead one. At that Granny you know who the mudd and
15:09
clover grass on the bottom of his shoes. I tag him as a guy
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who was looking at a lady's kitchen window of an hour ago, that purple
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scar and his chink, and knew even better than that the name Granny is
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Ruby, a guy I thought was still in Santa Barbara. In just a
15:37
moment, we will return to the second act of the Adventures of Philip Marlowe,
15:39
but first given clues, even the newest of Philip marlow fans can deduce
15:45
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16:23
our star Gerald Moore, we returned the second act of Philip Marlowe and Tonight's
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story. The black Halo, Ruby's buddy sprawl on the floor and the girl
16:41
in the plaid raincoat running away from it meant one thing. Julia Perry's trouble
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was important, like life, but more like death. A half sneer was
16:48
congealed on Ruby's face and his eyes turned waxy, still held a look of
16:52
mild surprise. And I wasted some breath telling the scrub woman not to touch
16:57
anything. And then I put in a call and my overweight client in Santa
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Barbara. He was glad to hear from me at first. Well, no,
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I didn't expect to call from you this soon. You should work fast,
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don't you, lad? Have you found her? Have you located Julia?
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Not quite. She's about five minutes ahead of me. Incidentally, mister
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Drum, she works fast too. What do you mean by that? That
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me ask the questions? Number one? What was your like man Ruby doing
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in La at night? Ruby? Yeah? Why? I send him in
17:25
to pick up some medicine for me. Why come on, Drum even talked
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straight at that, and you're better. I just found Ruby dead dead?
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Ruby's dead? What happened to him? Olow? It was shot, So
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forget the gags and tell me why he was snooping around? All right?
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I didn't trust you. It's my policy to trust nobody until he proves himself.
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I sent Ruby in to follow you and check on your progress. That
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was brilliant. He only made three mistakes. First, I don't need to
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be checked on second, you got your man killed. In third, you
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forced Julia's hand because it was Miss Perry herself will pulled the trigger on Ruby.
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Julia, Hi hollow. I don't believe that, which proves nothing,
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mister Drum, but skip it. Tell me. Do you know a man
18:04
named Marvin Whittaker? Yeah? Oh should? I really says he's in the
18:08
perfume business. I know everybody on the coast to board more than two bottles
18:12
of perfume at one time in the last forty years, and I don't recall
18:15
that name. I think the man must be a liar, so do I
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thanks for the help, and Drum. If you've got any more expendable flukies
18:22
around, keep him out of my hair. I'll call you when I've got
18:26
something. I called homicide next and told the tective lieutenanty Barrow where to find
18:33
the body and who was responsible for it being in that dead condition. When
18:37
the question of why came up, I admitted that I was still shooting blanks.
18:41
I told him about the razzle Dazzle Whittaker had handed me and named the
18:45
Blue Boar on Wiltshire is my next stop. Ibarra said he'd called me there,
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And when I got to the entrance to the place, I saw Whittaker
18:51
draped in a trench coat that involved in upcloth the rig a foremasted schooner standing
18:56
in the ante room, impatiently smacking his leg with that riding crop. He
19:00
looked positively dashing. Question wise, which way hire them all? Old hey,
19:06
old boy, you look upset, anything wrong, and maybe upset wike
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of each other? One that's gonna spill? First, you're leaving or coming
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back? I'm just leaving, been here all the times since I talk to
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you. That's right, You see, my code is perfectly dry. Stop
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raining half an hour ago. Well but you see, if i'd been outside,
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I would have known that. But why this third degree mallow? What's
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up? It's a long story. Maybe we better sit down and talk it
19:30
all over from the beginning. Oh, I'm afraid I can't not just now.
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I've got a date showcap. Not this one. That's something something rather
19:37
special, special, like Eve Bentley. Look here, old boy, you're
19:42
prying into my personal affairs. Ripped the lid clear off your personal affairs if
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necessary to get a clean answer out of you. What do you really know
19:49
about Julia Perry? I told you once. Are you implying that I'm alive
19:52
at least that for instance? Who puts out a mirror? Come on,
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widick, it's a well known fragrance. Why I don't recall off hand?
20:02
That's strange because any woman knows Amy it's a Dana perfume. Just what are
20:06
you trying to prove by all this? And it's a perfume dealer, you
20:07
stink and try this. Besides, when I got to that address you gave
20:11
me, I found a fresh copse there with a bullet hole in it.
20:15
A murder, yeah, and your routine was pat brother. So before homicide
20:18
starts calling out the snags in your story, you better untangle it yourself right
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now. Your lied to me? And why did you do it? You
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go? Why the devil? Tell all right, Marlow, I'll tell you.
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I'll tell you. It was as quick as a wounded cat. The
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riding crop slashed across my face even before I'd realized it moved, and by
20:41
the time the red light stopped dancing in my eyes, Robin Witiger was gone.
20:48
I turned as the headwaiter walked up to me. He studied the hot
20:52
red weal uprising on my face for a moment, and then murmured discreetly that
20:55
if my name was Mallow, I was wanted on the phone it was Altenably
21:00
Barr. Well, you can stop beating the brush for Judith Perry. We
21:03
found her, it did. Where is she borro She's out in the alley.
21:07
Here behind the beechwood applies Hotel Marlo, exactly eight floors down from the
21:11
window of her room. She goes through the glass roof above the rear.
21:15
Oh it's not pretty. She explained the whole thing, including that Ruby guy's
21:21
murder and a note we found in her room. I'll be right over hebar
21:26
okay, the whole story. Marlow and Drum finally got around a trusting hurr.
21:42
He practically gave her his business. It was too much temptation. She'd
21:47
been stealing from him in a big way for almost a year, her note
21:49
says, and she decided to run for it when she knew she couldn't hide
21:52
the test any longer. That's right. That Ruby caught on someway and she
21:56
killed him. But I guess murder was too rich for a blood, so
22:00
she came back here, thought it over, and then checked out. Yeah,
22:04
all she left behind was a little plaid raincoat and that purse over there.
22:08
Hey, she was wearing a dinky hat, towy Bard, you find
22:11
that? Come over here to the windlow Phil, see down there and I
22:15
kind of be that little black circle. That's her hat. I sent Mooney
22:19
down to get it. Can't leave any loose ends around you know, yeah
22:25
that light Lieutenant? Oh sure, yeah? Thanks? Hey, what happened
22:30
to you that well? Down in your face? Phil? Uh backed that
22:33
horsey liar named Whittaker into a corner and he slapped his way out with a
22:37
riding crap. And speaking of loose ends, if I ever catch up with
22:41
that, hey, barrow, where did that stuff on the dresser come from?
22:45
This? Out of the pockets of Judah's plaid coat? Why? But
22:48
that's impossible unless holy smoke, that's why Whittaker lied to me. Hey,
22:53
where are you going with that? Phil? Come back here. I gotta
22:56
check on something and keep your notebook handy. If I'm right, this dealer
22:59
is still open all the way from the Suicides Room in the Beechwood Plaza out
23:08
to the Widows Villa in the sunset Terrace, and mine juggled a jumble of
23:11
facts trying to beat them into a brand new pattern, a pattern that had
23:15
to include an object the borrow had found in the pocket of that plaid raincoat.
23:18
It almost made sense. I needed just a little more. Oh.
23:23
When I turned into the parking lot at the sunset Terrace, rain began to
23:26
fall again, thin cold rain. I walked to Eve Mentley's door and pressed
23:32
the bell. Just as I expected, it was Marvin Whittaker, unsmiling and
23:37
nervous, who entered the door. I didn't give him a chance to think.
23:40
I just swung high. Okay, horseman, that squares us up.
23:45
Come on, heavy, rollover. I'd see if you're carrying a gun,
23:48
okay, no gun, be a good boy, whitty gun. You'll make
23:52
out all right, But one funny wiggle out of you and I'll crack a
23:55
skull. It's I promise, Do you hear me? All right? Where's
24:00
Eve? Is she here? Try not for yourself, mallow, I'm fair
24:04
enough that so I'm not talking through my head. I'll take a look in
24:07
her closet. First. She won't be in there, I can see,
24:11
no, but a future might be. Let's see, it's gotta be in
24:15
here someplace. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, this is probably it.
24:18
Brown fourth cote a sheik is a pair of hob nail boots and still damp.
24:22
The label says the pH company have in Kansas. That does it.
24:26
I've got it all now, and my chivalry just died. Where is she
24:29
Wittker? Where's he right here? Marlow? Oh, don't try that.
24:33
I guess you really do have it figured out, haven't you. Yeah?
24:36
See, I have sorry it turned out this way because you had your points
24:41
as even as Julia. Don't put it in the past tense Marlow. As
24:45
Eve Bentley, my life is just beginning, and now I've got everything I
24:48
ever wanted as Julia Perry. Julia Perry I was, she still is Whitaker.
24:53
At least that's what the bailet will call it in court. There won't
24:56
be any court, Marlow, I'm afraid there will. Baby twice a killer
25:00
now, and both for the same reason. Remember first, Ruby, because
25:03
he saw you as Eve and the girl you pushed out of the hotel window,
25:07
who was no doubt, Anne, your old chum from the hometown.
25:10
She must have seen you posing as Eve too. All right, Mama Anne
25:14
ran into me by accident and ruined everything. I had no choice. I
25:18
promised her money and then told her to go to my room at the beach
25:19
with pleasant and wait for me. I can't believe this. It can't be
25:22
true. Yes, Marvin, it is true, darling. I didn't want
25:26
this mess. I'd have left tom this morning as I intended, if sweet
25:29
sly little Ann hadn't seen me. I tried to get rid of you the
25:33
easy way, Marlow, and I sent you to Marvin. The Selma Street
25:36
address he gave you should have led you to the end of Julia Perry.
25:38
Is that why you phoned me and told me to lie to Marlow? Yes,
25:41
Marvin, I was going there to write my suicide note and used the
25:44
stock room for my disappearing act. But Ruby caught me, and after that
25:48
I had to work fast. But it's all right now. It all worked
25:53
out perfectly. They were the only two who knew besides you, Marlow.
26:00
Aren't you forgetting little Marvin here? Forgetting him? Oh no, mister Marra.
26:06
Marvin's the one person I can count on. That's what you think.
26:08
You don't get me mixed up in this. I bargain for an heiress,
26:12
not a murderist. Are you dirty? Look all right, then I'll use
26:18
this gun on you. Too, because I'm getting out of here. No
26:21
one could have stoped me. You're right between U. See, you can't
26:22
get us both. He's right, baby, You're not good enough to get
26:25
us both, and killing just one of us isn't going to solve anything.
26:27
What are you saying? It's been a long night, baby. He just
26:33
couldn't tell anyone. Do you want any more of this coffee model? No,
26:51
it's sludge, Lieutenant. I wonder what Julia Perry uses for a heart.
26:55
You know, she planned the thing for six months when she first set
26:57
herself up as Eve Badley, and it probably would have oh oh yes,
27:03
probably would have worked if everything hadn't closed in on her. Yeah. A
27:07
friend then from Kansas, Ruby the leg Man, and you were that torn
27:11
book of matches. Incidentally, that was pretty fast figuring up in the hotel
27:14
room that a mortal Oh not so fasty, But I knew he've had those
27:18
matches because I left him with him. So when you found the same matches
27:21
in the pocket of Julia's plaid, Codd figured Julia almost had to be that
27:25
left and to furnish the body for the suicide. Yeah, you know,
27:30
I wasn't so sure about that until I found the brown coat with a Haven
27:33
Kansas label in Eve's apartment. Yeah, well, i'd better wait on back
27:37
to the office. What can that rain come down? I think i'd let
27:41
a stop. I don't know, I doubt it. Oh, by the
27:45
way, here it's her hat Moon. He finally got it out off that
27:48
hotel canopy. Maybe you'd like it for a souvenir. Yeah, the military
27:52
people call it a halo hat and Alan wilald. I sat there a while
28:10
after he borrow left, looking at the rain in the street, the cold
28:15
coffee in front of me, and Julia's little round halo on the table,
28:19
And finally I got up and went outside. Dirty water scutted along the gutter
28:26
and gurgled thickly into the sewer drain at the corner. For a minute,
28:32
I caught a glimpse again of the girl I'd figured Julia Perry to be when
28:36
I went through a cottage at Santa Barbara. Yeah, that girl was an
28:40
angel. But when I finally caught up with her, a halo turned out
28:45
to be black jet black inside knock. I dropped the little hat into the
28:52
gutter and watched it go as far as the drain at the corner and then
28:56
I went home. The Adventures of Philip Marlowe, created by Raymond Chandler,
29:22
stars Gerald Moore and is produced and directed by Norman McDonald. Script is by
29:29
Meldon La Robert Mitchell and Gene Levitts featured in the cast with Joan Banks,
29:33
Paul Freeze, Peter Leeds, Jack Prusian and Lois Corbett. Lieutenant Detectiva bar
29:38
Is played by Jeff Corey. The special music was by Richard o'ran. Be
29:47
sure and be with us again next week. When Philip Marlowe says a startled
29:52
corpse, a blue eyed woman in a cryptic message scrawled by a dingy man
29:56
with the pieces of a Chinese puzzle, it wouldn't fit together until I've found
30:00
out what was deadly about the orange dog. You'll find a whole hour of
30:18
fun, variety music and thrills on sing it again tonight and every Saturday for
30:22
it's heard over most of these same CBS network stations. Now stay tuned for
30:29
Gang Busties, which follows immediately over most of these same stations. This is
30:40
Roy Rowan speaking for CBS the Columbia Broadcasting Systems. Welcome back well, a
31:03
very strong story definitely has a feeling of something that could have come from the
31:10
pen of Raymond Chandler, and I love the double identity a twist, and
31:15
just Marlowe's overall sardoniquit just a great episode. Speaking of that, I received
31:22
an email from Merph who writes a professor great work choosing pearls r Nuisance for
31:29
the recent special good Friend from Chandler and Bennox. I've been reading and rereading
31:33
Chandler at least since the seventies. I became a fan of the Life of
31:37
Riley in the fifties. I even named my computer's Chester and the Laptop of
31:42
Riley. What a revolting development for fans of the show. That was an
31:48
actually insult. That was actually one of Chester Riley's catchphrases. But I digress.
31:56
He goes on to say, concerning Chandler, I suspect you've already read
32:00
The Simple Art of Murder, but if you know, you might look it
32:04
up first publisher. I think in Atlantic it was his defense of realistic mystery
32:09
and detective fiction as post for example, stories like those written by Agatha Christy.
32:15
He makes a good case. Although I've enjoyed a lot of the sort
32:17
of stories he's dismissed. Great work also with your podcast The War, not
32:22
just because of the two Life of Riley episodes, although I didn't enjoy them,
32:27
remembrance is important. You do good work. I appreciate it well.
32:30
Thanks so much, Murph. And I have read his Simple Art of Murder,
32:37
and I'm kind of in the same boat as you. I love Poirot,
32:39
but he does make a very strong, very passionate case for his style
32:45
of detective fiction, of the hard boiled style. I don't like the dismissive
32:52
parts, but I really like the passion that he brings to that piece.
32:57
And you know, if you read that essay, and it is available online,
33:00
it's hosted over at the University of Texas, I you can just do
33:07
a search for Simple Art of Murder, and that's where I first read it
33:12
a year or two back. You read it, and you can in fact
33:15
get a description and a picture of Philip Marlowe and just reading from one paragraph
33:22
in the essay writing about this story, he says, in everything that can
33:28
be called art, there's a quality of redemption. It may be pure tragedy,
33:32
if it is high tragedy, and it may be pity and irony,
33:35
and it may be the raucous laughter of strong men. But down these mean
33:39
streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished
33:45
nor afraid. The detective in this kind of story must be such a man.
33:50
He is the hero. He is everything. He must be a complete
33:54
man and a common man, and yet an unusual man. And he goes
34:01
on to write some other characteristics. He is a relatively poor man, or
34:06
he would not be a detective at all. He is a common man,
34:09
or he would not go among common people. He has a sense of character,
34:14
or he would not know his job. He will take no man's money
34:17
dishonestly, and no man's insolence without due and dispassionate revenge. He is a
34:22
lonely man. In his pride is that you will treat him as a proud
34:28
man, or be very sorry you ever saw him. And I actually think
34:32
you read that. That just captures so much the spirit of Philip Marlow.
34:37
And one thing I love about the radio writers. Radio writers often on other
34:43
programs they would take detectives from literature and they'd say, you know, it's
34:47
great, You've got all these characteristics and personality, but We're just gonna take
34:52
this character name and make him the type of detective we want him to be.
34:57
The writers of Philip Marlowe. I think, you know, within the
35:00
limits of content standards on radio, they captured that character and you saw that
35:07
sort of sense of the dispassionate revenge served out when that fiance took a cheap
35:15
shot at him today, So I do. I think it's definitely worth a
35:20
read. You may not agree with all Chandler has to say, but I
35:25
think it's a very powerful, well stated sa and it is, as I
35:30
said, definitely worth of read and worth of thought myself. I'm just continuing
35:36
to take my first reads through Chandler. I've of course listened to all the
35:42
radio plays from the BBC and from the US I've been able to get my
35:46
hands on, but working through the books. Just finished the fifth one,
35:51
The Little Sister, and next up will be as short story collection Trouble as
35:54
My Business, so some fun stuff I had. Thanks so much for the
35:59
email, truly appreciated it. All right, Well, that will do it
36:04
for today. If you have a comment, send it to me Box thirteen
36:07
at Great Detectives dot net. Follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives and become
36:13
one of our friends on Facebook, Facebook, dot com. Slash Radio Detectives
36:17
from Boiseadaho. This is your host, Adam Grahamson and off