Mike's Site

Phantom comic-book #1514. It's Bavaria in the winter of 1824 -- and the 14th Phantom discovers there are things more dangerous than wolves in the mountains.

The Phantom's ancestor stumbles over a plot by a hypnotist to revenge himself on those he feels ruined his life.

Some nice art by Carlos Cruz [but not the cover] and a script by Claes Reimerthi that would have made a good Hammer movie. Just imagine, we could have had Christopher Lee as The Phantom and Peter Cushing as the mesmerist.

I sometimes have reservations about the Scandinavian-produced adventures of the Ghost Who Walks, but this one [Egmont 1994] is above average.

And watch out in September for the 60th anniversary issue of Frew Publications' Phantom comic book.

ABC TV's The Hollowmen: Fat Chance - Ep 1 Of 6

THEY'RE UNAFRAID, UNCOMPROMISING, UNELECTED...

A new six-part series, The Hollowmen is a comedy-drama set in the offices of the Central Policy Unit, a think tank set up by the Prime Minister to help him in the most important job of all - getting re-elected.

Their brief is "long term vision"; i.e. to stop worrying about tomorrow's headlines, and focus on next week's.

Created and produced by Working Dog, the group responsible for Frontline, the series features an ensemble cast including Lachy Hulme (The Matrix Reloaded), David James (All Saints), Neil Melville (Underbelly), Rob Sitch (Frontline) and introducing radio host Merrick Watts with Jacquie Brennan (City Homicide), Rob Carlton (Chandon Pictures), Santo Cilauro (Frontline), Stephen Hall (The King) and Nicola Parry (Thank God You're Here) and special guest Graeme Blundell.

In the first episode, the Prime Minister (often mentioned but never seen) is caught out on talk-back radio, rashly promising to tackle the problem of childhood obesity. Now the Unit must come up with a policy that keeps everyone happy... if such a thing is possible.

Sitch is wonderful as the ultimate spin doctor, so entranced by style that he is oblivious to any lack of substance. Catchphrases and jargon by the bucket-full are thrown about with gleeful abandon in this lively satire that will appeal to those willing to devote a bit more attention than usual to the small screen.

PRODUCTION DETAILS:
Written and conceived by Santo Cilauro, Tom Gleisner and Rob Sitch. Director: Rob Sitch; Executive Producer: Michael Hirsh.

Haven't been keeping up with my radio drama lately, but I did hear a few such as
Saturday Play 2008-04-26 BBC Radio 4 "The Small Back Room" Good adaptation of Nigel Balchin's novel about a bomb-disposal expert who has to battle both Nazi booby-traps and the British bureaucracy. Maybe hearing it will inspire people to dig out more of Balchin's novels from their library or second-hand shop.


Archie Andrews 46-07-06 "masked marvel"

I haven't read an Archie comic book for about forty years, but this sounds like a reasonably faithful adaptation. Can't say I'm motivated to chase down more of them though.


Charlie McCarthy 45-05-02

Guest, surprisingly, is astronomer Dr Max Mason who drops in to trade gags with Charlie and talk about the new telescope at Mount Palomar.


The Clock 48-04-25 "Bad dreams"

It's well enough performed but I don't think many people will be surprised by the ending of this melodrama about a man tormented by his dreams.


Gunsmoke 58-01-12 #301 "Second Son"

Matt Dillon and Chester run across a "remittance man", an Englishman exiled from Britain by his family. Unfortunately the visitor is overly fond of gambling and the marshal can see him coming to a bad end. Well done as always.


Imagination Theater #631 2008-04-27

"How Watson learned the trick"
Neat Sherlock Holmes story in which Holmes is grumpy because he disapproves of the actor who is portraying him in a play on the London stage. The supporting feature is "Hole In The Sky", a neat Twilight Zone style yarn in which Air Force One flies through a hole in space after a test of America's newest secret weapon.

Jack Benny 46-04-28

This one is a lot of fun. Jack and the gang have been to see Danny Kaye's latest movie and Jack is plainly jealous. Then who should he run into on the way home but Danny Kaye himself.

Philo Vance 1948-09-21 #11 Backstage murder case

Not my favorite detective series. We're a long way from the S.S. Van Dine original here, and though it's competently enough done the result is unremarkable.

Suspense 1950-06-22 "The One Millionth Joe"

Nice one with Jack Carson well cast as the PR whiz whose publicity stunt for the local airport turns the spotlight on a traveller who doesn't want to be a celebrity. Sylvia Richards recycling a clever script from Philip Morris Playhouse.

Suspense 1949-09-15 #350 "Last confession"

David Ellis penned this story, starring Dorothy McGuire as an over-imaginative woman who talks herself into believing that she committed the murder that took place near her home. Some familiar voices in the cast here.

CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER Episode #958
"Shadows from the Grave" February 28, 1979

Upon the death of his uncle, a photographer and his wife inherit his mansion, on condition they take pains to safeguard the crypt. But after a priest refuses to bless the grave, the photographer finds himself in a nightmare of hauntings, visions, black magic and murder.
Cast: Kristoffer Tabori, Fred Gwynne, Betsy Beard, Court Benson
Nice atmospheric chiller by James Agate, Jr., supposedly adapted from a Wilkie Collins story though I don't know which one.

Friday afternoons you'll nearly always find me at home listening to Alan Rider's show on Community Radio.

He has some great old tunes played on a variety of Wurlitzer, Hammond and Compton organs.

This week he had a particularly enjoyable range of music, in my humble opinion.

http://www.mediafire.com/?wxrcm3fzmix#

Billie Piper stars as Sally Lockhart in this adaptation of award-winning author Philip Pullman's (His Dark Materials trilogy) The Ruby In The Smoke. (That gave me pause - Pullman's reputation as an atheist is a bit off-putting.)

In this story, aired as a Sunday night feature on ABC-TV tonight, an orphaned teenager seeks the truth about her father's death in the dark and dangerous world of Victorian London.

If you nodded off and woke up after the opening credits, you might think you were in an episode of Charles Dickens' "Bleak House" that you'd somehow missed. The evocation of 19th century London is very well done and the cast fit into their parts well. Julie Walters in particular is so submerged in her role it's almost impossible to recognize her.

Some plot elements seem a little implausible - the freedom enjoyed by young women and black people doesn't ring quite true.

What's a bit startling is the fact this is based on a novel for children. There are several fatal stabbings, drug use, brutal beatings and the implied threat of under-age sex. Children's books have obviously changed since I was a boy.

Reprinted from the recent Scandinavian comic book that harks back to the 1952 Lee Falk story about the 19th century female Phantom. Here the Phantom's sister Julie again comes to his aid when he's injured fighting a band of slave traders.

The Felmang art is nice and there's a lovely colour cover by Antonio.

I sometimes get a bit tired of the Scandinavian scripts which all-too-often follow the Phantom's forebears who always seem to be present at key moments of European history, but this one is OK.

I've seen this 1942 B-movie so many times that its faults no longer bother me. I just sit back and enjoy watching 70 minutes of Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce and Lionel Atwill in glorious black-and-white.

The plot is some nonsense about Nazi spies and the plans for a bombsight, but the interplay between Holmes and Moriarty is great and I always enjoy Rathbone's Holmes disguising himself. We also get the Dancing Men code (one of the few things in the movie that Conan Doyle would have recognized!).

Even poor Dennis Hoey's buffoon-like Inspector Lestrade has ceased to annoy me. I just sit back and let it wash over me and enjoy it.

I ran this last week for my older sister Pauline, who happened to mention that she hadn't seen a Basil Rathbone movie for decades. "I think I can remedy that," I said. So after our usual roast dinner at her place on Wednesday night we fired up the DVD player and had a great time watching the antics at 221-B Baker Street.

"From the frozen heart of the American continent comes a nameless prehistoric terror of unspeakable savagery, leaving a broken trail of mangled victims that shocks and baffles the world. Only the superhuman Man of Bronze can meet this horrifying menace on its own bloody ground -- and uncover the even greater evil that spawned it."

Here's a thriller that appeared in the pulp magazines in 1940. By then the novelty had worn off even the great heroes like Doc Savage and The Shadow, but some of the later stories are still fun to read. The most interesting part of this one is actually the middle, where one of Doc's aides goes undercover as a guide to shadow a criminal who's on a fossil-hunting trip in the Badlands of South Dakota.

The plot itself is formula stuff -- has one of the villains really hatched out a dinosaur from a frozen egg and used it to decimate his rivals? And spotting the mole in the good guys' ranks isn't difficult.

There is an interesting period element in that the treasure being sought by the rival gangs is not a pirate's horde but some Nazi gold hidden by a German ship to avoid it being seized by a British warship.

TV show about the 13th child of a modest family from rural Switzerland, Cesar Ritz who migrated to Paris at the age of 17 after failing his education in his home country. There, he started to work as a waiter and within three years worked his way up to the post of manager in the midst of the major social and political upheavals of the Paris of the late 1860s and early 1870s.

His modern outlook, and his association with the then unknown chef Escoffier, soon made him the most fashionable hotelier in Europe, with all the rich and famous among his guests, including the future king Edward 7th.

This French documentary (shown on SBS on Friday night) takes the usual historical path, with archive photographs, visits to the relevant places as they are today, and interviews with experts and writers. The problem is that there isn't a lot of personal material to give us an insight into the man himself, and all the eye-witnesses are dead.

Nevertheless, if you're like me, you knew absolutely nothing about Mr Ritz, so you're a little better off than you were before.

Name a Noel Coward play. Chances are you wouldn't say "Present Laughter" but that was Hobart Rep's opening production for 2008.

First staged in 1942, this comedy has been revived around the world many times with varying degrees of faithfulness. Here we have Nick Falk in the demanding role of theatrical superstar Garry Essendine -- Garry is seldom off-stage and never stops talking when he is on stage. His dialogue is like a Gatling gun, firing witty remarks, sarcasm and barbed comments at maximum speed.

The story takes place in Garry's London flat, where he is plagued by a never-ending series of visitors including his manager, his ex-wife, a star-struck admirer and even (a modern touch) a creepy stalker, all played by veteran members of Hobart Rep.

The Playhouse was full of enthusiastic theatregoers for this farce. It bodes well for Rep's 2008 season, though I notice they're only doing five plays this year. Most years they've been doing six.

There's a list here
http://www.playhouse.org.au/content/showlistintro..html

2003 Steven Seagal movie filmed in Poland that will probably horrify non-fans of the actor. There's so much violence that at times it feels almost like a parody of an action movie.

Very high body count plus a torture scene in the opening reel. Slight nudity from Viktoriya Smirnova in Seagal's hotel room (unfortunately we never see her again!).

If you look at this as a non-stop MTV style thriller it's reasonably entertaining on the level of "Wow, look at that explosion!" and "I knew he was going to shoot her."

Max Ryan is occasionally amusing as the hero's sidekick/adversary. The camera work is efficient and the Polish locations eye-catching. But I can understand why this was released straight to video.

THE SHADOW #1 "The Living Shadow" (1931)

Harry Vincent is saved from suicide by a mysterious personage who he comes to call The Shadow. He's put to work as an agent; this turns out to be dangerous work and he has to be rescued several times by The Shadow.

There are evil goings-on in Chinatown in the first half of the story. Much of the second half of the story revolves around the search for some jewels which are to be fenced by the Chinese mastermind. (Warning: politically incorrect plot elements.)

Since this was the very first story about The Shadow, not all the familiar elements are present yet. Harry Vincent and Detective Joe Cardona are in it, but Lamont Cranston and Margo Lane are not mentioned. The only other agent of The Shadow present is insurance broker Claude Fellows.

The middle of the story tends to wander about a bit, as though Gibson was making it up as he went along (not impossible in the pulp era) and has the feel of a Dime Novel thriller.

But what we do get is the first of those wonderfully cinematic visits to the Shadow's lair. There, we see his girasol ring, and hear his mysterious laugh, all for the first time. Great stuff There's even a mention of radio show and how his voice mysteriously goes out over the air every Thursday night.

Not the best of the series perhaps, but every fan will want to read the first of the hundreds of Shadow novels written by Gibson.

THE LIVING SHADOW is the most reprinted Shadow story, probably because it's the obvious starting point for any series of Shadow reprints. After it was originally published in the April 1931 issue of The Shadow Magazine it was reprinted in the 1934 Street and Smith hardback book. It was reprinted again in The Shadow 1942 Annual. It was reprinted in paperback form in 1969 by Bantam, by Pyramid Books in 1974, by New English Library in London in 1976, and by Jove Books in 1977.

INNER SANCTUM 1946-4-23 "Make Ready My Grave".

One of those archetypal creepy-old-house radio thrillers. John Loomis brings his new bride to the family mansion, where she discovers the secret of the family curse and the strangled wives. Richard Widmark, Joan Banks.

Himan Brown directs from a script by Emile Tepperman that makes the Addams family sound like the Waltons!

You'll need a strong cup of Lipton tea after this one.


GARRISON KEILLOR RADIO SHOW

Garrison meets the music of Philadelphia - including the blue grass gospel group Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, and the up and coming jazz fusion singer-songwriter Amos Lee.

Philip Brunelle plays the Fred J. Cooper Memorial pipe organ, the biggest pipe organ in the USA (which is located on the mezzanine of the Wanamaker department store!).

And to the obvious delight of the studio audience there's the adventures of private eye Guy Noir (his client is a singer who wants to give up Punk Rock for Hallmark Cards), and of Ruth Harrison, reference librarian (with NPR personality Terry Gross guest starring), as well as 'The News from Lake Wobegon' (in which Garrison recalls the ice-fishing misadventures of his grandfather)

CALIFORNIA MELODIES June 21, 1941-6-21

KHJ, Los Angeles presents David Rose and His Orchestra, Maxine Gray (vocals). Half an hour of music that still moves along well.

LONE RANGER 1944-3-06 #1736 "The Lone Ranger Meets Bat Masterson".

The story of how Bat got his name, how the Ranger saved his life, and the battle with his nemesis Clay Allison. More biography than drama.


HARRY LIME 1952-05-02 (#40) "Suzie's Cue"

That likeable cad Harry Lime is back in Vienna, where he gets involved with two shady locals in a plot to steal a necklace. The theft is a success but who is double-crossing whom? Even the Third Man can sometimes finish in second place. Good fun.

BURNS AND ALLEN 46-1-03 "Taking in a veteran"

George is being driven crazy by his associate Meredith Wilson who is trying to change careers from being a band-leader to a comedian... starting with telling jokes to George. Meanwhile the Burns household wants to do their bit for the housing shortage by taking in a homeless veteran. Lots of laugh-out-loud lines in this episode.


DRAGNET #127 1951-11-15 "Big Bungalow"

A tip-off from an informant leads Friday to a professional burglar who has a second home just to keep his loot in. A typical Jack Webb offering.

MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER 47-3-09 "Woman in Black"

A journalist becomes obsessed with a mystery woman who is always at the scene when people die. She always dresses in black and her name is Theda. Entertaining, though the audience is way ahead of the hero - anybody good at anagrams will get it straightaway!

The Australian television series COLLECTORS recently featured a mouth-watering look at a collector of Art Deco radio sets.

Over the past 10 years Peter Sheridan has collected 120 Art Deco radios. Although he says he’d like another 30, he admits he doesn’t have the room for any more.

The first radio Peter bought was a green Emerson Tombstone circa 1935. He says he fell in love with the colour, texture and design of it. While the style and quality of bakelite radio cabinets is still the main attraction for Peter, he also considers their rarity and how they fit into the Art Deco genre.

The favourite of his collection is a black ebony Colonial Globe radio from the 1930s. This uniquely designed radio has its electronics housed within the globe, while the dials are on the left and right sides and the speakers in the base.

Three German radios in Peter’s collection that share an interesting period in history include a Sonnenblume by Nora which were all but destroyed by the Nazis and replaced with Volksempfänger radios that would only tune into Nazi propaganda broadcasts. However the elite in German society in the mid-1930s also had access to Siemens radios and could tune in international broadcasts.

Peter says the trick to getting his radios back to their original state is to have them restored by experts that specialise in bakelite radios. The process is labour intensive because it all has to be done by hand, and therefore expensive. The collection looks amazing -- the variety of colours almost glow as the camera pans across a room full of radio sets.

The one radio that still eludes Peter is a red-coloured Radiolette. He hopes one day to come across it and to be able to find room for it in his already large collection.

A controversial song poking fun at how flawed people are worshipped after death and performed on the Australian television show "The Chaser's War On Everything", was a watered down version of the original, says its writer, Chris Taylor.

"It's a song that I first wrote for my play Dead Caesar at the Sydney Theatre Company and, if anything, we slightly watered it down for television," Taylor said.

"I think it makes a fair enough point that people who were flawed in life are often disproportionately hailed as saints in death," said Taylor, after the song attracted the attention of talkback radio.

As the ABC show's title suggests, nothing is sacred on The Chaser's War on Everything, not even dead celebrities.

The song, performed on Wednesday night by Andrew Hansen, takes aim at celebrities such as Princess Di, Peter Brock and Steve Irwin.

However, despite reports that ABC switchboard was inundated after the song, the ABC said before 9am (AEST) on Thursday there had only been six calls from viewers about Wednesday night's program, three of them positive.

An ABC spokesman said there had been more callers since then, but that they had been incited by a Melbourne talkback radio presenter. When asked, many of the callers said they hadn't seen the show.

In the song, Hansen begins with a fictional story of his grandfather, who he describes as a misogynist and cantankerous.

"But all that was forgotten when he took his final breath, even pricks turn into top blokes after death," he sang.

He sang of the late Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin, who "lived in khaki, a cartoon kamikaze, who taunted crocs and tots so frequently", and Peter Brock, "some rev-head who pumped the air with pure lead".

This was followed by the chorus line, "even tools turn into top blokes after death".

Called The Eulogy Song, it has been performed in both seasons of Dead Caesar, which featured Hansen in the lead role.

As part of the sketch, Hansen was stopped by his fellow Chaser members when he began a verse about Rove McManus' wife, Belinda Emmett, who died after a long battle with breast cancer.

"By stopping the song at the mention of Belinda Emmett's name is, I suppose, The Chaser's way of saying that's where we draw the line," Taylor said.

"We weren't making a joke about Belinda Emmett. We were making a joke about the inappropriateness of making a joke about Belinda Emmett."

Wednesday night's Chaser episode was watched by 1.5 million viewers, making it the second most watched show of the night behind Network Ten drama 'House'.

The leaders of both political parties took time off from the election campaign to announce their disgust with the programme.

Personally I feel the Chaser boys always teeter right on the edge. 50% of their stuff is brilliant, 25% doesn't make me laugh and 25% of it makes me cringe back into my armchair.

But with comics, maybe the occasionally offensive quip is the price you pay for imaginative and creative comedy.

If you like Red Skelton and/or black-and-white comedy thrillers this will suit you down to the ground. I first saw this movie 40 years ago and have finally located it on DVD. It was just as much fun this time. Directed by S. Sylvan Simon in 1941 with a screenplay written in part by Albert Mannheimer (producer Simon and screenwriter Mannheimer would later receive Oscar nominations for Born Yesterday in 1950).

The play it was based on opened on Broadway starring Edward Arnold and Claire Trevor on 19 January 1932 and had 265 performances.

Skelton plays Wally Benton, a radio broadcaster whose program 'The Fox' features himself in the title role as a crime solver. Some nefarious characters decide that ‘The Fox’ is just who they need to invent a perfect crime: a murder which will assist them in obtaining a one million dollar legacy. Conrad Veidt, Ann Rutherford, Virginia Grey, and Rags Ragland play significant roles; Henry O'Neill and Eve Arden also appear.

To ensure The Fox's co-operation they also abduct his girlfriend Carol (Ann Rutherford) and his sponsor's daughter Fran (Virginia Grey).

One of the gang is sent to poison their target on an airliner while the dim-witted ex-boxer (Rags Ragland)is left to guard the trio. Wally, who actually is quite intelligent, works out that a severed phone line can be used in conjunction with a radio set to call for help.

With the help of his two lady friends, he calls in to his radio station and begins broadcasting the details of the crime in progress, including their kidnapping.

Rags is curious as to what they're doing but they convince him they're just pretending to broadcast as they do at that time every week and he good-naturedly goes along with it.

But, having been fooled by Orson Welles's "War of the Worlds" broadcast three years earlier, the local police chief thinks Wally's rantings are just another hoax!

Some of the early scenes also show how radio programmes were made in the early days: actors had to go on air live - twice, once for the East coast, and three hours later for the West coast. They performed, standing up, in front of a live audience. Sound effects men behind them watched for their cues, while the actors read from scripts.

This is all vastly entertaining -- the only way it could be improved is for Eve Arden to be given more screen time as Wally's agent instead of only appearing in the first reel.

Film expert William K. Everson commented "So many comedies of the '40s tend to date today, being so locked in to their period, but 'Whistling in the Dark' escapes that fate and remains an excellent comedy." From his notes for a 1989 Halloween double-feature for film fans http://www.nyu.edu/projects/wke/notes.ht

If you like the old Republic serials, have I got a movie for you !

I used to read Clive Cussler's novels back in the 1980s when he was just starting his series about underwater adventurer Dirk Pitt. This movie is apparently based on the 11th book about Dirk, though as always the movie and the book are different in many details.

Matthew McConaughey and his buddy Steve Zahn are on the trail of a lost treasure in Africa (consisting of Confederate gold from the Civil War!) when they run into feisty UN doctor Penelope Cruz. From there on it's a wild rollercoaster ride that includes every possible peril -- even the scene in which one of the villains tries to stamp on the hero's fingers as he's dangling over the edge of a tower.

I wish I had 1% of what they spent on stunts and special effects.

It may not be high art but it certainly holds the attention. Good old-fashioned movie fun for all the family.

GARRISON KEILLOR RADIO SHOW 2007-08-05 BBC7

Garrison Keillor at the Cincinnati Music Hall, with mandolin genius Sam Bush who belts out the Cincinnati Rag with the Guy's All Star Shoe Band. Buddy Emmons, the pedal steel legend, plays "Shenandoah" and Garrison reads a sonnet he has written for Robert Altman. Private eye Guy Noir is still trying to find the answer to life's persistent questions (as well as a missing person) and in "The News from Lake Wobegon", the citizens are celebrating Thanksgiving by standing around bonfires drinking red wine.

SHERLOCK HOLMES 99-01-16 "The Clockwork Fiend"

OK, this wasn't actually the series that I thought it was. I thought this was the South African drama series, but it turned out to be a British comedy series. Imagine if Conan Doyle and Spike Milligan had collaborated on a radio script and you'd have some idea of the feel of this wacky show.

FRIDAY NIGHT IS MUSIC NIGHT

Barbara Windsor is an icon of British entertainment. Among her stage and film credits are the long-running 'Carry On' series.
In this musical celebration for her 70th birthday, she looked back over her extraordinary career and the best of British musical theatre. The concert at the Hackney Empire in London spanned British shows from Sandy Wilson’s 'The Boyfriend' to music from Noel Coward and Ivor Novello, right up to Andrew Lloyd Webber.


A LIFE OF BLISS 1959.02.11 s05e08 "A Moving Story"

An almost-forgotten but mildly amusing sitcom starring George Cole. You know how old it is when somebody puts their house on the market for the astronomical figure of six thousand pounds....

PAST REFRAIN BBC 2000-09-08 Friday Play

One of those stories about a woman who rediscovers a long-repressed trauma from her childhood. One website reviewer describes it as "[i]a rather frightening play about Lara who hears a foreign nursery tune on the car radio, and is terrified by it. There follows a careful investigation of her past to find the cause. There was an impressive cast, including Ben Crowe and Mary Wimbush; Cherry Cookson directed."[/i] These sorts of plots can be fairly tedious if done badly, but this works well and keeps the listener guessing about how it's going to turn out. Good performances and direction.

RED ELVIS - BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play 2007

A mockumentary that tells the (ahem) true story of Elvis Presley's involvement in the Cold War.
Quite entertaining to listen to.
BBC Reporter ...... Gerry Northam
Elvis ...... Kevin Paul
CIA agent Baines Hoskin ...... John Moraitis

DUDE, WHO STOLE MY TITLE - BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play 2007

Olly Smith stars in his own play about a quest to reclaim an ancient ancestor's title. But he only has 24 hours. Fortunately he has the ancestor's ghost [Ewan Bailey] to help him. Unfortunately not as funny as it thinks it is -- I started to fidget about halfway through and began to find it all a bit tiresome.

BOSTON BLACKIE 46-09-03 "stolen rare book"

A rare book is stolen from the vault of a library and it's up to Blackie to solve the locked vault mystery and clear the name of his girlfriend Mary. As usual, mildly entertaining.

JACK BENNY 48-05-23

Jack returns from New York, the cue for a barrage of jokes about tightfistedness. Then we get the show's version of the popular story "The Egg and I" (we've actually got a rooster that sounds like the one in this skit - that's a bit of a worry). Lots of good gags and a few topical references that may go over the heads of modern listeners.

FIBBER McGEE & MOLLY
43-11-02 "Cleaning Doc Gamble's house"

Maybe it's just me, but this one wasn't as much fun as usual, possibly because the punchline was so obvious. I was intrigued to discover that the Doc owned a television set in 1943 though.

This series of Doctor Who has had some good episodes, but I can see why this one has had so much buzz about it. Sally Sparrow, a young woman living in 2007, suddenly begins receiving messages from someone called The Doctor in 1969.

What comes next is worse than anything she could have imagined. She's faced with an enemy who literally moves in the blink of an eye -- and the only person who can tell her what's going on is four decades in the past, able to communicate with her only through third parties or pre-recorded messages.

Great script, acting and special effects. A memorable episode.

APPLEBY'S END 1982-05-31

In 1987 the critic H.R.F. Keating included Michael Innes' APPLEBY'S END (1945) among the 100 best crime and mystery books ever published. This two-hour BBC adaptation sees Inspector Appleby entangled with the members of an artistic family, the Ravens, in snowbound rural England. A series of deaths occurs, bearing similarities to short stories by gothic horror writer the late Edward Raven. Cast includes John Hurt/Christopher Benjamin/Joyce Redman/Pippa Guard/John le Mesurier (engaging as the current head of the family).

Shadow 1937-10-17 (04) "Murder By The Dead"

Not an original show, rather a re-creation for fans in front of a live audience. It doesn't work too badly, although the audience seems to find the authentic commercials very amusing. The actor playing The Shadow catches the feel of the character, and the supporting cast sound convincing enough.

21st Precinct 54-07-28 "DOA"

Cops investigate when a dead man is found in a New York side street. Sort of a forerunner of "Hill Street Blues" but maybe a little too low-key. Lacks the distinctiveness of its contemporary "Dragnet".

EMBASSY LARK (1967)

An attempt to recapture the success of "The Navy Lark" but seems like little more than an average sitcom which happens to be set among diplomats at a British embassy. Mildly amusing at best.

DRAGNET 49-12-15

A "locked room" mystery on Dragnet? Nope, they leave that sort of thing to Sherlock Holmes and Ellery Queen. The locked room aspect is disposed of in the first five minutes and the rest is devoted to running down the killer who gained access to the apartment of the deceased through the garbage chute. Typical fare for Jack Webb fans.

GOOD NEWS 38-02-17 episode #16

Sponsored by Maxwell House coffee and broadcast from a soundstage at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios, offered (as the old MGM saying went) "more stars than there are in the heavens". This week Robert Taylor was the presenter, hindered by the constant suggestions from Jack Benny as to how the program could be improved. Others involved included Frank Morgan, Maureeen O'Hara and the Meredith Wilson orchestra. An entertaining 60 minutes, especially when Fanny Brice and Jack Benny start ad-libbing during their scene.

BURNS AND ALLEN 40-05-29_Sweeping Into Office

As part of Gracie's campaign for president, the gang visit the World's Fair in San Francisco but Gracie can't keep a straight face when they meet a local VIP. Must be a cultural thing -- why is having a red beard so funny, we wonder today? A few funny lines and some entertaining banter between the regulars.

WILD BILL HICKOCK 52-01-30 Dark Horse Candidate (Ep_48)

When local racketeers try to rig the mayoral election, U.S. Marshall Wild Bill insists there has to be more than one candidate in an election. Andy Devine is surprised to find himself nominated for mayor but there are more bullets than ballots before things are resolved. Entertaining oater.