Episode 635 - City Slicker Sleuths (Philip Marlowe, Richard Diamond, The Saint, & Rocky Fortune)

Sometimes it’s good to be bad, or at least it’s good to hear it when radio detective stars switch sides and play some pretty dastardly villains. We’ll hear four of our favorite on-air heroes star as crooks for a change in episodes of radio’s great thriller anthologies. Howard Duff (Sam Spade) plans his wealthy aunt’s murder in “Backlash” (originally aired on CBS on April 21, 1947); Jeff Chandler (Michael Shayne) is a gangster on the run who coerces a doctor into assisting with his getaway in “Confession” (originally aired on CBS on August 21, 1949); and Gerald Mohr (Philip Marlowe) is a murderer who takes up blackmail in “Warm Reception” (originally aired on CBS on November 19, 1950) - all episodes of The Whistler. Then, Dick Powell (Richard Diamond) is a boxer who seeks deadly revenge against a rival in the ring in “Slow Burn” from Suspense (originally aired on CBS on February 23, 1950).

As summer draws to a close with Labor Day weekend, enjoy this encore broadcast featuring Bob Bailey as Johnny Dollar in episodes where "the man with the action-packed expense account" tries to take some time off from insurance investigating...and finds mystery waiting for him wherever he goes. We'll hear him in "The Lamarr Matter," a five-part adventure (originally aired on CBS between March 26 and March 30, 1956) and "The Ideal Vacation Matter" (originally aired on CBS on September 22, 1957).

We leave the mean streets of the big cities behind and join four radio detectives in western-themed mysteries - stories of cowboys, horses, cattle, and the wide open spaces. Philip Marlowe hunts for a killer on a dude ranch in “The Dude from Manhattan” (originally aired on CBS on July 2, 1949), and Richard Diamond heads to Oklahoma to prove an accidental death was a well-staged murder in “The Hatpin Murder Case” (originally aired on NBC on September 27, 1950). The Saint tries to keep a visiting cattleman alive during a visit to the Big Apple in “Death of a Cowboy” (originally aired on NBC on July 1, 1951), and Rocky Fortune gets a job - and a murder rap - in “The Rodeo Murder” (originally aired on NBC on January 12, 1954).

As summer winds down and students head back to school, we’ll join some radio detectives as they tackle cases on college campuses. Michael Shayne looks for a peeping Tom turned murderer in “The Return to Huxley College” (originally aired on Mutual on November 5, 1946), and mystery writer and amateur sleuth Dan Holiday tries to help an old friend figure out how a colleague died in “The Professor and the Puzzle” from Box 13. A murderer is supposedly dead, but someone’s spotted him on campus and it’s up to Richard Diamond, Private Detective to find him in “The Martin White Case” (originally aired on NBC on January 22, 1950). And The Saint returns to his alma mater to find the author of some poison pen letters before his works turn deadly in “Simon Carries the Ivy” (originally aired on NBC on April 1, 1951).

We’re riding along with some of old time radio’s hardest working cops as we kick off Season 13 of Down These Mean Streets! Sgt. Joe Friday hunts for a hold-up man who resorted to murder in “The Big Smart Guy” from Dragnet (originally aired on NBC on June 8, 1950). In Broadway is My Beat, Det. Danny Clover investigates when a piano player is killed at the keys in an episode known as “The Harry Brett Murder Case” (originally aired on CBS on July 31, 1950). Joel McCrea saddles up to find a murderer in “The Hatchet” from Tales of the Texas Rangers (originally aired on NBC on February 11, 1951). And Lt. Guthrie and Sgt. Grebb track a killer after an argument ends with a knifing in “The Jolted Justice Job Case” from The Line-Up (originally aired on CBS on November 1, 1951).

It all comes down to this - the final fight between Superman and the Atom Man! The kryptonite-fueled Nazi agent threatens to wipe Metropolis off the map on his march toward world conquest. Can the Man of Steel defeat him and save the day? Find out in these episodes that originally aired on Mutual between November 19 and December 3, 1945.

Superman recovers after his first fight against the Atom Man while Henry Miller finds a new ally in his quest to kill the Man of Steel and rule the world! The epic adventure continues in these episodes that originally aired on Mutual from November 5 to November 16, 1945.

The Atom Man is in Metropolis! The Nazi agent with kryptonite in his veins gets a job at the Daily Planet as reporter "Henry Miller," and the Man of Steel is about to meet his greatest and deadliest enemy. Superman and the Atom Man have their first titanic battle as this epic story continues in these chapters that originally aired on Mutual between October 22 and November 2, 1945.

Don’t change the channel! Each of this week’s radio mysteries involve that exciting new medium - television. A man is poisoned on the air as he’s about to reveal a murderer’s identity in a syndicated adventure of Boston Blackie, and the cops of Dragnet pursue phony TV repairmen in “The Big Screen” (originally aired on NBC on August 9, 1951). A TV quiz show unravels a perfect crime in “Marked Man” from The Whistler (originally aired on CBS on March 16, 1952), and John Lund stars as Johnny Dollar in “The Philip Morey Matter,” as the insurance investigator looks into the nervous breakdown of a popular television star (originally aired on CBS on October 13, 1953).

Superman's amazing adventures continue in the next chapters of "The Atom Man!" The evil Nazi scientist Der Teufel escapes with a piece of kryptonite, and he transforms a young Nazi soldier into his atomic-fueled agent of destruction. Meanwhile, Clark Kent travels the globe in pursuit of Der Teufel in a race to save the world - and his own life! These exciting episodes of The Adventures of Superman originally aired on Mutal between October 8 and October 19, 1945.