Category: Drama

CBS Radio Mystery Theater

I know I’m breaking my own rules, but I’m starting a major upgrade to my OTR archives and I just don’t have the time this week. So, the CBSRMT did a 5 part series back in January 1979 that is fantastic. All 5 episodes will be posted along with 4 episodes of a west coast series called The Whistler.

0940 Neferitiri Part 1 – The Vulture Screams 790108

Screen Directors Playhouse

Screen Directors Playhouse – 490515 e019 Hold Back The Dawn

Originally aired May 15, 1949

Hold Back the Dawn is a 1941 romantic film in which a Romanian gigolo marries an American woman in Mexico in order to gain entry to the United States, but winds up falling in love with her. It stars Charles Boyer, Olivia de Havilland, Paulette Goddard, Victor Francen, Walter Abel, Curt Bois and Rosemary DeCamp.

The movie was adapted by Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder from the book by Ketti Frings. It was directed by Mitchell Leisen.

It was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Olivia de Havilland), Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture, Best Picture and Best Writing, Screenplay.

Lux Presents Hollywood

Murder, My Sweet is a 1944 film based on Raymond Chandler’s novel Farewell, My Lovely, released in the UK with the original title. The film stars Dick Powell, Claire Trevor, and Anne Shirley. Detective Philip Marlowe is hired by hulking Moose Malloy to locate Malloy’s old girlfriend that he lost track of while serving time in prison. What Marlowe finds is that each lead he follows up confuses the case further and lies compound lies with an eventual discovery of larcenous activity including bribery, perjury, theft and a beautiful femme fatale (Claire Trevor).

Farewell My Lovely had already been filmed once before, in 1942, as The Falcon Takes Over. However, Murder, My Sweet is considered one of the best Chandler adaptations. A 2004 review by DVD Savant Glenn Erickson notes “Murder, My Sweet remains the purest version of Chandler on film, even if it all seems far too familiar now.” It is also considered one of the pre-eminent films noir. Alison Dalzell, writing for Edinburgh University Film Society, notes “Since the ’40s countless mystery and neo-noir films have been made in Hollywood and around the world. Murder, My Sweet is what they all aspire to be.”

Dick Powell was previously known only for light comedies and musicals, so the casting of him as Chandler’s hard-boiled private detective antihero was a surprise to many. The studio changed the title from Farewell, My Lovely because they thought audience would think the film was a musical. Powell’s performance is much debated by fans of Chandler and film noir; some think it too light and comic; others consider it the best interpretation of Philip Marlowe on film.