Richard Diamond, Private Detective — The Louis Spence Case (Part 1 of 7) Summary of Part 1 Bumbling cop, Sergeant Otis, pulls Richard Diamond away from chit-chatting with his girlfriend to rescue Lieutenant Levinson from a crazy man. A little background As the series title says, Richard Diamond is a private detective. Richard used to be a police detective, working for the police force. So he knows the guys on the police force. He used to work for Lieutenant Levinson and they are still good friends. Sometimes Levinson asks for his help on a case. As a private detective, Diamond can chose whether to take the case or not, and he isn’t quite as restricted to following the rules. That means, if need be, he can punch or threaten to shoot someone to make him talk, but a police detective wouldn't be allowed to do that. Six years ago, he worked with the men who are still on the police force. Diamond respects some of his former colleagues, but not all of them. He is always putting Sergeant … [Read more...]
DL096: Gunsmoke – New Guy in Town
~ Gunsmoke: The Choice, Part 1 New Folks Showing Up All the Time Andy Hill is the new guy in Dodge City. It’s the late 1800’s (around the 1870s) when people were moving west across America. Towns were being settled and growing into cities. Its a fast growing town so there are new folks showing up all the time. The railway made much of this possible, bringing passengers by train to settle down in the West, and making it possible to move products across the country and do business. In this setting, we have the growing town of Dodge City. Many of the people who came to Dodge were ranchers and the cowboys they hired to herd their cattle. The cowboys moved around a lot from place to place. Then farmers came. They settled down to plant and harvest crops. They also built fences, which the cowboys didn’t like. In the town, there were shopkeepers, bankers, barbers, saloon bartenders, saloon girls, stagecoach drivers, and post office workers. And of course, there were criminals too – men who … [Read more...]
DL089: Harry Lime – Why You Should Read the News
The Adventures of Harry Lime: Ticket to Tangier, Part 1 of 7 Not the best role model Today’s episode open’s with a little history on Harry Lime. It connects the Harry Lime of the radio plays with the Harry Lime of the 1949 movie, The Third Man. So, who is Harry Lime? As a story character, Harry Lime is a criminal. Unlike our other stories, our hero is not a police detective or a private eye. He is a wanted criminal. He is wanted for breaking the law. The police would like to find him and arrest him. He’s a businessman involved in illegal activity — anything to make a quick buck. And yet, he’s the main character of our story, the hero that we want to see win. How does the bad guy become our hero? I hope that is something we can discuss as the story progresses and I hope you join me in the comments below or at https://wwww.englishmomentum.com. Down on his luck As this story begins, we find Harry sitting in a pub in Paris, drinking a beer and reading the newspaper. A … [Read more...]
DL082: Find 100,000 Barrels of Oil – Disgruntled Sheik
A "Dangerous Assignment" radio play first aired on May 17, 1950 on NBC A Disgruntled Sheik Government agent, Steve Mitchel, is given his next assignment. It takes him to Saudi Arabia. At first, he's a little reluctant to go. He wonders why this is a government assignment. But there is an Arab leader, a Sheik, who is disgruntled (upset and unhappy) with an oil company. Keep the Sheik Happy The United States wants their relationship with Saudi Arabia to be on good terms, so if a company is having trouble, the government is ready and willing to step in and help resolve the problem. Listen and find out what the problem is. What is it that is making the Sheik disgruntled? FREE PDF: Keywords & Transcript Quizlet: Have fun learning the keywords with English-Chinese Flashcards and Games. DL082 Keywords on Quizlet Let’s talk: If you were given this assignment, would you feel the same way Steve Mitchel feels? He doesn’t seem to want to go to Arabia. Would … [Read more...]
DL075: Poirot — Careless Victim — The Name is Poirot
Hercule Poirot: The Case of the Careless Victim — Act 1: Scenes 1 & 2 Apartment Hunting Hercule Poirot is the famous French-speaking detective from Belgium. As the story opens, he has just moved to New York and is looking for an apartment. He's told he'll be lucky to find one, but Poirot doesn't believe in luck. He believes in "employing the little gray cells" -- that is to say, he believes in using his brain to solve problems. While apartment hunting, he ends up helping a woman with her door. It is stuck. She cannot open it. Well, one thing leads to another, and he is soon involved in solving a murder. Agatha Christie, the author Poirot is the fictional detective created by Agatha Christie. She was fond of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's writings about Sherlock Holmes so she patterned her detective after his. There are many differences of course, but both are intellectuals who use their heads, not their muscles, to solve crimes. These are both good examples of the … [Read more...]
DL068: You’re Better Off Guilty — Trailer
~ CBS Radio Mystery Theater, You're Better Off Guilty — Trailer ~ An imponderable suggestion This episode is just a teaser. It’s a short trailer – you know how movies have little short movie clips to get you interested in watching that movie? That's called a trailer. Movie trailers have gotten really fast paced, especially if they are for action movies. They’re made up of the most exciting scenes of the movie. This trailer is a little different in that it is a radio play trailer. It's drama, not action, but it will give you something imponderable to try to 'wrap your brain around'. It’s a short discussion between our main character, Ralph Westfield, and his girlfriend (actually, his fiancée), Sylvia. Although they are about to get married, she Is wondering if she really knows Ralph or not. Sylvia makes a suggestion...one that Ralph finds imponderable! FREE PDF: Keywords & Transcript Quizlet: Have fun learning the keywords with English-Chinese Flashcards and … [Read more...]
DL062: The Lady Was a Tiger—New Recruit
~ CBS Radio Mystery Theater, The Lady Was a Tiger, Act 1, Scenes 1-3 — The New Recruit ~ A femme fatale double agent frames an unemployed reporter for homicide in Paris. New Recruit: Larry Fielding, a newspaper reporter, gets fired from his job, apparently for no reason. Things go from bad to worse, but in the end he makes a new acquaintance who tries to recruit him for an assignment. It looks like a good thing — the silver lining around his dark cloud. Although somewhat suspicious at first, he is persuaded to go for it. FREE PDF: Keywords & Transcript Quizlet: Have fun learning the keywords with English-Chinese Flashcards and Games. DL062 Keywords on Quizlet Let’s Talk! What is your best guess? Why do you think Larry got fired? And who is Wilson — friend or enemy? Now that you know Dave Wilson is a spy, what do you think of his heroic rescue of Larry? Although Larry was suspicious at first, it seems that he has let down his guard. He’s ready to hop … [Read more...]
DL051: MrDA — Intimidated Jury (Intro)
The Old Time Radio Legal Thriller: Mr. District Attorney was a popular radio program on NBC and ABC radio stations from 1939 to 1952. Each episode is a legal story that centers on the court trial. Meet the Jury: When a serious crime has been committed, such as murder, the American legal system chooses a group of citizens to judge the case. These people are just ordinary citizens, not lawyers or judges. They will sit through the trial, hear all the arguments, see all the evidence, and listen to the witnesses testify. They will discuss the case together and finally reach a decision. Their job is to decide whether the person on trial is ‘guilty’ or ‘not guilty.’ This group of people is called the jury, and their decision is called a verdict. Jury Gone Wrong: It is believed that a jury will discuss everything in detail, and use reasoning to persuade one another that the evidence points to a certain conclusion about what must have happened. With all this negotiation between the … [Read more...]
DL045: Archie, Bankrupt 1 – Scrabble
Bankrupt Rumor: Archie Comics: Archie Andrews is an old time radio show that ran from 1943-1953. It was based on the popular Archie comic strip by Bob Montana, which was published in newspapers from 1941-1975. The comic strip was based on Montana’s hometown, his own high school life, and the friends he’d made there. Jughead and Moose were based on his friends, Skinny Linehan and Arnold Daggett. In the story, Jughead is Archie’s childhood friend. Moose, although not too bright, is a star athlete at Riverdale High School and Archie is often his teammate. Reggie is Archie’s main rival (competition), both in sports and in romance. Speaking of Archie’s love life, there is an on-going love triangle between Betty, Veronica and Archie. Archie originally tried to get the attention of Betty, the girl next door, but she just saw him as an annoying nuisance. Then when Veronica moved to town, Archie started dating her. This got Betty jealous, and the two girls started competing for his love. … [Read more...]
DL039: Marlowe, don’t let me down
The Adventures of Philip Marlowe: The Feminine Touch, Part 1 Who is Philip Marlowe? I really enjoy the Philip Marlowe character. Marlowe was created by Raymond Chandler, a hard-boiled detective story writer who followed in the footsteps of Dashiell Hammett. Hammett is the father of the hardboiled sub-genre of detective fiction. He’s the one who took the detective story from the streets of London to the dark mean streets of American cities. Raymond Chandler then perfected the hardboiled detective character. Like Dashiell Hammett’s “Sam Spade” character, Chandler’s “Philip Marlowe” is tough — he can use a gun and can take a beating, but he is also ethical and won’t take a job if it doesn’t meet his standards. He’s seen so much of the bad side of human nature that he is cynical — he doesn’t trust people to have pure motives. He sees people as being selfish and dishonest, motivated by self-interest. And yet, when he sees something genuine in someone, he responds to that. It fits with … [Read more...]