Episode 231 - Travel Spells Trouble (Dangerous Assignment)

Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives)

Jack Mooney

Arts, Performing Arts, Mystery, Detectives, Old, Radio, Time, Tv & Film, Oldtimeradio

4.6 • 982 Ratings

🗓️ 9 July 2017

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Pack your bags - this week, we're joining Steve Mitchell on another Dangerous Assignment. Brian Donlevy stars as Mitchell, the two-fisted spy dispatched all around the world on thrilling adventures and top secret missions. In this pair of international mysteries, Steve Mitchell is on the trail of a pair of missing scientists (in an episode originally aired on NBC on April 24, 1950); and he heads down south to find a stolen Civil War map (in an episode originally aired on NBC on December 16, 1950).

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Welcome to down these mean streets where this week our old time radio
0:26.5	detective is a two-fisted international man of mystery, a hard-boiled spy working for Uncle Sam. He's Steve Mitchell brought to life on
0:37.4	both radio and television by Brian Don Levy, in Dangerous Assignment.
0:44.4	Each week Steve Mitchell would be dispatched all around the world on top secret missions of
0:49.4	the utmost importance to national security, The Espionage Adventures series first came to the
0:55.5	air as a summer replacement series 68 years ago this week. And today we'll celebrate its anniversary with two of Steve Mitchell's dangerous assignments.
1:07.0	There were several spies on the air during the golden age of radio, but few resembled Steve Mitchell.
1:13.6	For a time, Dangerous Assignment aired before the man called X on NBC, and the main characters
1:20.0	of these secret agent dramas couldn't have been more different. On the man called
1:25.0	X British actor Herbert Marshall played the debonair and worldly Ken Thurston, a
1:31.0	polyglot and international expert who could operate smoothly wherever his work took him.
1:36.0	By contrast, Steve Mitchell was a man who admitted he couldn't even pronounce most of the locations of his missions. He was a bull in an international China shop,
1:46.8	bringing a street-smart private eye mentality to the world of international espionage.
1:56.4	His punchy narration throughout the stories was similar to that of a Sam Spade or a Johnny Dollar. The role of Steve Mitchell was perfectly suited for Brian Don Levy, an actor who made a name for himself as a big screen tough guy.
2:08.0	And he clearly enjoyed playing the character.
2:11.0	In addition to the radio series that aired until
2:13.4	1953, Don Levy produced and starred in a dangerous assignment TV
2:19.0	series that ran for 39 episodes from 1951 until 1952.
2:25.0	But the TV series pales in comparison to the dangerous assignment radio show.
2:31.0	On screen, Steve Mitchell is plotting and physically stiff and the foreign
2:36.1	locales he visits are depicted by unconvincing backlot sets. But on radio with the magic of sound effects, music, and Brian Don Levy's commanding
2:47.5	voice, you're instantly transported all around the world and into Steve Mitchell's thrilling adventures.
	...

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