Episode 627 - Mohr Bang for Your Buck (Philip Marlowe, The Whistler, & Suspense)

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

🗓️ 8 June 2025

⏱️ 126 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“Get this and get it straight!” We’re celebrating Gerald Mohr - the radio actor who brought a two-fisted intensity to Philip Marlowe - in honor of his birthday on June 11. He was one of the best stars of the era, and his performance makes The Adventures of Philip Marlowe one of the best detective dramas of the day. We’ll hear Mohr as Marlowe in “The Easy Mark” (originally aired on CBS on January 29, 1949) and “The Long Arm” (originally aired on CBS on February 7, 1950). Then, he’s a less scrupulous character in “Lady with a Key” from The Whistler (originally aired on CBS on April 2, 1950). Finally, he co-stars with Jack Benny in “A Good and Faithful Servant,” a story of a $50,000 department store heist and the mild-mannered clerk who pulls it off, from Suspense (originally aired on CBS on June 2, 1952).

Transcript

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0:00.0	Get this and get it straight.
0:02.1	Crime is a sucker's road.
0:03.9	And those who travel
0:04.6	it wind up in the gut of the prison of the grave.
0:12.3	The story you were about to hear is true.
0:15.2	Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.
0:18.6	The Adventures of Sam Spade, Detective.
0:21.7	The Adventures of the Saints,
0:23.5	starring Vincent Price.
0:25.5	Bob Bailey, in the exciting adventures
0:27.7	of the man with the action-packed expense account.
0:30.6	America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator...
0:33.4	Yours truly, Johnny Dollar.
1:02.3	... Yours truly, Johnny Dollar. Hello and welcome to Down These Mean Streets with more old-time radio detectives and crime solvers.
1:03.5	This week we're saluting one of the greats of the old-time radio era, Gerald Moore, whose
1:10.4	voice opens this podcast each and every week
1:13.8	with his opening salvo narration from the adventures of Philip Marlowe. Moore played Raymond Chandler's
1:21.1	private detective on the air from 1948 until 1951, and though Marlowe had been played on radio previously by Oscar winner Van Heflin,
1:31.3	Moore made the role his own.
1:33.3	Gerald Moore as Philip Marlowe is on my Mount Rushmore of Radio Detective stars, alongside
1:39.3	Howard Duff as Sam Spade, Bob Bailey as Johnny Dollar, and Dick Powell as Richard Diamond, private
1:47.0	detective. But Philip Marlow was just one role Gerald Moore played on the air. He also did
	...

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