Audiobooks
The Adventures of Philip Marlowe

by various writers
Radio Spirits, October 2013, $39.98

When the Marlowe series first went on the air in 1947, a summer replacement for The Bob Hope Pepsodent Show, Raymond Chandler’s hero was played by Van Heflin. When the series appeared again, a year later, Heflin’s movie status had gone up and the role was turned over to Gerald Mohr, an actor happy to work in both media. Quite a few of the 127 episodes have long been available for collectors, but this assortment includes two that were presumed lost until they were uncovered by critic, biographer and literary truffle hound Tom Nolan, a frequent contributor to these pages—“The Daring Young Dame on the Flying Trapeze” and “Robin and the Hood.” As Nolan points out in an informative program guide, they both feature Heflin whose nice-guy narration was a little softer-boiled than Mohr’s rat-a-tat, angry-edged delivery. Another plus for this entertaining sampler—three of the Heflin shows are reasonably faithful adaptations of Chandler’s published stories—“Red Wind,” “The King in Yellow” (with Marlowe subbing for the original’s hotel house detective) and, best of the batch, “Trouble is my Business.”

Dick Lochte

When the Marlowe series first went on the air in 1947, a summer replacement for The Bob Hope Pepsodent Show, Raymond Chandler’s hero was played by Van Heflin. When the series appeared again, a year later, Heflin’s movie status had gone up and the role was turned over to Gerald Mohr, an actor happy to work in both media. Quite a few of the 127 episodes have long been available for collectors, but this assortment includes two that were presumed lost until they were uncovered by critic, biographer and literary truffle hound Tom Nolan, a frequent contributor to these pages—“The Daring Young Dame on the Flying Trapeze” and “Robin and the Hood.” As Nolan points out in an informative program guide, they both feature Heflin whose nice-guy narration was a little softer-boiled than Mohr’s rat-a-tat, angry-edged delivery. Another plus for this entertaining sampler—three of the Heflin shows are reasonably faithful adaptations of Chandler’s published stories—“Red Wind,” “The King in Yellow” (with Marlowe subbing for the original’s hotel house detective) and, best of the batch, “Trouble is my Business.”

Teri Duerr
3531
writers
October 2013
the-adventures-of-philip-marlowe
39.98
Radio Spirits