Radio Recap: The Cases of Mr. Ace

I know very little of the series The Cases of Mr. Ace. What I have found looking around online has proved contradictory. It has a Wikipedia article that claims the series was derived from the 1946 film Mr. Ace and it appeared on ABC. Radio Goldindex maintains that this was not an ABC program, it was a Paragon Radio Productions syndicated program dated 1947. In possibly the funniest bit of trivia, the Wikipedia article on star George Raft refers to the Cases of Mr. Ace as a “popular program,” followed by “[citation needed].”

So let’s begin with George Raft. In retrospect, his career was winding down in 1947, although he surely didn’t know it; he was no longer under contract at Warner Bros. and was starting his own production company, but just about all his peers in film at the time were likewise getting away from studio control and launching unsuccessful independent ventures. He’d been a popular actor at the start of the 1940s, but by 1950 he would be virtually washed-up. By making his own syndicated radio program he was likewise taking a step many other popular Hollywood personalities took.

There are only 3 examples of the Cases of Mr. Ace (plus 1 fragment) from which we can determine what the series was like. The series was produced and directed by Jason James, who was (according to Radio Goldindex) a psuedonym for Jo Eisinger. As I noted in my recent look at Eisinger’s book the Walls Came Tumbling Down, he was a great admirer of Dashiell Hammett’s work. It becomes immediately apparent from listening to any episode of the Cases of Mr. Ace that he was deliberately inviting comparisons to Hammett. In the show’s introduction there’s a long sharp musical chord near-identical to the one which opened every episode of the Adventures of Sam Spade. And while some anonymous Wikipedia author assumed the series was a spin-off from the film Mr. Ace, it seems much more likely that “Ace” is a lame pun in place of Spade, pointing to how this series wears its references on its suit sleeve. That Raft had recently portrayed another “Eddie Ace” is an interesting coincidence, but they can’t be considered linked works as Mr. Ace was a political-romance film in which Raft portrayed a political boss who falls in love with the lady politician he’s supposed to ruin. The Eddie Ace of the Cases of Mr. Ace is simply a private detective - you know, like Sam Spade.

Raft, natch, had a chance to play Sam Spade on the screen but passed it up to co-star in Manpower instead, giving up the part to Bogart. I blogged about Raft’s poor choice before - I’m pretty much convinced that starring in Manpower was the moment Raft’s career began to fade. He whom was previously superior to Bogart was, by 1947, Bogart’s inferior. So Raft made a private eye radio show; there’s no shame in that. But the Cases of Mr. Ace really wanted to be like the Adventures of Sam Spade, to the extent that one episode (called online “the Man Named Judas”) is a blatant rip-off of the Maltese Falcon. The episode follows most of the plot beats, includes Joseph Kearns doing a Sydney Greenstreet impression complete with the phrase “coin of the realm” (Kearns had portrayed Greenstreet’s Gutman for the Adventures of Sam Spade); Ace referred to the pursued object as a “dingus” and there’s a very poor Peter Lorre impostor. To hear this episode is to suffer second-hand embarrassment on behalf of the cast.

Having proved unable to compete against an unfettered Bogart, Raft now seemed intent on proving himself incapable of besting Howard Duff. Duff’s version of Sam Spade was already performed as a near-parody of Bogart’s, delivered with a huge sense of sarcastic humour. But Raft’s charisma wasn’t Bogart’s or even Duff’s. Raft really needed a camera to help him out. In a movie, he could smoulder; on the radio, he only smothers. His performance is constantly lackluster as he appears to be sleepwalking through the part - or worse yet, hungover. The origins of this show are so unclear that I wouldn’t reject the idea that it was never actually broadcast - maybe they only recorded 4 episodes, realized Raft had no interest in making any more and cut their losses.

And that’s a shame, because there’s an element to the Cases of Mr. Ace that’s very unique. In the first episode (called online “the Murder of Frederick Miller”) Ace was summoned by Dr. Gail, a psychologist who wanted him to tell her about one of his cases. This is used as the artifice by which Ace narrates his own adventures, similar to Spade narrating his stories to Effie. The idea of some playful banter between a private eye and his female shrink - that’s unusual, that’s an idea with potential. Unfortunately, either the script or the sick friend he sat up with the night before failed to bring out Raft’s playful side, so even those scenes failed to work out.

You can hear what there is of the Cases of Mr. Ace on the Old-Time Radio Researchers Library and judge for yourself.