Radio Recap: The Unexpected

The Unexpected was a syndicated radio program from 1947-1948. It ran within a 15-minute slot and its stories were about as long as the Strange Dr. Weird. The show boasted that it featured Hollywood stars... usually that seemed to mean Barry Sullivan, who was the lead in more episodes than anyone.

What the Unexpected has that no other show has is a surprise ending. Okay, I should clarify... the Whistler had surprise endings; the Diary of Fate did too. But the Unexpected was not a genre program in the traditional sense. If "surprise ending" is a genre then that's where the Unexpected fits. Sometimes it was a crime/thriller show, other times a comedy program or even a romance show. Unlike the Chase, the lack of genre is not a detriment - far from it. Since every episode has a surprise ending, the climaxes land in a way other programs couldn't achieve.

To explain what I mean, I'll look at the climax of the episode "Birthday Present." All her life, a woman has been given the second-best things in life. For once she hopes her husband might give her the very best by buying her a gold bracelet, but once again she is disappointed - the gift is silver. She decides to exchange it and pay the difference to obtain the gold bracelet, only to learn the bracelet is actually platinum - her husband gave her something even more valuable than gold. She was not given second-best.

That's not an exceptional story, but it's atypical for radio. If that plot had appeared on the Whistler then it would have been much the same - except that the wife would have tried to kill or steal to get the gold bracelet, with the platinum an ironic reveal after her arrest. But the Unexpected has the most unexpected climaxes of all - happy endings! What a concept!

The Unexpected is not a very demanding program - it's short, fast-paced (certainly much better paced than the Strange Dr. Weird) and has an agreeable surprise at the end. It's unpretentious (unlike the very pretentious Diary of Fate). I like it - check it out if you like the Whistler.

Angola in the Comics #19: Alter Ego

Just before I leave Angola, I thought it was time I visited my blog feature "Angola in the Comics" one more time.

Alter Ego is a 2015 graphic album series which originated in Belgium and became available in English via Europe Comics. This review will be quite unlike my reviews of American comics about Angola; as I've noted before, European creators seem much better informed about Angola than the Americans.

The Europe Comics website states that the series Alter Ego is: "A series conceived in the American style by a team of European creators." Roughly, the series is driven by the idea that people possess a quasi-psychic link to someone else on the planet who was conceived around the same time as they; their lives are entwined and what befalls one may befall the other.

The first book in the series Camille (by Denis Lapière, Pierre-Paul Renders and Mathieu Reynès) is where Angola comes in. This album concerns one Camille Rochant whose mother has just died and left behind a cryptic message which leads her to Angola, seeking ze Texeira, a man who happens to be the same age as her mother; but he's never heard of her mother and has no answers for why she knew his name.

The amount of detail given to the Angola sequences in Camille is excellent - many believable depictions of Angolan buildings and landscapes. It's set primarily in N'Dalatando in Cuanza Norte, but there are also scenes in Luanda at the Hospital Maria Pia. Texeira's background is also steeped in Angolan history - he recounts how he was beaten by the Portuguese in colonial times, then at age 13 went to fight for Savimbi until at age 21 he lost an arm and a leg to a landmine.

I haven't read all of Alter Ego but it's a very dense web - each story features different protagonists entrapped by the same conspiracy and gradually exposing the connective tissue. There may even be more of Angola in other volumes - I hope eventually I get around to reading them!

Lubango Vlog: Exit

My 1 year in Lubango has reached its end; here are thoughts as I head back to Canada.

Radio Recap: The Philip Morris Playhouse

The Philip Morris Playhouse was a series that ran between 1941 and 1953, but for the purposes of this blog entry I'm looking at the 1948-1949 version. Essentially, the moniker "Philip Morris Playhouse" meant it was a program sponsored by the cigarette company - but the show itself was very different during its run. It first ran in 1941-44 on CBS as a dramatic program like Lux Radio Theater which presented adaptations of popular films, often with the original stars. Then it disappeared until the 1948-49 run on CBS. Finally it ran in 1951-53 on both NBC and CBS as a program centered on adapting Broadway plays.

But the 1948-49 run was different and well worth listening to. Why? Because that season was produced and directed by William Spier. Yes, the same man who made Suspense (also on CBS) one of the absolute finest programs in all of old-time radio produced another program which was very much like Suspense.

Like Suspense, the series featured well-known stars in stories of suspense and danger. In fact, many of the episodes used scripts from Suspense! The Philip Morris Playhouse is basically a trove of lost Suspense episodes... but, sadly, a very small trove. There are only 6 episodes which have definitely survived:

• "Leona's Room" (February 25, 1949) starring Vincent Price
• "The Lady from the Sea" (March 11, 1949) starring Marlene Dietrich
• "Apology" (March 1, 1949) starring Elliot Lewis
• "Murder Needs an Artist" (May 6, 1949) starring Vincent Price
• "Four Hours to Kill" (May 13, 1949) starring Howard Duff
• "The Iron Man" (July 29, 1949) starring Sidney Miller

No doubt "Four Hours to Kill" is familiar to Suspense fans just as "The Lady from the Sea" is a familiar episode of the Whistler. For that matter, "Leona's Room" is the same script as the Suspense episode "Pass to Berlin." But among the many lost episodes there are scores of familiar Suspense titles: "The Silver Frame"; "Angel Face"; "The One Millionth Joe"; "The Search for Isabel"; "Banquo's Chair"; "Night Man"; "August Heat"; "The Diary of Sophronia Winters."

The program sounds terrific - it seems to have been blessed with a budget similar to that of Suspense. In addition to the lead stars (drawn from the same talent pool as Suspense) there were plenty of supporting roles for familiar CBS performers like Cathy Lewis. The only aspect in which the Philip Morris Playhouse is inferior to Suspense is in its titular sponsor. The opening theme is unremarkable and the commercials with the shrill "bellboy" Johnny screeching "call for Philip Morrrrrrr-isssss!" grate on one's nerves.

Of the six episodes, Vincent Price was great in both of his and I think they're the highlights of the run - "Leona's Room" is especially good. From the others, "Apology" is a bit offbeat with Elliot Lewis portraying a comedic character in a very grim crime drama. I don't think it's a successful drama but it is interesting to listen to, especially the ending. "The Iron Man" on the other hand is a complete farce, told in a Damon Runyon-esque patter.

I hope more of the Philip Morris Playhouse is discovered in the future - it would be great to hear the rest, especially the scripts that were never repeated on Suspense or the Whistler.

Lubango vlog: Final junk food video!

One last junk food video before I leave Angola -- and this one is the longest by far!

Lubango Vlog: Manly Wade Wellman

I've made a vlog about Manly Wade Wellman as an introduction to how his background is similar to mine. I hope this is an effective first effort at putting down my impressions of Wellman's work.

Radio Recap: The Diary of Fate

The Diary of Fate was a syndicated radio drama program from 1947-1948. Every episode is hosted by "Fate" himself, who narrates throughout the drama. Each time, Fate intones how "because of a little thing" the week's protagonist finds themselves drawn into committing a crime but are eventually undone by another "little thing."

I've seen The Diary of Fate called a horror program but that's really not accurate - this isn't Inner Sanctum or the Mysterious Traveler! The presence of Fate as host gives the program supernatural overtones but that's the extent of the program's dip into horror. It's really a crime program and follows in a similar pattern as contemporaneous crime comic books (such as those by Lev Gleason and Marvel) which were also hosted by "Fate."

It's easy to compare this program to the Whistler. In both, the narrator is an all-knowing figure who comments upon and judges the protagonist's actions. In both, there's a surprise ending. However, Fate comes down much more harshly on his subjects than the Whistler ever did; while the Whistler seemed bemused by the actions of the protagonists on his series, Fate doesn't like his protagonists. Fate takes pains near the end of each episode to remind the audience that he isn't the protagonist's collaborator; although in each episode Fate creates the situation which sets off the plot, he observes that the protagonist themselves make the choice for good or evil.

Of course, what sets this apart from the Whistler is that the protagonists always choose evil and are punished by the climax. In the Whistler, sometimes the protagonists were led towards committing a crime but would refuse at the last minute. In that way, the Whistler truly did claim to have a "surprise ending." The Diary of Fate is much more predictable - the protagonist always chooses evil near the start of the program and thus is punished at the climax.

I find the Diary of Fate was a decent program with some good performers (ie, Howard McNear, Bill Johnstone, Lurene Tuttle) but because it was very formulaic it's not the kind of series you want to listen to very often.

New vlog: Junk food video #10!

Yet again I have a new junk food video - I'm nearing the end of my time in Angola, best to get the junk food eaten while I can!

New Vlog: The View from Lage

This video was made on my camera so the movement is very shaky and audio isn't always great; however, it does have a cameo appearance by Spice!

My 9th video on junk food in Angola!

A 9th outing of my series on junk food in Angola! I am quickly becoming the expert!

Radio Recap: Moon Over Africa

Moon Over Africa was a radio adventure serial; not too much is known about it. It's possibly from 1935. There are 26 episodes, but no one is quite sure whether that's the full run (the story appears to be complete though).

So for the last few weeks I've been listening to Moon Over Africa here in my home in Africa. I was careful to keep my windows closed while the episodes played; it's a very old, creaky and racist depiction of Africa and I would've been ashamed to be caught listening to it.

The story's protagonists are an expedition through darkest Africa led by Professor Anton Edwards, accompanied by his daughter Lorna, his subordinate Jack and an African warrior named Nguru. They're initially guided on their journeys by a severed head which Edward alleges is speaking the language of Atlantis; really, it just seems to laugh and babble. Eventually and improbably the head turns out to contain a hidden radio and was being used by a rival to misdirect Edwards. Throughout the series the four stumble into a tribe of cannibals, a kingdom inside a volcano and a tribe who seem to be able to transform into leopards.

Professor Edwards is a fairly irritating protagonist but occasionally he's enjoyable for the brazen campiness of his character; he constantly makes wild guesses about what's going on during their travels but always assumes his guesses are correct. Like, upon finding the people in the volcano, he proposes they were descended from Crusaders who were stranded in northern Africa, wandered way south and fell under the control of a witch doctor. He backs this up with zero evidence, but behaves as though these assumptions are the only possible explanation!

You would think that Jack would be the man of action in the group - the Professor provides the brains, Jack the muscles. Actually, Jack is the professor's yes man. He exists so that the professor has a dunderhead close at hand who needs everything explained to him. Jack's dialogue consists of either asking the professor a question or agreeing with whatever poppycock the professor has just uttered.

The real muscle of the group belongs to Nguru. The performance of Nguru is pretty bad - he talks in pidgin English that sounds just like the voices white actors used to portray Native Americans - lots of "ugh" and "(verb)-um"s. The professor constantly belittles him, referring to how Nguru supposedly only lives for a fight. The professor loves to call him a "black devil," "black sinner," "black rascal," etc. Yet Nguru gets it done; he constantly has to rescue the rest of the party from whatever nonsense they've blundered into.

The series is very pulpy and pretty obviously inspired by H. Rider Haggard's stories. Nguru is a less-interesting version of Umbopa from King Solomon's Mines and the lost civilization of white people recall those found in Allan Quatermain.

You can hear the Old Time Radio Researchers Group's collection of episodes at the Internet Archive.

My 8th Junk Food video!

Yet another video about junk food in Angola has gone up at Youtube - this one contains a very strong recommendation!

Radio Recap: Hello Americans

I'm a great fan of Orson Welles' work - especially his radio programs. And yet, I hadn't given much thought to his series Hello Americans, which aired from the fall of 1942 to the winter of 1943. The episodes I had heard seemed a little difficult to quantify... what exactly was Hello Americans? The disparite episodes I heard seemed to have little in common beyond a the subject of South America.

I've now heard all of Hello Americans and now know... it was disparite by design. Welles had been sent to South America before to help promote pan-Americanism during World War II; that turned out to be something of a disaster as none of the films he attempted to make were ever completed (the fragments were sown together as It's All True) while at the same time his excellent film the Magnificent Ambersons was edited against his wishes during his absence.

But Hello Americans leaves us with something positive from Welles' venture down south. This show lasted only 12 episodes - and Welles missed 2 of them! - but despite the scattershot nature of the contents it is fascinating to listen to, as well as quite educational. The series performed a quick overview of South American history and samplings of South American culture - most especially in terms of music, represented by guests such as Carmen Miranda and Sir Lancelot. When Welles missed two episodes the time was filled (brilliantly, IMHO) by all-music programs featuring some of the artists Welles had previously hosted.

The oddest ducks in this very odd flock by far are the three episodes given over to "the Alphabet," in which Welles attempted to discuss South America with a letter representing various significant topics. But that "various" means the episodes are not very focused - he provides multiple words for each letter, so that the first installment only covers letters A-C! At that rate he could surely have kept it going quite a bit longer, but instead he tore from C to S in the second episode, during which he started a lengthy side drama about slavery which continued into the third and final chapter.

Again, this is not a typical radio program; it's part music, part drama, part educational. If you like Welles or you enjoy a bit of samba and calypso, you'll want to hear this program.

Every episode of Hello Americans is available at the Internet Archive.