Radio Recap: Under Arrest

Under Arrest was a radio series which ran on Mutual from 1946-1954 (according to the Old-Time Radio Researchers, although it might be 2 shows they’ve conflated as one), initially as a summer replacement for the Shadow. The show would open sounding a little like Gang Busters with alarms as a warden’s voice would bark, “into your cells!” And each episode ended in the same manner, followed by a voice adding, “all prisoners present and accounted for.”

Initially the series featured two leads, police detective Captain Jim Scott (played by Joe DeSantis) and lady reporter Susan Webb (played by DeSantis’ future wife Margaret Draper). It seems Susan was dropped from the show at some point. Listening to the earliest surviving episodes, the series does sound a little like the Shadow - one can imagine that the same audience who enjoyed hearing Lamont and Margo solving crimes would have likewise enjoyed the Scott/Susan duo.

As the series developed, however, I stopped thinking of the Shadow and found myself thinking of an entirely different Mutual series — the Mysterious Traveler. It’s not so much that the crime content of the series is like what the Mysterious Traveler offered but that the cast of performers and musical effects sound basically identical to episodes of the Mysterious Traveler.

Initially the series also put me in mind of Gang Busters, but the earliest surviving episode persuaded me otherwise. Initially it sounded like other pre-Dragnet police programs, the only wrinkle being that the series had an actual lead character rather than an ever-changing cast from week to week. However, in one scene of the first episode, Captain Scott counsels the son of a murdered man. The teenage son is outraged by his father’s death and wants to become a police officer and seek revenge on criminals. Scott sagely observes that not all criminals deserve death and it isn’t the police officer’s job to sentence them. It’s not exactly a moment of liberal humanity, but saying the police should try to capture criminals alive verges on radical anarchy depending on which circles you travel in. Anyway, it’s an idea that few police programs in old-time radio addressed.

My favourite episode is “The Paris Road” in which Scott pinpoints the criminals who performed an art theft together, yet the two criminals have never actually met in person!

Despite what was apparently a very lengthy run on radio, there’s barely anythinhg left of Under Arrest today. The few surviving episodes can be heard on the Old Time Radio Researchers Group’s YouTube playlist page.