Radio Recap: The Private Files of Rex Saunders

The Private Files of Rex Saunders was a radio detective/adventure series that ran briefly from May-August, 1951. It starred Rex Harrison as the hero who (unimaginatively) shared a first name; Leon Janney portrayed Rex's assistant Alec. The series was created by Himan Brown, one of radio's busiest men; he's best-remembered for producing Inner Sanctum Mysteries but was also responsible for the Adventures of the Thin Man, Bulldog Drummond, Barrie Craig and in the 1970s, the CBS Radio Mystery Theatre. Brown's fingerprints are definitely all over the Private Files of Rex Saunders if you're familiar with his work.

Certainly the presence of Leon Janney as the hero's sidekick makes the show sound a lot like Inner Sanctum Mysteries - he played a lot of characters on that show (usually villains). But the strongest influence from Brown's work certainly has to be Bulldog Drummond. That series aired in Mutual from 1941-1948 and the pilot episode of the Private Files of Rex Saunders is a recycled Bulldog Drummond script from December 24, 1947. In fact, as so much of the 1941-1948 version of Bulldog Drummond doesn't exist today for comparisons, it seems likely to me that much (or even all) of the Private Files of Rex Saunders was recycled from that series. It would have been very easy to simply change every reference from Bulldog into Rex and to change his valet Denny into Rex's sidekick Alec.

There is a strange kind of sameness to each episode; they all seem to open with Rex out taking a walk when a mysterious woman approaches him and asks for his help. Rex has a reputation as a ladies' man (much like the man who portrayed him) but seldom ever gets to romance the woman in question since they all either die before the halfway mark or turn out to be the week's villain.

The existing copies all have very crisp audio but they appear to have been clipped for syndication - the series was originally sponsored by RCA but none of the episodes have the RCA commercials one would expect. Despite the presence of a major sponsor, the series was made by NBC so featured the same recycled musical cues heard on their other dramatic programs. One episode is clearly an unedited reel as you can hear the director (Brown himself, perhaps) calling out instructions to Harrison and Harrison makes a few flubs, then repeats his lines to get it right.

The Private Files of Rex Saunders is a very generic detective series but the presence of a big name actor like Harrison makes it at least a little interesting to dig up. Harrison had a great voice but had arrived a little late for radio to make the most of his talents; at least this series left him with a decent footprint in dramatic radio's past.

You can listen to all of the Private Files of Rex Saunders using this playlist at YouTube courtesty of the Old-Time Radio Researchers' Group.