Radio Recap: Blair of the Mounties

Blair of the Mounties was a syndicated radio detective serial that ran from January to October of 1938. It was written by and starred Colonel Rhys Davies (a former Mountie) as Blair, the titular mounted policeman.

The series jumps around in time a bit; one episode, "the Case of Lieutenant Ralston," is set during World War I, when Blair was not in the Mounties; it seems to me it was written to indulge Rhys Davies, who served in real-life had served in army intelligence during the war, as Blair is shown to. Much later another episode - "The Most Famous Spy" - is a wartime story about Mata Hari.

In one story, "The Kittilak Lagoon Mystery," Blair goes off on a weird tirade in which he complains about the difficulties in prosecuting criminal cases. Here's a small snippet of his lengthy complaint:

"The trouble of the world today, and modern police work in particular is that everybody's trying to be too smart and technical. ... Look at modern police work in general - filing systems, scientific methods and all that sort of stuff and look at the criminals who get away. And look at modern trial systems! Expert witnesses! Psychiatrists! Murder trials lasting for weeks! In the old days it took a few hours."

So, that's a bit fascist, complaining that police are being restrained because they have to respect individual rights? Rights that help prevent against wrongful arrest and conviction? Rights that prevent the sort of lynching that Blair seems to prefer?

There's also a strange tirade that Blair goes on in "Star Ruby of Talangor" where he complains (for several minutes) about detective fiction and calls out authors of fiction for not being as clever in real-life, singling out Arthur Conan Doyle in particular. It's especially ill-judged because the kind of detective fiction Blair complains about is basically what Blair of the Mounties indulges in - it's always about Blair spotting some clever clue that everyone else overlooked.

Blair retired to married life in "Strange Case of Henry Peterson" but returned in the next episode, "the Return of Inspector Blair." At that point the series was set in England and revealed that Blair had originally been born there - so he's not even a Canadian hero? Sheesh. Blair then becomes a private detective in England who solves crimes so... the entire premise of the title is a little questionable, since he's no longer "of the Mounties."

Indigenous characters fare about as well as you'd expect from old-time radio - that is, they're portrayed by white people who speak in halting, "me-catch-um" dialects.

All in all, I wanted to like Blair of the Mounties as an early bit of Canadiana radio, but Blair's long, angry speeches did a lot to eliminate my enjoyment of this program. You can still feel that tiny thrill only a Canadian can understand when a place like Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan is name-checked, but that doesn't make up for the tedium surrounding this program.

The Old Time Radio Researchers have a YouTube playlist of Blair of the Mounties!