Radio Recap: Richard Diamond, Private Detective

Richard Diamond, Private Detective was a terrific detective program starring Dick Powell as the titular detective. This series followed soon after Powell's turn as Richard Rogue in Rogue's Gallery. Richard Diamond was very much like Richard Rogue but even more so, he was much more like Powell himself; Powell sometimes indulged in song on Rogue's Gallery but in Richard Diamond, Private Detective it was more or less standard that Powell would sing at least one ditty at the close of his program.

It was heard on each of the big networks, principally NBC (1949-1950), then ABC (1951-1952) and finally CBS (1953); the CBS season seems to be mostly comprised of new versions of previously-used scripts. Although there are big gaps of missing episode in collections today, happily we have large numbers of episodes from each of the three network versions (especially rare to have so many of an ABC program). So, today we have a pretty good idea of what Richard Diamond, Private Detective was like throughout its history. Rexall was the show's longest-running sponsor, but it was also sponsored by Camels cigarettes while on ABC. It was also a TV show from 1957-1960, which Dick Powell served as producer for (but didn't star in).

Unlike Rogue's Gallery, there was a large supporting cast; there was Diamond's girlfriend Helen Asher (Virginia Gregg), a wealthy socialite who mostly exited on the fringes of her boyfriend's adventures, frequently telephoning him at the beginning of an episode and then romancing with him at the climax, where he'd serenade her; there was Helen's butler Francis (Wilms Herbert), whose role was to enter the room when Richard and Helen were kissing and become embarrassed; there was Captain Walt Levinson (Ed Begley, Arthur Q. Bryan and a few others), the friendly police official who was on good terms with Richard but was frequently exasperated by the situtions Rick got into; and finally there was Sgt. Otis (also Wilms Herbert), the dim-witted desk sergeant who tried unsuccessfully to outsmart Diamond.

Some episodes were written by John Michael Hayes, who was also writing for the Adventures of Sam Spade, a similarly light-hearted detective program. The series was also written and produced by Blake Edwards, who at that time was best-known for the game show Truth or Consequences. This was the start of a long career of writing and producing for Edwards that would eventually lead to the Pink Panther movies.

Despite the show's generally easy-going and humorous nature, there are quite a few episodes that play out as fairly serious noir and they're very good too. For example, there's the serial killer episode "The Man Who Hated Woman" (July 16, 1949), Diamond racing the clock while searching for the kidnapped Levinson in "the Kidnapped Policeman" (October 18, 1950) and the very clever "Cover-Up Murders" in which a madman announces his crimes to the police in advance (November 22, 1950).

Perhaps the best humorous episode is the one titled "the Singing Critic" (November 5, 1949) in which the long-running gag of Helen's neighbour complaining about Diamond's singing at the end of the episode (a gag that pointedly appeared at the end of the previous 2 week's show) leads to the neighbour hiring another private detective to ruin Diamond's voice; the rival detective is named "Pat Cossack," not only a spoof of Pat Novak, for Hire, but the actor portraying Pat does a very funny Jack Webb imitation!

Another interesting spoof of the private eye genre is the episode "The Ruby Idol Case" (December 3, 1949), which plays out like a typical private detective adventure for most of it's length; then Diamond reads a pulp magazine and suddenly the episode lurches into an increasingly over-the-top story (Diamond quips, "even the dialogue is bad!" at one point) until he finally wakes up to discover the 2nd half of the show was a dream brought on by reading a pulp!

Other good humourous episodes include the ghost story spoof "The House of Mystery Case" (December 10, 1949), a fourth-wall breaking episode where Dick Powell's wife June Allyson hires Diamond in "Mrs. X Can't Find Her Husband" (June 21, 1950), an attempt by Diamond and Levinson to solve a mystery while on vacation in "the Chapel Hill Case" (July 19, 1953) and a health club murder case in "the Wheat Germ Case" (August 9, 1953).

If the show has a drawback, it's that for a show with "private detective" in the title, it's a bit poor as a mystery drama. The emphasis on comedy is so strong and the characters so eccentric that I find it difficult to get drawn into any of the show's mysteries- I often feel very detached from the mystery, instead considering each scene as merely a set-up to some witty banter, not furthering the plot. And indeed, you can often listen to Richard Diamond, Private Detective as a comedy show; only those few great hard-boiled episodes I mentioned above really put plot ahead of comedy.

The Old Time Radio Researchers have a YouTube playlist of Richard Diamond, Private Detective.