re: Best radio dramas, past and present(?)

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Phillip Marlowe is good also

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DL Philip Marlowe episodes here

This series is probably the closest any medium ever came to the Marlowe of the novels. Even Raymond Chandler himself didn't completely hate it.

The highlights of the show -- in particular the early episodes -- are absolutely the opening and closing narrations. Some of them are classics. The great episode "Red Wind" opens with the famous description of L.A. nighttime taken directly from Chandlers story:

"There was a rough desert wind blowing into Los Angeles that evening. It was one of those hot, dry Santa Anna winds that comes down out of the mountain passes... On nights like that, every booze party ends in a fight, and meek little housewives finger the edge of a carving knife and study their husband's necks. Anything can happen when the Santa Anna blows in from the desert."

The plots are generally not so hot -- they invariably hinge on Marlowe spotting something which the audience can't see (obviously) and only explaining how he figured it out in the tag. But with only 30 minutes of show they clearly had to decide between Agatha Christie plotting and Chandler ambience. Fortunately they chose the latter.

The show is definitely a buried noir treasure. Maybe someday it will be rediscovered.