Last night, a Los Angeles radio station rebroadcast an
episode from the old Sam Spade series. The Spade shows IMO
are the best of old time radio. The title character, played
by Howard Duff, was just as tough as his book counterpart,
but the shows were much funnier and satiric than the novel or
short stories. According to Hellman, Hammett never listened
to them, merely cashed the checks. Wonder what he would have
thought of the one last night. Titled "The Critical Author
Caper" and originally broadcast 8/15/48, it's an uncredited
half-hour adaptation of "The Dain Curse," with Spade trying
to help Gabrielle Leggett overcome her addiction (to whisky
in this case -- it's 1948, after all). The "Author" in the
title is Owen Fitzstephan. There's a pretty amusing
discussion of his mystery novels, "Morgue Fruit" and "The
Spindly Stiff," which Spade's secretary, Effie Perine, is
reading. She and Spade also get into a brief discussion of
Hammett, with Effie stumbling over the name and calling him
Hashiell Dammit. Maybe they'd just learned that he never
tuned in.
Dick Lochte
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