OLD-TIME RADIO: THIS IS YOUR FBI

The FBI -- our nation's premier law enforcement agency -- has been in the news for the past few days.  The agency has had a checkered career.  J. Edgar Hoover, director from 1924 to 1972, did much to transform a moribund agency to modern (and often controversial) crime fighting force.  Hoover's grandstanding and behind the scenes machinations created a number of problematic and often hidden excesses.  No matter what your opinion of him, Hoover was a master at public relations and during most of his tenure he was able to maintain the Bureau's high public image.  

Hoover would lend his imprematur to various entertainment outlets to ensure a favorable image for the FBI.  Case in point:  ABC radio's crime drama This is Your FBI, to which he gave his endorsement and (supposedly) opened past files of the agency to producer/director Jerry Devine to be adapted for the program.  Hoover called the show "the finest dramatic program on the air."

Running from April 6, 1945 to January 30, 1953, This is Your FBI produced 409 half-hour shows with Stacy Harris starring as (fictional) FBI agent Jim Taylor.  Frank Lovejoy served as the show's narrator during its first year.  

Week after week we learned that FBI = good, crime/criminals = bad, as wass the case with this episode, "The Friendly Killer," which first aired on June 21, 1945.

Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MI-N_9Eke-I

MUSIC FROM THE PAST: STRANGE LOVE

You've gotta love Darlene Love.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdimD8Z-ppY

BAD JOKE WEDNESDAY

A jumper cable went into a bar,  The bartender said grudgingly, "I'll serve you, but don't start anything!"

MUSIC FROM THE PAST: I CAN'T HELP MYSELF

Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch, here's The Four Tops.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXavZYeXEc0

OVERLOOKED FILM: THE LADY FROM CHUNGKING (1942)

It's the second week in May, so what can be more fitting than to feature a film that has two "Mays"?

The Lady from Chungking is a World War II propaganda programmer, the third film produced by Alexander-Stern Productions, a short-lived (1942-1945) B-movie company.  The movie is lifted from its low-budget status by a great performance from its star, the first of our "Mays" -- Anna May Wong.  Wong plays  Kwan Mei, the leader of the resistance in a rural china village during the Japanese occupation.  When American airmen are shot down near her village, Kwan Mei plans to rescue them, but when a Japanese general (character actor Harold Huber, second billed in this film) enters the town, Kwan Mei realized that something big is about to go down.  She has to use her impressive skills to get close to the general to find out what.  

Third billing in this flick goes to our second of our "Mays" -- Mae Clarke, perhaps best known for her grapefruit scene with James Cagney in The Public Enemy.  Clarke plays Lavara, a cynical Russian cafe singer -- sadly, a role that does not make much use of her considerable talents.  Rick Vailin and Paul Bryar play the downed American pilots and Ludwig Donath is the German cafe owner Hans Gruber (definitely not the Alan Richman Hans Gruber from Die Hard!). 

The Lady from Chungking was directed by active B-movie director William Nigh with a script by Sam Robins (The Lone Rider and the Bandit, Bowery Blitzkreig) from a story by Milton Raison (Bombs Over Burma, Girl from Rio).

Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzwg0tDmx6k

MUSIC FROM THE PAST: SPUTNIK MONROE

Otis Gibbs.  I heard him singing this one yesterday afternoon on public radio's Mountain Stage and I just had to post this.  Sputnik has become one of my heroes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCtF4pZjfNE

INCOMING

• Brian Keene, Rising.  Horror novel.  "Nothing stays dead for long.  The dead are returning to life, intelligent, determined...and very hungry.  Escape seems impossible for Jim Thurmond, one of the few left alive in this nightmare world.  but Jim's young son is also alive and in grave danger hundreds of miles away.  Despite astronomical odds, Jim vows to find him -- or die trying."  Keene is one of the bright lights in contemporary horror.
• Don Pendleton, The Guns of Terra 10.  Science fiction novel from the creator of Mack Bolan, the Executioner.  "Bones crunched and blood flowed as cries of alarm and pain filled the domehut.  Then Whaleman was moving fast through the doorway, out into the darkened compound.  Stars twinkled at him through the sweet atmosphere, urging him onward.  Unreality enveloped him.  Several times he fell on the uneven surface, and once he ran at full speed into a low-hanging branch.  but he kept going without any thoughts of where or why.  a long-dormant instinct in Zach Whaleman had risen in response to his original need, a very human and entirely 'natural' response of a life-mechanism in a survival situation."  Pendleton's SF, whether under his own name or as "Dan Britain," will never win any awards, but his pulpish style keeps the plots moving.