Friday, July 9, 2010

Friday's Favorite OTR

Voyage of the Scarlet Queen: “Hattie McCormick and the Patient Stowaway” 12/31/47




The Scarlet Queen is on course to its next Asian port-of-call when a stowaway is discovered aboard. The uninvited passenger is quite forthright about his intention to murder three people when the ship arrives at its destination.


Captain Philip Carney locks the guy up, intending to turn him over to the authorities as soon as possible. But when the stowaway escapes upon arrival at port, Carney feels it’s his duty to warn the potential victim. Soon, he finds himself acting as bodyguard to an enormously fat tavern owner named Hattie McCormick.


But in Carney’s hardboiled, film noir-inspired universe, a situation is rarely that straightforward. Someone is murdered, but there are threads within threads here and its up to Carney to untangle the mess and get to the truth.


Eliot Lewis—one of radio’s finest storytellers—stars as Carney and also directed the series. Gil Doud and Bob Tallman provide a well-constructed script with quirky but realistic characters, giving us yet another fine episode in this superb show.


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