Old Time Radio Detectives and Crime Fighters (Smithsonian Collection) [Box set] [Audio CD]

Silhouette (Author)

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Radio Spirits; Audio CD edition (May 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 157019050X
• ISBN-13: 978-1570190506
• Product Dimensions: 5.7 x 5 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,438,891 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Memories of the past, September 13, 2005

By 

Elzera Flynn "Miss Ellie" (Brentwood,CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Old Time Radio Detectives and Crime Fighters (Smithsonian Collection) (Audio CD)

Thank You to the people who decided to recover all these great memories of the past.When I was a child we sat in front of the radio for hours and listened to these wonderful broadcasts!
WONDERFUL!

7 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Radio Noir, August 17, 2005

By 

John P Bernat (Kingsport, TN USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Old Time Radio Detectives and Crime Fighters (Smithsonian Collection) (Audio CD)

This is a wonderful and excruciating collection.

If you've read the biographies of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, you know how much loathing they had for the work they did on these programs. Hammett took his timeless hard-boiled detective, Sam Spade, and made him a commercial smoothie for more than a few of the programs on these CDs. Chandler wrote a few, too.

Like their protagonists, these authors did it for the money, which they needed for liquor. What's tough about listening to these works is that the brilliance is still there, but in between terrible cliches, hackneyed and contrived plots, and, in a few cases, really bad radio acting.

But you cannot do without this collection if you have any serious interest in 20th Century American history and culture. If you only view this as a compelling argument against the commercialization of art, so be it.

But it's funny as heck to hear independent filmmakers today bemoaning the levelling effect of popular media. It was just the same way in 1945 as in 2005, and we're somehow still producing great art in so many venues.

Like Talking Heads used to say, "same as it ever was."