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travellingtribble · 4 months

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old people TV shows are so dear to me

#old people tv shows #old people tv #you don't understand how much i love them #columbo #murder she wrote #the a team #diagnosis murder #chips #dukes of hazzard #ellery queen #happy days #tribblerambles

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basicallyanotherwitchesthing · 24 days

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Ellery Queen - Inspector Queen's Own Case - Bantam - 1966

#witches #inspectors #occult #vintage #inspector queen's own case #inspector queen #bantam books #ellery queen #1966 #skulls #chicks

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misforgotten2 · 2 months

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A book you very likely don’t have on your shelf #480

1974

Written by Jack Vance

#1974 #1970s #1970's #cover art #book cover #paperback #vintage paperback #ellery queen #jack vance #ephemera #mystery

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deductivisms · 4 months

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they announced a movie adaptation of decagon!!! so i redrew my old decagon piece from may hehe :]c

#the decagon house murders #ellery queen #yukito ayatsuji #art #2023 #december 2023

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fuckyeahfarleygranger · 4 months

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Farley Granger, Joan Collins, Charles Robinson, Ray Walston, Tom Reese, Barbara Rush, David Wayne, David Doyle, and Thayer David in the first episode of Ellery Queen (1975)

#farley granger #joan collins #charles robinson #ray walston #tom reese #barbara rush #david wayne #david doyle #thayer david #ellery queen #1970s

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radondoran · 8 months

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Happy birthday to my favorite radio actor, Larry Dobkin (September 16, 1919 – October 28, 2002)!

Character actor Lawrence Dobkin was a frequent supporting player in radio, with hundreds of credits across dozens of different programs. He appeared in over 170 episodes of Gunsmoke, playing all kinds of characters from gunmen to gentlemen. Other shows where he was often heard include Escape; Romance; Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar; The Whistler; Let George Do It; Frontier Gentleman; Fort Laramie; Have Gun, Will Travel; NBC University Theatre; etc.

Larry Dobkin's only leading role in a radio series was the title sleuth in Ellery Queen from February 1947 to April 1948--and even there he wasn't exactly a headliner, because, in keeping with the pseudonymous source material, the show was always coy about identifying the actors who played Ellery. You might recognize him as Lieutenant Matthews on The Adventures of Philip Marlowe, the first of three main Archie Goodwins on The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe, Dave on The Man From Homicide, or Pat McCracken (usually) on Johnny Dollar--and if you ask me, his most memorable and lovable radio character was Louie, the Brooklyn cabbie who sometimes played sidekick to Vincent Price on The Adventures of the Saint.

Dobkin also played numerous roles in film and television and later did writing and directing work for television.

Here are a few of my favorite radio episodes featuring Larry Dobkin:

Ellery Queen 1947-12-04 "Man in the Street": A swindler is murdered before Inspector Queen and Ellery can put him in jail. Whodunit? There were only about ten thousand people with a motive!

The Saint 1950-11-19 "No Hiding Place": The Saint tries to help a young man who has escaped from prison after several attempts on his life. Who framed him, who's out to get him, and why? (Louie isn't in this episode as much as in some others, but the lines he does get include some of my favorite lines ever, and anyway I think it's one of the strongest episodes of the series.)

Escape 1949-07-07 "The Fourth Man": Dobkin narrates this classic story of three "civilized" men adrift on a raft in the tropics, battling thirst and each other while their "savage" pilot calmly sits by.

Richard Diamond, Private Detective 1949-07-09: An escaped convict, bent on revenge against Richard Diamond, kidnaps Diamond's girlfriend.

Philip Marlowe 1950-01-21 "The Bid for Freedom": A woman has escaped from an asylum, and now her husband is in danger of being murdered. Or maybe it's not that simple.

Philip Marlowe 1950-07-28 "The Glass Donkey": Lieutenant Matthews calls to ask about a girl Marlowe used to date--a girl who's just been murdered. It's real personal as Marlowe offers his services to find out why a nice girl had to die.

Philip Marlowe 1951-08-18 "The Young Man's Fancy": There's no murder in this somewhat atypical Philip Marlowe episode by Kathleen Hite. Marlowe goes out for Moscow Mule ingredients, and gets involved in the family troubles of the nice old man from whom he buys his limes.

The Story of Dr. Kildare 1950-10-25: A madman with a gun is holed up inside a school building. Dr. Kildare goes in after him, while Dr. Gillespie scrambles to remotely diagnose a mental illness without ever talking to the patient.

Gunsmoke 1952-06-28 "The Ride Back": This recently rediscovered Gunsmoke episode is almost entirely a radio play for only two voices, as Marshall Dillon brings a twisted killer through hostile Indian country.

Gunsmoke 1952-08-02 "Renegade White": Matt goes after a white man who's been selling guns to Indians, and winds up a prisoner of the Indians himself.

Gunsmoke 1953-02-21 "Meshougah": Matt and Chester find a whole town held hostage by a crazed killer and his gang of outlaws.

Fort Laramie 1956-05-13 "War Correspondent": A smart newspaperman from the East tags along with Captain Quince, hoping to show the folks back home a fair picture of life on the frontier. He's got a lot to learn!

Fort Laramie 1956-06-03 "Don't Kick My Horse": One of Captain Quince's soldiers is a meek little man whose only friend is his horse. He's been in the cavalry ten years, and it's time for a new horse. Dude is not ready to accept this. Tragedy ensues.

Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar 1956-01-09 – 1956-01-13 "The Todd Matter": A tip on an old burglary leads Johnny into a very fresh shooting. Dobkin plays five roles in this story (two of them in close proximity) and what always strikes me is that he doesn't do five radically different voices--he doesn't even change his accent very much! He just acts each character so completely that you're not even inclined to pay attention to the actor.

Have Gun, Will Travel 1958-12-14 "The Outlaw": Paladin makes a deal with a convicted killer who wants to see his newborn son before being hanged.

Suspense 1954-07-27 "Destruction": "And it had a kind of warmth to it, this dying…" A strange, melancholy, poetic script by radio noir greats Fine and Friedkin, about a pathetic little man at the end of his rope.

#my favorite radio actor let me show you him #larry dobkin #lawrence dobkin #ellery queen #gunsmoke #philip marlowe #old time radio

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twistedtummies2 · 1 month

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Gathering of the Greatest Gumshoes - Number 13

Welcome to A Gathering of the Greatest Gumshoes! During this month-long event, I’ll be counting my Top 31 Favorite Fictional Detectives, from movies, television, literature, video games, and more!

SLEUTH-OF-THE-DAY’S QUOTE: “Are you with me? You might even be way ahead of me.”

Number 13 is…Ellery Queen.

So, I have to make a bit of a confession (maybe I should have done that with the previous pick, har har): I initially placed Ellery Queen a little further back in the ranks on this list. I won’t say exactly where, but as I worked on this countdown, and considered all the things I had to consider, I realized that he needed to be higher. Why? One simple reason above all the rest: anytime I bring up “classic murder mysteries” with people, Ellery Queen always seems to be one of the first characters I bring up. So, since he’s such an immediate presence in my mind with these matters, it only makes sense to give him higher placement.

Ellery Queen has one of the most interesting backgrounds of any fictional detective, because he actually wrote his own stories. What do I mean by this? Well, the character began as the creation of two men: Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee. The two were cousins and close friends, as well as fellow writers, who loved mystery fiction. One year, the pair collaborated to jointly enter a detective novel competition. They came up with a fittingly “novel” idea: the story would be written under a pseudonym, and the pseudonym would be the main character of the story, giving the reader the impression this was the story of a real detective. Part of the reason this was done was that the pair felt the characters of such stories are better remembered than the actual creators, so making it seem like they were one and the same would make the stories sell better.

This turned to be quite a boon to the pair as time went on: not only could they take turns writing more Ellery Queen stories, to prevent either tiring out, but it made it very easy for other writers to take charge of things as the character’s popularity increased. It also allowed for something interesting to be added to Ellery as a character: much like Father Brown, Ellery is something of an “accidental detective,” as his actual vocation is being a mystery author. He uses his know-how in that field to help the police, when able (with one of the chief officers being his own father). This also meant that other writers could create completely unrelated stories the conceit that these were some of fictional Ellery’s real novels. In other words, the character effectively became the creators, and – vice-versa – the creators effectively became the character.

The original books were highly popular, not only because of this idea of a “real” detective telling the story, but because the Ellery Queen books used a particular gimmick to extraordinary effect: what is commonly referred to as “Fair Play Mystery.” The idea of the fair play mystery is that the reader can potentially to solve the story on their own, if they can pick upon the same clues as the detective and piece them together. While this idea exists in most great Whodunnits and other sorts of mysteries, the Ellery Queen novels used it in a very special way. This was the “Challenge to the Reader” concept: before the big reveal of who the villain was, why they did what they did, and how they managed to pull it off, Ellery Queen would break the fourth wall and ask the reader if THEY knew the answer, and might even offer a few possible solutions for the reader to pick from. This made the stories into not just gripping murder mysteries, but also into parlor games: you could see how many people who read the book were able to guess the end result before it happened!

This entire formula made Queen one of the most popular detectives in American fiction, and the character has been adapted on numerous occasions. There have, of course, been more Ellery Queen books in the years since he was first created (Ellery was invented all the way back in the late 1920s); I believe the most recently published was in 2005. There was also a popular radio program in the 1940s, which featured multiple people in the role of Queen over the years. Here, special celebrity guests would be brought on as “Ellery’s Armchair Detectives,” and before the climax of the story, they would be asked if they could guess the answer. The character has also been adapted to film and TV on multiple occasions, as well as in games and even comic books! My favorite incarnation was the mid-70s television series starring Jim Hutton (pictured here), and that seems to be the most popular version out there, beyond the books. As recently as 2016, there was a stage play based on the story “Calamity Town,” which seemed to do well.

Here's a challenge to YOU readers: how long do you think it will be before Ellery Queen truly disappears? I hope the day is no time soon.

Tomorrow, the countdown continues with Number 12!

CLUE: “There’s an old saying: ‘Don’t change anything. Ever.’”

#list #countdown #best #favorites #top 31 fictional detectives #gathering of the greatest gumshoes #number 13 #ellery queen #literature #tv #television #radio #jim hutton #mystery #murder mystery

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driveintheaterofthemind · 1 year

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