Hollywood’s Golden Age unfolds before your very ears in this collection of classic dramatic radio.
We begin with The Dark Angel, a dramatic story of a blinded soldier who prefers to sacrifice happiness rather than saddle his fiance’ with having to care for him. Herbert Marshall and Merle Oberon star in this adaptation of the 1935 Goldwyn film. In Alias Jimmy Valentine, Pat O’Brien plays a reformed safecracker. Madge Evans is his girl, and character actors, Allen Jenkins and William Frawley are in fine support. O’Brien also gets to sing an Irish lilt at show’s end. Next we feature romantic Gene Raymond and Anna Sten in an adaptation of Graustark, George McCutcheon’s novel. Duty or love is at issue here. James Gleason is in support. This was Sten’s only appearance on Lux Radio Theater. She was the discovery of Samuel Goldwyn who was hoping she would turn out to be a threat to Greta Garbo (she wasn’t).
A Farewell to Arms features Clark Gable and Josephine Hitchinson, stand in for Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes as the star crossed lovers of Hemingway’s WW I novel. Some of the more adult themes of the novel have been softened here, but the powerful story remains intact. Adolph Menjou and Jack LaRue repeat their original roles from the film. And get out those handkerchiefs for One Way Passage starring William Powell and Kay Francis, repeating their original roles as a man on his way to the electric chair, and a woman with a terminal heart condition. She has no idea that the man she meets and falls for is a condemned man, and their tragic love affair never fails to bring a tear to the eye. The Sisters, stars Irene Dunne in the role that Bette Davis played in the film, and David Niven, reprising his pal, Errol Flynn’s role. Niven plays a ne’er do well husband constantly at odds with his long suffering wife. It takes place in San Francisco around the turn of the century, and there’s a certain natural disaster to prove it.
This is a worthy collection for anyone who loves strong storytelling and lots of star power. Meticulously restored by Radio Archives.
Nick Santa Maria, a published film historian and author, is the Project Producer for this series.
#86 The Dark Angel
Starring Merle Oberon and Herbert Marshall
Monday, June 22, 1936 - 60:00 - CBS, sponsored by Lux Soap
#106 Alias Jimmy Valentine
Starring Pat O'Brien and Madge Evans
Monday, November 9, 1936 - 60:00 - CBS, sponsored by Lux Soap
#119 Graustark
Starring Gene Raymond and Anna Sten
Monday, February 8, 1937 - 60:00 - CBS, sponsored by Lux Soap
#127 A Farewell to Arms
Starring Clark Gable and Adolph Menjou
Monday, April 5, 1937 - 60:00 - CBS, sponsored by Lux Soap
#209 One Way Passage
Starring William Powell and Kay Francis
Monday, March 6, 1939 - 60:00 - CBS, sponsored by Lux Soap
#232 The Sisters
Starring Irene Dunne and David Niven
Monday, October 9, 1939 - 60:00 - CBS, sponsored by Lux Soap
