DWG-AU

Danger With Granger

Cyberflyer

Steve Granger was a typical Hard Boiled detective in most ways. He worked with a few disadvantages that didn't hamper others in the Hard-Boiled Genre. For one thing he came late in the Golden Age of Radio, premiering on the Mutual Network in the summer of 1956. Sam Spade first appeared in The Maltese Falcon in print in 1929, and on radio in 1941 (Humphrey Bogart in the Lux Theater adaptation of the film). Chandler's Philip Marlowe first appeared in the novel The "Big Sleep" in 1939, and on the radio in June 1944 (Lux Radio Theater's "Murder My Sweet"). This doesn't mean that the Hard-Boiled Detective was used up by 1956, but the clichés that are such an important part of the genre don't have the punch in Danger With Granger. It is hard to see how Granger could have made a living, his clients seemed to have an unfortunate habit of dying on him. Granger was also missing the pretty secretary that many Private Eye's had, but he could depend on his Police Connection, Lt Jake Rankin. Information was easy to come by from newspaperman Cal Hendrix, who acted as Granger's personal advisor. Danger With Granger is filled with twists, turns, and double crosses. The show is somewhat formulaic, but it is still plenty entertaining. Granger assure us that each episode is "one of my most interesting cases." The episode opens by revealing the motive for the upcoming murder, and goes through each of its four acts, working to the climax and ending with a wrap-up. Granger self narrates his stories, and gets knocked around by the bad guys, but some how always manages to find the villain. The show is full of formulaic tough-guy detective talk such as "Larry should crawl into a hole and let someone fill it with water" or "You're on the right track, but you're on the wrong train." This collection boasts 22 of the few surviving episodes.