Story Situations and Characters
Tough, charismatic group leader Jack is usually the first to figure solutions to the mysteries. Jack has more of an edge than the typical radio hero of the period. He distrusts the attractive women who always seem to show up, and he professes to dislike women in general. The series' writer claimed that Jack's problems with women had to do with his youth. He had gotten a girl pregnant and had to leave his home town in shame. This was only a back story detail and was never made explicit on the show. Doc and Reggie are slightly less edgy characters. The Texas-born Doc is a hard-fighting, boastful, high-spirited character who provides comic relief. Reggie, an Englishman noted for his great strength, however, usually shied away from the fairer sex.
Morse, regarded as one of the best writers in radio, took delight in creating vividly imagined settings for the show and elaborate, often bizarre plots. In a medium whose heroes tended to be serious and strait-laced, he created three who were wonderfully reckless and exuberant. Jack, Doc and Reggie were more interested in the thrill of adventure than in righting wrongs. When they collected a fee, their only goal was to spend it as quickly as possible.
Actor Peter Lorre once sent Morse a letter threatening legal action because a character named Michel in two of the serials, sounded like Lorre. Morse dropped the character from the series days after. The serial "The Temple of the Vampires" was the first serial to cause concerned parents to write letters to the network. When Walter Patterson committed suicide, the character of Reggie was written out of the series, but he was mentioned by name two years later.
Valse Triste by Jean Sibelius was the program's theme music. There were several film adaptations of I Love a Mystery by Morse, but none had the success of the radio series. Surviving recordings of the show are rare.
It was announced that in 2009 Audio Cinema Entertainment, Inc. has gotten the blessings of the Morse Estate to do recreations of the full series based on the Hollywood run.
Read more about this topic: I Love A Mystery
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