Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho. This
is your host, Adam Graham. If you have a comment, email it
to me Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net. Follow us on Twitter at
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the program that way. Again, thank you so much for your support.
Well, now it is time for this week's Dangerous Assignment. The original airn
eight December third, nineteen fifty two, and the title is Italian Actress.
Dangerous Assignment transcribes starring Rayan, Don Lavez, Steve Mitchell. Yeah, danger
is my assignment. I get sent to a lot of places I can't even
pronounce they all spell the same thing, though, trouble. But when I
walk into the Commissioner's office, I don't realize that this assignment's going to prove
that you can sometimes hang a killer sky high with a little piece of string.
Commissioner, you sent for me, Steve. You ever hear of the
Italian movie actress named Yolanda? Sure, she's made so many rice Field pictures.
I understand she's got water logged kneecaps. How'd you like to meet her?
I'll just hand me a pair of hip boots them on the way.
You'll find her on the French Riviera. Her yacht is anchored at Nice.
Were particularly interested in the guests she has a board our sole, Commissioner,
Steve. One of the most Vish pre war rackets is in operation again,
a racket that cost American citizens thousands and thousands of dollars in payoff money for
the protection of relatives living in Eastern Germany, Hungary and Romania. Yeah,
I built up quite a fun trade offs rise to power, didn't It?
This time? Was certainly as being run as a private enterprise. It started
up some six months ago under the direction of the same man who handled it
for the Nazi. That would be Hertzog, colonel of Gestapo, right,
only someone else seems to have taken over the racket and the colonel's little black
book. Etzug died suddenly in Lisbon two months ago. So how does all
this tie in with the Italian movie Queen? An American named Ernest Hall,
vacationing in Nice, had the bite put on him for twenty five thousand dollars
last week. The pay up, yes he was a freight harm would come
to some of his family still living in eastern Germany. Now Hall is certain
the head of this racket is aboard that yacht. Get over there, Steve,
check with him, find out who's behind all this, and smash it.
Oh, I said, you've got your assignment. Good luck. The
National Broadcasting Company is presenting Dangerous Assignment, starring Brian don Levy in the role
of Steve Mitchell, colorful two fisted government agent. At all those places of
the world where danger and intrigue walk hand in hand, there you will find
Steve Mitchell on another dangerous assignment. Thursday evening is an entertainment fill listening night
on NBC Radio. Set your dial to this station for such fun pack programs
as Truther or Consequences, with Ralph Edwards playing host on America's favorite party game.
There's fun, surprises, and always the unexpected when you listen to Truther
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Roy Rogers Show and thirty minutes of top flight entertainment. Robert Young is another
Thursday night visitor when he stars in Father Knows Best. We know you'll all
enjoy these program so be sure to set your dial right here to this NBC
station for top flight radio entertainment each Thursday night. Sure I've got my assignment.
Get over to the French Riviera. Check with an American who's had to
pay off protection money for members of his family living in Germany. Find out
who's running the racket and break it up. It's late Thursday afternoon in my
plane lands. The American Ernest Paul is waiting for me into relatives. So
that's why I didn't call the authorities. And so now I wanted nothing to
go wrong. I decided it would be best to investigate quietly. After the
payment had been made. All right, Well, let's start from the beginning.
When did you get the pitch? A Sunday evening, a letter had
been slipped under my door. The note contained a demand for payment of twenty
five thousand dollars, a threat against the lives of an aunt, Analia Halderstatt,
and two cousins, Jan and Joseph Alderstatt, would by any chance,
yes, my father's name. I changed it to Hall when I arrived in
America many years ago. I see, how long have you been vacationing here
in Nice? A month? Run into any old acquaintances. Someone who knows
your real name is Holder Stuck. Yes, as a matter of fact,
a week ago, aboard the yacht, Eric Vogel is an old, old
friend. We came from the same village, and naturally we talked to people
we've known, our families and so on. And when you got that note
Sunday evening, Oh no, no, I couldn't bring myself to suspect that
Eric was behind all this. There were others at the party aboard the yacht.
Any one of them could have overheard your conversation, learned that your real
name was Holder Stuck. M okay who were the others. Well, the
actress you learned, of course, was there. It's her yacht. And
also a French newspaper man named Albert Beauvall, an Englishman named Chipping, and
Lal Hubli, a Hindu that of number two others Felix de Luca he is
Yolanda's director. And George something I didn't get his last name. Okay,
Now about the payoff, Well, last night a box containing the money was
placed under a bridge on the road to Untie. You see anyone, No,
I didn't go Albert by, did the newspaper man, Yes? You
see, he was with me Sunday evening when the letter came, so naturally
we talked about it. The note instructed me to remain in my hotel room
here and send someone with the money Bovey volunteers. I see. Look,
I'd like to meet these people, Bevey, Chipping, George what's his name?
I can arrange it. I am expected to board the art Naa the
cocktails. They'll all be there fine. Now I should warn you, mister
Mitchell, these friends of Orlando. They're artistic temperament. Their actions are somewhat
Drew Strange, you might call him eccentric or just playing screwball. Huh,
All right, let's go well. I've met some characters in my time,
but nothing like the wacked group assembled aboard Yolanda's yacht. The queen herself was
attired in a leopard skin bathing suit, dark glasses, a floffe som barrel
with a four foot rim. She's tossing grapes across the room to a gentler
standing on his head in the corner with his mouth open the window draped in
his sheet is sitting crossleg it on the bar and he's cracking walnuts little's teeth.
Paul introduces me to Yolanda and a split second lighter. The door burst
open. Two gents raced into the room, each of them's arms with a
saber that was Chicky and the one called Jewel. I didn't even get to
say hello. They will be back. Come on, a Joe, you
sit down here next to ORLANDA sit down, Joel. The name is Steve.
I don't like it, but I like you and everybody I like.
I call it Joe. Come on a Joe, sit donald, relaxed light
cigarette. You're a Martini ste Yeah, but easy on the alives. I
may have to drive tonight. You didn't meet everybody Joe there as well.
Hello, h and that one is the Lupui Beloka, get out of your
head. Hello to Joe Rock. Here's your cigarette orlanda. You know I
like you. You've got a class. I owe it all to the Continental
Television. So you from a USA some of the Yes, I'm gonna make
a picture there. The looker, he's a riding it now. A beautiful
story, Joe. It is just beautiful. If you like it, Joe,
he's about your telling it. The looker. Now this young girl,
Joe, she picks orange, great oranges? Great? No, I'm a
right picked grape, says I'm jumping on grapes in my bad feet. You
kind to drop on orange? Just the who what to jump on? Looking
out of this? Come on, god, I'm god. You are a
new chap here, aren't you. Yeah. The name is Mitchell, Steve
Mitchell. Oh, I'm chipping. I have no jokes. And this is
Georgie. I can't remember his last name. I asked Steve, just call
his yarns. Why is this business about her rights? I was trying to
tell Joe the story of my next pictures about a girl who kick purb but
on his hard working and all that sort of stuff. Eh, A proud
stout heart beating me with her tattered sweatshirt, falls in love with a gentleman
farmer named Rodney. He's a cat, of course. What's old? Are
you? I say? Really, that's a bit of old hat. You
know what's all I had forgot to do with it. You don't know this
story at all. No have to hear about it by all means, by
day. I please your feet? Okay, while are you down there?
You aren't done? My stand. My feet are killing me. It's jumping
on those loudly grayes. Well Yolanda launches into a dramatic account of the plot,
a tender, heart warming story of love, reread and hate among the
smite spikes. Suddenly the Cilandor swings open. A short, heavy set Chance
stands there with a mask over his face for forty five and one hand a
small satchel in the other. Hi, what are you doing? What's shut
up? Sister? This is a heist? What is said he's doing?
I stick up yorlander. Hold up, there's the big gents. Let's have
your wallets watch his rings. Anything that will bring a book them in there
now, josh them in his sports. Let's get with it. I ain't
got all night you first, Mac, sure, only call me George.
Huh, that's me sports George. Okay, George, get up, don't
try that again. See next one of your gents gets funny ones up with
a slug in him. Now come on, shut out a little gen picks
up the bag, backs out of the room, and then he's gone.
I take three quick steps to the door, stick my head outside the log
chips a hunk of mahogany just over my head. Then I hear footsteps going
down the gangplank. I take off on the double Perdie Hall is right behind
me. Do you see him? Mitchell? I think it duffed around the
warehouse. Come on, we'll cut to here. Hold it? What is
it? Coming up alongside the building and he's in a hurry. A good
work, Mitchell. Let's have a look at you. I got a lighthoule.
Yes, yes, here we are, Michell. What's the matter you
recognize this? Gent? Albert Bob the newspaper man. Oh Bobby, you
are right, Oh, oh, monsieur hole it's you. Huh? Where
is he? He must all get away now, let let me go.
Who are you talking about? The man who hoped those about the yet I
hired the you hired him? What does always mean? Bob? It was
a plan that the manner you gave me to place under the bridge last night,
monsieur, I had marked. Don't you see you staged this hold up
and hope you trace the mark money We well, you are trying to bring
the wallets to me all the screwball. Look, Bobby, where does he
hang out? Oh? A small hotel not far from you, the man.
We better get over there fast. We hustle over to a broken down
hotel in the water front cove and the hall. Hurry into the lobby and
while Bve conducts an arm waving conversation with the man behind the desk, I
duck down the alley and back of the hotel. I don't have long to
wait our hold up friend scoots out the back door and I grabbed my Sure
he's a small gentle. His left has a shock of a pile driver.
I'm setting him up for a right cross when I put slips on the wet
coddlestone and as I go downy plumps me out the side of the head with
I'm sitting on the curb rubbing my ear when Hall and Bovey come pounding up.
Mitchell, are you all right? Yes, but our friend got away.
He left this though. Ah, let me a beat. You would
see my plan was not such a bad one. Off the hole. Ah,
look, get money, Yes, yes, here has a bee I
marked another and another. Oh suck. Yeah. Your plan called for us
to find that marked money in somebody's wallet, and we'd have our culprit.
The money is here, all right, But where are the wallet? He
must have honed them away. Now we are right back where we stopped home.
Steve Mitchobo continue his dangerous assignment in just a moment. Have you started
your Christmas wishing yet? Well? This is the season for it, the
season when we wish we could do the most for our families, our friends,
and our loved ones. All of us express that wish when we say
those joyous words A Merry Christmas and a happy New Year to you. But
as the old song says, wishing won't make it so how much better it
would be if you could really do something to make that wish come true.
Well, the point is you can do something. You can buy Christmas seals.
Yes, Christmas Seal money helps pay for chest x ray campaigns which search
out those who have TB and don't know it so they can be treated to
save their lives and to protect yours. The Christmas Seals you buy today may
help to find through chest X rays some of the one hundred and fifty thousand
persons in our country who have TV without knowing it. Finding their TV early
when it's easiest to cure may mean many happy New Years to come for them.
Wishing won't help that. Buying Christmas Seals will buy Christmas seals, and
you turn wishes into good health. Now back to dangerous assignment and Brian don
Levy as Steve Mitchell whan backfired. Bobe, you're a hired stick up man
dumped all the money out of the wallet. Now we don't know whose wallet
the mark money came out of. Let's see, five hundred bucks of the
money in this statue is Mark. Well, the rest of it must be
hidden above the yacht somewhere could be Okay, suppose you start on Operation Ashcan.
Bobet Paul and I'll see what we can pick up. Back at the
yacht, Operation ash Can what does these check all the ash cans between the
dock and the hotel where you're a stickup boy was hiding out. See if
you can find those wallets, could be some of that marked money stuck to
one of them. Paul and I head back to the yacht Yolanda Chipping and
George or in the lounge. I put the satchel on the table and tell
them we tracked down the stick up man. That he got away, but
we recovered the money. How much money was there? About two thousand dollars,
George, Most of it was in this satchel, but there was five
hundred in his coat pocket. Just what I lost, Sport, Thank you
very much. Oh you're sure about the amount of sure, I'm sure.
Well there it is. Help yourselves. You wonder how much did you lose?
You remember a couple of hundred? Joe Chipping, Well, it's a
bit hard to say. I've stumbled across some rare fines in niece, and
I'm not sure how much they've cost me. Rare fines. He's a book
collector, Joe Dull. Then you don't know how much you had in your
wallet? Well, not more than three hundred, I should say, see,
I don't carry a great deal of cash on these trips. Let us
credit that sort of thing. Oh, I should have so much credit.
He's a dirty rich joke, you know, a filthy rich darling, dirty
filthy. He'll never be cleaned. Huh oh fine, where's the looker?
Oh he's a tender, he was. No feelings are hot? No,
nothing like losing some money to make the Luca nor feel so hot. Well,
look for a few of these bills in his oxygen tent. It may
snap him out of it. You got a good sense of humor too.
Oh, I'm a riot, Josephine, I got a good idea. Why
you don't come with that? Will you sure? On the cruise, we're
shoving over about an hour. Oh are you heading? Oh? I thought
we stop at Corsica and the Naples and what then we split up? I
gotta go back at works. Okay, thanks for the invitation. In Landa,
you've got yourself another passenger. We shove off and along about dark,
everybody gathers in the lounge for cocktails, everybody but me. I figured this
is my chance to start searching the stake rings. And George what's his name
is currently at the top of my suspect list because of the way he tried
to stop the hold up, and later a prompt claim he put in for
the five hundred bucks. So I give his cabin a frisk, but I
can't find anything. I step out in the passageway and turn to close the
door behind me. Suddenly something hard connects the back of my ear. It
talks me to my knees. I can hear somebody taking off down the passageway.
I stagger to my feet and brush the cobwebs out of my brain,
and then found along the passageway around the corner rough Mitchell. I came below
to warn you warned me. Yes, I saw De Luca leave the lounge
a few minutes ago. I thought he might have come down here. I
see what happened. They got hit on their head. Must have been to
Lucah. Maybe he could go off in a hurry. Did you find anything
in Georgia's state room. I'll try Bovats next. Wait a minute, sounds
like they're all coming below to change for dinner. Right, Okay, it
looks like I'll have to wait for another chance. But I don't get another
chance. That night, after dinner Orlando wants to play charade, so we
all have to choose upsides Lale. Hopefully the Hindos sits in one corner,
cracking walnuts and keeping score. When the game finally breaks up, everybody turns
in, so I'm out of luck. The next morning, when I come
out on deck, Corsica is in sight. Orlando and the Luca are standing
at the rail. This is my home, aland the Corsica. All night
I dream about it. A great island to be che home up, great
people. You and Napoleon. Preez put a Napoleon first Napoleon enemy, Poor
de Luca. He thought he was gonna be one and one Napoleon during the
war. Not Oh, he's a sore right to Joe. Instead of the
battle, see, he got a desk job and with the liaison officer in
Berlin. The word Berlin hits me like a hammer. That little black book
which started this whole deal used to be in the custody of a Nazi named
Hertzog in Berlin. The Luca could have hooked up with him there. At
this point, he seems to be edding George out of the top spot on
my list. An hour later, we dug in. The happy little group
streams off the yacht for a gay day ashore. But the trouble is they
insist that I have screamed along with them. In the middle of the afternoon,
we split up. I get back to the yacht first with Yolanda and
George. I'm just starting up along the deck when I spot Chipping coming up
the gangplank with a couple of books under his arm and waving his cane frantically
as made Mitchell A fine, a fine, the positive fine of what I
was browsing in the bookshop, and I just happened to stumble across these.
Can you imagine? What are they? Ancient textbooks of the gladiator school that's
where fencing really started. You know, Look look here, man, You
see these inner stations. See that it's been the prevalent theory that the glide
or sliding thrust. It is a comparatively recently but because it's the same thing.
Look, I'll show you what my cane. You go like this,
Hey, look take that cane and I'm terrible. I trust when I should
have blied. As long as I know, that makes everything all right.
Now try your thrust on somebody else. Will you, Yes, yes I
will. I'm a fine show. Yeah you do that, Oh de Luca,
I didn't see you standing there. Hey, come with to look for
you, j Lena says, Tell everybody cocktail. Okay, tell her.
I'll be along in a couple of minutes. I stay up on deck until
I see all of them come up to the lounge, and I head below.
The Lucas State Room is first on my list. I go over it
carefully, but there's no sign of the money. I moved to Chipping's room
next to it and search it nothing. I know. I've got to work
fast before they miss me. Alanda's room is next. I give it a
thorough friss, but I'm getting nowhere of them. I spot something in her
waist basket, a piece of green string. Suddenly I remember Chippings books had
been tied with green string. I remember something else too. There was no
sign of those books in Chippings stateroom. I look around your Landa's room.
There's a bookcase built in the one wall. I go over to it.
Those lower shelves are crammed with novels. But then on the top shelf I
spot what I'm looking for. At Chipping's rare books on fencing. I climb
up on a chair, pull one of them out. Yeah, the pages
have been cut away and the book is full of money. Nice work,
my true. Hell hello Chipping, Yes, as a plaid, I might
find you here. Please stay right where you are off at the moment.
So you're the boy who's been running the racket. I told you I was
a book collector. Hertzogs that a black book has a prominent place in my
collection. Amazing how the people whose names are listed and it were paid to
keep anything from happening to friends in Eastern Europe, like Hall for instance.
This money is what you got from him, isn't it. Yes, I
suspected you were searching everyone's room, so I thought the books would be a
good hiding place. At the last place you look would be in your Landa's
room. If I hadn't spotted the string, I probably wouldn't have thought of
it. Oh he was crying of a spilled string. No harm done.
Since you're the only one who knows. How do you have any of those
books? Okay? Here have some more. Sorry. Oh I'll take that
gun. Hard to shoot with a face full of books, isn't it chipping
books, Mitchell. Yeah, kind of a dirty trick sweeping a shelf pull
down on you. But after all, you made such a point to being
a book collector, I thought I'd just add a few more to your collection.
The Hard Way, our star Brian Don Lavaue will return in just a
moment. Fresh new comedy material to keep you laughing all evening long is what
you'll hear every Tuesday Night on this NBC station. Yes, Tuesday brings such
stellar programs as Fiber McGee and Molly red Skelton Show, The Dean Martin and
Jerry Lewis Show, and Two for the Money. You'll enjoy them all on
NBC. Fiber and Molly have been entertaining you from seventy nine Wistful Vista for
more than fifteen years, and they still bring you chuckling good comedy each Tuesday
Night. That clown of Clown's Red Skelton brings you a three ring circus of
laughs with Junior, the Mean Little Kid, Califlower, mcpug and Willie Lumplump.
Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis are the mad cap comedians and our Tuesday night
lineup and you never know what to expect next from they team to bring you
a half hour of top comedy listening. Then, of course, Herb Shriner
is the power behind two for the Money, and his power is to make
you feel at home with his down to earth humor. So keep your date
with our terrific Tuesday Night lineup and set your dial to NBC next Tuesday and
every Tuesday for Tops in Comedy Entertainment. Next week Austria A boarder Incident with
Me in the Middle. That will be Steve Mitchell's dangerous assignment next week.
Included in tonight's cast were Howard McNair, Buddy lou Gerson, Nester Parver,
Ben Wright, and Paul Duball. This is John Storm Speaking Dangerous Assignments,
starring Brian don Levy as Steve Mitchell with Herb Butterfield as the Commissioner, is
written by Bob Ryp and Adrian John Doe and is directed by Bill carn Be
with us again next week at the same time, when Brian don Levy is
starring in the role of Steve Mitchell will embark on another transcribed dangerous assignment Tomorrow.
You're both Judy Canova and Truth or Consequences on NBC Welcome back. It's
a good rule of thumb that a secret agent can make anything a weapon,
and that does certainly include a room full of books. Now, one of
the weirdest naming choices I've heard in Old time radio is the choice in this
episode to name a character Chippies. The last name would have been associated in
the minds of most listeners with the hero of the famous James Hilton novel Goodbye
Mister Champs, about a beloved British school teacher. There had been a well
received film adaptation that had won Robert donnot a Best Actor Oscar, and of
course there have been adaptations since. Using the last name for a character and
a spy drama, and as the villain knows less is certainly a choice.
But I guess we now know what would have happened had mister Chips chosen a
life of crime and villainy. Now we turn to listener comments and feedback,
and we received a couple of notes along with the donations. Sherry riots love
the podcast, so thankful for you and the podcast God bless well. Thank
you, Sherry, and Mike says I love your shows. I listened to
them every night. Thank you for doing this, and then received an email
from Rob Rob Ritts. Some time ago. I was listening to one of
your shows and heard a very sarcastic and salty detective who once said you couldn't
find a grizzly bear in a phone booth to a cop. It wasn't a
common name like Detective Friday, and I don't think it was Barry Craig or
Sam Spade. Do you have any idea who it was? Well, thanks
for the question, Rob, And it sounded like Patnovak for Hire, although
the quotes sounded like it might have been said more recently, but I couldn't
think of anyone who might have said it. And I did find it.
It is Patnovak for hire. It's you couldn't track down a live mayor in
a telephone booth. And I was able to verify that on the Patnovak for
Hire quotes page, and you can find that just doing a search for Patnovac
quotes. And there's a really good website, Patnovak dot fifty webs dot com.
And I started this podcast in two thousand and nine and that website was
still around. It has not, as far as I can tell, hasn't
been updated, but it has still been there for all these years, maintaining
the wit and wisdom of Pat Novak for generations to come. Finally, we
have a comment from our listeners, Survey bill Wright's great show with a nice
amount of variety. Thanks so much, Bell. And now it's time to
thank our Patreon supporter of the day, and I want to go ahead and
thank Susie. Susie's been one of our Patreon supporters since September, currently supporting
the podcast at the shamous level of four dollars or more per month. Thank
you so much for your support, Susie, and that will do it for
today. If you're enjoying the podcast, please follow us using your favorite podcast
software. And if you're enjoying the podcast on YouTube, be sure to like
the video, subscribe to the channel, and if you like, leave a
comment. We'll be back next Wednesday with another episode of Dangerous Assignment. But
join us back here tomorrow for mister Chameleon, where if you think you're being
an office of the law or gives you license to persecu'd be mister Wentworth.
I am here to ask questions and get answers, So I repeat, do
you believe your daughter killed her husband? Certainly not. She couldn't have.
She was here alone with him when he was killed. Who else could have
done it? I have no idea. All I know is that my daughter,
Tina didn't all right, tell me exactly what happened. I heard shots,
heard my daughter scream. I opened the door and saw Pierre lying there
dead. Where's the gun that killed him? The gun? I didn't see
any who besides your daughter and yourself was in this room after the murder.
And did anyone come into the room and leave it? We were the only
ones in the room, and nobody left it. Mister chameleon. Where's your
daughter now? Mister? I took her into another room, the one adjoining
this, so both of you left the room together, and neither Tina nor
I took the gun. I tell you I never even saw a gun.
So if you think the gun was used to kill this man and somebody took
it, I must say the situation is very strange. I hope you'll be
with us then in the meantime, do you say your comments to Box thirteen
at Greatdetectives dot net, Follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives, and check
us out on Instagram. Instagram, dot com, slash great detectives from Boise,
Adaho. This is your host, Adam Graham signing off.