Drama - Old Time Audio · Various Authors

Lives Of Harry Lime - Dead Candidate

·28 min·1 clip

The scheme for a "dead candidate" is explained as the perfect election tactic.

1. Orson Welles’ "Lives of Harry Lime" episode "The Dead Candidate" centers on Harry Lime’s arrival in Malinia and the political use of a buzzo concession. 2. Orson Welles plays Harry Lime, while Susie, Joaquimo, Admiral Kuchibamba, Lolita, and Campo drive the Malinian intrigue. 3. The episode uses Harry Lime’s visit to ask how a dictatorship can look like a democracy long enough to get Washington money. 4. Susie tells Harry that Malinia is a "little dictatorship" and urges him to secure the buzzo concession from the dictator. 5. Joaquimo sends a "most secret, most urgent" cable describing Lime as the American president’s chief confidential advisor. 6. The cable says Lime is visiting Malinia to look for "despotism, brutality, and terrorism" in a police state. 7. At the dock, banners reading "Viva Harry Lime" greet Harry, and the island stages a ceremonial welcome for him. 8. Lolita and Joaquimo argue about freedom of speech, free lunches, and the absurdity of a presidential election in Malinia. 9. The script explains that Campo was the republic’s president before the coup d’état and was pushed off at Lover’s Leap. 10. Malinia’s leaders decide to run Campo in the election even though they call him dead. 11. The election plan relies on keeping Campo officially alive in public while treating him as dead in private. 12. The conversation links this to cemetery politics, ballot-box tricks, and the idea that dead voters are reliable. 13. Joaquimo’s line "A dead candidate" becomes the cleanest statement of the government’s strategy. 14. Harry is later sent to quarantine with "Millennium measles," which keeps him out of the campaign’s most important moments. 15. Susie visits the quarantine bars and keeps him updated while he is stuck inside the Pest House. 16. The later reveal adds another layer of confusion when Jones arrives and Malinia’s officials mistake him for a rival soft-drink figure. 17. The tone mixes nightclub banter, political satire, and high-stakes radio melodrama. 18. The format moves fast, with dialogue, narration, and comic bureaucratic speeches all carrying the story. 19. Listeners who like vintage spy satire and political farce. 20. Listeners who want a slow, straightforward mystery.

As heard by us

A brisk old-radio intrigue where a soft-drink concession and a loaded dice game spiral into palace trouble.

Dead Candidate drops Harry Lime onto a small island republic and keeps the pressure on from there. A soft-drink concession, a loaded dice game, and a ceremonial welcome all feed the same quiet power play.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want Orson Welles as Harry Lyme moving through a triumphal island welcome, a banquet, and a political trap.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Drama - Old Time Audio