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Lux Radio Theatre - Chained

March 15, 2026·1 hr 2 min·5 clips

On the last night of the voyage, Diane tells Mike she is in love with him but is already promised to another man she says she owes everything to.

Hollywood Boulevard sets the stage. The broadcast starts with a formal Lux Radio Theater roll call, naming Joan Crawford, Franchotone, Gilbert Emery, Cecil B. DeMille, Oliver Hinsdale, Helen Burgess, and Louis Silvers before the play begins. DeMille shows up in dusty riding clothes, which gives the whole thing a studio-lot sparkle: Hollywood citizens in the audience, sponsor polish around the edges, and then a drama that wastes no time getting sharp. Mike arrives at a cottage with the calm nerve of someone who has followed trunk checks, listened to Mr. Pardo, and caught up with a woman trying not to be found. The banter snaps along. Children, servants, executions on the plaza, and little Otis all give the scene comic cover, but the point is plain enough: Mike has tracked her. He calls himself a bloodhound. She presses him on whether this is instinct or accident. His answer is practical, almost smug, and it ends with a riding appointment at ten o'clock. The ride should feel like escape. On the Bradley Ranch, the horses are treated like proper horses, not bull-ring rejects, and the chase softens into flirtation. Cold tea stands in for shipboard pleasures. Thermos bottles, saddle bags, Chili Conconi, and a horse dragged into the courtship make the scene domestic and odd in just the right way. Then the pampas go quiet. The quiet is called harmless, but it does not stay that way. Mike turns from playful companion to hurt accuser. He knows she ran. She resists the kiss, and the scene tips into its most openly romantic language, with the two seeming to rise above the earth together. The spell does not last. The ending returns to MGM, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, next Monday's Main Street, and DeMille's goodnight from Hollywood. The curtain drops neatly.

As heard by us

A radio romance that moves from public pose to private feeling.

Lux Radio Theater's Chains opens with Joan Crawford and Franchot Tone under Cecil B. DeMille's introduction, then settles into riding, lying, and a kiss that turns public posture into private feeling.

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Why you'd press play

You want Joan Crawford and Franchot Tone trading lines inside the full Lux Radio Theater glow.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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