43 episodes listed below
Smoking guns, dead worms and a sidekick with jokes.
Frank Race narrates his own cases in wisecracking first person and trades barbs with sidekick Mark Donovan between ambushes, shootings and a string of odd suspects. Adam Graham frames the drama with a welcome from Boise, Idaho, thanks to supporters and pointers to the rest of the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio.
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Frank Race is an old-time radio mystery series, presented here inside the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio with Adam Graham as host. The feed keeps his bookends: a welcome from Boise, Idaho, at the top, a sign-off at the bottom, and the vintage drama in between. Inside that frame, Frank does the talking. He narrates his own cases in the first person, and his comparisons are much of the fun. A mansion facade looks as if it could have straddled the 20th Century Limited, and the lady of the house wears a hat 'like an inverted kettle drum' while eyeing visitors 'with the gaze of a jaundiced macaw'. Mark Donovan, played by Tony Barrett, rides along as driver and needler, and he calls their car a 'flying bedstead' after hauling a battered Frank away from an ambush. Paul Dubov takes the starring credit. The series preamble ties Frank to the war, which it says changed 'the face of the earth and the people on it'. The cases mix menace and comedy, sometimes in the same scene. In one, a quiet exchange of cigarettes ends with attackers pouring out of the shadows and Frank slugged into unconsciousness. In another, he is found standing over a dead woman with a .38 automatic in his hand, and a jealous boyfriend wants to settle things on the spot. Elsewhere a hotel shooting draws him toward a prince's fourth-floor suite, and a worm-breeding operation cannot explain why its shipments reach the stores dead. The supporting cast is broad and comic: a henpecked client named Phineas, a physical culture expert called Butsy, and a worm man who insists his charges have personalities 'just like people'. Titles in the feed run from 'Frank Race: The Adventure of the Big Top' and 'Frank Race: The Adventure of the Kettle Drum' to 'Frank Race: The Airborne Adventure', and nearly every one is billed as an adventure. Midway through, the drama breaks with a promise to return to the adventures of Frank Race 'in just about one minute'. Graham's segments are warm and unfussy. He thanks listeners by name for their financial support, mentions premium site access for donors, and invites comments by email and phone. He also plugs his e-book, 'What Made the Golden Age Shine?', which he offers as his answer to people who ask why Golden Age material interests him. His sign-offs also point to the wider Great Detectives rotation, naming Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, The Big Guy and Mr. Moto. It suits a listener who wants one vintage detective series in a single feed, with a guide at each end and a narrator who loves a simile.
Made for: Suits a listener who likes old-time radio detectives with a comic streak, colorful first-person narration and a wisecracking sidekick behind the wheel, and who is happy to have a host's framing around the drama.
What sets it apart: It separates one series, Frank Race, from the wider Great Detectives of Old Time Radio rotation and keeps Adam Graham's bookends intact. The cases arrive with a welcome, thanks to supporters and pointers to other vintage series, not as bare recordings.
Enjoy all 43 action-packed adventures of International troubleshooter Frank Race. The former OSS operative turned freelance troubleshooter traveled the world righting wrongs and solving mysteries. Tom Collins and later Paul Dubov star. Adam Graham is your host, and provides commentary as part of the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio podcast.
A detective checks the air holes in worm cans; your kind of mystery just got stranger.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A circus-tinged mansion mystery turns on suspicion, somersaults, and one sharply unimpressed wife.
The final Frank Rice adventure takes the former attorney and OSS operative to the McClune Mansion, where Phineas McClune fears circus people may be threatening his wife.
A brutal London ambush slides into rattled nerves, traffic trouble, and dry comic relief.
Frank Race's London night pivots from a brutal ambush to a rattled return toward the place where it happened. He wakes in Mark Donovan's car with his head pounding and his ears still roaring, then learns the police reached him and Dayton just in time after they were left on the…
A hotel shooting draws Frank Rice into a case of royalty, police, and oddball comic tension.
San Francisco opens with Frank Rice and Mark Donovan bowling near their hotel after a rough day, only for Butsy, a physical culture expert, to send Rice back to the Fair Hills Hotel, where police have the block surrounded and someone has been shot.
Frank Race flees a murder scene after poker, with a fingerprint-free gun leaving suspicion stuck on him.
The Adventure of the Kettledrum puts Frank Race in immediate trouble after a poker night turns into a murder scene. Faye Carlisle is dead, a .38 automatic makes him look guilty, and suspicion gathers fast around Johnny, the jealous boyfriend, and Troxel, the older man in a white…
Dead night crawlers pull Frank Race into a worm-farm mystery with human suspects.
Frank Race is drawn into a case that seems minor at first, then grows stranger: cans of night crawlers are reaching stores dead despite air holes that should keep them alive after shipping.
Vintage radio cases, clipped and crooked.
Golden-age radio, back in the living room.
Serialized pulp radio drama: Red Panda battles android-army supervillain Captain Clockwork in 1930s Toronto.
Mike Muncer and a different guest dissect two horror films per episode, by subgenre.
Frank Race and Mark Donovan are sent to Florida, where Phineas J.
Jerry Dayton calls himself a "smooth operator," but Leslie Kennedy says he is "a thief and a killer."
Frank Race and Mark Donovan are pulled into a San Francisco case involving Prince Mohud Bey, Suzette, and the Fair Hills Hotel's entire fourth floor.
Frank Race and Mark Donovan follow a lipstick-written number from Faye Carlyle's dressing room to the Kettle Drum, where Faye is shot and Race is left holding the gun.
Frank Race, Paul Dubov’s private eye in The Adventures of Frank Race, is pulled into a Long Island case where the Hookum Good Worm Company keeps shipping dead worms.
This episode features an old time radio mystery drama about international troubleshooter Frank Race, introduced by host Adam Graham.
This episode features the host introducing the Frank Race audio drama series and promoting listener support, with the actual drama to follow.
This episode features an old time radio mystery drama 'Frank Race' with host commentary.
This episode features an old-time radio mystery audio drama about international troubleshooter Frank Race, with host commentary.
This episode is a classic old time radio mystery drama featuring international troubleshooter Frank Race, presented with host commentary.
This episode features the classic radio drama 'Frank Race' with host commentary, preceded by advertisements for senior living and weight loss telehealth.
Host Adam Graham introduces and plays an episode of the classic radio detective series Frank Race.
Host Adam Graham introduces the old-time radio series 'The Adventures of Frank Race,' an action-packed mystery audio drama about an international troubleshooter.