A wisecracking private eye, one installment at a time.
Rex Rivetter: Private Eye is a noir serial from Downstairs Entertainment in which a Los Angeles private detective narrates his own cases, wisecracks and all. Season four tells 'Deadlier than the Male' and 'The Final Farewell' in three installments each, moving from a ransom note priced in clams to a killer holding a captive.
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Rex Rivetter: Private Eye is a serialized noir audio drama from Downstairs Entertainment, set in 1955 Los Angeles. The detective does the talking. Fourth-season episodes all open the same way, with an announcer noting that it is Monday night and addressing the ladies and gentlemen. Those openings also carry a practical warning: the season builds on characters and plot lines from earlier episodes, so newcomers are told to go back and catch up. The advice is worth taking, because the back catalog is sizable and the threads carry over. Once the announcer steps aside, Rex narrates in the first person, and the prose is unapologetically pulp. After a blast throws him against a wall, pain 'dances the merengue.' Money comes in clams and dough. He can't settle whether his client is Marion Julius Page or Julius Marion, and he jokes that the only difference is where the air quotes go. In 'Deadlier than the Male', that client receives a ransom note for his girlfriend demanding 7,500 clams by the following night. Rex's run-ins with the police are pure patter. He insists on spelling his name for a cop, one V, two R's and two T's. When he is threatened with a 459 booking, he points out that it means a lot of paperwork for them. At another point he stands with his back against a warehouse wall, with a hearing that someone named Burke has promised him still ahead, when a figure he knows by its rat face appears in silhouette in the doorway. 'The Final Farewell' is darker by a wide margin. It is announced on air as the season four finale and comes with an advisory for graphic violence and torture, and it runs without commercial interruption. Its closing chapter gives first-person passages to a killer who savors the fear of a captive named Jenny and admits the Millers were murdered as a way to reach someone else. The music stays in period. The Artie Shaw Orchestra's 'Nightmare' serves as Rex's theme, and Jenny has one too, 'Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise.' Then the period spell breaks. Several episodes cut to modern, pandemic-era comic spots in which a bantering pair talks up takeout from a Black-owned brunch spot in San Diego's Hillcrest, handmade soy candles from a female-owned Los Angeles business, a free radio musical of 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas', and help for theater artists left out of work. The jump from a warehouse standoff to holiday decorating plans is abrupt. The credits name Steve Murdock for editing and sound design, and Greg McAfee signs off for Downstairs Entertainment. The finale's closing promises a return for Season 5 in 'Hooray for Hollywood.'
Made for: Suits a listener who likes hard-boiled detective pastiche with a steady supply of jokes, and who is happy to start from earlier episodes so the serialized threads make sense. The torture and violence in the season four finale make it a better fit for adults than for younger listeners.
What sets it apart: It sets a wisecracking 1955 detective serial, with its announcer and Artie Shaw theme, beside modern comic spots for neighborhood businesses and out-of-work theater artists. The result is that one episode can jump from a warehouse standoff to holiday decorating plans.
Rex Rivetter: Private Eye is a modern audio drama. The year is 1955. Tinsel town. The land of make-believe. It's a time of growth in American prosperity. Especially in Los Angeles. Here, dreams are bought and sold. But there's a seedier side to the City of Angels, the shadows where pimps and narcotics pushers live, where organized crime stands just around every corner with one hand out, and the other wrapped around a roscoe. It's a city full of fancy dames and slick cons, where bookies know the vig, so you better, too.Some folks call it noir or pulp fiction. But for a private eye named Rex Rivetter, it's home.
Rex asks for his usual table at the police station; your detective can afford a grin.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A hostage countdown turns Rex Riveter's finale into cold psychological suspense.
Rex Riveter: Private Eye ends its fourth season by pulling its private-eye setup into a hostage countdown. A voice declares Rex dead, gives him an hour to answer, and puts Jennifer McIntosh under direct threat as the killer traps her in the kitchen and revisits the Millers'…
A white flash leaves Rex hurt, disoriented, and pulled deeper into a kidnapping mystery.
Rex Rivetter: Private Eye closes this installment with a farewell that turns sharply into confusion. Tiny says goodbye, the world goes white, and Rex is thrown against a wall before waking on the floor in smoke, pain, blurred sight, and a room he does not know.
A failed pursuit to Shanghai leaves Rex facing a threat against his secretary.
Rex Riveter starts the episode driving back to Los Angeles with Marion Julius Page beside him and a case that has left him more annoyed than satisfied.
Rivetter turns police questioning into a sharp comic routine after two officers take him downtown.
Rex Rivetter's investigation wraps by taking him downtown, after two officers turn his presence outside a house into a round of questioning and he meets each demand with another sidestep.
A ransom case turns crooked when Rex spots a familiar rat-faced silhouette.
Part two of Rex Rivetter's Deadlier Than the Mail turns a ransom demand into a tense warehouse visit, as Marion Julius Page tries to recover his girlfriend and Rex works the kidnapping before the money comes due. The pleasure is in Rex's dry suspicion.
Dice, divine mysteries, and the trouble with good intentions.
Rex Rivetter: Private Eye, "The Final Farewell - Conclusion," opens with Jennifer McIntosh trapped in a kitchen while a killer says "Rex Rivetter is dead" and gives her "fifty-eight minutes" to live.
["Rex Riveter: Private Eye, 'The Final Farewell - Part 2,' opens with Rex waking in the Red Lantern after a blast leaves him crawling through smoke, blood, and broken glass.", "A fifteen-year-old helper and Rex drag Julius Page, the bar's owner and Rex's client, out of the fire before the roof collapses into the parking lot.", "Officer Murphy questions Rex on the sidewalk while Rex says a voice on the phone told him, 'Goodbye, Mr.
Rex Riveter and Julius Page return to the Lantern in Los Angeles, where an unlocked door, a payphone, and a man in a hat point to a coordinated setup.
Rex Riveter, Private Eye closes a ransom chase built around Julius Page, Helen Wheels, Helen Killer, Shirley Tempest, and Betty Boomerang.
Rex Riveter: Private Eye returns with part two of "Deadlier Than the Male," and a ransom note demanding 7,500 clams pushes Rex into a warehouse on Atlantic Avenue.
Rex Rivetter: Private Eye opens season four with Rex returning to an office marked by four body outlines and bullet holes.
Lieutenant Burke asks Alice Corbett about her missing neighbors, and she answers with a pothole and Mrs. Foster's zinnias.
Lieutenant Burke Morris faces a possible license loss after a hearing about Rex Riveter's October 12, 1955 shooting.
A noir detective audio drama set in 1950s Los Angeles, featuring a private eye and a mobster conversation.
A noir detective audio drama set in 1950s Los Angeles, following private eye Rex Rivetter on a case in Boyle Heights.
The season premiere of a noir detective audio drama set in 1955 Los Angeles.
A live recap show for the audio drama Rex Rivetter: Private Eye, featuring interviews with voice actors Brandi Kuhl and Colette Culbertson.