GREAT DETECTIVES & PEOPLE OF MYSTERY #44

I LOVE A MYSTERY

Jack Packard, Doc Long, and Reggie York meet in an Oriental prison, where, as mercenary soldiers fighting the Japanese in China, they'd been captured.  Even though they were reported dead after a bombing in Shanghai, they survived to meet in San Francisco where they decide to form the A-1 Detective Agency.  Their motto: "No job too tough, no adventure too baffling."  The three friends get involved in a wide variety of exploits that include mystery, adventure, and supernatural horror, often taking them to exotic locales.  Tough, charismatic group leader Jack Packard is usually the first to figure solutions to the mysteries with his analytical brain.  He distrusts the attractive women who always seem to show up, and he professes to dislike women in general.  The series creator, Carlton Morse, explained that Jack's problem with women went back to his youth, when he got a girl pregnant and left his hometown in shame.  This was a backstory detail that was never used in the radio series where the trio first appeared.  Doc Long was Texas-born, and a hard-fighting, boastful, high-spirited character who could extricate himself from a tight spot.  Reggie York, an Englishman noted for his great strength, usually shied away from women as well.  The trio were wildly reckless and exuberant, and were more interested in the thrill of adventure than they were with righting any wrongs.  When they collected a fee, their goal was to spend it as quickly as possible - usually involving drinking alcohol.

RADIO

"I Love a Mystery" was created and written by Carlton E. Morse.  Sponsored by Fleischman's Yeast, the show first aired as a 15-minute show on NBC's west coast network on weekdays, from January 16 to September 29, 1939.  Michael Raffetto played Jack, Barton Yarborough was Doc, and Walter Patterson portrayed Reggie.  The show moved to the full NBC network from October 2, 1939 to March 29, 1940, airing on weeknights.  In 1940 the episodes became a half-hour long from April 4 to June 27.  The show then moved to the NBC Blue network and was heard on Monday & Wednesday evenings, September 30, 1940 - June 29, 1942.  Walter Patterson, who played Reggie on the show, committed suicide on September 2, 1942, by running a hose from the exhaust of his car into his Hollywood Hills home.  Carlton Morse was a close friend of Patterson and couldn't bear to recast the role.  Reggie was written out of the series and the role of the detective agency's beautiful secretary, Gerry Booker (played by Gloria Blondell), was expanded.  She combined sleuthing with shorthand.  Oxydol and Ivory Soap became the sponsors and they moved the drama series to CBS from March 22, 1943 to December 29, 1944.

After a four year absence Jack, Reggie, and Doc returned in "I Love Adventure" on ABC radio for 13 episodes that aired April 25 - July 18, 1948.  The three pals now worked for the Twenty-One Old Men of 10 Gramercy Park in London, an extra-governmental organization that sent the trio off on post-war adventures.  A year later, "I Love a Mystery" was revived by the Mutual Broadcasting System.  It ran October 3, 1949 until December 26, 1952, using original scripts by Morse from the earlier NBC series.  The mysteries written by Morse were often bizarre with over-the-top plots.  One adventure, "The Temple of the Vampires", caused dismayed parents to write the network and express concern about the effect on their children.

FILMS

"I Love a Mystery" Columbia, 1945.  Jim Bannon (Jack), Barton Yarborough (Doc), George Macready, Nina Foch, Carole Mathews.  Director: Henry Levin.  Based on the radio episode "The Decapitation of Jefferson Monk" August 30 - October 1, 1943.  According to a prophecy, a man is to die in three days and his severed head is to be taken by an ancient secret society.

"The Devil's Mask" Columbia, 1946.  Bannon, Yarborough, Anita Louise, Michael Duane, Mona Barrie.  Director: Levin.  The two detectives are asked to go to a museum to meet a woman who claims she's about to be murdered by her stepdaughter.  The case becomes linked to a plane crash, a shrunken head, and a missing scientist on a South American expedition.

"The Unknown" Columbia, 1946.  Bannon, Yarborough, Karen Morley, Jeff Donnell.  Director: Levin.  Based on the radio episode "Faith, Hope, and Charity, Sisters" which was remade in 1949 as the episode "The Thing That Cries in the Night".  The daughter of a strange family has returned after a long time to the family estate.  She has Jack and Doc checking out the eerie goings-on at the estate's spooky mansion.

A fourth movie was planned.  It was based on the radio episode "The Fear That Creeps Like a Cat" and was adapted to the movie "The Missing Juror" by Columbia in 1944.  It would have been the first film in the series, but they changed the name of Jack Packard to Joe Keats.  Jim Bannon, the actor who went on to play Jack, starred as Keats in this film.

TELEVISION

"I Love a Mystery", a made-for-TV movie that was intended as a pilot for a series, was filmed in 1967 with Les Crane as Jack, David Hartman as Doc, and Hagan Beggs as Reggie.  The movie was based on the radio episode "The Thing That Cries in the Night" in which the three detectives search a creepy old mansion for a missing billionaire.  After being shelved for 6 years, NBC finally aired the film on February 27, 1973.  Ida Lupino and Don Knotts co-starred.

COMICS

Comic book artist Don Sherwood drew a newspaper comic strip of "I Love a Mystery" in the 1980s, with storylines based on the original radio scripts by Carlton Morse.  The strip was short lived.