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Europe Confidential

by: WA4CZD

Publication date: 1957

Topics: Basil Rathbone, OTR, World's Greatest Mysteries, Europe Confidential, Old Time Radio, Cold War

Basil Rathbone hosted this series of "The World's Greatest Mysteries." BasilRathbone.net gives the show a date of 1957. Files via jimsplayground.com
195X-XX-XX Europe Confidential 031 Blackmailed Spy Affair.mp3 195X-XX-XX Europe Confidential 032 Missing Bullfighter Affair.mp3 195X-XX-XX Europe Confidential 033 Weinriche Affair.mp3 195X-XX-XX Europe Confidential 034 Judy Diamond Affair.mp3 195X-XX-XX Europe Confidential 035 Senator Payne Affair.mp3 195X-XX-XX Europe Confidential 036_Spaniard_Affair.mp3 195X-XX-XX Europe Confidential 037_Jane_Ferris_Affair.mp3 195X-XX-XX Europe Confidential 038_Whiplash_Steele_Affair.mp3 195X-XX-XX Europe Confidential 039_Henri_Dubois_Affair.mp3 195X-XX-XX Europe Confidential 040_Silver_Monkey_Affair.mp3 195X-XX-XX Europe Confidential 041_Stolen_Van_Geoff_Affair.mp3 195X-XX-XX Europe Confidential 042_Air_Race_Affair.mp3 195X-XX-XX Europe Confidential 043_Paul_Winfield_Affair.mp3 195X-XX-XX Europe Confidential 044_Desert_Gold_Affair.mp3 195X-XX-XX Europe Confidential 045_Time_Machine_Affair.mp3 195X-XX-XX Europe Confidential 046_Sniper Affair.mp3 195X-XX-XX Europe Confidential 047_Football Pool Affair.mp3 195X-XX-XX Europe Confidential 048 Circus Clown Affair.mp3 195X-XX-XX Europe Confidential 049 Brett Monahan Affair.mp3 195X-XX-XX Europe Confidential 050 Raymond Shortly Affair.mp3 195X-XX-XX Europe Confidential 051 Museum Break-in Affair.mp3 195X-XX-XX Europe Confidential 052 Fountain Affair.mp3

Addeddate: 2011-08-20 17:30:08

Boxid: OL100020513

Identifier: EuropeConfidential

Year: 1957

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Reviews

Reviewer: Debsw - - July 14, 2023
Subject: Brillaint

This series is a real treat to listen to with the wonderful Lionel Murton playing the lead role of Mike Connoy. It is highly original, telling the stories from the viewpoint of an American Newspaper reporter based in France and all the episodes have a real continental feel and the production is of the highest quality with some wonderful music. I can't recommend this highly enough.

Reviewer: bstepno - - January 5, 2013
Subject: Excellent series: "American" from the U.K.

As noted at the top of the page, the user who posted these got them from JimsPlayground.com --
Here's Jim's page with plot summaries:
http://www.jimsplayground.com/otr-adventure.html
http://www.jimsplayground.com/otr-adventure-More-EurCon.html

I did a little spell-checking and online digging and discovered the star Lionel Murton was a Canadian-English actor living in England, with quite a career as a character actor in feature films and television. (IMDB and Wikipedia both have good pages on him. Alas, he died in 2006)

The series came from the same (non-BBC) Harry Alan Towers production house as the Orson Welles "LIves of Harry Lime" ("Adventures of Harry Lime" in the U.K.) and "The Black Museum" series, which probably explains the script similarities another commenter mentioned. I'm told by a U.K. OTR fan that the program was on Radio Luxembourg, the commercial station serving the U.K. as a BBC alternative, but I've found no RLux archive mentioning the show. I'd love to know who wrote the scripts, who else was in the casts, etc.

The series may have been better-distributed in the U.K., Canada and Australia than the U.S., which would explain why it's off the radar of American oldtime radio collectors.
(Jim is in Ontario.) But that's just speculation on my part.

I'm writing about the series and will post a jheroes.com article here when it's completed: http://wp.me/P1fyWS-19V

Reviewer: JACKRABBIT1956 - - November 3, 2011
Subject: EASY TO LISTEN TO

I FIND THE PROGRAMS TO BE EASY TO LISTEN TO. THEY ARE PLOTS THAT MOVE ALONG FAST ENOUGH TO BE INTERESTING.

Reviewer: belvinp.narclejac - - September 21, 2011
Subject: Borrowed Scripts?

Thanks so much for these.

One note on the first two episodes I've listened to so far (#31 and #34)... both the scripts are heavily borrowed/stolen/re-used from Orson Welles' "The Lives of Harry Lime" (1951-1952) OTR show.

Reviewer: Jilly9 - - August 21, 2011
Subject: Tags

I ID3 tag my files with the date in the "artist" ID3 tag; if the date is bothersome, then that is the field in the tag to fool with.

I'm not re-tagging all my files (that I share elsewhere) when I also upload them here - I'm disabled & it is hard enough to do it once LOL.

:)

Reviewer: PDGazette - - August 21, 2011
Subject: Naming Conventions

Instead of 195X-XX-XX Europe Confidential 031 Blackmailed Spy Affair

How about naming files like this:

WorldsGreatMyst_031_BlackmailedSpy ? It makes them easier to see on the player; the way it is now, all we see is a repeated row of 195X-XX-XX Europe Confidential.

Unless you have the full date of the program (here,1957), please don't put 195XXXX. According to http://www.basilrathbone.net/radio/ the show was called:
" The World's Greatest Mysteries. Rathbone appeared as host of the series, introducing the stories, but is not heard in the stories. Some of the programs are the adventures of a character named Spike Harrigan. Others are the adventures of Mike Connoy, a reporter in Paris who writes a column called Europe Confidential."

Otherwise, thanks for this collection. RadioGOLDINdex only lists two episodes... and Haendiges doesn't show any.

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