| “Get this and get it straight: crime is a sucker's road, and those who travel it wind up in the gutter, the prison, or the grave.” ~Gerald Mohr as Phillip Marlowe |
I faced a conundrum when I decided to write about mega-talented character actor Gerald Mohr: Where to put him? In the film section? The TV blog? Radio? He was everywhere in his career, from relatively high-profile films like Humphrey Bogart's Sirocco, to smaller action movies, like Guns, Girls & Gangsters (in which he co-starred with Mamie Van Doren's epic bosoms), played the L. J. Vance character Michael Lanyard, a.k.a. The Lone Wolf in three features, dozens of memorable supporting parts on television, at least one cliffhanger serial (Jungle Girl), voice-overs for cartoons, and he produced some of the taughtest radio work of any actor of his day. His bit parts on western TV shows is encyclopedic by itself; he livened up such shows as Bonanza, The Rifleman, Death Valley Days, Laredo, Outlaws, The Big Valley, Stagecoach West, Bat Masterson, Cheyenne, Lawman, The Deputy, along with many others.
In the end, the radio blog got the vote, because to me, Gerald Mohr was a top radio man through and through. I know him best as CBS radio's version of Phillip Marlowe; his deep, crisp voice popped out hardboiled wisecracks as well as Dick Powell or Bogart ever did, and consistently, over 113 episodes.
In the last decade or so, I discovered his huge body of radio work. Mohr was all over the place on the radio dial, from hardass Detective stuff to ripping funny comedy. Most recently I've been enjoying his run as the excellently snide Archie, backing up the amazing Sidney Greenstreet in The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe. Mohr is so entirely amusing, but with a hard edge, giving legs to Wolfe's prodigious brain for the detective legwork, and, of course, fists with which to crack the occasional jaw. I'm not sure how this amazing show eluded me for so long.
Recently I've been tracking down some of the hundreds of episodes of various shows that he took part in; the list is mind-boggling: Our Miss Brooks, in which he played the french tutor Jaques Monet, utilising Mohr's fluency in the language (he was also fluent on both German and Swedish), Suspense, Night Beat, Burns & Allen, The Inner Sanctum mysteries, My Favourite Husband, Escape, Mandrake the Magician, The Man Called X, Damon Runyan Theater, Command Performance, Box 13, Let George Do it, I Was a Communist for the FBI, Shorty Bell, The Six Shooter, The Jack Benny Show, Gunsmoke ...the list goes on and on.
In the end, the radio blog got the vote, because to me, Gerald Mohr was a top radio man through and through. I know him best as CBS radio's version of Phillip Marlowe; his deep, crisp voice popped out hardboiled wisecracks as well as Dick Powell or Bogart ever did, and consistently, over 113 episodes.
In the last decade or so, I discovered his huge body of radio work. Mohr was all over the place on the radio dial, from hardass Detective stuff to ripping funny comedy. Most recently I've been enjoying his run as the excellently snide Archie, backing up the amazing Sidney Greenstreet in The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe. Mohr is so entirely amusing, but with a hard edge, giving legs to Wolfe's prodigious brain for the detective legwork, and, of course, fists with which to crack the occasional jaw. I'm not sure how this amazing show eluded me for so long.
Recently I've been tracking down some of the hundreds of episodes of various shows that he took part in; the list is mind-boggling: Our Miss Brooks, in which he played the french tutor Jaques Monet, utilising Mohr's fluency in the language (he was also fluent on both German and Swedish), Suspense, Night Beat, Burns & Allen, The Inner Sanctum mysteries, My Favourite Husband, Escape, Mandrake the Magician, The Man Called X, Damon Runyan Theater, Command Performance, Box 13, Let George Do it, I Was a Communist for the FBI, Shorty Bell, The Six Shooter, The Jack Benny Show, Gunsmoke ...the list goes on and on.
Mohr himself, honestly, is a part of a long tradition of stellar actors that didn't quite explode into popular legend, in spite of being exceptional. For every Dick Powell there are legions of Gerald Mohrs, John Saxons and Sam Buffingtons; guys with amazing craft and presence, waiting for the right people to eventually recognise their talents.
Well, if you don't know Gerald Mohr, here are two of his best roles, represented by two whip-cracking episodes. I think you'll see what I mean when I call him a radio phenomenon!
Download Phillip Marlowe - The Hairpin Turn HERE
Download The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe - Calculated Risk HERE
Well, if you don't know Gerald Mohr, here are two of his best roles, represented by two whip-cracking episodes. I think you'll see what I mean when I call him a radio phenomenon!
Download Phillip Marlowe - The Hairpin Turn HERE
Download The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe - Calculated Risk HERE
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