Racket Squad: The Salted Mine
Originally broadcast on Thursday, November 15, 1951 at 10 PM ET on CBS.
Plot: Captain Braddock assists an old friend in proving his mining claim has been tampered with.
Analysis: Got a lot to cover here, so be patient please.
Racket Squad is a detective crime drama purely designed for television. The show started in 1950 with a syndication run before being picked up by CBS in June of 1951. Like with I Love Lucy, the show was sponsored by tobacco manufacturer Phillip Morris and also like Lucy, Racket Squad was later run in syndication with the Morris sponsor ads cut out. I believe this is why we jump directly into the action, since a pack of Phillip Morris is traditionally on the desk at the start of the episode, so to avoid any chance of seeing the pack, the producers of the DVD set opted to have a generic opening for Racket Squad in the start up of the disc and the individual episodes start with Braddock’s narration. This is also why the show irises out into the closing credits at the end, to hide the edit of the sponsor spots.
Captain Braddock is played by Reed Hadley, best known for his narration in a variety of documentaries and radio dramas. For the documentaries, he did work for the United States Department of Defense while for radio, he was most notable in the Red Ryder show.
Of note in this episode is the performance of Percy Helton, playing Dad Miller. He is one of those character actors a lot of people have seen or know the voice but have a difficult time placing. The one place I can point to at the moment where most people would know him from is his uncredited role as the drunken Santa Edmund Gwenn has to replace in Miracle on 34th Street. He has a number of character guest shots on television ahead of him and I will point them out as they come up.
Now, to the episode, where we have some good news and some bad news. Good news first: the plot is actually a good paced mystery working with the law trying to solve the puzzle, where, if the audience is quick enough, they can pick up the clues and figure it out at the same time. Now, the bad news: the quality of the print I have is not great, shifting from grainy to dark to a degree of pixilation in some of the scenes. It is not intolerable, but noticeable, so be warned in advance not to expect a high quality product. On the other hand, shows like Racket Squad are probably not high on the list of getting restored and major releases, so we make do with the tools that we have.
The Bottom Line: If you can stomach the image quality issues and the loss of the opening, the episode itself is an enjoyable watch, clearly in the vein of later shows like Dragnet. Given I personally love shows like this, I give it a thumbs up, just qualified with the issues outlined.
You can find The Salted Mine included with nine other episodes of Racket Squad in the Racket Squad set produced by Timeless Media Group (http://www.amazon.com/Racket-Squad/dp/B0....98751942&sr=1-2). Prices vary depending on where you do you shopping, but you are very unlikely to find it in stores, so keep your searches to the Internet.
Next time, more laughs with Lucy.
Originally broadcast on Thursday, November 15, 1951 at 10 PM ET on CBS.
Plot: Captain Braddock assists an old friend in proving his mining claim has been tampered with.
Analysis: Got a lot to cover here, so be patient please.
Racket Squad is a detective crime drama purely designed for television. The show started in 1950 with a syndication run before being picked up by CBS in June of 1951. Like with I Love Lucy, the show was sponsored by tobacco manufacturer Phillip Morris and also like Lucy, Racket Squad was later run in syndication with the Morris sponsor ads cut out. I believe this is why we jump directly into the action, since a pack of Phillip Morris is traditionally on the desk at the start of the episode, so to avoid any chance of seeing the pack, the producers of the DVD set opted to have a generic opening for Racket Squad in the start up of the disc and the individual episodes start with Braddock’s narration. This is also why the show irises out into the closing credits at the end, to hide the edit of the sponsor spots.
Captain Braddock is played by Reed Hadley, best known for his narration in a variety of documentaries and radio dramas. For the documentaries, he did work for the United States Department of Defense while for radio, he was most notable in the Red Ryder show.
Of note in this episode is the performance of Percy Helton, playing Dad Miller. He is one of those character actors a lot of people have seen or know the voice but have a difficult time placing. The one place I can point to at the moment where most people would know him from is his uncredited role as the drunken Santa Edmund Gwenn has to replace in Miracle on 34th Street. He has a number of character guest shots on television ahead of him and I will point them out as they come up.
Now, to the episode, where we have some good news and some bad news. Good news first: the plot is actually a good paced mystery working with the law trying to solve the puzzle, where, if the audience is quick enough, they can pick up the clues and figure it out at the same time. Now, the bad news: the quality of the print I have is not great, shifting from grainy to dark to a degree of pixilation in some of the scenes. It is not intolerable, but noticeable, so be warned in advance not to expect a high quality product. On the other hand, shows like Racket Squad are probably not high on the list of getting restored and major releases, so we make do with the tools that we have.
The Bottom Line: If you can stomach the image quality issues and the loss of the opening, the episode itself is an enjoyable watch, clearly in the vein of later shows like Dragnet. Given I personally love shows like this, I give it a thumbs up, just qualified with the issues outlined.
You can find The Salted Mine included with nine other episodes of Racket Squad in the Racket Squad set produced by Timeless Media Group (http://www.amazon.com/Racket-Squad/dp/B0....98751942&sr=1-2). Prices vary depending on where you do you shopping, but you are very unlikely to find it in stores, so keep your searches to the Internet.
Next time, more laughs with Lucy.
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