Charles Boyer plays the real-life character of Francois Vidocq, cited as one of the founders of modern criminal detection. His acumen was earned as a criminal himself, providing insights that law-abiding citizens would not naturally have. Eventually, he tired of being a fugitive and decided to go to the side of police, the French Surete (the French National Police). He later rose to the position of commissioner, but after serving in that post left through the treachery of a jealous successor. He was driven out of the country and reduced to lecturing on the art of detection as part of a touring variety show. Suddenly, a series of robberies baffle the police, and of course, they must turn to the retired Vidocq to solve it and stop the growing embarrassment of the police.
The Vidocq character is a narcissist, and that occasionally runs wild in the story. It starts to overtake enjoyment of the show, but there's a crime and cover-up in there, somewhere. We do find out what it is. Vidocq seems more concerned with reclaiming his reputation and ensuring his adulation. The story ends well, but it exhausts the listener. Vidocq is guilty of setting up the unsolvable robberies, and took delight in his proving his knowledge of criminal behavior exceeded those who had replaced them, and showing their incompetence.
The story is based on the writings Francois Vidocq and adapted by Silvia Richards. It was promoted as a documentary. Vidocq’s life is far more interesting than the little glimpse of this episode. A long overview of his life is at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne-Fran%C3%A7ois_Vidocq His memoirs can ve viewed online at The Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/memoirsvidocqpr00vidogoog/page/n10/mode/2up A modern biography of him by James Morton was published in 2004, The First Detective: The Life and Revolutionary Times of Eugène-Francois Vidocq, Criminal, Spy And Private Eye.
Charles Boyer was part of the “The First Drama Quartette,” touring the country in Don Juan in Hell and also promoting a record set of the performance. All four of the actors had individual guest roles in consecutive Suspense productions that began the Fall 1952 season. This was the first of the four to be recorded, though it was the third to be broadcast. There was a two-hour rehearsal on Tuesday, August 26 and another on Wednesday, August 27 that culminated in the recording of the drama portion.
Boyer was French, but his portrayal of the famous criminal-turned-criminologist is somewhat forced. At times his French accent seems seems to be an imitation of an American imitating a French accent, or having an accent that Americans expected to hear as opposed to a natural one. It all seems a bit overdone.
There are two copies of the broadcast, a network copy from the studio, and an aircheck. They are not as full-sounding as most other Suspense episodes. They each have similar narrow range. It is possible that they are from the same source recording and have been edited differently. The aircheck is the slightly better copy. Both recordings are listenable.
A story about Vidocq with many similarities was presented on the Suspense TV series. The differences are likely the result of the visual and staging necessities of small-screen television. It has a different writing team (Dana Lee Thomas, Henry Thomas, and Victor Wolfson). It does involve the befuddling robberies, but Vidocq is led away at the police. It aired on 1952-11-18 and starred Luis van Rooten It can be viewed at YouTube https://youtu.be/dDFppoc8z48 or at the Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/suspense-tv-show/Suspense+S05E05+Monsieur+Vidocq.mp4 Some television critics noted that van Rooten was one of the radio actors who had been making a fine transition to television.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP520929
THE CAST
CHARLES BOYER (Francois Vidocq), Joe Kearns (Lebac / Marquis), Ben Wright (Williams / Man), William Johnstone (Doubigny), Paula Winslowe (Woman / Patronne), Parley Baer (Gendarme / Guard), Victor Rodman (General), Larry Thor (Narrator)
COMMERCIAL: Tom Holland (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)
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