Uncle Erich Presents™ - Classic Radio Shows, Crime, Suspense, Murder Mysteries · Uncle Erich

Uncle Erich Presents™ - The Adventures of Philip Marlowe - "The Lady Killer. " (1948)

·30 min·5 clips

Philip Marlowe is drawn into a murder case tied to Nora Kirby and the death of Paul Niles. He comes in with one stubborn clue in hand: a book of matches found near the dead man’s studio. The matches lead back to the Negrotto house, and that is enough to make everyone uneasy. Negrotto insists he knows nothing about Nora Kirby or Paul Niles. His brother-in-law Horton backs him up. Then Mrs. Negrotto joins the exchange and gets pulled into the same round of questions. Marlowe asks whether the name Paul Niles means anything to her. It does not. He asks about Nora Kirby. That does not ring a bell either. The family tries to brush the whole thing off as ridiculous. Marlowe does not let it drop. He reminds them that the matches were found at the dead man’s house. The explanation is that hundreds were made and handed out freely. That answer shuts one door and opens another. Marlowe leaves with the sense that somebody in that room knows more than they are saying. He does not bluff gently. He warns that if anyone remembers something worth discussing, he will be waiting in his office for one hour, and not a minute longer. The case then folds back into Marlowe’s private reflections as he considers how the double talk in the Negrotto living room might still blow up into something dangerous. The episode keeps its focus on the old crime machinery: a corpse, a suspect house, a small clue, and a detective who keeps forcing the issue. The dialogue is formal, tense, and built for accusation. The investigation advances through pressure rather than spectacle. Each answer sounds polished enough to be useful and slippery enough to hide guilt. The result is a classic radio mystery that prefers suspicion to certainty. It moves with the confidence of a well-practiced detective drama. The cast carry the tension through measured exchanges and sharp reversals. The music and pacing support the sense that every detail matters. The story stays close to the room, the clue, and the lie. That restraint gives the episode its bite. The mystery is not solved by shouting. It is squeezed open line by line. The ending leaves Marlowe still working the angle and still convinced that the truth is hiding in plain sight.

As heard by us

A hardboiled matchbook clue drives a murder case with crisp old-school banter.

This episode leans on Philip Marlowe as he gets pulled into a murder case tied to Paul Niles, Nora Kirby, and a book of matches found near the dead man's studio. That clue does the heavy lifting.

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Why you'd press play

Press play for a Philip Marlowe murder mystery where one book of matches keeps the case alive.

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