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Black Mask Audio Magazine, Volume 1  By  cover art

Black Mask Audio Magazine, Volume 1

By: Hugh B. Cave, Paul Cain, Frederick Nebel, Reuben J. Shay, Dashiell Hammett, William Cole
Narrated by: Hollywood Theater of the Ear
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Publisher's summary

Audie Award, Short Stories and Collections, 2010

In the1930s and '40s, Black Mask was the single most important magazine for the modern mystery field. Here, writers such as Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Earl Stanley Gardner reshaped the established view of mystery fiction, creating the "hard-boiled" private eye.

Now this series resurrects from those pages the toughest of tough detectives in sonic dramatizations from the award-winning Hollywood Theater of the Ear.

Stories included in this volume are "Lost and Found" by Hugh B. Cave, "Pigeon Blood" by Paul Cain, "Rough Justice" by Frederick Nebel, "Black" by Paul Cain, "The Missing Mr. Lee" by Hugh B. Cave, "Trouble Chaser" by Paul Cain, "Too Many Have Lived" by Dashiell Hammett, "Taking His Time" by Reuben J. Shay, and "Waiting for Rusty" by William Cole.

©2008 Keith Alan Deutsch (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"These shorts, highly acclaimed in the 1930s, are given new life by some of the best voices of our time." (AudioFile)

What listeners say about Black Mask Audio Magazine, Volume 1

Average customer ratings
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  • 4 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
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    5 out of 5 stars

Beware

I didn't know whether to star-rate this title without the warning or after so I gave it stars based on my enjoyment. HOWEVER:
I bought several of the individual Black Mask tales and loved them. However, this offering is just a compilation of the items I already bought singly. Beware - buy this and avoid the individual offerings.
On a better note, I loved these. I'm a fan of old time radio and really enjoyed these attempts to recreate those days. If you're careful and buy wisely, you're in for a treat.

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28 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Avoid This One

If you want good pulp magazine dramatizations get Jack Webb in Pat Novak for Hire from 1940s radio, and forget this modern attempt at faking it. I'm glad some actors found voice work, but their period characters are just generalized stereotypes and sometimes painful to listen to. A few "hard-boiled" leads sound like they've done infomercials. The stores are under-dramatized, probably because they are faithful to the originals (or maybe not), and several end abruptly leaving a listener wondering what comes next. Forget it.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Back to the Future

What made the experience of listening to Black Mask Audio Magazine, Volume 1 the most enjoyable?

The Audible rendition took me back to the days of radio drama, the Theatre of the Mind. Well done with careful attention to detail.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

The accompanying music is Phenomenal!!!!!

Love the music

The stories are good the acting is good. Recognition is given to those who perform in those who have written. Equal (If not greater) recognition should be given to those who composed, arranged, and performed the music that accompanies each performance. Fantastic all the way around.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Well adapted, acted and produced

Classic tales from Black Mask and American magazine adapted for the radio theater format — what more can be said? There are a lot of ways this could have gone horribly wrong, but with great actors, none of the now almost 80- to 90-year-old dialogue comes off as too hammy (and when it does, it's perfect). Volume 1 collects 10 stories, most by Paul Cain, with a weird live Dashiell Hammett Spade story thrown in for good measure. The foley work is superb and only rarely isn't leveled to the point where it overshadows the dialogue. Otherwise, great work all around!

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Fun But Of Its Time

The production is great on this dramatized compilation of short stories, with campy but good acting and fun sound effects. It's "film noir" for the ears.

I'm not bothered by elements that were of their time and might be offensive today, but if you are you might want to give this a miss. Some of its attitudes toward ethnic groups and women are definitely dated.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

PULP comes alive

You get to live and feel the classic noir come alive, I got into pulp recently, due to the great courses, David Schmidt, does a lecture on great mystery and suspense and it got me interested in the genre, that said, thier aren't many ways to fully delve into it. This is one of the most enjoyable ways to do so.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Campy Detective Noire From the Past

Produced along the lines of an old radio broadcast, the voice actors did a good job. The jargon was vintage and the stories from a time when people were into grifting, double-crossing with gangsters and thugs. Not what I thought it would be, but if you like dramatic reading of old stories of bad guys, gumshoes and dames in trouble, check it out.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful nostalgia.

It's hard to imagine anyone not enjoying this. Great stories and great acting. Well done.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Fun Nonsense

Keeps you interested in another dimension of time my grandparents sometimes talk about-the olden days.

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