Comparing ILAM to "I Love Adventure"


In regards to Mr. Morse's other radio series, "I LOVE ADVENTURE" (aka ILA), I have listened to all 13 episodes. I've tried awfully hard to like this series, but found I really could not, for various reasons. Here's my gripes about the series.

1) The shows were produced, but not all written by Mr. Morse. Even if he had influenced the writing, the half hour "all in one" format compared sadly with his multiple episode spanning ILAM stories.

2) The characterizations are all wrong. Jack Packard, if not quite a misogynist, is certainly not entangled by feminine wiles in the ILAM stories. In several of the ILA stories, he is seen dallying with at least one (the princess in THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE) and perhaps other women as well (see THE AMBASSADOR RICARDO SANTOS AFFAIR).

4) The "Shadow UN" premise of "The 21 Old Men of Gramercy Park (introduced first in the ILAM story, SECRET PASSAGE TO DEATH) is used in the first half of the ILA series, and then suddenly disappears. Worse of all, Jack seems to accept blindly the orders of this gang, strongly going against the personality established in the ILAM stories.

5) Many of the ILA stories are dull as ditchwater, with only a few having glimmers of ILAM-ish vigor and verve. Try listening to THE AMABASSADOR RICARDO SANTOS AFFAIR, or THE GIRL IN THE STREET and tell me otherwise. Stories like THE KWAN MOON DAGGER, or BUT GRANDMA...(the second ILAM audition series tape) are much better, but are still half hazard affairs.

So, there's my opinion. ILA is Grade C Morse at best. A much better series for you to get, if possible, is Mr. Morse's ADVENTURES BY MORSE, especially "City of the Dead" and "Dead Men Prowl", both 10 episode, 30 minute extravaganzas. Some of the ABM stories were in fact hastily re-written ILAM stories (salvaged by Morse when ILAM was unceremoniously dumped by the network). Others were simply reworkings of radio serials he penned much earlier for NBC MYSTERY SERIAL, such as LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD (original title DRAGON IN THE SUN), and CITY OF THE DEAD.

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