The Liability of Keiko

The Liability of Keiko is sort of an unaired pilot episode of This Gun in My Hand. Officially it's part of my old Dungeons & Dayjobs podcast and it stars El Hornet Verde. While listening to a disc of 65 episodes of the Green Hornet radio show gradually over several months, I started taking notes about the funny details. I might have imagined the Green Hornet episode about an illegal pinball gambling parlor, but there's definitely an episode where bad guys extort protection money from owners of paid parking lots.

Bold Venture was another inspiration for This Gun in My Hand. Bogart and Bacall star as a smuggler and the young woman he takes care of. Yeah, she's his "ward." Set in pre-Castro Havana with a Calypso singer who kinda freestyles recaps after every act break, and a lot of that hard-boiled radio thing where two opponents will be trading barbs and suddenly one of them starts grunting while he talks to indicate they're fighting now.

Pete Kelly's Blues stars Jack Webb as a horn player in 1920s Kansas City who constantly gets dragged into mysteries and adventures. Heavy with hardboiled attitude because it was broadcast in the Fifties. Only six episodes are thought to survive.