The Uneasy Head: The Adventures of Philip Marlowe (June 6, 1950)

“The Uneasy Head” is an episode of The Adventures of Philip Marlowe, the old-time radio show, first broadcast June 6, 1950. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Private detective Philip Marlowe arranges to meet a man named Sammy Archer at a bar to discuss a business deal, but someone slips a Mickey into his drink and he passes out. When he wakes and tracks down Archer at his apartment, Marlowe discovers the man dead with a knife in his back. The case connects to a stolen diamond tiara worth a hundred grand that disappeared from a Palm Springs mansion, with Archer apparently posing as a gardener at the time of the theft.

A bar in Hollywood and Sammy Archer's basement apartment, with the investigation leading toward Palm Springs

Characters: Philip Marlowe, Sammy Archer, Slattery, Louie, Detective Remini

Listen for: The clever setup where Marlowe is drugged at the bar, the gruesome discovery of Archer's body, and the connection between a murdered two-bit thief and a high-society jewel heist

Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.