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Old Time Detectives

Sam Spade - The Mad Scientist Caper

04 Mar 2026

Transcription

Chapter 1: What is the main premise of The Mad Scientist Caper?

0.031 - 14.089 Host

The Adventures of Sam Spade, Detective. Brought to you by Wild Root Cream Oil Hair Tonic. The non-alcoholic hair tonic that contains lanolin. Wild Root Cream Oil. Again and again, the choice of men who put good grooming first.

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23.221 - 24.823 Effie

Sam Spade, Detective Agency.

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25.073 - 28.679 Sam Spade

This is mad scientific detective number 137596.

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28.819 - 33.306 Effie

Sam, no matter what anyone says, I'll stand by you. You're nothing of the sort.

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33.607 - 34.428 Sam Spade

Not scientific?

34.568 - 36.251 Effie

Of course not. You're two-fisted.

36.591 - 43.282 Sam Spade

Well, thanks, Effie, and that ain't all, Effie. I was actually mistaken for a convolutional melancholiac.

43.983 - 45.506 Effie

Oh, Sam, are you all right now?

45.646 - 49.572 Sam Spade

Wrong diagnosis, Angel. It turned out to be melancholia catatonicus.

Chapter 2: How does Sam Spade respond to the mad scientist's claims?

63.722 - 68.989 Sam Spade

Pull down the blinds, check the corridors for men in little white coats, and set a bottle in the window if the coast is clear.

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69.109 - 79.482 Visitor

Oh! I'll be right down to dictate my report on the mad scientist caper.

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79.63 - 97.856 Host

Dashiell Hammett, America's leading detective fiction writer and creator of Sam Spade, The Hard-Boiled Private Eye, and William Spear, radio's outstanding producer-director of mystery and crime drama, join their talent to make your hair stand on end with the adventures of Sam Spade. Presented by the makers of Wild Root Cream Oil for the hair.

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98.918 - 116.384 Host

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116.825 - 139.188 Host

Yes, men, to look your best at all times, spruce up with Wild Root Cream Oil Hair Tonic. Again and again, the choice of men who put good grooming first. And now, with Howard Duff starring as Spade, Wild Root brings to the air the greatest private detective of them all in The Adventures of Sam Spade.

148.958 - 149.498 Advertising Voice

Effie!

150.819 - 152.441 Effie

Come in, Sam. The coast is clear.

152.821 - 155.092 Sam Spade

Where are you? Why is it so dark in here?

155.112 - 158.257 Effie

Well, I had to put the lights out. The blind's stuck. I couldn't get it down.

Chapter 3: What is the significance of Penetron in the story?

164.928 - 167.332 Effie

Now, let me look at you.

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167.352 - 168.995 Sam Spade

Don't look at me like that and stop whispering.

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169.937 - 174.204 Effie

Oh, Sam. Did you get me all upset like that just for a joke?

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174.224 - 179.152 Sam Spade

It's no joke, sweetheart. You really sick? Yeah, just sick of some of the types I made in this business.

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179.432 - 180.394 Lois

Oh, Sam.

181.235 - 193.006 Sam Spade

Uh, date, uh, July 25, 1948, to Detective Lieutenant Dundee, homicide detail, San Francisco Police, from Samuel Spade, license number 137596, subject, the mad scientist caper.

193.587 - 194.688 Effie

I worry so.

196.169 - 210.263 Sam Spade

Ah, dear Dundee. He, uh, looked like a mad scientist, and that's exactly what he was. His eyes had a wild gleam in them, his hair was a wild tangle, and he was wearing a wild assortment of clothing that looked as if they'd been slept in in shifts.

211.222 - 215.628 Raymond Fox

He leaned across the desk at me and said... They have stolen my secret formula.

Chapter 4: Who is Raymond Fox and what role does he play?

291.479 - 310.382 Sam Spade

And Commissioner of Patents Watson, B.C., dear Mr. Fox, your application for patent on formula designated under the trade name Penetron is hereby rejected. Ah, you see. Both formula and trade name, together with descriptive material identical to yours, have been registered by Mr. Albert Grierson, Grierson Enterprises, San Francisco.

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311.303 - 314.927 Sam Spade

Very truly yours, George Sherman, Acting Deputy Assistant Commissioner.

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314.947 - 315.668 Raymond Fox

There, there, there. You see?

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316.909 - 321.258 Sam Spade

Uh, yes. You don't need a detective, Mr. Fox. What you need is a good patent lawyer.

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321.318 - 326.923 Raymond Fox

Lawyer? I have one. A legal ball of fire named Roscoe Manning. You know this scoundrel?

327.083 - 328.824 Sam Spade

Yeah, he's got an okay reputation.

328.884 - 336.171 Raymond Fox

And I am paying for it. $3,000 in retainers. And now he tells me he can do nothing. Insufficient evidence, he says.

336.351 - 338.232 Sam Spade

What is this outfit, Grierson Enterprises?

338.473 - 345.378 Raymond Fox

A snare and a delusion with rented furniture, unscientific ventilation, and dirty work at the switchboard.

Chapter 5: What evidence does Sam Spade uncover about Grierson Enterprises?

414.998 - 422.487 Effie

Oh, please, just tell me you're selling magazines or collecting salvage or just anything. My card. Oh, detective. Mr. Grierson hasn't done anything, has he?

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422.507 - 425.911 Sam Spade

That's what I want to find out. My client says he swiped his secret formula.

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426.292 - 429.496 Effie

Oh, not that maniac. You don't look the type. You know he's mad, don't you?

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429.756 - 438.126 Sam Spade

Maybe yes, maybe no. Personally, I'm crazy about money. Mad money, pin money, or dirty money. Your employer didn't happen to leave any line around, did he?

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438.447 - 443.594 Effie

No, but he has a charge account at a bar downstairs in the building when it's nearly 5 o'clock. Could you cross-examine me there?

448.161 - 458.055 Sam Spade

I thanked her as gallantly as I could under the circumstances. She said, wait here, I won't be a minute. And while she was gone, I made a quick frisk of the office. The file cabinet was empty.

458.305 - 473.807 Sam Spade

Griason's desk contained nothing but two unsharpened pencils, tobacco crumbs, a rubber band, some rusty paper clips, an old gas bill, a glass ampule, broken, labeled sodium denadrine for intravenous injection, and a business card from one Roscoe Manning, attorney at law.

474.668 - 482.659 Sam Spade

I stuck the card in my pocket, went back to the switchboard, and in less time than it takes to tell, I was calling her Lois and she was calling me Sam over cocktails for two.

483.112 - 491.024 Effie

That's all I know about it. I didn't think anything about his taking his correspondence out of the files. He often took work home with him.

Chapter 6: How does the mad scientist's backstory impact the investigation?

542.705 - 543.346 Sam Spade

It's in the air.

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543.706 - 547.47 Effie

You mean Mr. Grayson the crook? Well, what does that make me?

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547.95 - 571.692 Sam Spade

Worry that out on his time. Drink up. She looked as if she were telling the truth. Though with women, especially blue-eyed women, that doesn't always mean anything. If she had anything more to tell, she obviously wasn't ready yet to tell it. I asked her to come up and listen to my Herb Jeffries records. She said my apartment needed a woman's touch. I handed her a broom.

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571.853 - 598.283 Sam Spade

She hit me on the head with it and left. And so did Ben. Up the times and phoned my client. He wasn't in. Then I phoned a guy I know who sometimes knows about things and asked him what sodium denadrine was. He said it was a sedative and or a truth serum, a mental type drug. I wondered what Grierson had been using it for during office hours. I also wondered what else he'd been spending money for.

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598.303 - 620.19 Sam Spade

I phoned another guy who knows about other things, and he called me back with the name of Grierson's bank, Golden Gate Trust. An hour later, to my surprise, I actually had something to go on. Because in the past six weeks, checks totaling $50,000 had been deposited to Grierson's account, all drawn on the Citrus Exchange Bank of San Anselmo, and all bearing the signature of one Carl Birdwell, M.D.,

622.145 - 623.227 Sam Spade

He wasn't hard to find.

623.508 - 642.771 Unknown

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643.413 - 663.432 Unknown

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664.153 - 671.644 Unknown

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Chapter 7: What twists occur during the confrontation with the characters?

708.739 - 715.966 Dr. Birdwell (Grierson)

Guard! Now, wait a minute, doctor. What's the matter? Is this one acting up? Take him back. I sent for the cystectomy. This is the wrong man. You're crazy. Come on.

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715.986 - 731.7 Sam Spade

Let go of me. I'm not a patient here. I'm a detective. Yeah, and I'm Sherlock Holmes. Come on, now, back to the violent war. Come on, lay off. I got an office in San Francisco. I can prove it. One, three, seven, five, nine seconds. Okay, Dr. Watson, but come on, come on.

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731.68 - 753.148 Sam Spade

And in more time than it takes to tell, due to the guard's jujitsu, I was disrobed, straight-jacketed, and rolled into a wet sheet. A full-fledged inmate of the Mary F. Hotchkiss Hospital for the mentally deranged, which is exactly where I belong for having taken Mr. Fox's 25 bucks.

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757.027 - 781.667 Host

The makers of Wild Root Cream Oil are presenting the weekly Sunday adventure of Dashiell Hammett's famous private detective, Sam Spade. If you want the well-groomed look that helps you get ahead socially and on the job, listen.

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782.137 - 803.423 Host

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803.443 - 831.391 Host

What's more, non-alcoholic Wild Root Cream Oil is the only leading hair tonic that contains soothing lanolin. So ask for Wild Root Cream Oil Hair Tonic. Again and again, the choice of men who put good grooming first. By the way, smart girls use Wild Root Cream Oil, too. And mothers say it's grand for training children's hair. And now, back to the Mad Scientist Caper.

831.732 - 839.38 Host

Tonight's adventure with Sam Spade.

841.418 - 862.945 Sam Spade

I have been shot, stabbed, slashed, pistol whipped, and sapped into unconsciousness. But until you have spent a night rolled up in a wet sheet, Dundee, you don't know what punishment is. You feel hot and cold at the same time, too miserable to sleep, too exhausted to stay awake. And after four hours of it, you just give up and join the crazies pushing up the daisies.

862.965 - 881.799 Sam Spade

There's only one thing I can say in favor of the Mary F. Hotchkiss Hospital for the mentally deranged. They get the patients up early. By 6.30 in the a.m., I had been rolled out of the sheet. By quarter of seven, I had thawed out enough to be taken out of the straitjacket by an orderly. I was glad to be out of it because it was very heavy, and that gave me an idea. I picked it up and swung it.

Chapter 8: How does the episode conclude and what are the final revelations?

907.294 - 908.936 Dr. Birdwell (Grierson)

Did you say Grierson sent you?

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909.116 - 909.816 Sam Spade

I didn't say that.

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910.397 - 912.799 Dr. Birdwell (Grierson)

I'm afraid you'll have to be absolutely specific or I can't help you.

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912.819 - 927.421 Sam Spade

All right. My client is an inventor who claims that Mr. Grierson stole a formula from him, got a patent on it, and stands to profit to the tune of about a million bucks. The last two items check. I don't know whether Grierson's a crook or not. He's into you for 50,000 bucks, so you might know.

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928.222 - 932.229 Dr. Birdwell (Grierson)

Uh, this inventor. Pale eyes, contracted pupils, big mop of hair.

932.85 - 933.852 Sam Spade

That's a fair description.

934.113 - 945.012 Dr. Birdwell (Grierson)

Fox. Raymond Fox. He's a patient. Escaped from this hospital. That man, Mr. Spade, is a homicidal maniac. If you'll jog your memory, you may recall the case. Sacramento, 1935.

946.435 - 949.769 Sam Spade

Wait a minute. Chemistry professor, lab explosion?

949.789 - 956.616 Dr. Birdwell (Grierson)

That's the case. Two of his colleagues, whom he irrationally suspected of stealing the formula for the explosive he used to blow them up.

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