Created by Himan Brown
(1910-2010)
You think of private eyes, you probably picture some rough, tough American dude. Maybe not the most sophisticated guy, but no dummy, either? You think Bogie or Mitchum, maybe Garner or Dick Powell.
You probably don’t think Rex Harrison, the charming, erudite and slightly stuffy British film actor best known for such classic films of the sixties as My Fair Lady, Anna and the King, The Agony and the Ecstasy and Doctor Doolittle.
Yet back in 1951, Harrison played private eye REX SAUNDERS in radio’s The Private Files of Rex Saunders. Really.
He was already a relatively popular personality by then, but certainly no superstar; known for a sort of suave, soft-spokeness — the epitome of what American defined as a British gentleman. And he didn’t change his popular persona one iota for the role. He played a Manhattan-based globetrotting private eye and adventurer who, along with his doofus assistant/valet Alec seemed to find trouble — and damsels in distress — everywhere he went.
Any resemblance to the long-running Bulldog Drummond radio show that Himan Brown was also producing and directing at the time, up to and including the show’s opening fog horn blast, was surely just a coincidence, right?
By many accounts, this short-lived The Private Files of Rex Saunders was a lost treasure, drawing praise both back then, with the San Mateo Times describing it as “a fairly suspensive affair, well presented, well directed and not too ‘horrific’ as radio mysteries go,” and even now, with The Digital Deli lauding it for its writing (“consistently compelling”), its cast (“wonderfully effective”) and its direction by OTR legend Himan Brown as “crisp, suspenseful and perfectly timed… the equal of anything (Brown) ever directed”.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Himan Brown was an American producer of radio and television programs. Over a career spanning seven decades, Brown produced and directed more than 30,000 radio shows, including The Adventures of the Thin Man, The Affairs of Peter Salem, Bulldog Drummond, CBS Radio Mystery Theater, Dick Tracy, Flash Gordon, The General Mills Radio Adventure Theater, Grand Central Station, Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator, Inner Sanctum Mysteries, The NBC Radio Theater, The Private Files of Rex Saunders, Terry and the Pirates and a pile of daytime soap operas. During World War II, he worked with the Writers’ War Board, producing patriotic serials to aid the war effort. He received American Broadcast Pioneer and Peabody Awards,, and was inducted in 1990 into the National Radio Hall of Fame.
RADIO
- THE PRIVATE FILES OF REX SAUNDERS
(1951, NBC)
Created by Himan Brown
Writers: Edward Adamson, John Roeburt
Directors: Himan Brown
Produced by Himan Brown
Starring Rex Harrison as REX SAUNDERS
With Leon Janey as Alec
Also starring Jackson Beck, Alice Frost, Anne Seymour, Arlene Blackburn, Barbara Weeks, Amzie Strickland, Lesley Woods, Jean Ellen, Elspeth Eric, Vivian Sears
Announcer: Kenneth Banghart
Sponsors: RCA Victor- “The Lady with Hate in Her Heart” (May 2, 1951)
- “A Shocking Still Life” (May 9, 1951)
- “Diamonds Can be Done… To Death” (May 16, 1951)
- “When You Play the Game… With Death” (May 23, 1951)
- “High Dividends… Or Shallow Graves” (May 30, 1951)
- “The Plan in the Killerís Mind” (June 6, 1951)
- “A Trip to the Death House” (June 13, 1951)
- “A Murder Deep in the Killerís Mind” (June 20, 1951)
- “The Most Malignant of Diseases… Namely Murder” (June 27, 1951)
- “Hidden Thoughts in a Feminine Mind… Concerned with Murder” (July 4, 1951)
- “When Murder is Along as a Silent Companion” (July 11, 1951)
- “Unto Death Do Us Part” (July 18, 1951)
- “Worth More Than Itís Weight in Murder” (July 25, 1951)
- “When They Track Down… The Human Game” (August 1, 1951)
THE DICK OF THE DAY
- November 5, 2026
THE BOTTOM LINE: Sure, tough guy radio dicks back in the forties and fifties were a dime a dozen, but only one featured the vocal talents of charming, urbane and sophisticated Rex Harrison, playing a charming, urbane and sophisticated private eye. Along with his trusted but not-too-bright valet Alec, Rex seemed to find trouble — and damsels in distress — everywhere he went. Alas, THE PRIVATE FILES OF REX SAUNDERS only lasted fourteen episodes.
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
