Watch Larceny on the Air For Free

That was an excellent one.

Good concept, poorly executed.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

This Republic Picture drama is directed by Irving Pichel and is one of those that was originally 60 some odd minutes cut down to about 52 minutes for release to TV stations in the 1950's. But that really doesn't bother the entertainment value.Robert Livingston stars as Dr. Lawrence Baxter, who has a one-hour per week radio show on which he exposes potentially dangerous prescribed medications. He is especially upset with medicines that contain radium as an ingredient. He attacks a rejuvenation pill sold by a company owned by a man named Kennedy(Pierre Watkin), who is shielded by his attorney F.J. Thompson(Wilbur Mack). The pair just skirt along the right side of the law as Baxter tries to expose the fraudulent medication.Other players: Grace Bradley, Willard Robertson, Granville Bates, Byron Foulger and Smiley Burnette.

I decided to watch this B-movie because I liked the premise--people selling quack medicines and a radio doctor who crusades against them. Imagine--so-called 'medical professionals' making their medicines out of radium (a highly toxic substance) and selling it to dying people as a miracle cure!! This caught my attention early on and that is why it was so disappointing when the plot degenerated from this noble idea to a pretty standard (and silly) detective-type film. That occurs when the crusading doctor infiltrates the mob responsible for this quackery--something that made absolutely no sense at all--especially because everyone knew he was this crusader. In addition, why did they put a B-western sidekick (Smiley Burnett) in this film? It was a serious topic yet Burnett kept popping his goofy face in scenes where it made no sense at all. Overall, despite a nice premise, the film turned from a good film to a stupid film very quickly. Watchable...but that is all.

Look at the quack doctors who make odd ball treatments and then sell them to an unsuspecting public. Here its radium pills which are suppose to make you feel peppier. It amazes me that anyone would give people radium to take when it clear that its bad for you, but thats the plot of the film. The film has Robert Livingston as a crusading doctor who has a radio show where he challenges the makers of the pills. They buy his time slot and to shot him up and then try to buy him to switch sides. Of course it doesn't work.Along the way he finds love. This is a good but unremarkable little film. It moves along at a good clip and keeps you interested to the end. I'm sure in a weeks time I'll have forgotten I've seen it but until then it wasn't a bad way to spend an hour

One of the last Republic films produced by the great Nat Levine, of Mascot Pictures fame, this stars Robert Livingston (The Three Mesquiteers) as a crusading young doctor out to smash the influence of quack doctors pitching their dangerous pseudo-scientific treatments over the radio waves. Obviously, the film is based on doctors such as the infamous Dr. John Brinkley, the "goat gland surgeon" who had a thriving radio-based business in the 1920s and 1930s (the quack doctor here, with an army of attorneys just like Brinkley had, as called Kennedy). Directed by Irving Pichel (maker of the classic QUICKSAND, among many others), LARCENY ON THE AIR plays like a medical version of a standard crime film, but like any Levine production or Pichel film, it's well-paced and wastes no time getting started. The leading lady is Grace Bradley, who married William "Hopalong Cassidy" Boyd this same year, playing a character much more complex than she at first seems to be. There are a lot of little-known but fine non-western, non-serial films made at Republic in the pre-World War II era. This is one of the many that are worth rediscovering.