True Noir

The Assassination of Anton Cermak

In Depression-era Chicago, private eye Nathan Heller is caught between the Mob and City Hall in a battle for control of the 1933 World’s Fair while he attempts to find a lovely actress’ missing brother. Along the way, Heller meets an array of famed heroes and villains from Eliot Ness to Al Capone, climaxing with the detective dangling off a beam of the Fair’s sky tower.

From the legendary author of Road to Perdition comes another riveting “movie,” this one for the ears. With a truly stellar, unrivaled cast, an impressive musical score and stunning sound design, True Noir: The Assassination of Anton Cermak brings the award-winning Max Allan Collins novel True Detective—and the author’s celebrated detective hero Nathan Heller–to vivid, unforgettable life.

Narrators:

Anthony LaPaglia

Renée Taylor

Bill Smitrovich

Katee Sackhoff

Richard Portnow

Barry Bostwick

Jeffrey Combs

PJ Byrne

John Kapelos

Jesse Spencer

Louis Lombardi

a full cast

Kris Carr

C. Thomas Howell

Adam Arkin

Michael Rosenbaum

Don McManus

Curtis Armstrong

Vincent Pastore

Devon Conrad

David Strathairn

Corey Landis

Saverio Guerra

Bill Mumy

William Sadler

Rob Roy Fitzgerald

Patton Oswalt

©2024 Imagination Connoisseurs Unlimited (P)2024 Imagination Connoisseurs Unlimited

Rich details, great performances, riveting story

Rich details, great performances, riveting story. Great directing. Fun weekend listen. The music, sound design, and the voice performances were cinematic.

Immersive story. Excellent.

Between the background music, voice acting and great story, I finished this in one sitting. It was the perfect length and I could visualize it in black and white as an old school noir/ gangster piece. I found out about this from the John Campea podcast that Robert Meyer Burnett is a part of and I will gladly spread the word and recommend this.

Read the book, loved the radio play

I’m a huge fan of the Heller series and I would love nothing more than each one to get a treatment like this. It felt like reading it anew - just fantastic storytelling.

Great cast, great script, lacking in post

I've been a fan of Nate Heller, and his creator Max Allan Collins for a while now, and I make a living producing audio drama, so this was a no brainer for me to purchase. There is so much to like about it! The cast is terrific; Michael Rosenbaum delivers a noirish performance that ranks him up there with Bogart and Nicholson. There are so many talented actors here that I won't have room to mention them all. Some get the medium, and some struggled a bit more, sounding theatrical rather than cinematic.

My only beef is the editing and sound design. In general it's good, but there are sooooo many times that the dialogue is held up so we can hear a foley/sound effect. As if people can't walk and talk at the same time. I suspect that the actors were all recorded separately too, and Frankensteined into the whole. If your director is paying attention you can make this work. If they don't have the whole show clear in their head it becomes more of a puzzle that needs to be force together. It's a medium that is every bit as exacting as cinema, but requires a different skill set. One doesn't always flow to the other. I suspect the whole show could have been 10-15 minutes shorter, and more effective with a visionary at the helm.

I know that voice over is a Noir tradition, but I think it's used too much here. "Show don't tell" is completely possible in Audio Drama, and you need to trust the audience. They're not stupid.

Largely, I liked it. Just a few nitpicks.