Colonel Humphrey Flack is an American comedy radio program that was broadcast on NBC [1] beginning on July 2, 1947. [2]
Wendell Holmes portrayed retired Colonel Humphrey Flack, and Frank Maxwell played his companion, Uthas P. "Patsy" Garvey, two men who outwitted confidence men to help people in need. [1] The Flack character, "a modern Robin Hood with a high-handed way with money", [3] originated in magazine stories by Everett Rhodes Castle [2] in The Saturday Evening Post . [4] Episodes typically had Flack encountering an innocent person who had been cheated, which prompted Flack to take charge and foil the criminal, [5] "usually by engineering an even larger swindle". [6] Dick Dudley was the announcer. [1]
Episodes were 30 minutes long. [1] The program was a summer replacement for The Aldrich Family on Thursdays at 6 p.m. Central Time. [7] The writers were Tom Dougall and Sheldon Stark. [2]
John Crosby wrote in a syndicated review that the program lacked variety in its stories: "Flack always encounters swindlers; Flack always wins." [6] He also wrote that one of the schemes depicted in the show was so transparent that it "wouldn't have fooled an idiot orphan, much less a widow, no matter how lame-brained". [6]
A review of the premiere episode in the trade publication Variety said that Colonel Humphrey Flack was "quite a relief from the whodunits flooding the warm summer air". [8] The review complimented Holmes's acting and the writing and pace of the show. [8]
A television version of the series, also titled Colonel Humphrey Flack , was broadcast on the Dumont Television Network in 1953-1954 and later syndicated. It starred Alan Mowbray in the title role with Frank Jenks as Garvey. [9]