Tony Barrett

Tony Barrett played weak brother Mitch Travis
in the Romance episode 'Pagosa,'
which served as one of the prototypes for Gunsmoke.
Although he also guest-starred in other radio westerns
such as The Six-Shooter, Tales of the Texas Rangers,
and Wild Bill Hickok, Barrett did most of his voice work
in dramas, cop shows, and detective series,
and most notably in the thrillers Escape and Suspense.

Check out Escape's 'Night In Havana',
a To Have or Have Not-sy hemisphere holiday.
Tony Barrett plays Tio, Alan Reed plays Maru.
Much fun is to be had:
Barrett's lovable who-cares-if-it-doesn't-work Cuban accent,
Reed's Akim Tamiroffish cabin cruiser-owning best friend,
William Conrad's savvy-but-bewildered drunken rich tourist,
and Jack Webb's really, truly, genuinely obnoxious putz.
There's a certain sadness, charm, and heart
twinkling under the surface of the water in Tio's and Maru's world.

Suspense's 'Dutch Schultz' can be taken seriously, or as comedy.
It's delightful as a Runyonesque play,
but as quasi-history it's plausibly set in 1935,
the year both Will Rogers and Dutch Schultz died;
and more importantly, the cost of a pack of cigarettes
skyrocketed to... 11 ¢ents.
Anthony Barrett, as Albert Anastasia, stands out
in what may be Elliott Lewis' most likable production.

Suspense brought in Richard Widmark to receive
the Best Male Performance of the Year,
only to put him in the strangely flat 'A Message To Garcia,'
which is supposed to be about passionate revolutionaries.
Perhaps it's just the bad state of the surviving transcription.
The only scene that has true feeling
is the one with Anthony Barrett as Gervasio--
he makes you want to shout "Cuba libre!"

Impact (1949)

   Tony Barrett plays Ramon
in the Escape episode 'Incident in Quito.'
   A shrewish wife is traded to headhunters
by her henpecked husband.
This being the ennui-eluding ever-exotic Escape,
the felicitous barter doesn't happen in Queens, N.Y.,
but in Quito, Equador. Who ever heard of headhunters in N.Y.?
Santeria, yes. Headhunting, no.
   If you dislike your spouse immensely,
this story will put ideas in your head.

Listening to Barrett's Spanish accents can sometimes
be an adventure: Sometimes they are fun,
as in the Escape episode 'Night in Havana,'
and at other times earnest, even noble, as in the audition episode
'The Adventures of the Scarlet Cloak,' an unabashed copy of Zorro.
Tony Barrett and Gerald Mohr try their best despite a production
so jaw-droppingly and embarrassingly unoriginal, it deserves a... Z.

A pre-impact Tony before he collides with a high octane truck in Impact (1949).

Even in bit parts, Barrett stands out.
Check him out as an annoying counter jerk
in the Hollywood Star Playhouse episode 'Haunt Me Not.'

   Strip 'The King Of Owanatu' of Escape's musical themes,
and it could easily air as an episode of Romance.
It has the quiet calm of the latter,
not the overwrought wringings of Escape.
   Two shady characters encounter a man playing Prospero
on an island, with a daughter and enslaved Marquesans.
   If Joseph Kearns doesn't quite clue you
that he's doing an English accent, the use of the word 'tiffin'
may cue you into realization.
   This is a good episode to learn the voice of Clayton Post,
who sounds like Broderick Crawford.
   Barrett sets the muted melancholy tone,
becalming Kearns' bad British and Post's growling
with his world-weary can't-be-bothered-to-over-emote
measured performance.

   How often is it that Jeanette Nolan and Anthony Barrett
are cast as love interests? But don't forget that in Escape,
people are often paired in the interests of seeing them
betray each other.
   Barrett is not at his best reading the opening narration
of 'The Golden Snake,' a Mayan-religious-site-desecration episode,
but he soon warms up to playing the hovering helicopter pilot.
   Nolan uses a sometimes-there-sometimes-not accent,
opening with the line: "I beeg your pardon."
   Dr. Conrad is played by John Hoyt, in one of the few times
the screen character actor is heard on radio.
   This episode will have you looking under the bed for Mayans.

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