The super parrot

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Template: Infobox radio play The three ??? and the super parrot is the second installment in the book series The Three ??? as well as the first episode of the radio play series . It was performed as a play in 2004.

action

Alfred Hitchcock gives the three ??? the address of a writer friend named Malcolm Fentriss, who lives with his parrot Lucullusmissing. When the three detectives arrive, they meet a fat man who pretends to be Mr. Fentriss and explains to them that the parrot is back. They are disappointed on the way back, but Jupiter becomes suspicious and convicts the wrong Mr. Fentriss based on a lie. You turn around and find the real Fentriss tied up. Later it turns out that there are other parrots, all of which have been taught an individual saying to match their name. It becomes clear that the sayings of the birds provide a clue to the hiding place of a treasure, a painting stolen from Europe years ago. In addition to the detectives, the fat man alias the art dealer Mr. Claudius, the famous master thief Victor Hugenay is also after the painting.

The resolution

Mr. Claudius turns out to be the legitimate owner of the picture and asks the detectives for help. Before his death, the thief trained the parrots and left them to the poor Mexican Ramos, in the hope that Claudius would appear and give Ramos a reward for the birds. Ramos had already sold the birds when Claudius appeared to him. The trail leads to an old cemetery where the three ??? arrive at the same time as Hugenay and can snatch the painting away from him by a hair's breadth.

Theatrical performance

To mark the 25th anniversary of the radio play series, in 2004 in the Color Line Arena in Hamburg the debut episode ... and the super parrot was performed in an extended stage version in front of over 12,000 spectators. André Minninger wrote the script, while Holger Mahlich took over the direction again. Peter Klinkenberg returned to the stage as a noisemaker. As in the radio play of the new recording, Thomas Fritsch also took part in this production as the narrator. The stage version, however, differs slightly from the original 1979 version as well as from the 2004 studio production; for example, the character Skinny Norris was introduced, which did not appear in the original episode.

Re-recording of the radio play

For the 25th anniversary of the series, the first episode produced was completely re-recorded in the studio. For this purpose, an extended version was published on a double CD. In some cases, the old speakers could be recruited for the roles. The edition also contains outtakes from the studio recordings of various episodes.

Trivia

  • The parrots' sayings have all been slightly changed: Snow White became white like snow, red like blood, black like ebony , white like snow, red like blood, brown like cedarwood . In the American original edition it is based on the nursery rhyme figure "Little Bo-Peep" instead of Snow White.
  • After a phone call, Jupiter says excitedly: “It was my mother, she says Mr. Claudius and his wife are at the gate. They want to talk to us. ”Aunt Mathilda is certainly meant because Justus' parents are no longer alive. According to various sources, she was either killed in a plane crash or in a car accident. This is probably one of the most famous mistakes in the first series of radio plays.
  • Skinny Norris only appears in the book.

radio play

  • The parrot "Blackbeard" croaks in the radio play edition in the detectives' headquarters before they even bought it from Carlos.
  • The license plate number that the detectives give out with the telephone avalanche supposedly ends on 13. However, Carlos mentions several times in his description as the license plate extension "three-one", i.e. 31.
  • The fake Mr. Fentriss was allegedly informed by Hitchcock over the phone about the visit of the detectives, but there are no telephone cables (which run above ground in California) to his house.
  • The episode has a different theme music than the following episodes. The song is based on a song by the musician Carsten Bohn ; in this version only most of the synthesizer tracks were muted. Due to a legal dispute with Bohn, the music in this and the 38 following radio play episodes had to be replaced by new ones.

Individual evidence

  1. 3Fragezeichen.de - The super parrot