"The Case of the Cunningham Heritage"
In which Dr John Watson, returning to London from Afghanistan, first meets the "rather strange" Holmes, but "one never thinks to question him." At his club, an old friend Lord Stamford (Rowland Bartrop) had mentioned to Dr W that SH is also seeking lodgings. So, with the possibility for sharing a flat, Dr W goes to SH's chemical laboratory, amazed that SH somehow knows so much about him.
221B Baker Street is the flat they rent, and Dr W soons becomes amazed at "the man's fantastic powers of perception. But his knowledge of literature- nothing... politics- disinterested. Botany- he knows everything there was to know about poison and absolutely nothing about practical garden. Chemistry- profound. Sensational literature"... oh yes he's well versed in that.

After this long but interesting introduction to the main characters, the first case begins when we encounter a baffled Inspector Lestrade who is typically "completely stuck," not for the last time, as a mother finds the corpse of her rich son Peter. Standing by his corpse is his fiance Joan (Ursula Howells) clutching the knife that killed him. "You're completely stymied," observes SH to poor Inspector L, though frankly, it needs no deduction to notice that! The problem is L can find no motive for Joan killing him. But when it's shown the couple had recently married and that she inherits everything, L makes a swift arrest.
In a simple case, at 10.30 that night, SH breaks into the house with a sceptical Dr W. Ralph, Peter's brother, oddly boasts about his blackmailing Peter because he knew Joan was a "jailbird." It's Dr W who stops Ralph in his tracks, and Inspector L has to admit he had arrested the wrong person.
Later Dr W is fuming over the newspapers who are lauding the "brilliant" Inspector L, but SH is too absorbed in his fingerprint research to care.
Uncredited speaking parts: 1 Club member. 2 Butler. 3 Retired marine sergeant

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4 "The Case of the Texas Cowgirl"

Arriving in a covered wagon with her pal Slim, is Minnie O'Malley (Lucille Vines) "a-lookin' Mr Sherlock Holmes." (Must be made for the American market!)
"Howdy doc," is her firm greeting to Dr Watson. She wants SH's help 'cos there's a body dead in her hotel room, killed with a tomahawk (what else?!) that belongs to Minnie. The hombre must be got out of her room "pronto."
"Is that his name?" queries the green DrW, one of several jokes on Anglo-American language differences. Minnie don't want her fiance, the Earl of Warcesster (Worcester) to hear of any possible scandal.
The corpse is a 30 year old man, according to DrW, a vengeance killing it seems. Skeleton keys on his person suggest he was a burglar. Using the keys to good advantage, and despite Dr W's protestations, SH hides the body in a neighbouring room. "Relax, doc, leave it to Sherlock," Minnie advises.
Bellboy Tommy tells SH that he'd seen a hand in the room turning a knob on a bedpost.
Enter Inspector Lestrade, baffled by the tomahawk. The body is of Sly Sam and it's now in the room of Mr Honeywell, a salesman. What DrW can't understand is why SH has planted the tomahawk by the dead man, when it might well lead L to Minnie. "Grab air," shouts Minnie when the pair return to Baker Street, which being translated is, Hands Up. She too's annoyed, that the tomahawk has been put by the corpse. "Any last wishes Sherlock?"
SH is able to reassure her that the tomahwak in question isn't hers, but another, hidden away by the murderer. "Someone's tryin' to frame me," she realises.
Chief Running Water is the owner of this second tomahawk. "How," is his corny line. But he no speak English, or even American, though he takes an uncanny interest in L's bald pate. But I don't know how Sgt Wilkins is able to translate the chief's words- the tomahawk really belongs to the owner of Minnie's wild west show, Bison Jack.
"Ain't mine," is his terse response.
SH is able to solve the case when he proves the motive for the killing was the theft of jewellery in the hotel. It's now hidden in the bedpost. The killer makes a run for it, but the alert DrW rounds him up with a neat swing of Minnie's lasso, "yippee!"

Uncredited speaking parts: 1 Slim. 2 Tommy. 3 Elderly lady guest. 4 Honeywell. 5 Running Water. 6 Bison Jack
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9 "The Case of The Harry Crocker"

Escape artist Harry is in "dead trouble," accused of murdering stage-struck chorus girl Sally King. The case against him is strong enough to convince Inspector Lestrade, since he had had an argument with her and her locket is found in his possession.
"Poor Harry, why did you murder her?" is the common view. But SH proves he didn't, thanks to some dubious evidence against the doorman Charlie Willis (Harry Towb, here as Harris Towb).
Here's a story full of entertaining moments, with Eugene Deckers who, on the music hall bills is "Harry Croker," seriously overacting, and as a true escapologist persistently eluding Lestrade's handcuffs who thus becomes more and more Lestradish.
At the music hall Dr Watson enjoys a few winks with the chorus girls in a characterisation and plot that would surely have given Conan Doyle a heart attack had he lived to see it. Nevertheless it's somehow outrageously fun and ends with SH successful in emulating Crocker's baffling vanishing act.
To add to the mystery, the opening and closing music is slightly different to that used for the remainder of the series.

Uncredited speaking roles: 1 Policeman. 2 Bessie. 3 Morgue man

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10 The Mother Hubbard Case
Poor little Frances is lost, so a kind stranger escorts her home. Last we see of the man alive.
This is a "complex" case, for he is the eighth man to have "evaporated from the face of London" recently. He was Richard Trevor, and his fiancee Margaret and her father ask SH to find her intended. Only clue, a note he had sent her stating he had been "detained because he'd run into a little girl that was lost."
Last seen at his gentleman's club, SH traces the carriage that had picked him and the girl up. They had been dropped off at an empty house. Despite Dr W's protestations ("I'm sure it's unethical"), SH breaks in, in quest of a clue. He certainly finds one, in the shape of Trevor's corpse. He had died from an overdose of strychnine and had been robbed.
Now they travel to Brighton to meet RJ Cookson (Billy Beck), owner of the empty house. Who knew he was away from town and had a key? Mrs Enid, the old charwoman (Amy Dalby), but "she wouldn't hurt a fly." 322 Radcliffe Way is where she lives with her granddaughter. By an amazing stroke of good fortune, SH and DrW overhear her rehearsing her ward for their next job.
Thus SH is able to pose as their next victim. Frances takes him to another empty home, where he is thanked by her grateful grandmother, who offers SH a glass of milk and some fudge. SH smiles at her, "smells very good." But before she can poison him also, Inspector Lestrade marches in to arrest her.
"I needed the money for the child," is her too simple explanation.
Uncredited speaking roles: 1 Frances. 2 Trevor. 3 Club barman. 4 Sgt Wilkins
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13 "The Case of The Split Ticket"

"Desperate. Will be back in an hour. Brian O'Casey," reads a note shoved under SH's door.
Brian (Harris Towb) asks SH to find a Mr Albert Snow. £8,000 is at stake. Snow holds numbers 3 and 4 of their sweepstake ticket. If it is not claimed by midnight tonight, any claim will be invalid.
Brian relates his whole sorry tale. He'd been approached by Belle Rogers in a baker's shop. Her friend Albert had persuaded him to take a third share in a £24,000 sweep, with their number 16634. They had torn their ticket in three and now Snow has disappeared! (They'd also invested in a horse race, but this subplot isn't mentioned further.)
SH is unable to talk to Miss Rogers as she has "gone" from her baker's shop, taking a white cake with her. SH had expected all this, naturally.
But then she comes to Brian, with the sorry news that Arthur has been drowned in the river. His ticket is lost at the bottom of the river. She sadly tears up her portion of the ticket, and asks Brian to give her his part, to throw into the fire.
SH however has been practising legerdemain and has swapped her portion and Brian's for duplicates. He explains the white cake had been for her wedding to Snow. By their trickery they had planned in this "neat" plot to get hold of the complete sweepstake ticket, only to be outswindled by SH's palming the pieces himself.

Note- Though Inspector Lestrade gets a passing mention, he is not in this odd story. Uncredtied speaking parts: 1 Man whose wallet is stolen. 2 News vendor. 3 Man in pub. 4 Baker
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15 "The Case of the Singing Violin"
Betty is getting these nightmares, a violinist keeps playing his wretched violin in her bedroom. She is engaged to Jimmy though her "austere" stepfather Guy warns the "heartbroken" man that he can never marry Betty because the doctor says she "is losing her mind."
Back at the Yard, with a lull in crime, Inspector Lestrade decides to call on SH, to see if he has anything on the go. But right outside 221B he stumbles on a murder. It's poor Jimmy who had come to consult the eminent detective, Holmes that is. Inspector L is astounded when SH tells him he's just off to interview the man's murderer!
SH's conversation is with Johnny's employee, Guy Durham (Arnold Bell), a tea and spice merchant. It's a fairly brief chat, because Guy is rather brusque. But he is the killer SH tells the bemused Dr W afterwards. The motive is clear- 15 years previously Durham's business partner had died in "mysterious circumstances." Durham had then married his late partner's wife, Betty becoming his stepdaughter. She is the inheritor of the family tea fortune as her mother has now died.
By a stroke of amazing good fortune, SH overhears Durham plotting with a charlatan doctor, who is refusing to declare Betty insane. However he agrees to sign any death certificate ("an overdose of morphine") after Durham has killed her. Quickly SH carries the drugged girl to behind a screen in her bedroom and awaits the attempted murder. However the great man blunders for once, getting locked in a cupboard, leaving Durham free to commit his foul deed. But fortunately Dr W comes to the rescue!
Thus is exposed this "fiend with a diabolical mind." Asks a baffled L, "will somebody please tell me what this is all about?" I'd tell him, it's nothing like any Conan Doyle story I ever read.

Uncredited speaking parts: 1 Jimmy. 2 First housekeeper. 3 Sgt Wilkins. 4 Cabby. 5 PC Towser. 6 Mrs Ferguson the 2nd housekeeper. 7 John Murdoch. 8 Dr Moreno
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17 "The Case of The Laughing Mummy"

An extrordinary case, in that Holmes accuses a man of murder, without anyone knowing a murder has taken place.
Travelling down on the train to Witchingham with SH, 'Blinko' Watson bumps into old school pal 'Sardine' Taunton (film star Barry MacKay in a rare tv appearance). Reggie Taunton asks SH's advice about an Egyptian mummy he has been sent by his uncle, which has the odd but intriguing habit of occasionally laughing. It's even threatening to ruin his engagement to Rowena Featheringstone (June Crawford).
Interested, SH examines the mummy in its "exceptionally fine sarcophagus," stored in Taunton's Egyptian room, which is full of artefacts sent from Uncle Joseph whom Reggie has never even met.
Dining with them at Taunton's ancient pile are Rowena's battleaxe Aunt Agatha, and Professor von Gaulkins, an expert in Egyptology. Trout is on the menu, but it has to be admitted that Rowena's cooking is "unchewable rubber." The sound of laughing, more like wailing really, interrupts the meal.
An examination of the chimney by SH traces the weird noise to a weather vane, creaking in the wind. Mystery solved. However poor DrW slips off the roof and lands in the rhododendron bush. Luckily not badly injured.
"My compliments, Mr Holmes," proffers the prof, though in fact the mystery is not over. SH has spotted, what the prof seemingly hasn't, that the mummy is of much more recent vintage than its box. On examination, the prof agrees with SH. Then SH adds an astounding accusation- the prof has murdered Reggie's uncle.
"How do you know?" gasps an astounded DrW. The mummy, it transpires, is that of Uncle Joseph. The prof admits it, relating how he and Joseph had found this ancient tomb in Egypt, and when Joseph had opened it, he had been struck down dead.
SH now amends his accusation. The prof can be reassured that Joseph had died from touching the sarcophagus, which is full of needles containing the poison of asps. A worried DrW waits anxiously to see if the same fate will befall himself, as he has touched that box too!

Uncredited speaking role: Aunt Agatha
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18 "The Case of The Thistle Killer"

A policeman in a forced accent warns a woman pedestrian to beware of The Thistle Killer, who has killed one woman a night for the past five nights. She is the sixth! "The man's a maniac," is Dr W's belief. But SH perceives a pattern.
Inspector Lestrade however believes it's all "haphazard." He's frantic, "where will it be tonight?" he muses. So ineffective is he that the Superintendant (William Smith) orders him to consult the "amateur" SH, who advises L to spot the pattern. The locations of the killings are:
Portland Lane
Harris Street
Ovington Square
Evans Lane
Napier Street
Ingram Square
It's an acrostic, explains SH to the baffled L, and the next murder must be at X- Xerxes Park. "Then we have him," beams L.
Yard men are to be posted all around the park and a decoy policewoman is required. "Ever done any amateur theatricals?" the bemused L is asked. But in the end, a real woman is chosen, Miss Colley.
Unfortunately it is a very foggy night, as L keeps watch at one gate, SH and Dr W at the other. Unfortunately noone has yet realised the murderer disguises himself as a policeman.
11pm and after several false alarms, with Dr W jumping on two lovers, a policeman enters the park, right under SH's nose, accompanying a young woman. But at last SH's mighty brain realises how the murderer has not been spotted before. Whistles a-blowing, the net closes. The false policeman runs into Inspector L, who is punched on the nose for his pains. However L gets his own back and rather improbably, shoots him, "he's dead." He is recognised as a frustrated policeman who had failed to make the force through "inefficiency."

Uncredited speaking roles: 1 News vendor, 2 Lady on the street. 3 Policeman, 4 Herbert Brown. 5 Maggie Brown. 6 PC Connors. 7 Lady in the park
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19 "The Case of The Vanished Detective"
DrW is at the Yard to report his terrible news- SH has disappeared! Inspector Lestrade looks dubious, hard to be convinced.
Using the great detective's methods, the pair try and deduce where SH might possibly be. After an unsuccessful search, DrW eventually finds a clue- Ye Quaint Old Curiosity Shop: one John Smithson had recently written to SH asking for his help.
"We've come to inquire about Sherlock Holmes," DrW informs the owner, not recognising that it is SH in disguise! "Never met the gentleman," they are informed.
DrW purchases a book and after leaving, confides in L "there's something about that Smithson I don't like!" Using a trick DrW had learned in the Red Headed League case, he returns to the shop, where the blood-stained clothing of SH is found. In the ensuing melee, a customer runs off with the book, which brings about despair from SH- it had contained a secret message to escaped convict John Carson. He once worked in Smithson's shop, and had threatened Smithson, who had sought SH's protection.
But at least DrW has been of some use, for he knows where to find Carson's contact, Helene, as she is a model in a dress shop. She doesn't know of Carson's whereabouts, but is sure he wants revenge on old Jeremiah Westlake (Colin Drake), the judge who had pronounced a life sentence on him.
The eccentric judge is now retired, and lives in his world of puppets. In a curious scene, SH converses with the puppets. Strangely unperturbed is the judge, about any threat on his life.
Carson does attack him and his wife, but he is thwarted in his foul deed. Despite a struggle, the puppets are fine, that's the main thing. The judge has forgotten his ordeal already.

Uncredited speaking extras: 1 Pierre. 2 Judge's maid. 3 Mrs Westlake. 4 Police constable
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21 "The Case of The Reluctant Carpenter" -
A Stepney warehouse fire two causes several deaths, and a passer-by is stabbed. Inspector Lestrade approaches SH as the Yard lab is so useless, but finds 221B empty. Sgt Wilkins suggests the policemen use SH's equipment to analyse the sample of mud found on the murdered man's shoes. That they know nothing of such scientific investigation is evident in a nicely comic scene when they follow SH's instruction manual, "just like following a cookery book." As they chat, reference is made to the Lady Beryl case (#2).
"Those two idiots'll blow up the place," warns Dr W who is watching the flat with SH from across the road, as SH is expecting "a thief" to drop in. The 'thief' duly calls and, mistaking L for SH, warns that he has started another fire in Covent Garden. He demands £50,000, or more arson attacks will follow. As he departs, Dr W, following SH's preconceived plan, tails him, while SH listens to L's tale of woe.
43 Chester Street Bayswater is the thief's destination, where he is shot dead, leaving a legacy of a bomb that "somewhere will go off in three hours," ie 6pm.
Analysis of the mud shows it contained traces of explosive nitrate. The Yard lab advises the only source in London is the "Army Warehouse Knightsbridge." (Ah- so they aren't utterly useless.) Yet the Yard lab are wrong even on this one, for it's to the Army Barracks that SH and L repair, to confront three carpenters working there. In their shed they are made to wait until six o'clock. With time running out, one decides he must leave. He is forced into revealing where he has hidden the incendiary that will trigger the fire- in the nick of time!

Notes- This conclusion with carpenters and bombs is used also in the Foreign Intrigue Story #94 Fire Bombs.
Uncredited speaking parts: 1 Police constable. 2 Lab worker. 3 Barracks guard. 4 First carpenter

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23 "The Case of The Christmas Pudding"
Snow outside, inside "in the season of goodwill," a courtroom hears the unseasonal sentence on prisoner John Henry Norton (Eugene Deckers). He is to be hanged, "I'll kill you before I die" he yells at SH.
In Newgate Prison, where the governor's office but not the cells have festive decorations, SH checks that Norton is secure in his cell, "I said 'soon' Holmes, "Norton repeats, "your neck between these two hands."
No wonder an "ominous cloud," as Dr W tells us, hangs over Baker Street. SH has an intuition that Norton will escape....
Mrs Norton (June Rodney) brings her Christmas present for her husband, a very nice Christmas pud. The governor (Richard Watson) inspects it carefully, but finding nothing dangerous, takes it with Mrs Norton down to the prisoner's cell. The inmate looks pleased.
Whistling Good King Wenceslas, he makes a long cord of blankets and saws through the bars of his prison and exits into the foggy night. SH and Dr W are awoken by the governor's knocking- he breaks the bad news of Norton's escape. Police constable Smith is set to guard 221B whilst SH sends Dr W off to see Mrs Norton, but really it's to get him off the scene. Soon Norton, disguised as a policeman, is climbing the stairs to SH's rooms. It is dark. He fires his gun at SH (he seems to have forgotten about the strangling he'd promised earlier). "I told you I'd get you." But as he runs away, gallant Dr W is fortuitously returning from his "fool's errand" and apprehends the villain. And SH is fine, Norton had been shooting at a dummy!
The minor mystery of how Norton sawed his way out of his cell is revealed by SH. The "fancy string" used to tie his parcel has been coated with diamond dust, he explains to the bewildered governor, "and you gave it to Norton yourself.... merry Christmas governor!"
Inspector Lestrade not in this one (on his Xmas break??) Those with uncredited speaking parts: 1 Judge. 2 Usher. 3 Prison Guard Simmonds. 4 Cabby. 5 PC Smith
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"The Case of The Jolly Hangman"
SH is discussing with DrW the future, or otherwise, of moving pictures, when to romantic music a sad woman calls to consult the great detective.
She is Mrs Jessie Hooper (Alvys Maben) whose husband Billy has hanged himself in a hotel bedroom in Glasgow. A travelling salesman, he was faced with the sack, and was on his last job. He was so depressed his wife had accompanied him part of the way by train as far as Doncaster, and they had been cheered up on their journey by a very amusing passenger with a jolly laugh.
SH puzzles over the death which has been made to look like suicide. Inspector MacDougal, cousin of Lestrade, and who looks just like him except for his thick moustache and even thicker sideburns, isn't convinced, just like his cousin, that SH is correct. However with the aid of some rope, SH convinces the Scottish detective that a murderer is what he is after. SH even tells him the killer's name, another guest staying in the hotel, one Henry Hampton. But as this name is fictitious, where to find him?
After visiting Billy's birthplace in Cornwall, SH is able to tell Jessie something she didn't know, that Billy's grandfather had also been murdered many years ago when Billy was 7 years old. Billy had a dim recollection of seeing the killer and had recognised him that fateful night. His jolly laugh had betrayed him.
After a long search, SH traces this man, now calling himself Baxter (Philip Leaver), sales manager of a rope manufacturing firm. He denies ever having been in Glasgow. But he does go to "console" Mrs Hooper, or to be more precise, try to poison her. She realises who he must really be, and just in time SH and DrW prevent another hanging, a gruesome melodramatic scene enacted in front of Mrs Hooper's staring baby. In trying to get away by leaping out of the window, Baxter is caught by his tie, and meets his own poetic fate.
Uncredited speaking parts: 1 Flower seller. 2 Butler. 3 Man in bed. 4 Hotel receptionist. 5 Typist
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33 "The Case of The Baker Street Bachelors"

'Jeffrey Bourne for Parliament' reads a poster. But his career is potentially in ruins when a woman accuses him of attacking her. However for £2,000 she's prepared to keep her silence.
Consulting SH, Bourne recounts how he'd met the girl through a marriage bureau. Unlike many episodes, where SH is regaled with his client's life history, this time SH leaps straight into action. With a reluctant Dr W, who declares himself frightened of such establishments, SH files his application with Cupid's Bow, proprietor J Oliver (Duncan Oliver).
He's very welcoming once he learns SH is rich! He can match them "immediately:" Miss Pamela for the fawning SH, and Miss Edna for the nervous Dr W.
The couples arrange for tea together, but 'Charlie' interrupts them and a brawl ends in SH's arrest. But whilst Dr W looks aghast, SH assures him "we've fallen very neatly into their trap."
Inspector Mason (Seymour Grene) effects the arrest but soon Inspector Lestrade is on the spot. He seems rather bucked at the sight of SH behind bars. Dr W brings news that the girl will drop the case if £4,000 is forthcoming.
Even L's pleading can't persuade Mason to release the illustrious detective, so Dr W is instructed to "break in" to Oliver's office to find evidence of blackmail- "that's against the law!" interrupts the alert L.
It's not exactly Dr W's forte, burglary. But whilst he fumbles, SH deduces where the blackmail material will be hidden- behind a painting. He persuades a reluctant L to go after Dr W and tell him. Of course, the pair are interrupted by Oliver.
This could be most embarrassing for L, but Inspector Mason is prevailed upon by SH to rescue them from the office, and thus the blackmailers are arrested.
However L is fuming, and to pay SH out, he refuses to let him out of the cell!

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35 "The Case of The Haunted Gainsborough"
Malcolm MacGregan needs SH's help- he looks and sounds exactly like Archie Duncan (alias Inspector Lestrade), only with a native kilt and thick beard. Indeed he is Archie!
A painting of a lassie named Heather which he is trying to sell is haunted! "She's a very pretty ghost," smiles Dr W. Will SH come to MacGregan's castle to prevent Heather from scaring off her final potential buyer, Mr Samuel Scott, an American? The cash is sorely needed as otherwise Mr Archibald Ross is going to foreclose the mortgage on the castle.
On their very first night at the castle SH and Dr W see the ethereal Heather (Cleo Rose) descending the staircase, before warning off our detective. Rather cheekily too, for she asks SH if he'd like to kiss her! Before he can do so, she disappears.
SH's "brilliant" scheme is to hide at the top of the staircase when the ghost next manifests itself to the American. It's a simple plan, if hardly worthy of SH, but anyway the ghost vanishes into thin air: "it's impossible!" But Scott isn't put off and offers £1,000 for the picture, But the bad news is that this is now missing from its frame. "You will not sell it, Malcolm MacGregan," moans the ghost before evaporating again. "You can't catch a ghost," sighs the dispirited MacGregan.
He has until midnight to pay off his mortgage so all SH has to do is quickly find that "genooine Gainsbo" for Mr Scott. Down the stairs drifts the ghost once more. But behind her this time is another ghost! The ghost of Heather sees the apparition and screams an unghostlike scream. Ghost number two is only SH who reveals a secret passage half way up the stairway, leading to the missing painting plus a hidden treasure. "Thank you for finding the treasure and saving the castle."
As the great detective departs, it looks as though Heather is staying!
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36 "The Case of The Neurotic Detective"

1896 and "the greatest criminal of all" first makes his mark. Even the ceremonial jewels of Queen Elizabeth I are not safe from his clutches, "absolutely fantastic," gurgles Watson, "what in thunder is Scotland Yard doing?"
Poor Inspector Lestrade almost grovels to SH, "I need your help!" The only advice he's given is Capture the Criminal. In a huff L storms out. DrW is puzzled why the "erratic" SH is so disinterested in this major outbreak of crime. But then DrW thinks he spots a diamond necklace in SH's possession. What is he up to? DrW determines to find out and follows the great detective, but awfully amateurishly, "I realised," DrW confides to us, "that if one were to match wits with Holmes, one could not employ ordinary methods."
His solution is to disguise himself as a cabbie, but naturally SH penetrates his bearded features, "the corners of your beard are in dire need of repair." But then DrW has a stroke of luck when a man who appears to be chasing after SH hires the cab to take him after SH. DrW bravely breaks in to the house and is horrified to overhear SH planning a robbery with his confederates.
Professor A Fishblack is consulted to see if he can throw any light on SH's out-of-character actions. But SH ends up analysing the analyst. "Professor, where are you going?" groans DrW.
So it's the inspector that DrW has to confide in, "I know who London's master thief is." A glimmer of hope dawns on L's harassed face. But when he's told he can only utter "Holmes? I don't believe it." The two actors milk this scene brilliantly.
DrW and L puzzle what to do. SH, however, is off to a reception at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with a young lady, Miss Ames. It takes his followers quite a time before they realise he must be planning another robbery. They conceal themselves in the room which contains the minister's safe. After dancing the evening away, SH creeps into the room, immediately, of course, spotting W's shoes hidden behind the curtains. Is SH under arrest? The Commissioner at the Yard also steps in to explain SH had been employed by him to test out the Yard's security measures. SH, in mock sorrow, delivers a Parthian shot to poor Dr Watson, "To think you didn't trust me."

Uncredited speaking parts: 1 Miss Ames 2 Eloping man 3 Another man trying to hire a cab 4 Professor A Fishblack (Eugene Deckers) 5 Yard Commissioner

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37 "The Case of The Unlucky Gambler"

An "unusual client" for SH- young Andrew Fenwick (Richard O'Sullivan), who stares hard at the great detective, "I thought you'd be much stronger looking." He wants SH to find his father Herbert, "the happiest most wonderful man in the world," since he has disappeared from his family home. Andrew blames a Jack Driscoll, "I don't like him." His sickly mother had been told to "have faith" and not get the police on Herbert's tracks. SH takes on the case, having agreed a fee of £1.
He already knows what to look for! A gambling den. DrW stands amazed. The clues were there, explains SH- Andrew's speech and his clothing. And he surmises that his mother's pleurisy has driven Herbert Fenwick to gambling.
Inspector Lestrade may be "just the chap to help us." That's right: he can't. But his sergeant, Sgt Wilkins, has a better recall of underworld villains and fills SH in on Driscoll, believed involved in "illegal bookmaking practice," currently prizefights.
At a boxing ring, SH and DrW meet fighter Percy and his manager Finnegan. When they ask about Driscoll, everyone gets very jumpy there. Soon two unpleasant characters have picked them up and taken them straight to Driscoll, who says he is also searching for "that welsher" Fenwick, who owes him £1,000.
Various barmen know nothing of him, until one tells SH that Fenwick had recently committed suicide, thrown himself into the Thames. Inspector Lestrade confirms the story, producing Fenwick's new hat with his name in. But no body has been washed up and SH doesn't agree that Fenwick is dead. The suicide note is a fake, declares SH. Fenwick is now so desperate for cash, SH explains, that he is bound to resort to robbery to clear his debts. He is going to rob a pub.
"I don't know why I let you talk me into these things," sighs poor L, as he sets a police watch on three local pubs. SH himself is keeping an eye on The King's Head.
In bursts a man with a very suspicious looking beard. "Put your hands up!" But the robbery is interrupted by DrW who has brought Andrew with him. It stops the thief right in his tracks.
By an extraordinary masquerade, SH exonerates Fenwick in his son's eyes. He resolves to sort out his affairs and never leave his family again. So presumably they all lived happily ever after, though I'm not sure about Inspector L.

Uncredited speaking extras: 1 Finnegan. 2 Gambler. 3 Driscoll. 4 Customer

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Flash Gordon (1953-5)
After some pilots had been made at studios in Marseilles, production move to West Berlin. Steve Holland starred in this low budget, low thrills series of 39 dark stories. Enthusiastic amateurs might best describe the producers, I find something fascinatingly awful in watching the stories today, plus admiration for the lead actors who ne'er display the slightest grin, but play it so straight you have to laugh.

1 The Planet of Death
2 Escape into Time
3 The Electromen
5 Akim the Terrible
6 Claim Jumpers
8 The Breath of Death
10 Return of the Androids
17 The Lure of Light
19 Race Against Time
20 The Witch of Neptune/ 21 The Brain Machine / 22 Struggle to the End
23 Waterworld Menace
24 Saboteurs from Space
25 The Forbidden Experiment
35 The Earth's Core
36 Deadline at Noon
39 The Subworld Revenge

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The Planet of Death
"You'll murder every man you send to Tarset." The curse of Belphegor falls on anyone landing on this dead planet. So speaks returning scientist Dr Gevers, who is hysterical, beseeching Dr Zarkov not to travel to this now lifeless planet, despite the fact that it is ideal for his experiments on negative gravity.
He relates to Cmdr Richards and Dr Zarkov the fate of his three companions on Tarset. In a flashback we see that they had been grabbed by "an invisible hand," actually a beam of light emanating from the face of an idol, "carved out of a solid block of evil." Their leader, Williams, was struck dead, and the other two likewise.
Despite such melodramatics, Zarkov dismisses Gevers' babblings as "superstitious rot." He is determined to travel to Tarset, for "the defence of the galaxy depends on it." He is accompanied by Flash and Dale, and the terrified scientist is somehow persuaded to tag along also.
On Tarset, Flash bravely enters the abandoned temple, despite Gevers' warnings. The lethal ray seeks them out, but they hide, though Gevers loses his mojo. They are all taken prisoner, Zarkov forced to reveal the truth of his negative gravity tests, or else Dale with cop it. Flash and Gevers are locked in the old room with contracting walls, giving Flash the opportunity to force the gibbering doctor to admit he had been lying. Those in power here want to use Tarset as a spearhead for invasion of our own galaxy.
Their second in command indulges in some "second rate theatrics," when Dale refuses to allow Dr Zarkov to reveal his secrets. Thus she begins to "shrivel slowly."
But Flash avoids being crushed to pieces, escapes in time to rescue her, "it's hard to believe that." Gevers proves some kind of hero, when the temple is destroyed, "there will be no invasion"

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Escape Into Time

Dr Zarkov has invented a Time Machine. Just for one hour, Dale places her dear dog inside it, to see what happens.
Flash Gordon is being held at gunpoint by Bisdar, "the most wanted criminal in the galaxy." He forces Flash to his spaceship, knocks him out, and away into the ether flies the model rocket, allegedly containing the unconscious Flash. It's a ruse to make everyone believe Bisdar is not here any more.
Dale's dog returns safe and sound from his expedition. The machine gives Bisdar a bright idea. "We're going to take a little trip, Beautiful," he informs Dale.
Steve is brought back from the brink and the hunt is on for Bisdar. Only one possible place- 50,000 years back is where he and Dale have fled to. "We're never going back," he warns poor Dale.
But Flash speeds back in time also, to her rescue. The landscape is very bleak and monotonous- not a single beast in sight, except Bisdar of course. Finally a solitary cave man shows up and after a desperate struggle, Bisdar is thrown into a lake, never to be seen no more. Dale faints. The cave man drags her off, very gently. What's this? He seems to be proposing to her! Flash turns up to save her from her fate, and after a fight, Dale makes Flash agree not to kill the primitive fellow.
Our heroes return to base to find Zarkov and the Commander arguing about which of them was to blame for the tragedy. But they cheer up when they see Dale and Flash.
The final scene is of one very mystified cave man

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The Electro Men

Professor Brandt, a plutonium scientist, brings samples from the Planet Odin, where the creatures, and even the plants are made of metal! Commander Harris is amazed at this metal which "has the power" to heal itself. To learn more, the Ministry sends an exploratory mission to Odin, manned by Flash and his team. Dr Zarkov brings with them his latest invention, an electro magnet, which he reckons might prove of use.
When they land on Odin, they are impressed by the metal vegetation. But Dale is entrapped in the tendrils of one "snake like" plant. and in rescuing her, Flash and Zarkov suffer the same fate. Electro men take them to a prison where they find the professor lying, already turned into metal. The Earth woman, according to orders, is next for this fate. Dale is taken into the presence of M, a mysterious god who has complete sway over the electro men. Actually M is like a giant light bulb, at least it speaks in English, staccato style.
Dale, powerless, is laid on a table, more an altar. But Zarkov uses his new invention and is able to trick one of the robots into obeying him, and it takes them to M. Here they find Dale, in the grip of a pointed Death Ray. Flash determines to find out the person behind M, and they discover a very much alive Brandt, "you plotted the whole affair."
His evil is somethibng to do with revenge for his brother. "Gods have big appetites," he tells them as he forces Flash to watch Dale's final transformation, "the end will be soon for her."
But the robot which Zarkov has reprogrammed into obeying him, shoots Brandt and thus Dale is saved, hurrah. The giant light bulb is destroyed and The Earth People are free to return home

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Akim the Terrible
On the planet Karim, brotherly love is a weakness, inhabitants are encouraged to steal and kill. One honest man attempts to escape to another planet, but is caught and robbed.
King Akim rules over this lawless planet. In his absurd costume, he dreams of extending his empire. Jorgo, has the nerve to tell Akim, that his laws are cruel. For such outspokenness he is strapped in a fiendish machine, which breaks his will.
Commander Harris despatches agent Kurt to Karim. "Watch old Akim," are Flash's wise parting words to him.
As soon as Kurt lands, he is surrounded, and taken into the presence of Akim. Akim's command is to go back to Earth and kill Flash. "Need I answer?" responds Kurt with scorn. But a spell in the machine bends his will, and he sets off back to Earth, with a knife kindly donated by Akim.
Kurt makes for Flash's office. Dale spots him about to wield his knife and averts the treachery. Then Flash and Dale are despatched to give Akim a good lesson. Their heads are protected so they cannot be brainwashed.
"Akim, what did you do to Kurt?" is Flash's obvious first question. He gets his answer, by first Dale and then he being forced into the awful machine. Thinking they are brainwashed, Akim orders them to kill Commander Harris and Dr Zarkov. Flash plays along, and summons them to Karim in a coded message which actually warns them not to come. Flash goes beserk after this, and he and Dale overcome Akim the not so terrible and destroy his machine in a puff of smoke. Akim and his men are taken prisoner back to Earth

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Claim Jumpers

"The golden dream" of every prospector has been realised by one old timer named Peter (Erich Dunskus), who shares his joy with his daughter Marie (Wera Frydtberg), who pleasantly dreams of their new wealth, and how it will help her attract a man.
However beware claim jumpers!
In his Black Pirate spaceship is one captain with the unglamorous name of Fred, who with his assistant Hans are making for their hideout.
Flash and Dale are on their tracks, and when Fred's ship lands on a lonely uninhabited planet, Flash bravely goes up to the ship and manages to place a bugging device on it. Dale has been left to guard Flash's ship, and she is surprised and captured by Fred and Hans. When Flash returns to his craft, he too is knocked out.
Fred leaves the unhappy pair to their death on this radiation filled planet.
Dale wriggles free and awakens poor Flash, and they follow Fred who opportunistically has seized the chance of landing on the old prospector's planetoid to grab old Peter's fortune.
Peter and Marie are held at gunpoint, "you dirty thieves!" Flash arrives in time to arrest these claim jumpers, and is congratulated by Dr Zarkov

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The Breath of Death
(made in West Germany)

On the farthest outpost in the universe is Gemini, this is where the worst criminals are banished. Flash and Dale zoom in the Skyflash to patch up a faulty oxygen purifier that, unless repaired will mean the death of everyone on the planet. Flash is old fashionedly male chauvinistic about Dale going with him, but since only she can effect the repair, he has to concede to her coming.
"One of the worst criminals in the universe," No 34, swears he will escape and get even with Flash, who had put him behind bars. 34 makes one abortive escape attempt but fails to overpower his guard. But he needn't have bothered, he has a Plan B, that is the old Remove a stone Block from the Cell Wall trick.
Overcoming one worker, he stows aboard Skyflash for the return trip. Too late comes Warden Morris' warning! While Ground Control are forced to consider blowing up Skyflash, Flash and 34 punch the living daylights out of each other and the craft veers violently out of control. Dr Zarkov and Commander Harris speed to the rescue. But Flash is compelled to land on a poisonous planet where he and 34 have to hold their breath.
Flash, naturally, has the much bigger lungs, and after another fight, "disintegrator guns" just save Skyflash from annihilation. "Thank heaven!" Flash and Dale return to base nicely in tandem with Zarkov's spaceship

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Return of the Androids (filmed in France)

"Creatures without minds"- these are the Androids. Only Flash and his buddies hold the secrets of how the robots known as Androids used to be made. Flash knows the location of their currently unused power source.

Forcing Flash to reveal all will enable an evil Queen take over (shock horror) the galaxy! She gets her right hand man Trigon to capture our trio, Flash, Dale and Dr Zarkov. Unless Flash tells her the secret, he will be eliminated. Of course Flash won't play ball, so the queen tries a more dastardly trick: Dale is to be disposed of. On a fiendish whirling machine, she is strapped, and it revolves faster and faster, until Flash is forced to yield his information. On a map he shows where to find the Android power source. "The universe is ours!" gloats the queen.
Incarcerated, Dr Zarkov has nursed Dale back to health.
Meanwhile, The queen and Trigon reach their goal, and the androids are activiated, a surreal sequence depicts them marching. "Androids - destroy. Attack GBI headquarters!"
Flash uses the old prison routine escape trick and the three race to prevent world disaster.
But it turns out that Trigon is "a filthy traitor," keen to annex power for himself. As she learns the nasty facts, Flash & co pounce and thwart Trigon, causing the androids to collapse "once and for all"

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The Lure of Light
Controversially, Commissioner Harris has authorised the release from prison of Queen Tridentia, authoress of the last inter galactic war.
She admires the plans of Dr Wetherby for a new Sky Flyer that can exceed the speed of light. Flash himself merely quips, "you build it, and I'll fly it."
Yet the serious question is, could any human survive such a trip? The professor has created "a time vacuum", but will it work?
Of course Dale is nervous on Flash's behalf. "Why?" is her simple question. The Commissioner decides the whole enterprise is too risky, but The Queen has other ideas. Her hooded gang knock Flash out and kidnap Dale. Why her? The queen wants to know Dr Wetherby's secret formula.
Dale is whisked away to Planet Diana, where she will be made to reveal all. Then Tridentia will be able to become "the supreme ruler of our galaxy." Dale is tortured to make her reveal the secret. She will not yield. "You fool, you will die!"
So Dale is starved of oxygen, but hurrah, in the nick of time, Flash shows up. But oh dear, for once he is too late, Dale has died.
Only one way to save her. Flash must travel faster than light, and thus the first ever such journey is attempted.
After a lot of flashings and weird noises, time starts to reverse, "are we really back in time?"
Thus Dale is found alive and well, and the wicked Queen Tridentia is taken prisoner

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Race Against Time (French production)

It's 3063AD.
The great Galaxy Bureau of Investigation is the key to peace anong all men. But voices are clamouring for the planets "to guide their own destiny." A vote by all members will decide whether to accede to this demand- Earth is last to vote and its vote will decide the issue. Cmdr Richards flies off to Mars to attend the conference.
But an arch villain aims to prevent him reaching there. He employs the Meltner gang, who bear a distant relation to Three Stooges. They activate a ray machine which forces Flash and Dale, who are taking Richards, to go into a tailspin. "one chance in a million," to survive, but that millionth chance comes up, and they make a forced landing on the planetoid Epsilon 30. However Cmdr Richards will never make the meeting in time.
Meltner and his less than enthusiastic minions greet the newcomers: this takes the form of a pitched gunfight.
Back at base, Dr Zarkov tricks the arch villain into thinking Richards has reached the conference, though actually he is being chased all around Epsilon 30 by the Three Stooges. Flash delivers some hefty punches, enabling Richards to eventually keep his appointment

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The Wicked Witch of Neptune

Introducing the sinister Zydereen (Marie Powers) who has managed to penetrate GBI headquarters, appearing and disappearing there at will, now she holds Commander Richards and Dr Zarkov in her power, "noone can resist my will."
Once, she had been banished from Neptune, and she forces these puppets (well they always were actually) to destroy the methane to oxygen Atmosphere Converter on this planet. Without it, soon it will be impossible to survive, all life will be destroyed, including the millions living here.
She dreams of returning to rule over Neptune, "I shall return all right," she promises Richards- once all its inhabitants are destroyed. Explosions and panic, as she gloats over the "miserable" people's fate.
With oxygen running short, and no communication possible with GBI on Earth, Flash and Dale work hard to restore the supply of oxygen, "together we can do it." Despite Zydereen's minion attempting to sabotage their efforts, of course it is another win for Flash Gordon!
(the story however continues in two more parts)

to part two

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The Brain Machine
(Second of three stories about The Witch of Neptune)
Commander Paul Richards and Dr Zarkov have caused an explosion on the inhabited planet of Neptune. Flash and Dale succeed in installing a converter to prevent the population from suffocating.

Prostar, agent of Zydereen the Wicked Witch of Neptune (Marie Powers), is reproved by his mistress. "You have failed... you stupid blundering fool."
Her dream is once more to rule over Neptune, but Prostar extends her vision that she could "control every planet in the galaxy." For she has this machine, a Brain Recorder, that can suck the will from men's hearts. That is why Richards and Zarkov had performed such a dastardly act and behaved like zombies- okay, let's be honest, they're always like that anyway.
They have had a Remote Controlled Projector attached to their persons, and are whisked away into Zydereen's presence for a spot more brainwashing, to suck their brains dry, and also grab their knowledge of "the safety of the entire galaxy." Thus will she get "every human to bend to her will."
Flash interrupts proceedings, but the witch paralyses him too. However by some force of will, Flash overcomes the power, and she is forced to dematerialise.
Flash vows to catch her, and also clear the names of his colleagues

To final episode

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Struggle to the End
(final part)

In this final part of the triology (if I may use such a pretentious term), Flash and Dale come to the rescue of the captured Dr Zarkov and Commander Richards. They have been in the hands of the mad witch of Neptune, Zydereen, and have been brainwashed.
The witch evaporates in a neat trick so she can evade capture herself. The two prisoners, minds utterly blank, are returned home.
Several weeks later, both are recovering, except that Zarkov is still in Zydereen's power.
The witch attacks the rocket which carries essential galaxy power supplies, forced to land on Saturn, where Zydereen is in command. She radioes to Flash to come to her immediately- or else "one planet after another will be destroyed!"
She has the power of solar rays to enforce her threat. So Flash and Dale speed to Saturn in obedience to her command. They land, and guards escort them to into the presence of the Mad Witch. But Flash has discovered her secret of how to evaporate, and angered she orders her ray machine to be turned on full power. But Flash unevaporates, I think the word is, and stops her nonsense for ever, Amen

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The Waterworld Menace

A lack of H2O on Aquitania poses a threat to its stability. From our of a pond emerge two frogmen with webbed feet who inhabit the watery depths, 'Fishmen.' They plod towards a shed where Dale is at work.
Dr Zarkov needs some antidote for a "highly dangerous" situation, he is lacking oxygen. Dale is working on the precious supplies when the Fishmen seize her. "I can't make contact with Dale." Flash accelerates his craft toward Aquitania.
Dale has been tied up- they want the Rectifier that will enable them to take over Aquitania. Flash locates this Rectifier and wants to take it back to Dr Zarkov, to enable him to recover his strength. But the latter insists Dale be rescued first. However a Fishman surprises Flash and has him trussed up also. The creature grabs the valuable Rectifier.
"Flash, they got you too!" He is forced to assemble the Rectifier, but neatly electrocutes the Fishmen with it.
"Hurry," Dr Zarkov is wilting for lack of oxygen, and the machine must be taken to him at once. Using superjets, Dale and Flash get to him in time to amazingly revive him. Then they dash back to the Fishmen, who have survived and are returning to beneath their pond. But another explosion as they are destroyed in the depths.
Dr Zarkov concludes with a speech

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Saboteurs from Space

Machines on Earth are paralysed by an "electronic distorter." Flash's spacehip is blown off course, "sucked thru space into a trap." Flash radios for help, but only his parrot answers.
Dale calculates that their craft is in uncharted territory, but why? "Someone knows the answer."
An evil mastermind behind this evil scheme could tell them. He watches as our heroes dock on this unknown planet. Emerging from their ship they are overpowered by robots, "you will come with us," uttered of course in a foreign accent. Thus our three heroes are locked up in a kind of torture chamber with the floor tilting from side to side drunkenly. Then Zarkov is taken away for interrogation. Flash hatches a plan to agree to supply the names of scientists, a list that will conflict with any that Zarkov is forced to produce. But this proves unnecessary.
Flash and Dale escape just as the names of scientists are being transmitted to Earth. Flash grabs hold of the mastermind. "Deactivate the electronic distorter," Flash orders. Since Flash has gained power of the robot minions, it is done. Then Flash destroys the distorter, and, trying to save his evil machine, the mastermind also perishes

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The Forbidden Experiment (French production, 1953)

On the barren planetoid M1, which contains only one oasis of life, Dr Prendiss, "a voice out of the past," sends a radio message to his old friend Dr Zarkov. He requires the chemical electroscillin, and judging by his distorted face, he needs it urgently.
But it is a trap. Zarkov pilots his craft to M1 and lands on the planetoid, which is eerily quiet. He walks to Prendiss' home, where an unseen deep voice informs him that the doctor is dead. "We have work for you," the voice demands.
Cmds Richards is worried that Zarkov is missing so Flash and Dale are despatched to rescue him. Zarkov does try to contact Earth, but is overpowered by the mystery voice, who turns out to be The Lion Man. "You are prisoner." Zarkov has refused to help with experimentation.
"I hope we're not too late," Dale breathes to Flash as they land. Guns at the ready, the explore M1. They reach the house, greeted by fierce growling, and come face to face with this genuine monster, or at least a man with hairy make-up. He has all the wild animals at his command.
The four of them share a meal, though his eating manners are deplorable. Zarkov is still, despite threats, refusing to cooperate, this makes Lion Man go beserk, but Flash overcomes him, so Lion Man summons his fellow creatures. We only see them on film. Flash makes him call them off and manhandles Lion Man to the waiting craft. After a fight, they leave without their prisoner, but on board is one escaped cuddly monkey to give them a happy farewell

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The Earth's Core
In the heart of the earth an evil hunchback lurks, he has developed a process that is causing earthquakes all the way from Alaska to Oregon, "it's fantastic."
Dr Zarkov perfects a heat resistant metal that can liquefy all rock in its path, on its trip to the earth's crust.
In double quick time, this craft is built, odds are a massive 100 to 1 against survival, but off fly Flash, Dale and Zarkov. After much juddering, they speed inwards, temperature 2,500 degrees Centigrade, "a trifle warm in here." It rises to 3,900, the controls stop working.
"They can't escape," smirks the sub earth leader, 4,500 degrees, and the ship is smoking. "Hang on," breathes Flash. Though it is "impossible," they emerge from the 'fissure' and things cool down. They crash into a cave.
The three set out to explore, but are taken captive by the ugly sub earth dwellers. They come face to face with their leader and offer him peace. That is met with a refusal, "I shall conquer."
The three are chained up, then to be thrown into a sea of bubbling gas. But Flash breaks loose, and finds out the secret of how these artificial earthquakes are created- a machine that looks like a giant fire, which Flash causes to explode, having got Dale and Zarkov away to safety of course

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Deadline at Noon

In a galaxy of dead planets, Isis, Osiris and others are blown up by an enemy that "has sworn eternal war against the Earth." The only survivng planet is Minerva, where an evil villain, who speaks, unsurprisingly, with a German accent, warns of the Earth's destruction.
"In one hour, your precious earth explodes," he warns. It is now 11am. Already, as warning, on earth have been explosions, and wildfire, an early intimation of Climate Change. The cause is a bomb that had been placed way back in 1953, but where? "Completely hopeless," sighs Dale.
Dr Zarkov's time machine whirrs and flashes, but nothing much else, and delivers Flash, Dale and Zarkov to 1950s Earth. "There's New York,"very primitive!" East by north they travel as they reflect on life in those days, which is surprisingly advanced. They see a "clumsy" aeroplane. At 11.40 they reach "a place called Paris," before the bomb detector leads them to where else?, Berlin ("the inhabitants may be hostile").
This gives the series an unusual opportunity for some genuine location filming as, with radios alerting to a space invasion, police give chase around the city. The destination is a bomb site, and a gunfight with three cops is ended when Flash turns them to stone with his gun. The trio search the rubble. The bomb is unearthed, thankfully it is simple to defuse. "Two seconds to spare!"
Mission accomplished, our heroes disappear off into the future

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The Subworld Revenge
This is a sequel to a previous story. The enemy beneath the earth had been destroyed, but bad news, Dr Zarkov has spotted signs of activity.
1,500 miles inside the earth's core is the evil Zaldo and his rotund henchman, this pair ham it, mit German accents. They gleefully look forward to conquering the surface of Earth. How? They are stoking the fires of Hades, to fire a deadly machine that will turn the earth into a ball of fire, centre of the attack is the United States.
Off fly Flash and Dale with Dr Zarkov, but "they are riding into a trap!" Crash! "What was that?"
They are caught in Zaldo's magnetic field. Laughter down below. They watch as Flash's craft careers wildly, no hope left. "Poor Flash... and soon it'll be poor us!" Though the three occupants are paralysed, how does Flash manage, very slowly, to regain control?
By this time, their craft has been sucked in to the subworld. But Zaldo is in for a shock, since Flash and Co have survived their ordeal. "Turn off the fire," he is ordered

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Orient Express (1952/3)
A series made by Thetis Film Cinetelevision, in various European studios as indicated
* Rome, + Berlin, # Vienna, ^ Paris.
From the map of the express shown in the opening credits, it is possible studios in other locations may have been used.
The series was produced by John Nasht.
All the stories featured different characters, very loosely linked by the famous train on which they were travelling. In some stories, it is merely any old train, not THE Orient Express!

*4 13th Spy
^8 The Diamond
*11 Uppercut
+ The Hunted
# Runaway
^ Portrait of a Lady
^ The White Mask
+ Blue Camellia
BBC tv transmitted some of the series in 1954, repeating some in the following year, however less than half the series appear to have been screened:
1 Intend to Kill (Apr 3rd 1954 rpt Aug 3rd 1955). 2 The Human Bond (Apr 10th 1954 rpt Dec 19th 1955). 3 A Matter of Calculation (Apr 17th 1954, rpt Jan 16th 1956). 4 The 13th Spy (Apr 24th 1954 rpt Jan 30th 1956). 5 A Marked Man (May 1st 1954). 6 The Circle (May 8th 1954 rpt July 13th 1955). 7 His Boy May 15th 1954 (scheduled May 8th not shown, rpt Feb 6th 1956). 8 The Diamond (May 22nd 1954, rpt Oct 29th 1955 rpt Jan 2nd 1956). 9 The Barge (May 29th 1954). 10 Man of Many Skins (June 5th 1954). 11 Uppercut aka The Gladiator (June 19th/July 3rd 1954)
The legendary Erich Von Stroheim surprisingly turns up in the series!
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Uppercut (aka The Gladiator)

The train is approaching Rome, and manager Dan (Patrick Crean) is warning his boxing protege Freddie (Steve Barclay) about the dangers of overconfidence. For Freddie, "the most famous fighter in the world," has never lost a fight yet but the knowing Dan is only too aware that he could "go down the drain," his head turned by money or dames. For Freddie is something of a ladies' man.
In Rome Freddie's Italian father looks up an old friend whose daughter Anna (Nadia Gray) Freddie is soon making eyes at. "Are all Americans as sure of yourself as you?" she asks him naively, as he wines her at a nightclub. Freddie is so enwrapt with her he forgets about an important news conference, which makes "the reporters sore."
Training begins in earnest next day, though Freddie's mind is elsewhere. As Dan comments, "you can't mix late nights with a girl on the brain and a big fight." Anna is persuaded to call off their pre-fight date.
The fight sequence is too long, with Freddie the clear loser. Sore at Anna's apparent rejection he tells her "I don't need your help." His dad though is glad his son has been taught a bit of a lesson: "you're getting too big for your own good." He helps Freddie face up to his feelings and encourages him with "you work at it hard enough, you could be a winner." Now Freddie is man enough to patch things up with dad, and then with Anna

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The Diamond

Jean Colton, companion to Mrs Van Deeren (Francoise Rosay) is strolling in a park in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, a man is shadowing her. When she sits down in a cafe, he orders a meal for her. She refuses a bottle of champagne, several in fact, but she comes round and drinks with him. He introduces himself as Andre Dumont.
After they part, he pesters her on the phone, until Mrs van Deeren suggests she invite him to tea. In a nightclub with the obligatory singer, he buys her flowers before escorting her back to her hotel. They kiss and part.
She is questioned by an insurance agent, Gravet, "are you sure his name is Dumont?" Then Andre meets Mrs van Deeren over tea, and she shows him her jewellery. He is invited to join them for a night at the opera, but he has a prior engagement. We can guess what this is.
A diamond is missing. Andre flees to the station, only to be accosted by Gravet. The stolen diamond is returned. However, it proves to be only a glass imitation. It seems Mrs van Deeren was attempting to defraud the insurance company, and had employed Andre to steal her property in an unnecessarily complex scheme.
As for The Orient Express, the nearest we don't get to that, is a scene at the station

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The Hunted
Script: George and Gertrude Fass.

A Russian prisoner, Dr Peter Darov has escaped from a Warsaw labour camp. He had been a scientist working on biological warfare, "how truly horrible." Refusing to continue his research, he had been incarcerated.
Now he's at large in a snow bound East Berlin, both East and West after him. He doesn't want to work for either, and approaches a doctor, but he refuses to help him.
Friendless on a street, he meets Billy Jacobs who kindly takes him to the Czech camp where he lives, and passes him off as of that nationality. However his room mate recognises Peter and Peter has to leave in a hurry, to the address of a girl Billy knows will help, Lisa Landau.
She puts him up for the night, but when her landlord calls, he has to be silenced. It's too dangerous to remain here, so "the only thing to do," is seek her sister Alice's aid. Unfortunately she happens to be in love with a Russian officer, and when he insists on entering her flat, the fugitives have to run off.
But lonely on the streets, a policeman spots them, though luckily an American agent has been trailing them, and he overpowers the law. "We're quite safe!" Well almost. The agent helps them get out of the eastern sector and soon the couple are indeed safe, sipping good American coffee

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13th Spy
The three coach express is travelling through Commie country en route to Rome. On board is young American soprano Francine Gilman (Cathy O'Donnell), who is pestered by a fan from USA, Norbert K Thompson.
She retires to her compartment, only to encounter an even more annoying man named Krauss who insists on calling her Carol. He knows she is really the leader of the local Resistance, and will be arrested when the train gets to the border. As he is a friend, or so he says, he orders her to get off the train at Bergenhof, otherwise she will be executed as a spy! There's one slight drawback to Krauss' incredible plan- the train only stops at Bergenhof by request, and it's too late for that request to be made. Francine tries to brush Krauss off, presumably he's mistaken her for this spy.
Marc, Carol's brother, a pacifist professor, joins them. Alone with her, the pair exchange ideas on the American way of freedom, compared with the oppression in this benighted state. She is tempted to play along for some reason, perhaps to help him. He tells her, "Noone will doubt that you are Carol, when they see me with you."
Bravely, the professor braces himself to betray his principles and shoot their guard, in order to escape. This is the best bit of the story. She sings as he readies to shoot. But the gun isn't loaded, and after this failed attempt, Krauss leads his prisoners to the rear of the train, from where they must shortly jump off.
However in this end carriage is Thompson, singing with a barbershop quartet, and as they weirdly sing Joshua Fought de Battle of Jericho, it is the good old Americans to the rescue as Krauss is pushed off the express. Very offbeat

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Runaway

Karin is running away from her harsh guardian Frau Krempfmeier. At Vienna's main station, she purchases a rail ticket for Venice, a single. Also on the train is Johnny, and in Karin's basket he hides something.
At the border there's the usual customs stop- she gets off the train before she can be searched- we learn later she has stolen a ring from her guardian. We, though not she, also learn later that Johnny is wanted for murder, so he has to avoid the customs search also.
The pair make for the border on foot, but when she twists her ankle, he steals a Lambretta. They find a guide, who at sundown will take them over the frontier. So there's time for a spot of kissing and exchanging stories, before he quietly leaves her. But she goes after him- he tries to persuade her to go back, as so many police are on the watch for him.
At last she sees him for what he really is. "Everything you did was a lie." However he claims he had been falsely sentenced for murder.
Gunshots, and Karin is wounded. Johnny runs off, but thinking better of it returns to carry her to safety in his arms- aaah!

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The White Mask
This is simply another medical drama, with a love triangle thrown in.

Having just arrived in Paris, Alan phones Monique (Andree Debar), but she refuses to meet him. After a confusing montage of shots showing us Paris, we can see Monique must have met him, for she is by his side in an ambulance making for the American Hospital, where her husband Dr Carl Curtis (Philip Reed) is a surgeon.
Monique admits to Carl that she does know Alan, just a little. Alan has a fractured skull, and Dr Caron is certain it is the result of a heavy blow, not a fall. "Surgery is called for." Carl asks the inexperienced Dr Caron to perform the operation.
Carl whisks Monique swiftly away from here when police start their inquiries. They were going on a night out, and it gives the opportunity for him to ask why she had lied about Alan.
"He wanted me to leave you," explains Monique, but she had refused. That's why they had argued. It makes Carl decide that he must return to the hospital and operate himself. Monique fears it is so Alan will never be able to tell what had occurred.
Will Carl save his patient? As he is in theatre, she confesses to the police.
The final scene shows the married couple chatting again

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Portrait of a Lady
This has some pretensions at style, and at times is intriguing. The story moves at a lightning pace.

Pierre (Roger Treville) has been called back to Paris by Francois his friend, who wants Pierre to see this painting at an exhibiton by American David Miles (Peter Walker). Pierre wants to buy it, but is told it is not for sale. It is a head and shoulders portrait of a lady.
We then see the lady in the flesh. It is Pierre's wife Nadine (Colette Marchand). All sorts of suspicions flood Pierre's mind. He takes her to the exhibition and watches closely as he introduces her to David. It seems she doesn't know him.
Pierre proposes that David paint her. The artist is adamant he had never met her before. He does admit the picture looks very like Nadine, but it is a picture of his "ideal woman," so he says. He is persuaded to accept the commission but his finished product is mediocre compared with the ideal woman.
But privately David declares his love for Nadine. She tells him he has always been in love with only a dream. Pierre overhears this conversation, and has his moment of truth, that he himself has been treating his wife like a painting. They kiss and make up and David, though he's asked her to run away with him, waits at the station all alone

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Blue Camellia
(the title is spelt thus on screen- made in 1952, maybe as a pilot for an abortive series)
A tale that has aspirations at style and occasionally succeeds in the scenes with the two principals, Ron Randell and Lois Maxwell, who briefly strike up a pleasing rapport.

Major North is travelling to Berlin undercover as Hugh Webster. Lynn Walker, secretary to consul general Sir Arthur O'Brien has orders to give him "official help," though that does not extend to going out to dinner with him!
North contacts antiques dealer Vorhees who had claimed to have glimpsed the infamous Blue Camellia in the city. She owns a file that once belonged to her friend Karl von Luter, which contains the names of the allied traitors who betrayed our troops to the Nazis. She has reddish hair, in her late 20s, and is or was a singer.
At a party, Lynn introduces North to a blonde Frenchwoman named Thea, who is about to sing when her pianist suddenly collapses and dies. Cyanide. It had surely been intended for North. Later he is attacked again in his hotel room, the villains as ever inept, so that North emerges with only a small plaster on his forehead.
Lunching with Thea, North learns from her own lips she is the Blue Camellia. She claims to know nothing about the dark secret about the traitors, but is willing to sell the file. However there is another bidder, it seems Vorhees is the one behind this bid.
Thea tells North the file is in a locker at the airport, but Vorhees has got there first. There is a chase round the city, "can't you drive any faster?"
Through a tunnel at 90 km/h, then the car is stopped and a chase on foot over the bombed rubble. Thea is shot before Vorhees is captured.
Major North bids Lynn farewell, as the express pulls out of Berlin
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Paris Precinct (1955)

An interesting series filmed in Paris with
Louis Jourdan as Inspector Beaumont and
Claude Dauphin as his sidekick Balbec.
"Based on cases from the official files, and filmed with the co-operation of the Paris Police Department."

I haven't got complete details of the series' showing in England, but as an example Granada showed it in their summer 1957 schedules on Wednesdays at 7pm.
Here are my reviews of surviving stories of the 27 made, based on their order of transmission on ABC (America):

0 Police Headquarters
6 Two Blind Men
7 The Actress
8 The Cemetry
11 The Case Of The Pastry Chef
12 A Woman Scorned

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The Actress
The newspaper headlines read First Lady of Paris Stage to Wed her Director Tomorrow, but in her dressing room, the talented Michelle Lorraine is shot dead. The body is discovered by her hysterical personal maid Marie when she tries to give Michaelle her final curtain call.
Death is put at between 11.15 and 11.35pm during the time when Michelle was off stage in the final act. This was actor Jean Paul's big scene, when he shoots Lord Darnley, with blank bullets of course. So he has the perfect alibi.
Her fiance Louis Poiret (Roger Treville) soliloquises on his late fiancee's radiance, "like Joan of Arc." He had "moulded" her career. He'd been in his office at the time of the murder. But Danielle, the understudy, said she had overheard a row between the two which had involved his ex-wife Georgette (Madeleine Robinson), his former leading lady. Naturally she was jealous of Michelle.
The murder weapon arrives anonymously through the post, it's Poiret's revolver and it has recently been fired. A note adds that this gun "will kill again."
Beaumont puts on "a little show" as the last scene of the play is re-enacted. Georgette plays the part of Michaelle. The shooting of Lord Darnley is repeated, and it is clear that the bullet could have reached Michelle in her dressing room. Poiret is arrested even though privately Beaumont has declared he's not guilty. "Would I destroy my greatest masterpiece?" protests Poiret.
Retorts Georgette, "you said the same thing to me once." The spotlight turned on her on Beaumont's orders, she delivers a theatrical monologue to a non-existent audience.
The story ends with an effective scene without any words, as the police escort the killer away.
Dramatic but highly unreal

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8 The Cemetry

In her home, Marie Durand discovers a thief, who has to murder her. Her son Antoine discovers her body, after returning home on completing his night work as a taxi driver. He'd kept warning his mother not to keep all her cash in the house.
The nosy concierge Sara says Marie had a habit of chatting with strangers about the money hidden in her rooms. One is traced to a Boucherie, who claims Marie and her son often quarrelled over her late husband's will.
"Everything points to the son." The key to the crime is at the cemetry where Marie used to sit by Durand's grave. A lady in a black apron had been seen talking with Marie. This woman was visiting a grave also, and it is one with an angel with a broken wing.
Mme Carefour now runs a market stall, and her new husband bolts.
After a chase he's arrested. So is she

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11 The Case Of The Pastry Chef

The plot of this story is reused blatantly in a Saber of London story, The Maid Was Curious.

In the Hotel le Bourgeois, "a nice little place," a maid is cleaning a room. Her curiosity leads her to open a trunk left here, and she screms!
Inside is a totally mutilated corpse, a man about thirty years old. The trunk belongs to a seaman who had booked in yesterday. He was a sailor. From a scrap of paper in the dead man's pocket, is found a list of restaurants, with a list of payments.
Beaumont and Balbec go to The Wepler where the barmaid (Martine Alexis) traces the bill to a baker: two dozen small cakes 1,650 fr. The man was Andre Martin, but he has not been a work for the past month, according to his girl friend Alice (Genevieve Page). They had been saving up to buy their own business.
Beaumont learns that Andre had recently withdrawn all their savings. After a comedy interlude at the bank in which Balbec helps an attractive lady, the two detectives drive to the station to catch the boat train for le Havre.
The ship Lavoisier is very busy, ready to depart, but Beaumont and Balbec are taken to the kitchens where they learn that the sailor is missing. His friend Paul Morais is questioned and tamely admits to murder, having fallen out with Martin

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Police Headquarters
Possibly the pilot?

A gendarme picks up a scruffy looking man, perched on the edge of the Seine. Roger Vezenay (Marcel Dalio) his waving plenty of money around. He claims it's the ransom for Edouard his seven year old boy, kidnappers have demanded half a million francs to be paid at 10.30am.
With Beaumont keeping a watching brief, Balbec takes Vezenay's place, but at the drop-off, La Lune Cafe he's phoned, ordered to go to the Eifel Tower. Once there, a message is handed to him by a stranger who's promptly arrested rather ostentatiously.
"You were careful when you arrested him?" queries a hopeful Balbec, who's ordered to St Lazare station. The railway police think Balbec looks suspicious so Beaumont has to step in, just as the station announcer's voice booms up that there's an urgent call awaiting at the Information Desk. Balbec is told to catch a 32 bus, which he does.
It all seems rather odd, observes Balbec, the voice on the phone "sounds like Vezenay himself." for sure, "it doesn't make any sense."
The uneventful bus trip takes him to the Champs Elysees.
Still nothing. So the police question Vezenay. He's in hospital where a doc solves the feeble case, "there was no kidnapping," he explains to the incredulous policemen.
So this was all an excuse to show us the sites of Paris!

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Two Blind Men

Odd, but the Metro this night is utterly bereft of passengers, except for one blind man who topples in front of a train.
Balbec's lovemaking is interrupted by a phone call. He has to go to the Metro station with Inspector Beaumont to question eyewitnesses. A torn half of a 1,000 franc note is in the dead man's hand. A ledger near his body reveals where he had been begging, and this leads the detectives to a cafe where he had had an argument with a customer.
In this man's possession is found a missing white cane. He says he took the man's cane because he was a fake, he wasn't blind. But this is incorrect.
"You pushed him under the train," accuses Beaumont.
But later in the Metro tunnel a second cane is found. The hunt is on for a second blind man. The ledger that had been found must belong to this person. He is Falot, and is found at an air teminal building, and it's evident he is not blind, though he pretends to be. He is the one who had argued with the dead man over begging on "his pitch."
"It was an accident," or so he says

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A Woman Scorned
Note- this story is on YouTube in its entirety.

In a Paris nightclub, a male singer is entertaining the clients (more or less), including an American soldier who is drinking at a table with Lucille. Suddenly Lucille collapses.
Insp Balbec is enthralled in a novel The Blonde Died Young, in which a detective is having a whale of a time, when Inspector Beaumont and he are summoned to the scene of the crime.
The brandy brought into the club by the soldier is the source of the cyanide poisoning. A picture of the soldier is found in Lucille's room, and the colonel in charge of the US army in France identifies him. The young soldier breaks down when he's informed she's dead. His story is that someone, the proverbial stranger, had handed him the bottle. This person had left in a taxi.
The taxi driver is traced and describes his passenger, a man in his sixties. It is M Fermont, owner of a Parfumerie. When Insp Beaumont meets him, he is mixing some chemicals, "that's him!" declares the relieved soldier.
Fermont admits he had given away his brandy bottle, but did not know it contained poison. He says it had been given to him by Miss Lamotte (Giselle Preville), a girl he had recently stopped seeing after ten years.
She is distraught when she learns the wrong victim has been killed. The final scenes are too protracted

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Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion (1955/6)
starring Buster Crabbe as Captain Mike Gallant
The first series was filmed in Morocco, but a second series was made in Italy. Barbara Shelley stated that she appeared in five stories in this latter series.

1.5 Camel Race - Fuzzy unwittingly places a bet with the robbers of a mining company's payroll. He bets on Josephine, the legionnaire's best camel, but as Fuzzy is doped he loses the race and the stake. But Gallant's 80,000 bet on a return race results in the crooks unwisely trying to nobble Josephine, instead they get a deserved kicking from her. So this time Fuzzy is the victor, and the cash he is paid which turns out to be the stolen payroll
1.6 Esprit de Corps - Private Jan Novak, a bad tempered Pole (John Nash), is transferred to Gallant's batallion. He's a top field soldier but a bad legionnaire. He starts badly by brawling in a bar over a girl, and is very unpopular in camp, but on patrol, tracking escaped prisoners at a lonely oasis, he's wounded and rescued by his mates. That surprises him, teaching him a lesson in comradeship
1.7 Carnival in Zagora - Old pal Carla Robinson (Norma Eberhardt), for whom Gallant had got a suspended sentence, has got herself a boyfriend (Robert Christopher) who is involved with the shooting of a vizier, in a plot to secure oil rights. A reformed Carla gets Cuffy to warn Gallant of the scheme (Not sure of the relevance of the title, maybe this is a different episode?)
1.10 The Prayer Rug- General 'Ironfist' is to present an Arab dignitary with a prayer rug, but it is stolen. Captain Gallant has but four hours to retrieve it. For some reason it's worth ten million francs. Blonde Monique puts him on to a limping Arab, the clever oh so clever thief
1.15 Revenge - Now where have we seen this plot before? Aru Mettler (Bob Christopher) swears revenge on the man who has put him behind bars, ie Captain Gallant, "I'm gonna kill him." 8.30pm and if you're still awake, a bullet is fired. And another. "Where do you want it Captain?"
1.16 Stolen Treasure - Eric Grunner (Jean Werner) has been in the Legion seven years and at long last Galant is recommending him for promotion. Eric breaks the good news to his "young lady" Marthe (Marie-Jose Darene), who is thrilled for him. But two ex-Nazi colleagues blackmail him into showing them the oasis where in the war treasure had been buried. Marthe wisely informs the Legion and Grunner is tailed. The villains dig up the money and celebrate in a bar, where Gallant catches up wth them
1.19 Man with a Map - Recruit Michael Darney has deserted, Gallant must round him up. It's all to do with a girl named Lotti, owner of the Mauretanian Mining Company, He had been helping her locate her mine, exact location only known by the spot indicated on this map. Olmar (Gregoire Aslan) has kidnapped Darnley, to force him to hand over the map. Good old Gallant rescues him, but falls into the clutches of a rival for Lotti's hand, Arnold
1.20 The Dagger of Judah - Pte Jean Martell refuses to see his parents, "I sure feel sorry for his mother," notes Cuffy. But Jean relents and they order him to do another crime, kidnap a prince. But Cpt Gallant joins their gang also to trap the brains behind the operation
1.21 The Lady from Zagora aka The Purloined Envelope - Eric Gastin, managing director of Intercontinental Engineering, locks secret revolutionary aircraft plans "worth millions" in his safe, but his secretary Alice (Danielle Godet) removes them. Captain Gallant pursues her to the border and with all guns blazing Western-style, grabs the papers in time. There's a good twist when it transpires she's only nicked the documents to stop her evil boss
1.22 Pipeline
1.27 Ransom (aka The Search) - Englishman George Langton helps Cuffy buy a wallet, and Cuffy nearly repays the favour by preventing Langton's kidnapping. But not quite. Commodore Langton stumps up the cash for his nephew's ransom, £10,000. One legionnaire has to die before Captain Gallant tracks down the kidnapper via his ex-girl Charlene who spills the beans and warns that George has "kidnapped himself." After Cuffy has extricated his uncle from a closet, Gallant rounds up the naughty nephew with a bout of fisticuffs
1.28 The Legion is Our Home - Why is Coporal Johann Schmidt a loner? He never leaves the fort. Gallant confronts him with the message that all the legionnaires are from different bavkgrounds, and now live happily together, "the war's been over for ten years."
Schmidt joins Sgt Duvalon a trip into town, the cafe, which Schmidt used to visit during ze war. He knows Jeannine, now the proprietor, but he is soon picked on by her unpleasant brother Johnny who had been wounded in the hostilities. "I'll not have a German as a brother-in-law." Schmidt leaves.
But the couple are soon kissing, "I will come again tomorrow." But he is found by a dead body, and is accused of killing Marcel, Johnny's father, and is put in the legion jail. Cuffy provides a useful lead, for a friend had discovered a key ring by the corpse. It turns out to belong to Marcel. It opens the door of the cafe. The bartender Makko is guilty. He has fled, taking Jeannine with him, maybe by force.
Gallant gives chase in his jeep, deep into the desert, and catches up with the pair. It's clear Makko has tricked her here, Gallant is just in time to arrest him, "you're brave!"
1.36 The Boy Who Found Christmas - Cuffy has never seen snow, and had been promised a trip to USA for Christmas, but Gallant can't get leave. Cuffy is disappointed again when a camel train with presents and a real Christmas tree fails to show up, so he rides off into the desert to find it. Alone at night, at an oasis, he is scared, but his Legionnaire pals find him and Uncle Mike teaches the lad about peace and goodwill, showing him the first Christmas of all- aaah
1.? As Long as There are Arabs - Bennet (Arthur Hanson) is accused of killing The Wise Man by angry Arabs led by Wise Man's less wise son. Gallant steps in to save the wretch who swears his innocence, though "the evidence against you is very strong." Bennet shows his thanks by bashing Gallant on the head. But we can guess who the real killer is, and Gallant plays a waiting game to catch him, and he still has time to rescue Bennet from the crazed mob
2.1 Gallant's New Post - In a "sea of sand" three days from the Med is Gallant's new post. He's come to sort out a security leak, but unable to spot any traitor, he takes the drastic step of leading his unarmed men into the desert to flush out the villain. He's easily caught, the ambush thwarted and naturally Gallant is a hero
2.3 The Long Night - "I don't like it," remarks The Colonel, when Mrs Drexel, Cuffy's aunt, demands to take Cuffy home with her. "I won't go," cries the lad in an unusually emotional tale, complete with violin music. To the cold desert Cuffy runs away (again) with his friend, who falls and breaks a leg. Uncle Mike sends out a search party, the pair are safe and sound and the aunt is so impressed with the legionnaire's devotion, she abandons her plan
2.6 Rodeo - Manuel Gonzalez wants to marry singer Franca (Mara Lane), but brawls with a sergeant and ends up in the guardhouse. A disillusioned Gonzalez deserts, and even more serious, the safe with the legionnaire's pay has been emptied. Gallant is assigned to "bring him back," while Cuffy's stages a rodeo ro raise money so the couple can get married. But Fuzzy accidentally exposes the payroll thieves enabling the marriage to go ahead. After all this, Cuffy has to conclude with "Love's mush!"
2.10 Informer's Map - Why did an informer alter a tourist map just before he was knifed? Gallant poses as an oil prospector and befriends the cruelly treated wife of an innkeeper. Just as well, for though he joins a gang of gun runners, he is found out and she saves him enabling Gallant to blow up their cache of arms
2.11 Cuffy's Good Deed - A mother desperately wants to trace her son Renate who joined the Legion four years back. Could he be the one lying in the infirmary after being badly wounded when a patrol were all but wiped out? Cuffy helps mum get reunited with him, while Gallant rides around getting revenge or maybe justice for the massacre. The ending is rather a poignant one
2.21 Dr Legionnaire - Two scouts lead Gallant's expedition into a trap, though natives only want a doctor to treat a sheik who seems terminally ill. Cure him, or be killed, the sheik's brother pronounces. "We'll have to operate immediately." Gallant prevents the wicked brother from trying to ensure the operation fails
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Passport to Danger
an unsold pilot made c1952 in Sweden.
It was produced by Robert Spafford and starred George Nader.

Scene 1: Svenska Nationalmuseet. Dr Mark Denison, director of the New York Museum, meets up with Per Ofstie with a view to purchasing some paintings, "no publicity," as they are being sold by an unspecified country. As Ofstie departs, he is warned not to contact Denison again.
Scene 2: Ofstie's shop. Despite the warning, another meeting is arranged.
Scene 3: At a travel bureau, Denison meets with Harry Grey.
Scene 4: In a restaurant overlooknig the city, Harry fills Denison in. Any cash from the sale will be used for "keyhole peeping in the United States." The contact behind the deal will be an old enemy in the war, Gregorin, who married Lisa, with whom Denison had fallen in love, in his days in the OSS in Austria.
Scene 5: Denison meets up with Ofstie's replacement. He will be notified when he can view the pictures.
Scene 6: A nightclub. Of course it is Lisa singing! Their eyes meet. In her dressing room later, they kiss, "oh my darling." She begs him not to meet Gregorin.
Scene 7:The art warehouse. A price of $3million is agreed. The two adversaries then fight, as a scared Lisa watches on. When Gregorin prepares to shoot Denison, she stabs her husband. Police swoop and they finish Gregorin off
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Sheldon Reynolds
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