If you want a show which epitomises Fifties Television, this is it! When production ended in early February 1960, having cost over £500,000 to make, executive producer Connery Chappell was questioned about Rank's first TV series. "We have naturally learned a great deal," he answered. "The physical production went very smoothly keeping to feature film production values, we had no troubles, but of course we gave four and a half to five days for each film."
The impressive opening sequence showed a car smashing through frontier barriers to this lively commentary: "Crime knows no frontiers. To combat the growing menace of the international criminal, the police forces of the world have opened up their national boundaries. At their headquarters in Paris, scientifically equipped to match the speed of the jet age, sixty three nations have linked together to form the International Criminal Police Organisation- Interpol." I'm afraid it was, sadly, downhill after that!
Certainly, critical comment was negative, and rightly so- "a little slow", wrote one, whilst another, obviously yawning, declared "the atmosphere, content and characterisation is exactly the same as all the other whodunits." We have to concur with this comment on Charles Korvin as Inspector Paul Duval: he "is unspectacular while the rest of the cast portray baduns and gooduns with equal amount of conviction." Despite this, surprisingly good TAM ratings were achieved..... for a piece of really useless information, you can't beat this- for the week ending 26th June 1960 Interpol Calling came sixth equal in the TAM Top Ten for the STV region, with a rating of 50% of all viewers. Discerning people, the Scottish!

Question- Charles Korvin played Inspector Paul Duval, and was assisted by Edwin Richfield as Mornay. Give this character's first name. Answer
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THE ANGOLA BRIGHTS -
At the top of Shaft 7 at the Murico Diamond mine in Angola, 34 year old Dutchman Martin Bekker (Alfred Burke) is helping himself to a few of the product. To cover his tracks he blows up the mine shaft, killing 30 employees, and eludes security checks when he's stretchered out. Jumping off his stretcher, he flees to South Africa, where Interpol has no jurisdiction. Lt De Silva at Murico requests Interpol's help.
Inspector Duval flies to Johannesburg and with the help of Inspector Coetzee (Rupert Davies with a variable South African accent) calls on Bekker at the Randsman Hotel. As it's an offence in SA to have uncut diamonds in one's possession, Bekker will be under arrest. But as Duval snoops round the room, Bekker actually shows the diamonds to Coetzee- they're polished, "and there's no law against a person having polished diamonds."
Is this a dead end for Duval? He consults a diamond expert, who says he could prove the provenance of these Angolan stones if he could examine them. But how to obtain them? Duval proposes a reputable diamond expert Meyer (Philip Ray) purchases them. When the mining company agree to produce the necessary £240,000, the deal is done and Bekker sells Meyer the stones before dashing off to catch flight 207 to Iraq.
But Duval is waiting at the airport. "A worried man gets careless," he tells Coetzee, and when Bekker thinks he's going to miss his escape flight he panics. A cunning ruse sends him via property owned by the Allied Diamond Corporation, and there Coetzee has jurisdiction to arrest Bekker. The diamonds are confirmed to be from Angola and so Bekker is proved to be a thief and a murderer. The end.
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SLEEPING GIANT -
A frustrating story of the old ticking bomb and a hunt for the elusive man who can prevent it blowing up.

After a heavy storm a "four fuse job," an old Nazi bomb is exposed at the foot of a Scottish dam, Glengowrie, and "if it bursts, the whole valley will be drowned." The town of Invergarry no less.
The difficulty is, that it is "one not in the book," a top secret bomb. Duval has to race to find any German who knows anything about this bomb.
He locates General von Schriber (Esmond Knight) who was in charge of air raids out of Norway. He is able to tell Duval that the bomb was the product of a secret research team, the Falk group. Most of this team are now prisoners of the Russians, however three are still alive not behind the Iron Curtain.
More heavy rain in Scotland, not an unknown phenomenon. The dam is threatening to burst, but water can't be let through the sluices for fear of triggering the bomb.
The nearest Falk group member is found, Gustav, but he's gone gaga. Further, a professor, now in Italy is in a coma, so that leaves "last hope" Frederik Braun, in Bremerhaven.
Oh dear! The bomb's moved in all that thick mud, and it's started to tick. Hurry, Duval!
Braun's girl friend Inge (uncredited actress) knows Braun is wanted for his current criminal activities and won't reveal his whereabouts. He's running away from a gangleader called The Pike. "We'll never find him." More delays. Finally she admits he's travelled with fake papers to Norway under the name of seaman Bruno Muller. Interpol put out an alert for Muller.
As engineers are forced to try and deactivate the ticking bomb, Duval reaches Norway. Muller has got passage on a whaling ship bound for the Antarctic, but with the help of Lloyd's he's finally contacted.
Reluctant, Muller won't admit he's Braun. More delays! Finally Duval tries by radio to push him into revealing the details, but rough stuff from Captain Jorgensen is possibly more persuasive. Somehow Braun can still can recall the correct sequence to defuse, 1-4-2-3. "The bomb has been made safe."

Duval embellishes the happy conclusion with his own comment that it's nice for a change to save lives.
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THE TWO HEADED MONSTER -

Johnny Stefano (Alan Tilvern) was deported from the USA three months ago, and now lives in his old home in Naples. Racketeers from Germany Spain and France have converged on his headquarters for a "summit meeting." Interpol puzzles over what Johnny is up to. They question Johnny's sister, who says Johnny wasn't always bad. He was a farmer until one year his vineyard was ruined. Aaah.
And this is Johnny's new scheme - The Vineyard Protection Society. Philoxera, a vine pest, is stolen from labs. Then for starters, two hundred thousand francs is demanded from a Burgundy vineyard owner, Georges Debre (Robert Cawdron). He won't pay up, and Interpol arrives too late - the pest has struck! But Debre refuses to identify the French extortionist Cartier as he's afraid the pest might spread to his remaining crop.
So Duval returns to Stefano's sister, seeking her help. She refuses to reveal the secret hiding place where Johnny stores the stolen bugs. But they follow her. She confronts her brother with his unpleasant racket, and there's a final shootout.
"It's better this way, he'd never have changed," is Johnny's epitaph.

Note- this review from the sound only. This was taped on a reel-to-reel tape recorder in the bad old days before household videos. Unfortunately videotape machines were not generally available, I certainly couldn't have afforded one.

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LONG WEEKEND -

Some jolly, jolly music as Inspector Duval pops into his office prior to catching the 9.30 for a weekend away. But Mornay intrigues him with details of John Talbot, a merchant seaman and convicted smuggler, who has been found dead on the Dover seashore with a bullet in his head. Trouble is, seven days previously he'd been reported as lost overboard from the freighter Sapphire 2000 miles away in the Med south of Marseilles. How could the 2 events be connected?
Prof Renee (David Kossoff) with the aid of numerous maps explains the "problem" corpse could "positively not" float from the Med to Dover. I think I could have worked that one out myself!
From the Ministry of Shipping appears another expert (John Le Mesurier) who informs Duval the only ship that could have dumped this body was the freighter North Star, travelling from Trieste to Hamburg. Having provided this amazing titbit, he leaves for his weekend. "A man of great personal charm," comments Mornay. However, Captain Cartier of the North Star, by phone denies ever picking up any passenger.
Captain Pierre Gallard (Francis de Wolff) is the next visitor, captain of Sapphire, the boat on which Talbot had been working. As the ship has been in dock in Marseilles for the past week, it's hard to work out how the body ended up in the English Channel! Gallard claims Talbot had accidentally fallen into the sea whilst fixing a lifeboat stake.
But then news from the police that Talbot was an informer, working with them to expose a smuggling racket. Duval produces his theory- the Sapphire must have met the North Star in the Med to exchange smuggled goods, plus one body. Dead Talbot had been placed in deep freeze.......
This spurs Gallard into action, he attempts to leave the Interpol office- a fight, then an arrest.
"Now you are a human being," declares Duval enigmatically, in an odd moment of seriousness, referring to the dead seaman, "not just a piece of orange peel," as he finally departs for the weekend.

This is an interesting tale, as Interpol systematically solves the mystery without ever leaving headquarters.
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PRIVATE VIEW -

"£500,000 Art Theft" are the newspaper headlines after Sir Isaac Spendler's private art collection is stolen from his 23rd floor apartment "sealed off like Fort Knox." In the haul are a Van Gogh, 3 Rembrandts, a Renoir and a Lautrec -the thieves knew which ones to nick! "They only took the best."
The "fruit machine" at Interpol headquarters, or in other words their enormous computer, produces three likely suspects, but it's the fourth nomination, from Mornay, that proves the best. Computer technology isn't everything! Mornay points to Wolf Barstrom (Michael Goodliffe) in Stockholm.
We watch him and his stooge "undesirable" Frederick Pimm, aka Ferenc Pimescu, hiding the paintings on a barge moored at Chelsea Reach. Daughter Nina Pimescu (Moira Redmond) is copying each picture, in a variation of the old 'painting-over' trick. But Inspector MacAndrew (Ernest Clark) is already on Barstrom's trail, thanks to Interpol.
Duval flies over to examine Spendler's flat. Then they dash to London Airport where Barstrom is reported to be flying out with six paintings. An Xray machine ought to show up the originals underneath the Pimescus. But "nothing." Only a red face!
The detectives call at Pimescu's home, 36 Borthwick Hill Hampstead, where Duval discovers a large camera obscura. It is trained on Sir Isaac's home.
Then a report is received that Pimescu's body has been found in the Thames. And Nina lives on the river! She's sailing from Southampton - so another race there and surprise surprise, she has six abstract paintings- xrays prove they've been treated with the overpainting trick.
Although Nina knows her dad's dead, she refuses to split on Barstrom, so Duval arranges a trick. He announces that her six paintings are being sold by auction in London so it's Barstrom's turn to start rushing to the saleroom at Piccadilly Circus.
A bidding war- "four thousand for an abstract!" "For once, Barstrom," Duval warns him, " you have overbid." Apparently this is enough to get him arrested!
Note- Rita Webb appears uncredited as the landlady of Pimescu's flat.

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AIR SWITCH
Picture- Old hand at playing Yard detectives, Trevor Reid appears in this story, with Charles Korvin. Is Reid thinking, 'I could have starred in this series'?

That well-known figure in films, the man with no head in view, walks into Rega Airways freight office at London Airport to collect a package, only "off the plane five minutes." He takes it to his van and drives to a river, then, oddly, throws the parcel in.

From Iowa, one of the latest antibiotics, tetracyclin, is being smuggled all over the world. To learn why there have been no reports of any missing drugs, Duval travels to Stockholm, where the World Health Organisation stores this drug. No cartons are missing. But inside some of the cartons only water is present.
So "the next shipment from America is going to be watched every inch of the way." Seven and three quarter pounds of the drug is shipped from Idlewild Airport, reparts agent Jackson. First stop Shannon at 1600 hours, 43 minutes stopover for fuelling. "Nothing did happen." One more stop in London, uneventful, then on to Sweden. The container arrives safely- only it's found to now contain water.
By some clever deductive work, Mornay is able to calculate that the switch could only have happened at London Airport. Duval further learns that cartons of water are transported on the same flight, and therefore the destination labels of the two cargoes must be changed at some point during the flight. "Simple, once you know how." The only problem, "just how does he do it?"
Inspector Hill (Trevor Reid) meets Duval at London Airport to get the proof to show their theories are correct. Oh dear, but Inspector Hill has a conscience- "I'm sorry to hesitate but investigating people on circumstantial evidence is something we just don't do in England." Good old British fair play! Nevertheless Hill does agree to check on the aircrew of flight AC113, which has landed for a 70 minute break.
Suspect, co-pilot on the aircraft Pat Adams (Colin Croft) is tailed off the plane and followed to his van, in the same routine as we have already seen. The police swoop and his carton is opened - it's only water. But when the crook makes a dash for it he's caught with a bag which does contain the tetracyclin. "It's a dirty crime, Adams." Duval gives him a lesson in morals- "you ought to be charged with murder."

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NO FLOWERS FOR ONNO

At "the only home in Amsterdam with bullets in the wall," there's a plaque to Dutch Resistance worker Onno van Meer, and Major Peter Grenville VC, shot on 3rd November 1943. Author Andrew Slater is meeting air hostess Emmy, Van Meer's sister to research a book he's writing on the story. But he is found stabbed to death.
Three hundred thousand guilders for the Dutch Resistance was being carried by this officer when he was shot by the Nazis. "Big enough motive for murder."
Duval flies to Germany to interview Gerhard Esler (Victor Beaumont) who had ordered the major and the resistance leader to be shot. "I never heard of this money," protests Esler. But after Duval leaves we see him plotting to ensure Emmy doesn't reveal anything of what she might know. It turns out Onno was a collaborator. He was never shot. But Emmy will be! "The police will find your body in the canal," Esler tells her. But Duval arrives before Esler has time to carry this out. "Onno, why?" Money, of course. Onno is shot protecting her, and there's a chase round the canals, Captain Dekker of the Dutch police leading the hunt. Esler is trapped on a barge and overpowered.
Finally Duval talks to Emmy outside the house where it had all started.

An unimaginative tale, only enlivened slightly by some location work in Amsterdam.
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Jean
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