. . . . . . . . . . . . . THE VISE
Made by The Danzigers in Britain in 1954-5 for America TV, where they were screened as The Vise, the stories were later repeated in USA as 'The Pendulum.'
A few of the 25 minute films were made into compilations and premiered in UK cinemas as second features, but it wasn't until the early 60's that they reached UK TV as 'Tension' or 'Crooked Path'. After 65 had been made, the series continued with all the stories about Mark Saber.
The introduction to most of The Vise films was read by Ron Randell. It appears in all except the first few stories, and some of the last and ran- "How do you do. The story we are going to tell is about people caught in the jaws of a vice, in a dilemma of their own making. We'll start the story in a moment."
For The Pendulum John Bentley read some new lines as though he hadn't been paid very much- "The Pendulum swings. And Destiny weaves a pattern. This is the story of people who tried to change that pattern, but found they could not stop the Pendulum."
My favourite episode of those I have seen myself: #13 Lucky Man- tho' a comedy and rather untypical of the series
Dud episode: #7 The Diamond Expert- even Paul Carpenter can't save this one.
My review of 12 THE YELLOW ROBE
London: A policeman kindly gives the monk a lesson in how to use the phone. Cost of the call: 3d. MAYfair 4565- but it's engaged. He also tries TEMple 1956.
The monk is trying to phone Frank Ballard (Tony Pendrell, pictured ) to inform him that his long lost elder brother Tommy is alive in a Tibetan monastery. Not good news for Frank, whose one armed lawyer was in the process of having him declared legally dead so Frank can inherit the family fortune. "Disaster!.. I've got to get rid of him somehow..." Frank agrees to meet the monk in the gardens near Marble Arch, but the monk has already been stabbed through the heart.
Enter Inspector Mather (Robert Raglan), the thoughtful, methodical type. A useful clue is a glove clutched in the dead monk's hand. The evidence points to a left handed killer. The helpful policeman who gave us the telephone lesson remembers the first phone number which leads Scotland Yard to Frank, who is, of course, left handed. Ballard eventually admits he had arranged to meet the monk, but had been drinking too much and "everything was too hazy." He remembers stumbling over a dead body.
It looks pretty black until the policeman who'd forgotten the second phone number remembers it - it was the number of this year! It's that of Ballard's solicitor, Collins (Peter Neil), also left handed. He tells Mather that once Tommy is officially dead, Frank's money worries will be over. But they're not! Mather spots a knife missing from Ballard's display and now has all the evidence needed to make his arrest.
Narrator: "So ended the events started by the old monk's telephone call." The motive for the killing is explained, followed by this conclusion: "In Hyde Park the speakers still talk of man's inhumanity to man, but none remember the inhuman death that came to another Hyde Park speaker, the monk who wore an old yellow robe."

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