A millionaire called Marvin Chase (Basil Dignam) and his personal assistant Bertrand Tamblin (Mark Eden) are involved in a car crash. Tamblin is killed but Chase has survived, although he has suffered horrific burns and his face is completely covered with bandages. Simon Templar (Roger Moore) becomes involved when Chase's secretary, Nora (Eunice Gayson), calls him because she is disturbed by her boss's behaviour regarding the handling of his finances. She has tried to approach him about it but his physician, Dr Quintus (Michael Goodliffe), will not allow her or anybody else near his bedside. She fears that some kind of swindle is taking place, but when Simon arrives to meet her in a boathouse she has been murdered. Meanwhile, Chase's brother, Jim (Nigel Stock), has been hanging around the family estate. It transpires that Chase had bought out the firm that Jim works for and had vowed to have him fired the minute the takeover was completed. But, Simon and the police do not believe that he is a murderer since his brother's change in his financial dealings meant that the takeover would no longer occur. On visiting a stockbroker in the City, Simon is told that Chase is practically liquidating his entire empire by selling off all of his stocks and shares for hard cash, which is unusual because sometimes he is doing it even if it means selling them at a loss. When Simon questions Chase's devoted daughter Ellen (Jane Asher), she tells him that she believes her mother, Rosemary (Katherine Blake), and Dr Quintus are involved in some kind of plot against her father. She also points out that the car crash happened rather conveniently only a few yards from the doctor's house and she can remember that the car clock stopped at 11:09. This contradicts evidence given by the local postman who swears that Chase's Rolls Royce sped past him at exactly 11:00, only yards from where the fatal accident happened. So what happened in those nine minutes? Simon unravels an ingenious murder plot in which his friend Nora had to die because she had been asking too many questions...
Not really front rank Saint because the identity of the killers is pretty obvious from the outset and it will not tax your little grey cells all that much. But, never mind, it is still a lot of fun with an appealing plot and a great cast of familiar British faces offering Roger Moore first rate support. Jane Asher is of particular note as the tycoon's daughter who evokes a real depth of feeling in her character's devotion to her father and her dislike or distrust of her mother whom she strongly believes is plotting against him in cohorts with Michael Goodliffe's shady doctor. Nigel Stock is quite good as Chase's wayward brother while Eunice Gayson, famous for being the first Bond girl, is noteworthy as the ill-fated Nora, the secretary and close friend of Simon whom is silenced because she knew too much. Look out for Mark Eden, best known for playing the soap villain Alan Bradley in Coronation Street, too. The episode is soundly directed by Jeremy Summers who made several contributions to some of Britain's best loved cult TV series such as Randall and Hopkirk Deceased, The Baron and Gideon's Way. The settings and the b/w lighting of Lionel Banes both combine to give the plot an air of the sinister and the mysteriousness.
Not really front rank Saint because the identity of the killers is pretty obvious from the outset and it will not tax your little grey cells all that much. But, never mind, it is still a lot of fun with an appealing plot and a great cast of familiar British faces offering Roger Moore first rate support. Jane Asher is of particular note as the tycoon's daughter who evokes a real depth of feeling in her character's devotion to her father and her dislike or distrust of her mother whom she strongly believes is plotting against him in cohorts with Michael Goodliffe's shady doctor. Nigel Stock is quite good as Chase's wayward brother while Eunice Gayson, famous for being the first Bond girl, is noteworthy as the ill-fated Nora, the secretary and close friend of Simon whom is silenced because she knew too much. Look out for Mark Eden, best known for playing the soap villain Alan Bradley in Coronation Street, too. The episode is soundly directed by Jeremy Summers who made several contributions to some of Britain's best loved cult TV series such as Randall and Hopkirk Deceased, The Baron and Gideon's Way. The settings and the b/w lighting of Lionel Banes both combine to give the plot an air of the sinister and the mysteriousness.