The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre (TV Series) The Fourth Square (1961) User Reviews

The Fourth Square

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 13 February 2021]

Bill Lawrence (Conrad Phillips) is a lawyer on the trail of a jewel thief. He has been hired by Nina Stewart who has lost an emerald ring given to her by a rich playboy lover called Alvarez.

There was her robbery in her house while she and her wealthy husband were away for the weekend. The maid died in the robbery and a sign of some type of square was left behind on the wall.

Nina Stewart does not want a scandal and told the police that nothing has been stolen.

Only her husband's public relations assistant Henry Adams had a key to the house while they were away. Mrs Stewart suspects Adams.

Inspector Forbes suspects Adams as well as he knew a bit about several past jewelry thefts.

I am not sure why Mrs Stewart when to a lawyer and not a detective. Bill Lawrence seems to be happy with the money.

Inspector Forbes knows him which is useful when Lawrence gets into trouble. There are attempts made on his life and another dead body turns up.

Lawrence is dogged and hooks up with another of Alvarez's girlfriends, Marie (Jacqueline Jones) to investigate. He seems to be an adept detective for a lawyer.

There are a lot of suspects that include Alvarez, his manservant, his estranged wife who now works as a magician as well as Adams.

Marie is suitably sexy. The pace is brisk for a B movie with lots of interior shots. It has all the elements of an Edgar Wallace mystery. Wealthy people in fancy apartments in a well heeled part of London.

the Embassy Club

[fillherupjacko · 21 January 2009]

A ritzy bedroom - Belgrave Square, London - the kind that has a safe hidden behind a painting, and a masked intruder is robbing the jewellery and murdering the maid.

Belgrave square, 1961 – you know the sort of thing, a white building of apartments with black and white check floors. Inspector Forbes (Basil Dignam) calls on the returning occupants, a Mr and Mrs Stewart. Nina Stewart (Delphi Lawrence) nips round to see Bill Lawrence (Conrad Phillips) a lawyer who spends his time lounging with feet up on his office desk, toying with a soda syphon. The emerald jewellery which Mrs Stewart has had stolen was a gift from her boyfriend, Alvarez, a sort of sinister, continental playboy (a staple character of Wallace's books) and she doesn't want it getting in the papers. A passage into the papers would most likely be provided by Henry Adams (Paul Daneman), a public relations secretary to her husband. Adams falls under suspicion on account of his having a key to the apartment – but that's OK because Mr Stewart gives him one when he goes a way – a key, that is. On account of strange squares – four strips making a square shape – left on the wall at the crime scene, the police suspect a thief called McGuire – the squares at the scene of the crime was his emblem – however, he's otherwise detained (dead in Newport Pagnell).

Bill Lawrence, despite various attempts on his life, seems to have great fun solving this one, including pulling one of Alvarez's girlfriends, Marie (Jacqueline Jones), a sort of blonde, French Shirley Ann Field, and taking her to the Embassy Club – note, not the Bernard Manning one – to see Josetta's cabaret. Josetta (Miriam Karlin no less, she's the Catlady in A Clockwork Orange) is Alvarez's estranged wife. The entertainment consists of a magic act and a lot of big girls dancing round in big knickers.

There are lots of suspects and a very obvious red herring, in effete, home hairdresser Gordon, in this one. The real villain only appears in the story late on (apart from in photograph) so it's difficult to care.