The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre (TV Series) Playback (1962) User Reviews

More Georges Simenon than Edgar Wallace

[enochsneed · 7/10 · 29 October 2014]

Most of the Merton Park-Edgar Wallace adaptations from the early 1960's are police procedurals, whodunit and how (the 'locked room' plot turns up a number of times). This entry is more character-driven, and given an intriguing twist by being told in flashback as a man waits to hear the jury's verdict at his trial.

(Spoilers) Dave Hollis is a friendly young copper who has hopes of becoming a detective. Unfortunately he has character flaws, being too willing to be distracted from duty by a pretty face (and, let's be honest, Margit Saad is quite distracting) and a weakness for roulette. These combine to get him in a situation where he has to take the most desperate measures and doesn't see he's being used until it is far too late. The climax of the film gives a grim reminder of the punishment for murder in the UK half a century ago. (End spoilers)

As I said, the film is character-driven, low on action but high in human interest and suspense. I was reminded of Georges Simenon's novels where the mind of a man in relation to his world and the factors that shaped him are slowly revealed. These cheap second-features from Merton Park are not 'great' or 'classic' films but occasionally they come up with something really different that still has considerable dramatic impact, and this is one very good example.

As good as a classic movie

[searchanddestroy-1 · 22 May 2009]

I did not know any of Edgard Wallace Mystery series. And this episode is very interesting. I consider it as good as a classic film noir movie. A policeman, a bobby, is seduced by a femme fatale, a dame who wants to get rid of her rich husband. And, of course, she seduces the cop in order to push him to kill her husband. But first, she manages to push the poor bobby in a money trap, where he owes very much money to a gambling club owner. A sort of gangster.

So, you can guess the following. There is no heroes in there. And no happy ending either. A real film noir in an episode frame, made for TV only. The director, Quentin Lawrence has already made good stuff in the 60's.

Pc 69

[Braderz65 · 9/10 · 1 June 2018]

The best one of these I've seen.Good lead characters and story really enjoyed.

For proof that the world of British B's could produce noteworthy material, look no further.

[jamesraeburn2003 · 28 December 2016]

A young policeman called Constable Hollis (Barry Foster) is on trial awaiting a life changing verdict. As he waits for his sentence to be passed, he reflects on the events that lead to his arrest. One night on his beat in a leafy Chelsea mews, he comes across an attractive German girl, Lisa Shillack (Margit Saad), who has locked herself out of her own flat. He climbs up a drainpipe and through the window in order to get the front door key and lets her in. He learns that Lisa is the wife of a wealthy businessman, Simon Shillack (George Pravda), whom she clearly has no love for since he is nearly always away on business. Hollis starts to fall for her and they begin an affair. At her country club, the Squires, Hollis runs up a £128.00 gambling debt at the roulette table and the manager, Ralph (Nigel Green), demands the debt be settled within twenty four hours. Lisa reveals her ingenious plan to murder her husband, but Hollis refuses to do it. He is then roughed up by Ralph's thugs for failing to pay his debt. When Lisa refuses to bail him out, Hollis agrees to murder her husband for her. But, after the deed is done, Lisa tells the police that he had been pestering her with the delusion that she was in love with him and that when her husband had warned him off he killed him. At the club where the pair had arranged their alibi, Ralph and his staff confirm that Lisa was there but not Hollis. It was all an elaborate plot by Ralph and Lisa who are lovers who wanted her wife dead so they could marry and inherit his insurance money worth £250,000. However, Hollis may well have been arrested and tried, things do not exactly end happily for them either...

One of the more notable examples of the Edgar Wallace series with an excellent, well structured script by Robert Stewart and director Quentin Lawrence partially succeeds - although the British cinema could never quite do it - in fashioning a crime thriller in the American film noir mode. Margit Sadd is certainly an excellent femme fatale in that vein as she dazzles the young, naive and easily lead Constable Hollis (played by a young Barry Foster before he found success with Van Der Valk) with her looks, wealth and address (leafy Chelsea) and her ability to persuade him that she would even contemplate marrying a small time copper with very few prospects in front of him: he is turned down for promotion to CID and is unable to keep his mind on the job allowing a robbery to take place on his beat right under his very nose. Among the above average cast is Nigel Green who was fabulous as Christopher Lee's nemesis in The Face Of Fu Manchu and he convinces as the crooked club owner here. The black and white camera-work of Bert Mason - who appears to have shot nearly all of these - heightens the noirish ambitions of the work and it bears the usual hallmarks of quality expected of this series - good production values, set design, writing and the ability to get better stars than one associates with many b-pics. The 'Man Of Mystery' theme tune that became a Top 10 hit for The Shadows sounds as fresh as ever and if ever you want proof that the world of British B's could produce noteworthy results then look no further.