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Colonel March (Boris Karloff), the "Head of the Department for Queer Complaints" of Scotland
Yard, has tracked a thief and gambler (Anton Diffring), who seems to
always win with the help of parapsychology, to Deauville. But then
Diffring is murdered at the doorstep of one Doctor Hebert (John Chandos)
and all proof seems to point to American Arthur Hill being the
murderer - and only we and Colonel March no otherwise ! At the end it
all turns out a rather elaborate (and overly complicated) plan by
Doctor Hebert himself, using an unsuspecting Christine Pollen as his
alibi and Hill as his cut-out suspect. Eric Pohlmann plays a rotund
police commissioner.
In the 50's, horror legends like Karloff (him being a star since Frankenstein
in 1931, but being around even longer) had fallen on hard times, with
the classic approach to horror passé and the horror/science fiction
output by companies like AIP or
Allied Artists relying more on fast thrills
and sensationalism than big stars - not that there's necessarily
anything wrong with that. So Karloff (who did by the way not make a
theatrical feature between 1953 and 1958), like many of his colleagues, did
numerous television shows during that time, and Colonel March of
Scotland Yard was just another one of them, with the production company being content
to having the Karloff-name in the credits but giving very little thought
of how to use Karloff (the actor) effectively - or make the show
effective at all, for that matter.
This particular episode provides surprisingly many loose ends for a
mere 25 minutes, for example: It is explained that Diffring is able to
win rather at will at the roulette table, using parapsychology. It is,
however, not explained, why he only plays for small amounts (though that
question is asked). Neither why he took the dangerous profession of
being a jewel thief when his talents clearly lie at the roulette table.
Neither how the killer could exactly tell the moment in which to kill
Diffring and have both a cut-out culprit and an alibi at the
same time. You figure it out ... |