Scotland Yard - TPTV Page 3

I tried watching it this week but it was so slow. I'm not bad on hurry, hurry, hurry violence and deep dark characters so common nowadays but I really couldn't get into it.

Quote: Chappers @ 1st October 2019, 7:26 PM

I tried watching it this week but it was so slow. I'm not bad on hurry, hurry, hurry violence and deep dark characters so common nowadays but I really couldn't get into it.

Bloody hell - you a budgie or summat? They're under ½ hour long! Anyway............................

The Dover Road Mystery (1960)

Half decent bank robbery/thriller/murder, which was made more enjoyable for me as it was centred around cars, one of which was a souped-up Mk 2 Zephyr - very nice, and the second-hand cars shown in a dodgy car dealer yard were quite amusing, especially the old post war cars and prices.

Only person of note was Geoffrey Keen who made his name in TV playing quite often policemen, as he did here as the Superintendent.

I like also to check out the uncredited actors and this had just the one, being a stunt man Romo Gorrara, and this and the other one I reviewed were his first films as an "actor", being this one as Man leaving cinema (uncredited) and in the "The Ghost Train Murder" as Man at Fairground (uncredited)................bet he never looked back. Whistling nnocently

Sorry Herc. My age playing tricks! It was Special Branch I was watching.

Incidentally I just missed Gideon's Way which I was allowed to watch when I stayed up late whilst staying at my Nan's.

Quote: Chappers @ 2nd October 2019, 5:33 PM

Sorry Herc. My age playing tricks! It was Special Branch I was watching.

Ah yes, saw the promos and was put off by how, ironically for me, dated it looked, and there was summat weird about Derren Nesbitt - Jack Regan he weren't!

However....................

"The Last Train" (1960)

Man found with gun in his hand on underground appears to have committed suicide, but why is there a bullet hole in the roof of the carriage?
Not a bad mystery, with again no one of note in it (odd face I half recognised), but enjoyable HALF HOUR. ;)

Evidence in Concrete (1960)

Young girl's body found in a ditch on the A5 just three miles north of Redbourn in Herts, where we used to live and this may have sparked the interest, but it was a good murder mystery which was well worth the ½ hour.

Only person of note was Kenneth Kendall as the newsreader on'telly, so that brought back some memories. :)

The Silent Weapon

Enjoyed this as it kept you wanting to know how a man out riding his horse over jumps in a seemingly clear field falls down dead off the horse with a severe cut at the base of his skull, not caused by the fall. "Dead before he hit the ground" said the coroner.

AND there was a bit of star spotting with John Woodvine as the villain who ironically was Chief Supt. John Kingdom in the early 70s TV series "New Scotland Yard", so he finally outranked Geoffrey Keen (who was in quite a lot of James Bond films) - Superintendent Carter in this "Scotland Yard"

Also spotted a very young looking comedy actress Denise Coffey (turns out she was actually 25, though looked about 15), and of the two young school boys in it, one never appeared in anything else and the other (Terry Brooks) was, it seems, the "Milky Bar Kid" in the series of TV commercials from 1961-1967 - I thought I recognised him, though oddly it was his voice that rang a bell, even after all these years. :)

The Grand Junction Case (1961)

Another good one that held your interest as an angler fishes up a woman's leg and from then on, the plot thickens as only an arm is then found with a deleted edelweiss tattoo on it, which is all they have to work with as the rest of the body is not found.

And has the remarkable sight of a dapper, very smart and well-spoken Albert Steptoe (Wilfrid Brambell of course) as the pathologist who looked on the police with some disdain it seemed - I couldn't get over the total difference between him here and Oil Drum Lane. Remarkable.

The Never Never Murder (1961)

As was popular then with the much vaunted hire-purchase in the late 50s, even "Scotland Yard" got in on the act with quite a good plot and grisly murders.

Must be "Porridge" week as after seeing Ronnie Barker as a prisoner in the Charlie Drake film, in this we had Mr. Barrowclough (Brian Wilde) in a bit part. I did notice too that he had that sharp intake of breath whenever he was about to speak, as he did in Porridge. Summat and nothin' bit o' trivia..................

Wings of Death (1961)

Well we had Albert Steptoe as a post speaking pathologist last week so I suppose it was inevitable we would eventually see 'Arold!! (Harry H), but here as the Police Superintendent, with very dodge Scottish accent (WHY?) that wandered all over the place, investigating this odd murder of a pilot who seems to have died when in the plane he was flying crashed, BUT the post mortem reveals that he was murdered in flight prior to the crash!

Good tale and quite enjoyable, but I couldn't get it out of my mind that any minute the Superintendent was going to burst out with "You dirty old man!"

The Square Mile Murder (1961)

Fairly mundane safe breaking/murder story with no one of note in it, but again interesting for the cars.

Colonel March of Scotland Yard "The Sorcerer" starring Boris Karloff in the title role as some sort of super sleuth............fairly amateurish and crudely made.

Oh dear, I hope this isn't replacing the superb Scotland Yard series. :(