Superintendent Duggan (Russell Napier) investigates the grim discoveries of bodies found in barrels of boiling tar at road maintenance sites in the home counties. The trail finally leads the Yard to a phony marriage bureau run by a couple who prey on lonely and wealthy people who innocently turn up looking for the right partner. First they trick them with fake proposals of marriage before conning them out of their life savings and then murdering them. Duggan enlists the help of a plain clothes middle-aged police sergeant to approach the bureau posing as a lonely, well-to-do widow looking for a husband. But, can she convince them that she is who she says she is or will she be rumbled by the ruthless pair?
Solid, professionally made crime featurette produced at Merton Park by Anglo Amalgamated as part of their excellent long running series Scotland Yard. Like many of them, it is pretty gruesome in content in places and, for their era, they probably seemed daring. You will be struck by the value for money that the producers were able to cram into these little films. Here, for instance, we get a sequence set in the Swiss alps as Russell Napier (a series regular) follows the complicated trail in order to get his man. There are also many attractive plot elements to be found in these films; in this case the setting of a seemingly respectable marriage bureau that hides a sinister secret. This theme would be exploited to delightful tongue in cheek effect in an episode of the classic British espionage series The Avengers called The Murder Market.
Proficiently directed by Montgomery Tully (1904-88), who was one of Britain's most prolific makers of 30-minute shorts and hour long second features throughout the 1950's-early 60's. He directed fourteen episodes of Scotland Yard in total. Tully was a neglected talent whom very little has been written about until recently. A former documentarist and journalist, he had a brief period as an 'A' film director in the 1940's and, the very best of them, such as the ingenious double jeopardy thriller Murder In Reverse makes one regret that he would fall into the world of quickie production in the early fifties. His best 'B' pictures, which he often scripted or co-scripted as well, are noted for their well-knit story lines, brisk pacing and moments of deft albeit low key inventiveness. The Third Alibi (1961), for instance, was a brilliantly plotted murder thriller with a twist in its tail that takes the audience completely by surprise. A refreshing change from so many quickie thrillers that all too often drift into predictability and mediocrity while Clash By Night (1964) was a thought provoking critique of the justice system, which was quite subtly spun, it has to be said, from its standard thriller plot about the hijacking of a prison van in which the prisoners and their warders find themselves locked in a paraffin-soaked barn on Bonfire Night. Even Tully's lesser films contain odd piercing moments of inspiration suggesting that he was a film maker who bent over backwards to make something worthwhile out of even the most unpromising of material.
Solid, professionally made crime featurette produced at Merton Park by Anglo Amalgamated as part of their excellent long running series Scotland Yard. Like many of them, it is pretty gruesome in content in places and, for their era, they probably seemed daring. You will be struck by the value for money that the producers were able to cram into these little films. Here, for instance, we get a sequence set in the Swiss alps as Russell Napier (a series regular) follows the complicated trail in order to get his man. There are also many attractive plot elements to be found in these films; in this case the setting of a seemingly respectable marriage bureau that hides a sinister secret. This theme would be exploited to delightful tongue in cheek effect in an episode of the classic British espionage series The Avengers called The Murder Market.
Proficiently directed by Montgomery Tully (1904-88), who was one of Britain's most prolific makers of 30-minute shorts and hour long second features throughout the 1950's-early 60's. He directed fourteen episodes of Scotland Yard in total. Tully was a neglected talent whom very little has been written about until recently. A former documentarist and journalist, he had a brief period as an 'A' film director in the 1940's and, the very best of them, such as the ingenious double jeopardy thriller Murder In Reverse makes one regret that he would fall into the world of quickie production in the early fifties. His best 'B' pictures, which he often scripted or co-scripted as well, are noted for their well-knit story lines, brisk pacing and moments of deft albeit low key inventiveness. The Third Alibi (1961), for instance, was a brilliantly plotted murder thriller with a twist in its tail that takes the audience completely by surprise. A refreshing change from so many quickie thrillers that all too often drift into predictability and mediocrity while Clash By Night (1964) was a thought provoking critique of the justice system, which was quite subtly spun, it has to be said, from its standard thriller plot about the hijacking of a prison van in which the prisoners and their warders find themselves locked in a paraffin-soaked barn on Bonfire Night. Even Tully's lesser films contain odd piercing moments of inspiration suggesting that he was a film maker who bent over backwards to make something worthwhile out of even the most unpromising of material.