Spoilers ahead! This episode skillfully interweaves 4 mysteries: 1) German spy lands from submarine -- who and how? 2) items looted from blitzed houses -- who and where is loot hidden? 3) man found shot on beach -- suicide or murder? 4) obnoxious rich American has mysterious British aide -- political games afoot?
A nice thing about the script for this episode is that the supporting characters, Milner and Sam, are not merely errand-runners and "foils" who make the detective voice his thinking aloud. In this episode, each contributes original insights that Foyle did NOT think of.
Milner makes the key observation about the distinctiveness of the items NOT looted as compared to those looted, which leads Foyle to realize where the loot is hidden -- and thus to expose who stole the loot.
Sam makes the key observation about the item the beach-death victim had in his pocket -- she knows what it is, while Foyle does not -- and once Foyle hears this, he understands the connection between the beach-death and the obnoxious rich American.
The German spy also provides the key information that enables Foyle to figure out how the spy got to be landed on that particular beach -- although it was not the spy's intention to reveal that fact.
In none of these three instances did Foyle expect that the particular conversation that led to the information would produce such information -- in each case it is an accident that the information given happens to be relevant to solving a crime. But the information is quite logical to have been mentioned in these conversations, it is not artificially stuffed-into the character's mouth just to move the plot along. This is excellent quality story-craftsmanship and deserves recognition.
As to the actor playing the obnoxious American, I'm a born and 60-years-life-long American who has lived in many parts of the US, and I thought his accent was fine. I thought he was an American actor.
The most interesting part of the episode is the political context -- focused on the mysterious British aide. At the end of the episode he explains to Foyle that the obnoxious American is a key pro-Britain supporter in America, working to get lend-lease and the "50 Ships" -- 50 destroyers -- transferred to Britain. Because of the American's importance to forming the British-American alliance, he must literally be allowed to get away with murder of the man on the beach.
The greatest irony, which is not explored or recognized by the episode, is that it is the testimony of the German spy that gives Foyle the key evidence he needs to realize that this vital American is the murderer. That German spy thus unexpectedly almost gave Hitler the greatest assistance any one human being could possibly have given to Hitler's effort to defeat Britain -- because it was that German, by bringing about the discrediting of the strongly pro-British American, who could have destroyed the American-British alliance from even forming. And Foyle himself, upstanding, honorable Foyle, would have become the means whereby Hitler would accomplish that grand strategic goal. It is similar to the British Colonel in "Bridge Over The River Kwai," who is so focused on his role of keeping his men in good military form, that he overlooks that his efforts will aid the enemy in the broader strategic situation. The mysterious British aide (really an high-level military intelligence agent) is on the scene, however, and prevents this from happening.
One bit of writing that is a bit of a cheat is that at the end, when Foyle confronts the American, Foyle says he has two witnesses, the man who saw sleeping in a car, and a man in a boat. He talks more about the man in the car, but says nothing about the man in the boat. The American would surely have asked about this second witness, and if Foyle had said, honestly, "he is a captured German spy who is about to be shot," the American would have burst out laughing -- no British government prosecutor in war time would put up as a prosecution witness an enemy spy whom the government itself is about to put in front of a firing squad. Foyle would have had to say "I can't tell you who the witness is," and the American would have known from this that there was something fishy about Foyle's case. The screenwriter just dodged all this, which is a little bit of a cheat.
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