I find these old SY short crime dramas strangely compulsive viewing, and have seen all in this series a few times. However, I have always found this one somewhat troubling.
The story begins on the outskirts of Guildford, when 'charlady' Mrs Roper (Gretchen Franklin) arrives by bus, and following a humorous exchange with a saucy milkman, enters a cottage. She finds her employer, a Mr Grant, dead on the floor, with a revolver next to him. The local police, led by Inspector Reynolds, suspect suicide, and when they discover an ashtray full of cigarette butts, some with lipstick on them, its 'Cherchez la femme'! (Note -These films were shot in the 1950's when apparently only ladies wore lipstick). Mrs Roper is grilled by Inspector Reynolds, but maintains, "Don't know nothing about his private life",..this revelation appears to throw the inspector completely, and he quickly runs out of any supplementary questions.
The plot quickly thickens when the Ballistic Boys discover that the bullet recovered from Grant's body was not fired from the suspect weapon - a Colt .38, 1914. This is enough for local Plods to call in Scotland Yard, in the shape of Inspector Berkeley, as previously pointed out played by Ballard Berkeley. The 'Boffins' at the eponymous Scotland Yard peer down their microscopes to discover that the bullet that killed Grant, 'according to their voluminous records' was fired from a weapon used in a 27 year old 'Cold Case' murder. The victim of that dastardly deed was one Audrey Spencer, on board a ship.
Inspector Berkeley visits the crime scene, and quickly demonstrates the superiority of Scotland Yard over the local plods, by finding a carefully hidden handkerchief, " You missed it, Reynolds", he crows...then he searches the already open safe, and finds a letter, clearly written 'in a woman's hand', from an unknown admirer protesting about Grant (a divorcee) finishing his relationship with her, and signed 'J'. Why the local Plods didn't carry out a routine search of the safe is never explained. The handkerchief is 'a lady's', and carries a 'laundry mark', a regular SY trope, which eventually see laundry manager, played by Rita Webb talking all posh, explaining their mark system and identifying the owner as a Mrs Grant...yes, she's Grant's ex wife! Mrs Grant is quickly tracked down via an Estate Agent, and coughs to having visited Grant recently, and has a 'suspect' alibi to account for her time after that visit...she went to the cinema alone!
Meanwhile the chaps at the local Post Office sorting office are tasked with spotting another letter written by 'J' in the same 'lady's hand, which obviously they do! This leads the police to a Mr and Mrs Ross, he a physiotherapist with a successful practice in London, she a somewhat 'Scarlet woman', who soon coughs to a long term affair with the deceased Mr Grant.
Remember the 'Cold Case' murder? The main suspect turned out to be our Mr Ross, Audrey Spencer's then boyfriend, at that time the 'ship's doctor'. He was acquitted for the apparently trifling reason of a lack of evidence, an acquittal that seemed to pain our Edgar. Many years later Grant was sent to sell insurance to Ross, recognised him, and began a blackmail campaign. The complicating factor of the long term affair between Mrs Ross and Mr Grant, that he was trying to end but she was resisting, only adds to the confusion.
In a final denouement scene, shown in flashback, Ross arrives at Grant's house in a fog, shoots him with a Colt .38, 1914, finds Grant's Colt .38, 1914 revolver in his safe, fires another shot from that one, and places it next to the prone body to suggest suicide. The final scene sees our Scotland Yard detective give Ross a lift home in his squad car, and speculate with Ross how he may have had time to visit and kill Grant, and arrive home for tea as if nothing has happened. Ross enters his house and we hear another gunshot, this time a definite suicide.
This is where it all goes a bit adrift. Narrator Edgar Lustgarten confuses both himself and the audience with his valedictory summary of the case. Edgar speculates that Ross has now avenged the killing of his former sweetheart by Grant...hang on, wasn't it Ross who was the suspect in that case, and wasn't he being blackmailed by Grant in order to keep the matter quiet?
Still, it's an enjoyable wander in SYland, where red herrings abound, SY detectives are virtually all-knowing, and foreigners are either sinister or amusing; here we get an amusing south Asian neighbour of Grant's, confused by a police question about callers, "Callers, what are callers?", until they are renamed visitors. This and the aforementioned 'corpse toe waggling' are definitely not to be missed!
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