Send for Paul Temple (1946)

vt The Green Finger
UK / 84 minutes / bw / Butcher’s Dir & Pr: John Argyle Scr: John Argyle, Francis Durbridge Story: Send for Paul Temple (1938 radio play) by Francis Durbridge Cine: Geoffrey Faithfull Cast: Anthony Hulme, Joy Shelton, Tamara Desni, Jack Raine, Beatrice Varley, Hylton Allen, Maire O’Neill, Michael Golden, Richard Shayne, Edward V. Robson, Phil Ray, Leslie Weston, Olive Sloane, H. Victor Weske, Norman Pierce, Melville Crawford, Charles Wade.

A gang of jewelry robbers is terrorizing the English Midlands, and its members aren’t afraid to kill anyone who gets in the way. The only clue the cops have comes from the dying words of a night watchman: “The Green Finger.”

Bestselling mystery novelist Paul Temple (Hulme) is visited at his country home near Evesham by his old friend Chief Inspector Gerald Harvey (Crawford), but almost immediately Harvey is shot down in one of the local pubs, The Little General. The landlord, Horace Daley (Ray), insists the death must have been a suicide, and when the local physician, Dr. Milton (Allen), arrives he seems to agree. The only other person who might cast some light on the subject is the pub’s solitary resident guest, the middle-aged Miss Amelia Marchment (Varley). Her hobby, it emerges, is the history of old English inns, and she announces that The Little General is in fact a far more ancient inn than is generally realized . . . and that it was originally called The Green Finger!

The seemingly ingeuous Miss Marchment (the splendid Beatrice Varley) and the crooked publican Horace Daley (Phil Ray).

Steve Trent (Shelton), a journalist on one of the London newspapers, has been running a campaign along the lines that, since Scotland Yard is bamboozled by the gang, the cops should “send for Paul Temple”—although quite why the Yard should think a

Violent Moment (1959)

vt Rebound
UK / 61 minutes / bw / Independent Artists, Anglo–Amalgamated Dir: Sidney Hayers Pr: Bernard Coote Scr: Peter Barnes Story: “A Toy for Jiffy” (1956; Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine) by Roy Vickers Cine: Phil Grindrod Cast: Lyndon Brook, Jane Hylton, Jill Browne, John Paul, Rupert Davies, Moira Redmond, Bruce Seton, Martin Miller, Frederick Piper, Martin Boddey, Gerald Anderson, John Boxer, Leonard White.

London, soon after the end of WWII, and wastrel Douglas “Doug” Baines (Brook) is wary of the coppers on every corner because he’s an Army deserter. He makes his way as best he can, helping to support his mistress, Daisy Hacker (Hylton), and their infant son Jiffy on what we suspect are generally slim pickings. One day, though, he’s obviously flush because he spends 15/6 (15 shillings and sixpence)—a small fortune in those days—at the toyshop of Jenkins (Piper) on a cackling tumbler-doll clown for Jiffy, upon whom he obviously dotes; indeed, we sense that Doug is really defined by his love for Jiffy. When he gets home, though, it’s to discover that Daisy has sold the child into adoption for twenty pounds. She’s scathing in her estimation of Doug:

“Twenty pound. I suppose you’ll want your cut.”

 And:

“And another thing. You pretending to believe that I got all that money working as a waitress. You’ve got eyes in your head the same as other men. You know perfectly well where that money came from.”

 

Doug (Lyndon Brook) shows Daisy (Jane Hylton) the toy he’s bought for Jiffy.

As he tries to force out of her the name and address of the adoptive parents so he might