It’s really too bad about the print quality as COLONEL MARCH INVESTIGATES gives you the opportunity to see BK thoroughly enjoying himself portraying the one eyed Scotland Yard detective who heads up the one-man “Department Of Queer Complaints” (a name that certainly wouldn’t fly today). The overall tone is slightly humorous even though 3 murders occur (one in each of the three stories depicted). Contrary to what is generally believed, INVESTIGATES is not part of the COLONEL MARCH TV series. It was shot in 1952 as a pilot episode. The TV series would be made later.
The three segments were taken from a series of stories by John Dickson Carr (1906-1977), an American writer of detective fiction who lived in England for a number of years and who used a number of aliases. The Colonel March stories were written under the name of Carter Dickson. The three stories were adapted by blacklisted American writers Walter Bernstein and Abraham Polonsky who did not receive screen credit. The director was Donald Ginsberg but, surprisingly, the direction is credited to Cy Endfield of ZULU fame who was another American blacklisted artist.
The film opens with Colonel March introducing himself and showing us a cabinet containing a collection of curios. The first one is a grotesque rubber mask. A masked thief robs a bank and kills a guard. A cashier tracks him to a lawyer’s office but the thief and the money have disappeared. Next out of the cabinet are a Javanese dagger and a ticket telling the story of a murdered Javanese performer. Finally a nosy neighbor sees disembodied gloves commit a murder. Inspector Ames of Scotland Yard (Ewan Roberts) investigates all three without success, so it’s up to March to figure things out.
The Carr stories used are HOT MONEY, MURDER IN THE DRESSING ROOM, and THE NEW INVISIBLE MAN. Joining Karloff and Ewan Roberts several dependable British performers including Richard Wattis, Sheila Burrell, Joan Sims, and Ronald Leigh-Hunt. The production values are minimal but if a quality print had been used, they would look better than they do. The same for the audio. It’s of variable quality but isn’t that hard to follow. Karloff’s voice, not surprisingly, comes off best. The music is by future conductor and arranger John Lanchberry. Episodes of the later TV series can be found online but they make this print look pristine.
The Capsule Critic 