Francis Durbridge: Paul Temple und der Fall Marquis

The temples (john bentley, patricia dainton) are hot on the trail of "the marquis", a murderer roaming the streets. He's even sent letters to the temples, daring them to catch him. Number one suspect is sir raybourne. That's the guest star christopher lee, who pops up in so many dark, mystery films. Lee also played saruman and some evil star wars characters. Of course, there's a running gag where the servant rikki from rangoon has been replaced by his brother sakki. And his cooking is just as bad. It's all okay. Nothing too special. Lots of suspects, and nothing too clever to tip us off as to who-dunnit. Directed by maclean rogers. Based on the story by francis durbridge. The original british title was "paul temple returns". A pretty rough copy of the film. The picture is okay, but there's a high pitched noise present for the first half of the film. And near the end, when they are in the warehouse, it's pitch dark for such a long time, with just nothing happening. Really brings the film to a halt. It's all just okay.

Not surprisingly this was the last Paul Temple mystery to hit the screen until the much later TV series with Francis Matthews.

With the obvious exception of a bearded and very saturnine Christopher Lee the only other member of the cast and crew taking the mystery Paul Temple and his winsome new Mrs Temple Patricia Dainton are this time investigating with any seriousness (least of all composer Wilfred Burns) seems to be cameraman Geoffrey Faithfull.

One of Edgar Wallace's trademarks was to have a gang of criminals led by an unknown person who went by such nicknames as "The Frog".In order to let us all in on the fun we would have a disguised glimpse if the head of the gang so that we could try and workout who was the ringleader.Here we are given no such help.We see a number of what are on the surface some unrelated incidents which of course in the end lead us to the head of the gang.I found that after the first couple of murders i became rather uninvolved and couldn't really care who was the chief villain.the film has a very decent cast but unless you are into this particular genre it is actually rather a bore.

Luminously pretty Patricia Dainton and handsome co-star John Bentley are the resolute crime-busting Temples, dangerously entwined in this ripping 50s murder mystery about a sordid series of especially grisly murders. This delightful trip into warmly crumpeted cinematic nostalgia includes an early, and no less magisterial performance from future Hammer Films icon Christopher Lee as the deliciously ambivalent, charmingly charismatic Mr. Felix. 'Bombay Waterfront' cannot be regarded as the most sophisticated Paul Temple thriller, but our whip-smart, sharp-shooting sleuth makes for an engaging hero hot on the dastardly trail of the wholly despicable criminal mastermind 'The Marquis, who frustratingly proves to be a most worthy and Machiavellian adversary for Mr. Temple! 'Bombay Waterfront' aka 'Paul Temple Returns' retains much of its period charm, being a serviceable, rather than sensational 50s B/W potboiler, but the entirely splendid cast effortlessly smooths the jaunty thriller's rougher edges!

This film, released in America as BOMBAY WATERFRONT, is the last of the four feature films made between 1946 and 1952 which were based upon the stories of Frances Durbridge and featured her character, the detective Paul Temple. Anthony Hulme played Temple in the first film (SEND FOR PAUL TEMPLE, 1946, see my review) and John Bentley played the character in the succeeding three films, including this one. Temple's wife 'Steve' was played in succession by Joy Shelton, Dinah Sheridan (twice), and Patricia Dainton here. The third film in the series, PAUL TEMPLE'S TRIUMPH (1950) is unavailable, having never been released on video or DVD. The other three are readily available on DVD in digitally remastered form. CALLING PAUL TEMPLE (1948, see my review) is a rather limp and unsatisfactory film. This one is much better. The atmosphere is mysterious and effective, despite the low budget. John Bentley is an engaging, if somewhat lightweight, hero. One of the finest performances in the film is by the seventy-something Peter Gawthorne, as Sir Graham Forbes, the head of Scotland Yard. The young Robert Urquhart, later a fine actor, is strangely ineffectual here. Christopher Lee, who had already appeared in many films, does well as usual. This story is based on Durbridge's radio serial PAUL TEMPLE INTERVENES, which was broadcast on the BBC in 1952. The story concerns a series of mysterious murders of people who appear to have no connection with one another. But eventually the common thread is discovered to be a secret papyrus recently excavated in Egypt by the character played by Lee, which contains the antidote for all narcotic drugs, and could destroy the world narcotics cartels if it became known. The unknown killer calls himself 'The Marquess', though the reason for the name is never given. There are many candidates for 'The Marquess', and it is made as difficult as possible for us to guess his or her identity. The film is very entertaining if you like this kind of thing. There are numerous interesting shots of the London streets as they were in 1952, particularly at night.