The Four Just Men

Jack Hawkins played Ben Manfred, a member of Parliament. Andrew Keir ("Quatermas and the Pit") played his young assistant Jock.

Dan Dailey played Tim Collier, an American foreign correspondent working in Paris. Tim lived on a houseboat in the Seine. Honor Blackman ("Pussy Galore") played his lovely associate Nicole.

Richard Conte played Jeff Ryder, a professor of law at a New York City university that looked like Columbia. Ryder's office had a spectacular view of Manhattan. June Thorburn was his pretty secretary. (Thorburn died in a plane crash at 36.)

Vittorio De Sicca played Ricco Poccari, the owner of a luxury hotel in Rome. Lisa Gastoni ("Cuore Sacro") was his shapely young assistant.

The Four Just Men had worked together on a mission during World War 11, and they pledged at that point to dedicate their lives to righting wrongs. I think this was shown in the pilot episode, which I haven't seen.

This 30-minute series was syndicated in 1959-60. In New York City, it played Thursday nights at 7:00 on WNBC.

Each episode had only one of the four stars, although occasionally there would be a scene where the hero confers briefly with one of the other just men.

This was a production of ITC and Sapphire Films. Sapphire's other series included the superb "Adventures of Robin Hood" with Richard Greene and "The Buccaneers" with Robert Shaw as pirate Dan Tempest.

Sidney Cole was the producer. Cole had produced "The Adventures of Robin Hood", and would go on to produce other first rate ITC shows like "Danger Man/Secret Agent" with Patrick McGoohan and "Man in a Suitcase" with Richard Bradford.

Basil Dearden directed thirteen episodes of "Four Just Men". Dearden was a fine director whose films included "Victim", "Sapphire", "Khartoum", and "Woman of Straw".

"The Four Just Men" is based on a movie that was made in 1921 and then remade in 1939. The movies were based on a novel by Edgar Wallace. In the novel, four British veterans of World War l pledge to use their different professional specialties to fight injustice. They decide that the British Foreign Minister, whose policies they consider dangerously weak, must go. This vigilante aspect of the heroes was not used in the TV series. There is an interesting summary of the book in a review of the 1939 movie on this site.

Why is so little information given? This was a 1959 Sapphire Films television production made for ITC Entertainment. The stars were (in no specific order) Vitorrio De Sica, Richard Conte, Jack Hawkins and Dan Dailey. All the information given is available on Wikipedia and should be credited to Wikipedia. I feel that it was an interesting and rather brave television series for it's time. The main star,generally speaking, changed every week over four weeks; hence the four different stars. This was because the adventures were based in London, Paris Rome and New York. Honor Blackman, later of The Avengers, played an occasional supporting role. One of the things that was important, for me, was that this series used (in my opinion), seriously experienced, talented and world renowned, actors.

Somebody should help me out with this as there are absolutely no clues or mnemonics in the title page. After all, it was over 40 years ago when I saw the series.

OK. There are four men chosen by an international convention (The International Court of Justice? Interpol?) to track down criminals all over the world. They are policemen and judges. They are not even armed nor are they martial arts experts but they get their men through sheer physical courage, their knowledge of police work and the law. I particularly enjoyed the episodes with Jack Hawkins and Richard Conte.

Although I have seen Jack Hawkins in less than heroic roles (as a thief in a Playhouse 90 episode and as a cynical General Allenby in Lawrence of Arabia), I have never been dismayed when I saw him portraying rather unsavory characters. But I got a jolt when I saw Richard Conte after so many years as a Mafia Don in The Godfather because my memory of him was as one of the Four Just Men.

Based on the novel by Edgar Wallace. A film was made in 1938 where they were taking action against fascits. However this TV series is far from clear as to just what they were. This makes for a confusing time when they get involved in situations which really have nothing to do with them. Many of the stories are flimsy. So it is little surprise that this series has not been taken up for televising since its original run.

Four friends from across the globe unite for one common cause, to fight crime and injustice. Together they form The Four Just Men, they are Ryder, Manfred, Collier and Poccari, there is no case they won't tackle.

It's a very consistent, watchable and intriguing series. The best thing about it, the format allows for a huge variety of crimes and stories, not only do we get different crimes and locations, but we also get very different points of view, the way Manfred approaches a case is worlds away from Poccari's for example.

Production values vary, generally very good, sometimes terrific, there are some amazing shots of Italy for example, making the show feel way ahead of the competition in terms of quality, it doesn't often look and feel studio bound.

I prefer the earlier episodes if I'm honest, they tend to be a bit more original, as it nears the end, a few below par ones creep in, the one with Kenneth Connor, and the one with The Matador are the low points.

There are numerous great episodes, my personal favourites are The Deserter, The Man who wasn't there, and the pilot episode, which successfully introduces us to the characters and the format.

Look out for the likes of Lionel Jeffries, Donald Pleasance, Mai Zetterberg, Eric Pohlmann, Roger Delgado, Patrick Troughton and many more.

One thing you can do is count the number of episodes that Frank Thornton appeared in, the Are you being served star appeared in various different roles, Auctioneers, Policemen and dignitaries.

Worth getting the dvd to enjoy over again, it's a quality series.

8/10.