Colonel Humphrey Flack

A precocious friend in school recommended this television show which was syndicated where I was living in the late 1950s (or possibly earlier). Upon watching, I was immediately hooked, which caused some dispute with my younger brother who wanted some brainless thing contemporaneously on another channel.

As a teen-ager, even before, I was entralled by the "British gentleman," a prejudice from knowing no other languages but Anglais. Verbal cleverness was an added attraction, and this was the legerdemain of Col. Flack. His foil's, "Which means?" entered into my vocabulary in short order. This show was sophisticated humour for its day in television -- to-day as well? -- and was one of the cobblestones on my very long and equally uncertain life's march to erudition for its own sake. As a (slowly) maturing boy I had role models built upon admittedly fictional representations by Niven, Sanders, and of course, Mowbray. Style is by imitation; it is not, as Prof. Henry Higgins points out, innate. This low budget and admittedly outrageous television show which I have not seen in forty years had its little impact, something I have never discussed anywhere before. Thank you for your attention.

Does television seem to get worse all the time? Then imagine what it must have been like almost 50 years ago! This wonderful comedy still resounds in my memory. Mowbray's delightful Col. Flack and his hard-bitten but game sidekick "Patsy" Garvey were con men, but with a twist: they preyed on other con artists, and usually saved the bacon of the innocent unsuspecting marks in the process.

One of the running gags was the Colonel's quoting something in Latin or some other language, to which Patsy would respond, "Which means?" Then the Colonel would deliver a pithy, often idiomatic (slang) translation. The one heard most often, usually when they were about to be found out, was "Run, do not walk, to the nearest exit!"

Alan Mowbray was _the_ quintessential English Gentleman (of dubious means), and Frank Jenks was the perfect flat-voiced, squinty American foil. The relationship between these two has definite echoes of the interplay between Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin in the Rex Stout stories.

I don't know if any episodes survive anywhere, but if any do, and you have a chance to see any of them, do so -- you won't regret it.

The fabulous Colonel Humphrey Flack was the great character actor Alan Mowbray and his sidekick or Aid de Camp was one of most under-appreciated character actors that popped up in all kinds of TV roles, e.g., a chief petty officer in Navy Log to Movies, a crook in a Dagwood and Blondie movie. His ski jump nose and round eyes between and over jutting cheek bones made his mobile face perfect for being the fall guy, as the huckster in Friendly Persuasion to the long suffering assistant to a good-hearted con-man in the series under review. Mowbray, one of Hollywood's well-known studio character actors, was delightful as the smooth-talking gritter who could turn a mark and leave town before the bad guys knew what happened to them. These two seasoned actors seemed to have a lot of fun in bringing their roles to the glass screen and it's a pity these old series are not available for old codgers like myself to check out. I seriously doubt if the young people of today would find the antics of these two wonderful impersonators as funny as we did back then.

I was thrilled to learn of the existence of IMDb.com so I could look for the wonderful TV show I watched and LOVED when I was a lot younger. For over 40 years now I've been asking people if they'd ever seen it or heard of it. No one had. I was beginning to think I had imagined the whole thing. This sounds EXACTLY like the show I loved with the only glitch being that where I grew up (Princeton, NJ) it was called "The Impostors". I'm sure it's the same show. Is there any way of getting copies of it? I would love to see it again! If anyone does know how to do that, please post that information. I agree that the level of wit and intelligence of shows like that are rarely seen on TV these days.And I am also happy to see the dozens of movies Alan Mowbray has appeared in because I bet they are all quirky and fun.