The Four Just Men

While it is sadly mostly forgotten today, THE FOUR JUST MEN was in its day an important and influential television series. As one of the earliest productions released by ITC, it established the formula that would lead to a string of successful, and more well remembered, programmes in the 1960s. Taking its name from the popular novel by pulp fiction author Edgar Wallace, the series rejected the ruthless vigilantism of the book, opting instead for an entirely different approach to the basic concept.

The opening episode of the series establishes the premise. When four friends, journalist Tim Collier (Dan Dailey), British MP Ben Manfred (Jack Hawkins), law professor Jeff Ryder (Richard Conte) and wealthy hotelier Ricco Poccari (Vittorio De Sica), who have not all been together since World War II, arrive for a reunion at the country home of a fifth friend, Colonel Cyril Bacon (Anthony Bushell) they discover that Bacon has died and left them a unique bequest. Bacon believed that four just men could change the world, and has bequeathed his fortune to the others so that they may use it to pursue the cause of justice wherever they find it. The newly christened Four Just Men take up this call to arms, dedicating themselves to a battle that will carry them across the next 38 episodes, and over a territory that varies both geographically and thematically.

If one word was required to sum up the concept of the programme, it would be "diversity". With Collier based in Paris, Manfred in London, Poccari in Rome and Ryder in New York, the series offered our heroes a wide range of venues in which to operate. The generous amount of location work prefilmed in Europe and Britain featuring the regular cast and inserted into the episodes throughout the run certainly helped to give the series the look of a high budget production and maintain the cosmopolitan atmosphere. This international flavor would become a trademark of later ITC productions such as DANGER MAN, THE SAINT and THE CHAMPIONS.

The adventures the Four Just Men undertook also varied widely in nature. There were, of course, the usual assortment of murderers, swindlers, thieves, gangsters and foreign agents that one expected in such a series. However many episodes discarded such explicit villains and instead probed into the greyer and often grimmer areas of social injustice and human frailty, including racial hatred, moral intolerance and the persecution of the innocent by the ignorant.

Even the cast varied week by week. Each episode featured only one of the main stars in a central role, with maybe one or two of the others appearing briefly in a, usually literally, phoned in cameo. Each lead also had his own supporting cast member. Future AVENGERS star Honor Blackman appeared as Collier's girlfriend and assistant, Nicole. Hammer film actor Andrew Keir was Manfred's private secretary, Jock. Beautiful Lisa Gastoni featured regularly as Poccari's secretary Giulia, and June Thorburn occasionally appeared as Vicky, one of Jeff Ryder's law students. For the record the tally is Dailey 22 episodes, 10 as the featured lead, Hawkins 23 episodes, 9 as the lead, Conte 23 episodes, 10 as the lead and De Sica 15 episodes, 9 as the lead. Honor Blackman appeared in 10 episodes, Andrew Keir in 7, Lisa Gastoni in 6 and June Thorburn in only 4, plus one early appearance in another role before she was recast as Vicky.

The guest players were also an impressive assortment of familiar faces and future stars, including Cec Linder, Sheila Allen, Laurence Payne, John Van Eyssen, Patrick Troughton, Charles Gray, Jane Asher, Jack May, Judi Dench, Anthony Bushell, Ronald Howard, Ronald Leigh Hunt, Donald Pleasence, Kevin Stoney, George Pastell, Lionel Jeffries, Michael Ripper, Ewen Solon, Ferdy Mayne, Robert Shaw, Richard O'Sullivan, Philip Latham, Paul Eddington, George Pravda, Roger Delgado, Geoffrey Keen, Brian Worth, Alan Bates and Mai Zetterling. Special mention must be given to future ARE YOU BEING SERVED star, Frank Thornton who seemed to turn up in just about every second episode playing such characters as Desk Clerk, Auctioneer, Estate Agent, Police Constable, Hotel Manager, etc… In one or two episodes his character even got to have a name.

Undoubtedly due to its black and white filming and half hour format, THE FOUR JUST MEN did not enjoy the same extensive syndication other ITC series did after its initial release, and has unjustly faded into dimming memory and near obscurity. Fortunately the entire 39 episode run has recently been collected into a superb DVD release, so that modern audiences may enjoy and appreciate this classic television series.

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.

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.

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.