Barbados Quest

In London, J. D. Everleigh purchases a rare stamp from Geoffrey Blake who claims to represent famous stamp trader Robert Coburn. He does bring along stamp expert Lord Valchrist to verify. Later, he finds the same stamp with his friend even though there should only be one available for sale. He starts to have doubts and hires private eye Tom Martin (Tom Conway) to investigate.

This is a British crime drama. It is very much the old style mystery detective. It may be an attempt to start a franchise. It is more a howcatchem since the bad guys are right there. I like the starting premise. It is all very average and not memorable.

This thriller is above all enjoyable for its brilliant flowing conversation, vying with Durbridge and the Saint for elegance and smooth wit. It's all about stamps, faking them, stealing them, killing for them and getting away with them, which should be easy as they are so tiny, but some will raise all hell for the passion of their ignominy. Campbell Cotts as Robert Coburn steals the show by filling up the whole screen repetitively with his magnificent eloquence as bombastic as Robert Morley, while Tom Conway is smoothly smart and handsome to constantly get away from all attempts and sabotage on his reluctant investigation - this is a delightful thriller, no matter how little you know about stamps or how little they interest you - just leave the bother to others.

Given that this film was made for distribution by RKO Radio maybe it is not surprising that this comes out as a rather pale imitation of The Saint and Falcon films made by RKO in the 1940s,in which Tom Conway appeared.He is called "the Duke" and has a comedy sidekick who is feebly played by Michael Balfour>In fact I recall that one of the Saint pictures had a plot revolving around stamps.Here every cliché in the book is thrown in.Bodies that disappear witnesses who do a runner.Everything about this production feels tired and second rate not least Tom Conway who is clearly just going through the motions.Merely a time passer.

Murder On Approval casts Tom Conway the screen's former Falcon as a private investigator hired by Launce Maraschal an American who got swindled while he was on the other side of the pond. Although Conway says philately is not his specialty he takes the case probably because the considerable retainer of $10,000.00 has something to do with it.

The purloined stamp that was being sold from a private collection is only the tip of an iceberg. Conway and his trusty sidekick Michael Balfour get themselves involved in a nice little ongoing fraud involving a purloined rare stamp from Barbadoes from the collection of the late former husband of Grace Arnold. In fact Ms. Arnold is in some considerable danger herself from some who are around here.

The film which was shot in Great Britain and released in the USA by RKO has the look and feel of a television pilot. Conway like so many players took to the small screen as the B picture was being phased out of existence. He starred for a few seasons as Inspector Mark Saber on the small screen.

Given the budget and limited cast members suspects are not many and in fact it's rather obvious what's going on halfway through the film. Cute racket though.

"Murder on Approval" aka "Barbados Quest" from 1955 is evidently the second film about this character, Tom "Duke" Martin, a private investigator. In this one, Martin is hired by an American who believes that while in England, he paid $10,000 for an overprint of a Barbados stamp which he believes is fake. He wants his money back.

Martin flies to London and meets up with his Barney Wilson (Mark Balfour). Soon the two are up to their necks in fraud, murder, and robbery.

"Murder on Approval" doesn't have much of a budget, and Tom Conway in is a familiar Falcon/Saint type role -- a smooth, elegant ladies' man who gets in the way of a police investigation. Nothing new there. The attractive Delphi Lawrence plays the secretary of a wealthy woman who inherited a Barbados stamp.

Michael Balfour adds a little spice to the proceedings.

It's slow-moving and not very exciting.

Just okay.