greenbudgie

Art lovers collect to see a valuable painting called The Blue Landscape. The owner is horrified to find the painting has been replaced by a mediocre forgery. French Inspector Mondeau is on the case and he visits the Galerie Carpentier where he suspects he will find the work of the forger. He discovers the impoverished forgery painter has visited London via first class air travel from Paris. But then the forger is found dead. This is a 1955 teleplay in The Star and the Story series. It was good to find this Peter Lorre rarity where he is on the right side of the law for a change. He plays Inspector Mondeau and he gets to play a scene with his wife Celia as Mlle. Carpentier at her Galerie. They had been separated for some time and this was their only screen collaboration. This is interesting for whodunit fans and Peter Lorre fans.

Chopsticks Joe is cornered by a contraband investigator enquiring about a consignment on one of Chops' planes. The investigator, Major Ellis threatens to close Chops down if he doesn't inform him of the cargo being carried from Punaka to Singapore. Pilots Terry and Hotshot discover they are carrying deadly cobras which are accompanied by snake worshippers. One of the worshippers is a heavily veiled lady. The pilots then discover they have a dead body on their hands when a stowaway turns up having died from a snake bite. This is episode 14 of the Terry and the Pirates TV series. I reckon the later episodes are more interesting. I'm surprised the series never got a second season. Even though Terry and Hotshot didn't cotton who the veiled lady was from the start, I had my suspicions immediately. I like the deadly cargo and human smuggling themes of this episode.

A gold center is operated in the colony of Macao because it doesn't have restrictions in the movement of gold. When Cathay Air loses a consignment of gold through Hotshot's plane being hijacked, Terry and Hotshot go there in the hope of recovering the gold. They are drawn to The Inn of the 1,000 Swallows after they see Mr. Okura go into that club. Okura had been on Hotshot's hijacked plane. Also there is the Dragon Lady who runs a legitimate gold-smelting concern in the basement of the club. This is the pilot episode of the Terry and the Pirates TV series. It has Charlie Chan's son Keye Luke in the role of the suspicious Okura. He was in two other episodes of the series playing different characters. Mari Blanchard plays club singer Burma who is a character who appears in six other episodes but played by Sandra Spence. I reckon Gloria Saunders is good as the slippery and slinky Dragon Lady who is my favorite character in the series.