Scotland Yard s'énerve

"Time to Remember" deserves to be regarded as one of the best films from the "Edgar Wallace Mysteries" series. It has a good pace, a good enough narrative, the usual stellar cast and some intrigue (not of them have). Harry H. Corbett takes the acting honours as a shady estate agent who seizes on the opportunity of recovering some stolen loot after a robbery goes wrong. Speaking of which, that particular scene could also have gone awry as one actor is clearly making his way along a real rooftop! In spite of what one reviewer wrote, the above film is certainly available on DVD. It can be purchased on various websites.

The series of Edgar Wallace mysteries that this film belonged to were quite entertaining and were shown in the cinema before the main feature. It is interesting to see actors you remember, some of whom never progressed, some who were destined to play supporting roles for the rest of their career and some who went on to become major stars. In this film a gang of jewellery thieves rob a house which has just become empty on the death of it's rich lady owner a week earlier. Her jewels are still in the safe(!?). The robbery is not a complete success and one robber hides the jewels in the house as he's about to be captured. The house is put up for sale. Harry H. Corbett plays a struggling estate agent. A lady enquires about buying the house. This eventually leads to Corbett putting two and two together and guessing the jewels may still be there. The events unfold with a few twists and turns, making this a very watchable film.

"Time To Remember" must have been the English equivalent of our "B" programmers, with some obscure (to myself) actors and a very good story. The story is from Edgar Wallace, which accounts for the absorbing plot but the acting is unusually good for this type of movie. It has a Monogram or Republic look to it, almost a TV look to it actually, but production values are overshadowed by all-around professionalism.

It was made in 1962 and can be distinguished from a noir movie by excess lighting and by an annoying 60's go-go music track, but succeeds due to an interesting story and to the breakneck speed of plot development - the picture is only 55 minutes long on my copy and it goes by in a flash.

The reviewer above has already delineated the story and the male lead is Harry H. Corbett, who is not listed in the credits on the website. He plays an opportunistic real estate agent who stumbles on a bungled jewel robbery at an abandoned London house. I am not familiar with his other credits but he was excellent. The other players were more than competent with no noticeable weak spots. It is not available in any format so you'll have to get a copy from a DVD pirate, and it is worth your trouble.