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Can you identify these 1950s actors?

Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 4:30 pm
by todmichel
These actors appeared in different episodes of the mega-rare 1952 TV series "Inspector Morley, Late of Scotland Yard, Investigates". Some were also, probably, in theatrical movies. Can somebody identify them? Thank you!

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Re: Can you identify these 1950s actors?

Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 5:33 pm
by missdupont
The title or year are wrong or both, because I have just been through the Encyclopedia of Television, Unsold Pilots, Short-Lived Series, drama series for the 1950s, Blum's Pictorial History of Television, and Variety Television Reviews for 1952, and nothing comes up for that title, or even part of the title. The closest thing was INSPECTOR MARK SABER. Nothing comes up under the producer's name either. It would have been fun to see LIFE WITH BUSTER KEATON in 1952, where he plays an assistant and handyman in a sporting goods store. Clyde Bruckman was producer and Karl Struss was cameraman.

Re: Can you identify these 1950s actors?

Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 6:20 pm
by todmichel
You are right, the generic title of the series doesn't appear anywhere, as this British 13-episodes series was never aired in Great-Britain, it was just shown theatrically - and partially - as two features and one featurette in 1952 and 1954. But it was aired in America, under this title, in 1954/55, on WGN-TV and others. The stills partially reproduced above comes from the British Film Archives where I got them years ago.
The two "features" (each composed of three episodes) were KING OF THE UNDERWORLD (rel. 1952) and MURDER AT SCOTLAND YARD (rel. 1954). The featurette was MURDER AT THE GRANGE, shown in recent years (and probably for the first time in England) on BBC. I have five of these episodes, one of them, THE RED FLAME, never aired or theatrically shown in England. The stars of the series were Patrick Barr (as John Morley), Tod Slaughter (as Terence and Patrick Reilly) and Tucker McGuire (as Eileen Trotter).
There is no really complete guide for British TV, really. Take a well-known series like FABIAN OF THE YARD. ALL the sources printed in England forget three episodes, which were never aired in your country but were shown in America. Even the list given by IMDb is incomplete. Among the three missing titles is MORAL MURDER, directed by Alfred Travers. Coincidentally, one of the guest stars of this episode was... Tod Slaughter (as "Mr. Palmer"). Co-starring were Hugh Latimer and Marjorie Stewart (as Mr. & Mrs. Mitchell). And all the episodes, including the three "missed ones", are preserved in the Canadian Film Archives, in 16mm prints.

Re: Can you identify these 1950s actors?

Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2012 11:31 pm
by Roseha
It would have been fun to see LIFE WITH BUSTER KEATON in 1952, where he plays an assistant and handyman in a sporting goods store. Clyde Bruckman was producer and Karl Struss was cameraman.
It's on Youtube here:


Re: Can you identify these 1950s actors?

Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 2:06 am
by todmichel
You can find all the available details I got on this elusive series at:
http://www.78rpm.co.uk/tva.htm#morley" target="_blank" target="_blank
This article is the result of personal search I started circa 1967, so, as you can see, books on British TV are far from complete. :(

Re: Can you identify these 1950s actors?

Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 4:48 am
by Penfold
Could the man top right be Howard Marion Crawford ??? His leaning over doesn't help .....but here he is as Watson to Ronald Howard's Holmes about four or five years later.... Image

Re: Can you identify these 1950s actors?

Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2012 2:32 pm
by todmichel
Unfortunately, I only have a still of this actor in this episode ("The Case of the Green Eye"), but I have this one on video and the pictured actor doesn't look like Howard Marion Crawford on the screen. Moreover, it was part of the KING OF THE UNDERWORLD "feature" (as episode #2), and H.M. Crawford isn't credited on screen. Of course, these old British credits are often incomplete, but I do have the 39 episodes of the "Sherlock Holmes" series and they are different actors.