The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre (TV Series) The Malpas Mystery (1960) User Reviews

One of the best in the series!

[JohnHowardReid · 7/10 · 31 March 2018]

Producers: Julian Wintle, Leslie Parkyn. Langton Productions. Copyright Merton Park Studios Ltd and Independent Artists Ltd. U.S. release through Schoenfeld Films. New York opening: 21 February 1967 (sic). U.K. release through Anglo Amalgamated: 17 September 1961. Australian release through British Empire Films: 26 June 1962. 5,356 feet. 60 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: Framed for a jewel theft, Audrey Bedford leaves prison determined to find those responsible. She receives a job offer from a mysterious Mr Malpas.

NOTES: Number three in the fifty-picture Merton Park Edgar Wallace series.

COMMENT: An excellent entry in the series. Added to the fact that production values reach a much higher level than usual, the plot itself presents enough interesting twists to keep even hardened mystery fans on the edges of their seats.

Sandra Dorne makes a delightfully voluptuous villainess, and Ronald Howard shines as a very personable policeman. Support roles are equally strong.

Direction, acting, photography, script and music scoring often combine to produce an appropriately eerie atmosphere, coupled with a big assist from some fine art direction. If Sidney Hayers had allowed himself to be a bit more imaginative, The Malpas Mystery would rate as a really first-class thriller.

The malpas mystery

[coltras35 · 7/10 · 16 March 2023]

After Audrey (Maureen Swansea) leaves prison after being framed for jewel theft, she gets a job offer from the mysterious Mr. Malpas, triggering a plot involving a missing heir, diamonds and kidnapping.

Strange noises at night, a masked mystery man, a missing heir, stolen diamonds, a mysterious kidnapping, an undercover investigator, a sinister police inspector and a beautiful ex-con diamond courier. What is there not to join? Plenty of creepy atmosphere, thanks to a masked character who is a recluse. There's a lot of plot, however it's an entertaining story and well-acted by all. Ronald Howard is the hero.

Nobody is whom they appear to be, or so it appears.

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 4 November 2020]

As this is my first full viewing of one of the Edgar Wallace film series of the 1960's (even though I was familiar with the jazzy dance inducing opening theme), I didn't know what to expect. These films are approximately an hour in length, and obviously had some sort of theatrical release before being part of a syndicated British TV series. As an American, I was not familiar with any of the actors, so it was interesting to move into the series with one that had an easy mystery to follow yet kept me in suspense as to what was going on.

It seems that more than just a few people have a passing interest in the pretty Maureen Swanson who has just been released from a short prison term for an alleged jewel robbery, and while her sister Sandra Dorne doesn't exactly seem happy to see her, people that she introduces her to are. From these introductions, she gets a job offer, and there's also a subplot about her discovering that one of the people she meets is supposedly her father.

Ronald Howard and Geoffrey Keene (actors whom I have heard of in my study of British cinema) also play men of mystery. One of the men is rather perverted with her, making an unwanted pass, and then there is the obligatory murder. There's a chase upon a rooftop where some surprising plot twists occur, showing that in the series, pretty much anything can happen with a little imagination from the writer. Not bad, a decent time filler, and an easy way to start the series of 50 quota quickies that I've been discovering little by little in my research.

Sydney Hayers, of course !!!

[searchanddestroy-1 · 13 May 2012]

I am not so surprised that this Edgard Wallace Mystery episode is so tremendous. Look who is the director...

Sydney Hayers, the film maker from UK who directed so many films and TV series all over the years. One of best B directors from Britain. I'll put him on the same scale as Don Sharp, Robert Fuest, Don Chaffey and some others of this kind. They all provided good pieces of work.

I think this TV episode - or movie - is one of the best of the entire series. A terrific plot - already explained in the topic line - and above all a very impressive way of filming. Far away from other items from the same period which were flat and boring.

I recommend it.

Beautiful Sandra Dorne!!!

[kidboots · 8/10 · 7 October 2019]

Pretty Audrey Bedford has just been released from prison (she looks as though she is just leaving typing school!!) - she is upbeat and even though innocent of the charge, just wants to forget and get on with things. Initially given the cold shoulder by her step sister (luscious Sandra Dorne) suddenly she is welcomed with open arms by Dora and her sleazy boyfriend Lacy (the always officious Iain Cuthbertson). This was vintage Edgar Wallace - with things that go bump in the night and a terrorizing Mr. Malpas!!

This was one of the first of the series of Edgar Wallace Mysteries that did so well in the cinemas. "Malpas" was the only one produced by Julian Wintle and Leslie Parkyn who a few years later produced "Gideon of Scotland Yard". Audrey soon has a dashing detective (Ronald Howard, son of Leslie) on her trail - he is keen on her, knows that she has been wrongly imprisoned and wants to help find the culprit. She puts an ad in the local paper and is contacted by Mr. Malpas who wants her as a typist.

Meanwhile, in a subplot, a gentleman named Torrington (Geoffrey Keen) is searching for his daughter who he hasn't seen since she was a small child - Dora and Lacy see a way to cash in by trying to convince him that she is the one he has been searching for - they almost succeed but get a bit too greedy.

Maureen Swanson would have been one of the liveliest actresses in an Edgar Wallace Mystery but unfortunately she retired soon after to marry into the English aristocracy!!

Worth a look!!