Paul Temple and the Gilbert case

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Paul Temple and the Gilbert case is an eight-part radio play from the Paul Temple series by Francis Durbridge , which WDR produced in 1956 and broadcast for the first time from January 4 to February 22, 1957. The total playing time is 290 minutes.

Title of each episode

  1. Sentenced to death
  2. The third shoe
  3. Peter Galino
  4. La Mortola
  5. Premonitions
  6. A warning from Miss Wayne
  7. The letter
  8. Hamilton

action

The writer and private investigator Paul Temple and his wife Steve are in the middle of holiday preparations. Wilfried Sterling shows up with them. His daughter Brenda, a mannequin , was murdered some time ago. On the basis of evidence and the testimony of a questionable witness named Mary Talbot, who claims to have seen Brenda's fiancé Howard Gilbert near the crime scene, the latter is sentenced to death. The execution is expected to take place in a few days. Sterling is now convinced of the innocence of the convict and now asks Temple for help. In his daughter's pocket diary he finds the entry L. Fairfax twice followed by a time. But nobody seems to know a Fairfax.

At the fashion salon where Brenda worked, Steve and Paul learn from Betty Wayne that Brenda was friends with her colleague June Michael. The Temples find June who appears to have committed suicide. As with Brenda Sterling, the left shoe is gone.

Lance Reynolds, a good friend of Gilbert's, brings Temple a letter in which a certain L. Fairfax suggests that the convict may be innocent and asks whether the dead man was missing a shoe. Shortly afterwards, Inspector Kingston, who was investigating the Gilbert case at the time, calls Temple and tells him that a Zum Lord Fairfax inn has been found in the county of Surrey . The Temples learn from the host Metcalf that it was not Brenda but her father who was accompanied by June Michael. Sterling confirms this, but hadn't noticed the name of the place. Temple visits Howard Gilbert in prison, but he doesn't know a pub or a person by the name of Fairfax. Temple firmly believes that Gilbert is innocent.

When the Temples visit Mrs. Talbot, they find the apartment unlocked and no one seems to be home. Then the phone rings and Steve picks up the phone. On the other end of the line is Lance Reynolds. Since he thinks Steve is Mary Talbot, he tells her that Hamilton is in town and that she should watch out for the third shoe. Shortly afterwards, an ordinary woman appears in the apartment who pretends to be Mrs. Talbot and repeats her testimony to the Temples. A surprise awaits the couple at home. Inspector Kingston reports that Mary Talbot was found murdered a few hours ago and that the dead man is missing a shoe. When Temple and Kingston rush back to the apartment, they find it in a completely devastated condition. Then Peter Galino, the friend of the murdered, appears and claims that Mary Howard could not have seen Gilbert near the scene of the crime because she was with him at the time in question. He also watched Mary meet Betty Wayne in the elegant La Mortola nightspot .

The Temples watch Wilfried Sterling as he leaves the house in which Betty Wayne has an apartment. In the back seat of their car they find the beaten up Peter Galino. Before passing out, he says that Hamilton is the man who is looking for Temple and who can be found in La Mortola . Lynn Ferguson, who oversees La Mortola on behalf of Scotland Yard , introduces Paul and Steve to the club. The club's owner, Louis Fabian, claims not to know any Hamilton. Mrs. Talbot was never there either. However, he does know that Lynn Ferguson is a police officer. On the way home they discover the "wrong Mrs. Talbot" in a taxi. They follow the car and find that the woman enters Wilfried Sterling's house on Darlington Street. Shortly afterwards, shots are fired at the temple wagons.

Lynn Ferguson didn't get home after going to the club. A shoe from Lynn is sent to the Temples. When Temple visits Galino in the hospital that afternoon, he revokes his earlier statements. The fact that Galino met Mary Talbot a year ago in a library is obviously extremely important information for the detective. When Temple learns that Mrs. Talbot has checked out two books, one on photography and an encyclopedia of social sciences , he is very pleased. Back home, the Temples meet Miss Ferguson in their living room. She says she was kidnapped and taken to a house where she was given an injection that appeared to contain a truth drug. When it was learned that she was not investigating the Hamilton case, she was released.

On a visit to La Mortola , Temple is advised by Betty Wayne not to go to Reading . In fact, shortly afterwards, Fabian asks him to visit a former colleague in Reading who would be willing to testify about various facts in the case. Paul, who now knows who Hamilton is, recognizes the trap and does not keep the appointment. He finds out that Wilfried Sterling rented the apartment through Miss Wayne and installed a bugging device there. When Lance Reynolds accidentally meets Steve the next day and drives home, his car is deliberately rammed by another vehicle.

After Betty Wayne receives a letter from Temple, she is ready to tell the whole story. A man named Larry Boardman, who was friends with June Michael, stole a brooch worth about £ 50,000 from a wealthy South American woman. When he became fatally ill, he gave June a microfilm showing the location of the brooch. When she realized that other people were also interested in the hiding place, June split the film into three parts, hid them in the heels of three pairs of shoes, kept one pair to herself, and gave the other pairs to Brenda Sterling and Betty Wayne. Betty Wayne later sold her stake for £ 1,000 to Mary Talbot, who was acting on behalf of a third party.

The next evening, at Temple's request, Betty Wayne throws a cocktail party in her apartment, to which everyone involved in the case is invited. Temple explains that it was Hamilton who was after the microfilm too, killing Brenda first and faking suicide in June Michael’s case. Then he had Mrs. Talbot buy up the third part of the film and then also killed her because she asked Hamilton a significantly higher sum. Hamilton also caused Mary Talbot to make the false testimony in order to be able to pass the first murder on to Gilbert. When Temple Louis Fabian indirectly accuses of being Hamilton, the latter draws a gun and flees the apartment.

The next evening the Temples meet Inspector Kingston in La Mortola . Paul tells him that Lance Reynolds, who found out about the film from his girlfriend Betty, was after the film just like Wilfried Sterling. When they realized that Hamilton was killing Brenda, they went out of their way to save Howard. Mary Talbot, for her part, tried to blackmail Hamilton; she didn't know him personally, but she had a guess. To get clarity, she looked in the encyclopedia of the social sciences , because there are also biographical information on some employees of the CID (Criminal Investigation Department) listed. There she came across the name of Inspector Kingston. Kingston escapes into Fabian's office, where he starts a fire and is killed in the process. Howard Gilbert is released from custody the following day.

occupation

Remarks

The radio play was first produced by the BBC in 1954 under the title Paul Temple and the Gilbert Case . The Temple couple were voiced by Peter Coke and Marjorie Westbury .

After Paul Temple and the Gregory affair in 1949, this is probably the sixth multi-part series that WDR or its predecessor, NWDR Cologne , produced in its Paul Temple series . The ARD radio play archive, however, has another multi-part series entitled A case for Paul Temple from 1950, which is said to be the Valentin case . The WDR in Cologne could not confirm this information on request.

Werner Lieven, who spoke here for criminal inspector Kingston, was one of the busiest voice actors in the Federal Republic of Germany for over 20 years . He was also active as a speaker in numerous radio plays. He had his most famous role on camera in 1960 as Hans Schott in the five-part street sweeper on the green beach of the River Spree from Fritz Umgelter .

Ernst Ginsberg took part in another Paul Temple radio play in 1959, but this time for Bayerischer Rundfunk , which, under the direction of Willy Purucker, produced its only multi-part series about the London private detective with Paul Temple and the Conrad case . Paul and Steve spoke here to Karl John and Rosemarie Fendel .

Publications

References

  • The radio play (plot)
  • The internet database of the ARD radio play archive, accessed on January 31, 2011 (all information about the production).