Paul Temple and the Spencer case

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Paul Temple and the Spencer Case is an eight-part radio play from the Paul Temple series by Francis Durbridge , which WDR produced in 1959 and aired for the first time from October 2 to November 20, 1959. The total playing time is 272 minutes.

Next title

The individual episodes of the earlier multi-part series were still provided with separate subtitles. From the Lawrence case onwards, with the exception of the Geneva case , the WDR evidently refrained from doing this.

action

The writer and private detective Paul Temple is on the return journey from Salzburg to London with his wife Steve . In the train's dining car they meet the impresario Robert Dreisler, who is on the way to his daughter Mary in London, where she is attending an acting school.

Once in London, the Temples learn that the girl has been found murdered in his apartment by the landlady Mrs. Thornton. Nothing was stolen. The day after the murder, a package with a record for Mary arrived in the mail . The cover letter read: "It was a pleasure! Sincerely, Spencer". But nobody seems to know this Spencer. Robert Dreisler, who asks Temple for help, shows him an anonymous letter that refers to a diamond brooch that a certain Adrian Frost is said to have given his daughter for a very specific occasion.

Peter Welles, who was secretly engaged to Mary, claims that Adrian Frost, posing as a writer, is directly or indirectly to blame for the murder. When the shady car dealer Clutch gives Brompton Temple the tip to listen to the record, he is hit by a car and seriously injured. The record titled My Heart and Harry has disappeared from the dead man's apartment. Mrs. Thornton claims to have seen her father take the record. But that is denied by Dreisler.

Judy Milton, a friend of Mary Dreisler, calls Paul Temple over to tell him something important. When the Temples arrive in front of the house, a shot is fired inside. Judy Milton is dead. Somebody wrote "Ask Spencer about My Heart and Harry " on a catalog lying next to the body . The next day, a letter arrives in the mail from Judy, in which she asks Paul to have a package picked up by his wife at the Neptune Club. In the parcel is the record in question. The crook Eric Lansdale tries unsuccessfully, allegedly on behalf of Adrian Frost, Paul to steal the record again. Frost vigorously denies any involvement in this matter. When Temple and Sir Graham Forbes finally get to put the record on, all they hear is a potpourri from Oklahoma! .

Terry Gibson, the director of the Neptune Club, draws Temple's attention to the ramshackle singer Pete Roberts, who is said to have sung the song Mein Herz und Harry on behalf of Robert Dreisler for a record recording. The impresario, on the other hand, claims that Roberts was able to choose a song himself. Dreisler, who originally wanted to hire Roberts for a new Broadway show, had to refrain from doing so because of his alcohol addiction .

Clutch Brompton, who is still in the hospital, tells Temple that it was Eric Lansdale who hit him back then and that he works for Spencer. Spencer is said to have bought a small Thames island near Henley with a bungalow on it two years ago and has been using it as a hiding place ever since. Steve receives an alleged phone call from Paul asking her to take the car to the hospital. Although the caller knew the agreed password, she has doubts. A short time after the vertigo was exposed, the Temples car parked in a large garage explodes. Steve discovers a listening device in the living room, with the help of which one could overhear the conversations of the Temples from a temporarily empty apartment.

From the fragments of an overheard telephone conversation Terry Gibson made from her office, Temple deduces that a person named Pete may need to be eliminated. He then visits Pete Roberts and warns him of a possible murder attempt. He also asks Inspector Vosper to take a specific person into protective custody and to find out which line Miss Gibson was on the phone.

The Temples went to Henley to take a closer look at the mysterious Thames Island. In the hotel lobby, Steve runs into Robert Dreisler, who claims to have visited a friend in Henley. When the Temples dock their boat on the island in the late evening, they discover the body of Peter Welles in the water. In the living room of the apparently uninhabited bungalow, the two find a place card from the Parisian nightclub La Mediterranée , on which Pete Roberts' name is listed as a singer. On the way back to the bank they are shot at by an unknown person. Only with luck can they get to safety.

Paul Temple learns from Clutch Brompton that Mary Dreisler and a few other people were part of a small group smuggling stolen gems from the continent into England and making a fortune. The fence and boss of the gang is a man who calls himself Spencer, and it was Spencer who murdered Mary. Clutch, who was one of the accomplices, learned from Mary that there was a record on which details about the organization were recorded, which was his undoing. In the wallet of the arrested Eric Lansdale, Temple discovers another reference to the Parisian restaurant La Mediterranée . Pete Roberts tells Temple of his brief engagement in this house and of his boss, a certain André Reynaud.

After talking to Terry Gibson at the Neptune Club, the Temples are almost run over by a car. As it turns out, the car belongs to Adrian Frost, who was obviously not the driver.

Sir Graham Forbes finds out that André Reynaud is apparently involved in a leading position in the jewelery smuggling, especially since he also flies to London regularly. When it turns out that he is on his way back to the British capital, Ritchie, a man from Forbes, is on his heels. Hours later, Ritchie is found dead in a burning car. The next day, Reynaud is caught by the police. Inspector Vosper and Temple discover that everyone else involved in the case has booked cabins on the Queen Elizabeth to leave the country for New York .

The night before the ship leaves, the suspects feel safe, but then Temple and a squad from Scotland Yard enter the ship. Temple reports that Dreisler, a key gang member, knew his daughter's killer from the start. Adrian Frost, who had fallen in love with Mary, gave the girl a diamond brooch when he assumed that Mary had separated from the smuggling gang. But Peter Welles, a professional blackmailer, persuaded Mary to record everything about the organization so that he could blackmail Spencer. Spencer killed Mary to get hold of the record, but Welles had swapped it beforehand. When Temple Roberts on the head promises that he is Spencer, he pulls a revolver to shoot his way free. But Temple can provide him.

occupation

Remarks

The radio play was first produced by the BBC in 1957 under the title Paul Temple and the Spencer Affair . The Temple couple were voiced by Peter Coke and Marjorie Westbury .

After Paul Temple and the Gregory affair in 1949, this is probably the eighth 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.

In 1998 the radio play was re-edited by WDR 5 for its crime series on Saturday and broadcast in five parts from October 24 to November 21, 1998. With a playing time of almost 267 minutes, this version was only slightly shorter than the original version.

Joachim Sonderhoff , who would later make a name for himself as a broadcaster, director and producer at the radio station WDR, worked as assistant to director Eduard Hermann in this multi-part series.

The Swiss actor, director and translator Pinkas Braun , who became known in Germany through the television series Jörg Preda , was also often active as a radio play speaker. The ARD radio play archive lists 53 productions in which he participated as a speaker. But this was his only appearance in the Paul Temple series.

Publications

References

  • Radio play (plot)
  • The internet database of the ARD radio play archive, accessed on February 12, 2011 (all information about the production).