The Teckman Mystery is a 1954 British film that's part of The British Film series from Network. Francis Durbridge and James Matthews are the screenwriters, Wendy Tove is the director. Francis had written a 6 part BBC production called The Teckman Biography in 1953. He wrote 16 other serials for the BBC including the serial Portrait Of Alison which was the basis of the movie that I had just watched the other day. I don't think I have heard of any of the rest. Wendy directed only a few movies but I see a couple of them are Kenneth More films so I might have a look and see if they are available somewhere.
John Justin meets Margaret Leighton on a plane, he's an author and she's reading his book. In their conversation he reveals he's been asked to write a book about a test pilot that just died in a crash. She turns out to be the sister of the pilot. When John gets home he finds his apartment has been broken into but nothing is missing. I wasn't familiar with John Justin but it turned out I had seen him in the 1978 film The Big Sleep. I barely remember him but I do like the movie.
That's John with Raymond Huntley, he's one of the government agents that are working with the police Inspectors played by Roland Culver and Duncan Lamont. Turns out they know that the test pilot, played by Michael Medwin, is alive. They don't have much hope in him staying that way, the villains that hired him to steal an F106 fighter plane are interested in ending his life. Michael changed his mind at the last minute and bailed out, the plane crashed and was destroyed. There's the usual double crossing and sneaking about that you'd expect in an espionage film. Not the sort of people you'd want to spend anytime with, too much of a chance to get knocked out or shot. It moves along nicely, the dialog is OK and I liked the characters. It has a bit of a sense of humor and I enjoyed the mystery. I was glad to have picked it up and would want to watch it again.
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