The Four Just Men TV Series 1959 British production based on the Edgar Wallace Four Just Men series. ITC Entertainment made 39 episodes that aired between September 17 1959 and August 17 1960.
I saw them as a kid sometime in the early to mid 1960s. The only impression of that viewing was that I liked the show. It's one of the few shows that I saw back in the day that I was interested in seeing again. I hadn't seen them again until I watched the Network DVD over the last month or so. The DVD was released back in 2010 but I didn't buy it until 2019. I filed it on the To Be Watched shelves back then and it's been sitting there waiting for me. Since I've been on such a Edgar Wallace kick it seemed like a good time to watch the show.
The Four Just Men are Dan Dailey, Richard Conte, Jack Hawkins and Vittorio De Sica. They've banded together to fight injustice and help people in a jam. In the books they were much harsher, often dispensing a fatal brand of justice to those who avoided their just desserts. As the series progressed the men were pardoned for their war efforts and as a result they stopped any illegal activities. They still helped people but didn't kill the baddie. Unless it was in self defense.
The 4 just men in the TV show mostly keep within the law despite the occasional baddie getting killed. Again, in self defense. The episodes typically feature one of the men in his town, Hawkins in London, Dailey in Paris, Conte in New York and De Sica in Rome. The show was shot on location in Rome, London and Paris. Very rarely does one of the other men appear in person in another man's episode, usually the only contact they have with each other is by phone.
The plots are fairly simple, the show is only 25 mins, and typical of the shows of the era. The first episode has flashbacks to the Battle Of The Bulge where the four men meet. Modern day the four men find that their old commander has died, in his will he's left them a pile of cash, he wants them to form a group to fight injustice. In the second episode they protect a Middle Eastern prime minister from an assassination plot. In the third episode a friend of Jack Hawkins is killed after he learns the name of a German collaborator from the war. Jack travels to the town to expose the traitor. I've seen that traitor plot used in a couple of other TV shows of the era. The Saint has a very similar one. Something on people's minds back then, especially in Europe.
The writers were mostly people that I didn't know but a few were familiar: Gene L Coon, Louis Marks, Leon Griffiths, Gene Levitt, Frank Tarloff, T E B Clarke. A couple of them were blacklisted writers from the US. The directors include Don Chaffey, Harry Watt, Basil Dearden, Anthony Bushell, William Fairchild and Compton Bennett. There were plenty of guest stars I knew: Maurice Kaufmann, Frank Thornton, Robert Cawdron, Paul Stassino, George Pastell, Peter Dyneley, Honor Blackman, Ronald Howard, Basil Dignam, Patrick Troughton, Elwyn Brook-Jones, Mai Zetterling, Warren Mitchell, Richard O'Sullivan, Alan Bates, Judi Dench, Michael Ripper, Kenneth Connor, Phillip Latham, Donald Pleasence, Jane Asher and many I didn't know.
I enjoyed the series, no real complaints. I was glad to finally see them again. I hope to watch them over again some day.
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