Colonel March of Scotland Yard

Colonel March of Scotland Yard
Genre	Crime drama
Directed by	Cy Endfield
Starring	Boris Karloff Ewan Roberts
Composer(s)	Edwin Astley (9 episodes) Philip Green (1 episode)
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	26
Production
Producer(s)	Hannah Weinstein
Cinematography	Lionel Banes
Running time	30 minutes
Production company(s)	Fountain Films
Distributor	Official Films Peter Rodgers Organization
Release
Original network	ITV
Original release	1 February 1956 – 1 April 1957

Colonel March of Scotland Yard is a 1950s British television series based on author John Dickson Carr's (aka Carter Dickson) fictional detective Colonel March from his book The Department of Queer Complaints (1940). Carr was a mystery author who specialised in locked-room whodunnits and other 'impossible' crimes: murder mysteries that seemed to defy possibility. The stories of the television series followed in the same vein with Detective March solving cases that baffle Scotland Yard and the British police.

The series was made at Southall Studios in Middlesex, England and was produced by Fountain Films for ITV. The series premiered in 1955 with a total of 26 episodes. The show starred Boris Karloff as the urbane, eye-patched sleuth (no reason was ever given for the loss of his eye). Other regulars included Ewan Roberts as Inspector Ames of Scotland Yard and Eric Pohlmann as Inspector Goron of the Paris Sûreté. It was believed only twelve episodes of the series still existed as 35mm black and white prints, the rest having been destroyed (all 26 have been made available on DVD-R, with only "The Devil Sells His Soul" lacking a soundtrack). A feature film, Colonel March Investigates was also released, comprising three episodes of the TV series.

A related series Scotland Yard, hosted by Edgar Lustgarten' and starring John Woodvine, Russell Napier, and John Carlisle aired on the American Broadcasting Company in the 1957-1958 television season.

List of episodes

8 The Sorcerer 6 The Abominable Snowman 22 Present Tense 5 At Night All Cats Are Gray 12 The Case of the Kidnapped Poodle 18 The Invisible Knife 25 The Strange Event at Roman Hall 11 The Headless Hat 4 The Second Mona Lisa 15 Death in Inner Space 26 The Talking Head 16 The Devil Sells His Soul 21 Murder is Permanent 23 The Silent Vow 14 Death and the Other Monkey 19 The Stolen Crime 24 The Silver Curtain 17 Error at Daybreak 1 Hot Money 20 The Missing Link 13 The Case of the Misguided Missal 9 The Deadly Gift 7 The Case of the Lively Ghost 2 Death in the Dressing Room 3 The New Invisible Man 10 Passage at Arms

Availability on Home Video

The series has never been legally released to home video in any format. It has turned up in various grey market collections in poor condition, missing the episode "The Case of the Lively Ghost." The region 2 DVD release of the 1970 Karloff film Cauldron of Blood (aka Blind Man's Bluff) includes the episode The Silver Curtain.

External links

• Colonel March of Scotland Yard: "The Silver Curtain" is available for free download at the Internet Archive
• Colonel March of Scotland Yard: "Error at Daybreak" is available for free download at the Internet Archive