A farmer called John Dent (Arthur Comez) is annoyed to find a caravan parked on his land. When he attempts to rouse the occupants inside he finds them dead. He calls the police who determine that they are a recently married couple called Mr and Mrs James and they have been bludgeoned to death and robbed. The caravan has been completely trashed and £100 in cash, a diamond engagement ring and a camera are the items that have been stolen. The Yard, lead by Supt Reynolds (John Warwick), are called in and take the view that it was not the work of a criminal lunatic, but a carefully planned and premeditated robbery and double murder. Reynolds receives an anonymous tip off from a man telling him to search Dent's farm so a warrant is obtained. Inspector Travers (David Lodge) of the local police says that Dent has a particular dislike of trespassers and will not allow anyone to go near the farm. And he once maimed a trespasser so badly with his gun that it put him in hospital for a whole week. The police arrive to find themselves being greeted at gunpoint by Dent who orders them to leave; but his wife takes the gun off of him saying that they now have no option but to tell the truth. They have been hiding their insane son, Billy, in the attic ever since he attacked a young girl in the woods. There was no witnesses to convict him and the victim was too dazed to remember whom her attacker was. His parents knew but could not bring themselves to turn him in so they locked him up. However, Billy had found a way of escaping through a skylight and, on the morning of the murders, Dent had found him at the caravan covered in blood and with the camera in his pocket. Reynolds decides to take no action against Mr and Mrs Dent; nor does he believe that Billy is his murderer despite the police doctor certifying him as insane. Therefore, he concludes, it must have been somebody who knew that the James's would be camped up on Dent's land and they had valuables on them. But, whom could that person be? Does the local inn, The Swan, the centre of all local gossip hold the key to the mystery?
Compact, neat and enjoyable British crime short featuring an abundance of plot and intrigue. This includes a farmer and his wife who keep a once prosperous farm that has mysteriously fallen into dilapidation and decay and have a skeleton in the closet. There's a wild ex-German prisoner of war with a powerful motorcycle and a roving eye; and blackmail, robbery and a double murder are all thrown in just for good measure. And all of that in just 30 minutes! It is rigorously directed by Montgomery Tully, tightly edited by Ernest Hilton and John Wiles' b/w camerawork creates a vivid sense of place and a feeling for the mysteriousness. That is helped no end by Wilfred Arnold's settings, which include a few rural locations that must have been within a stone's throw from Merton Park but are very effective nonetheless. The best known actors in the cast are without doubt David Lodge and the veteran British character actor John Stuart who appears here as the murdered woman's distraught father. Like all the Scotland Yard featurettes, it is entertainingly narrated by Edgar Lustgarten.
