Scotland Yard's Inspector Hammond (played by Ronald Adam) and Sergeant Conway (played by Bernard Fox) are called in when a man's body is substituted for a guy at a bonfire night display in the English countryside. This horrific incident took place in a field belonging to wealthy playboy Tony Nielson (played by Basil Henson) whose caretaker has disappeared. Extensive enquiries reveal that the murdered man is a 30-year-old immigrant called Sammy White who had recently arrived in Britain from Trinidad. He had one conviction for petty larceny, but was known to have associated with criminals Ferguson (played by Jack Taylor) and Miller (played by Victor Baring) who are in custody awaiting to be brought before the remand court. They are to be tried for an attempted robbery on a bonded warehouse, which was foiled because the police had been alerted to it by a journalist called Weldon. Hammond discovers that he had been tipped off by White who was then murdered for doing so. Before he can be questioned, Weldon also meets his death and Ferguson and Miller won't talk. Hammond gets Ferguson bail so his men can keep him under surveillance, but he is badly beaten up and left for dead in an alleyway. He is rushed to hospital and before he dies he tells Hammond whom the murderer is...
Another neat, compact and involving crime filler from the classic Scotland Yard series. It is entertainingly narrated by criminologist Edgar Lustgarten who explains the Yard's forensic techniques in a clear and concise manner whilst ensuring we can keep up with all the plot's twists and turns. There is an unexpected sting in the tail at the climax and there are a number of actors who will be familiar to modern day audiences in the cast, like Ronald Adam and Bernard Fox as the men from the Yard and Colette Wilde in a minor role as Basil Henson's girlfriend. The no nonsense direction is once again by Montgomery Tully, a regular on this series, and a real workhorse in the British industry of the period directing and scripting many crime second features and shorts like this. Philip Grindrod and Bert Mason's black and white camerawork enhances the attractive settings from the rural Home Counties to the back streets of Soho.
