The Four Just Men
1959 - United KingdomCrime and mystery series that starred Jack Hawkins (as British M.P. Ben Manfred), Hollywood song and dance man Dan Dailey (as US journalist Tim Collier -who was based in Paris), Richard Conte (as New York Professor of Law, Jeff Ryder) and Vittorio de Sica (as Italian hotelier Ricco Poccari) all of whom had been members of the same unit during the war. They took turns each week in tackling an injustice (the episode being set in either London, New York, Paris or Rome) and each was aided by a female assistant, one of whom was future 'Avenger' Honor Blackman.
Loosely based on a novel by Edgar Wallace originally published in 1905 (Wallace's characters were more vigilantes than detectives), this ITC series was really one of the very first to throw together so many top ranking international stars and as a result enjoyed a fair amount of success during its two year run (more likely due to its stars than story quality), paving the way for later adventure series combining crime-fighting adventure and exotic locations. It wasn't the best example of the genre, but it was one of the first.
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Published on December 13th, 2018. Written by Laurence Marcus for Television Heaven.
