The Four Just Men

Crime 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.

The Four last met in battle during the Allied invasion of Italy in 1943 before being summoned many years later to Foxgrove Manor, to hear a message recorded shortly before his death by Colonel Bacon (Anthony Bushell), their wartime commanding officer. He appeals to them to form a quartet dedicated to fighting injustice and tyranny. The Colonel has left a large sum of money for that purpose. They agree and become the Four Just Men.

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 (very loosely) based on a novel by Edgar Wallace originally published in 1905 (Wallace's characters were more vigilantes than detectives), this ITC series (produced by Sapphire Films at Walton Studios, and on location in Britain, France, and Italy) 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).

Filming of the 39 episodes, each 25 minutes long, began during January 1959, and lasted for five months, using up to seven units in the studio or on location, and producing two or three episodes simultaneously. But it was the last series produced by Sapphire who was owned by Hannah Weinstein, the US born producer best remembered for The Adventures of Robin Hood.

The success of Robin Hood led Weinstein to create a further four television series, The Buccaneers (1956–57), The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (1956–57), Sword of Freedom (1958–60) and finally The Four Just Men (as Hannah Fisher). Sapphire’s operations ceased abruptly in the winter of 1961, as a result of financial mismanagement on the part of Weinstein's husband, Jonathan Fisher, and her empire totally collapsed. Shortly after, she returned to New York where she eventually re-established herself as a film producer.

The now defunct company Network released the 39 episodes in August 2010 as a five-DVD boxset. None of its four leads had previously been cast as regulars in a television series and this paved the way for later adventure series combining crime-fighting adventure and exotic locations (such as Riviera Police / The Persuaders). It wasn't the best example of the genre, but it was one of the first.