The Colonel March TV series premiered first in the United States from Dec. 1954 to Spring of 1955, with a total of 26 episodes. It first premiered in England in 1955 on Associated Television (ITV London, weekends), broadcast on 26 consecutive Saturday evenings from 24 September 1955 until 17 March 1956. [3] Fresh Clue: In "Death in the Dressing Room", March feels the palm of the Body of the Week before it is moved, much to Inspector Ames' confusion. Later March reveals that her hand was bone dry and not covered in oil as it would have been if she had been dancing, meaning that she had been killed before the floor show and that someone else had taken her place. Some years ago, I worked my way through Thr Colonel March series, and for its time, I always felt it was somewhat ahead of its time, it really has that feeling of a 1950's American TV series, but of course it's set in The UK, with a largely British cast. This film version is an anthology of three episodes from the show, all of them featuring a typically imposing Karloff as the eyepatch-sporting hero. It's always great to see the genial Karloff playing the hero for a change, and his gruff charm adds immeasurably to the pleasure of this otherwise rather ordinary little anthology. My main disappointment with COLONEL MARCH INVESTIGATES is that the supernatural stuff is kept distinctly limited in favour of the more ordinary explanation. Sword Cane: March's iconic umbrella is also a sword cane. He undoubtedly bought it at the same place as John Steed.

The first three made were stitched together for release to cinemas in 1953. This was not uncommon for a TV show at the time and the practice would continue into the next decade, particularly with The Saint. Colonel March Investigates, then, is a taut 70 minute anthology of three slight, though entertaining, mysteries with the twinkly-eyed Karloff. He gives the character an eye-patch, which he didn't have in the stories, but it adds something to the character, as we can imagine he may have lost it in the First World War. This, perhaps, is someone who has witnessed untold horrors and has come to terms with the world by engaging with its more whimsical wonders. The show starred Boris Karloff as the urbane, tweed-wearing, eye-patched sleuth. No reason was ever given for the wearing of the patch. Other regular actors included Ewan Roberts as Inspector Ames of Scotland Yard and Eric Pohlmann as Inspector Goron of the Paris Sûreté. (In the episode "The Second Mona Lisa", Pohlmann played a Middle Eastern character called The Emir.) Roberts' Scottish accent grows stronger as the series progresses, from posh English in the some episodes to strong Scottish burr for others.In Britain, the series was initially evaluated in the larger context of the programming of the newly launched ITV. Critic Bernard Levin opined: "If there were only something of signifiant badness, then one could at least take a hatchet to it. But who could take a hatchet to Wilson, Keppel, and Betty, stars of Saturday night's variety programme, or to the adventures of 'Colonel March of Scotland Yard', the intellectual content of which is the nearest thing to a hole I have ever seen?" [4] List of episodes [ edit ] Episode [ clarification needed]

Boris Karloff is great as Colonel March, an eye patch wearing, straight talking Detective, who often talks directly to the camera. Find sources: "Colonel March of Scotland Yard"– news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR ( December 2017) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Tropes:

A compendium of three adventures for Boris Karloff as the eye-patched Scotland Yard man in charge of D3 - Department for Queer Complaints (really). Stitched together (without ceremony) as a plug for the British television series, it clearly worked, since twenty-odd subsequent episodes appeared over the next four years, keeping Karloff in genial, efficient work. It Works Better with Bullets: When March exposes the mysterious 'Monsieur Z' in "The Headless Hat", Z tells March that he is very clever and then pulls a gun. March tells Z that the gun won't help him because it is empty. Z pulls the trigger only to discover that March is telling the truth. A Deadly Affair: In "Death in Inner Space", a scientist discovers that his assistant is having an affair with his wife. He murders the assistant by sabotaging the breathing apparatus being used in a space flight simulation. As Himself: In "The Case of the Misguided Missal", Real Life Stage Magician Chan Canasta appears as himself: brought in by March to demonstrate how the missing book could have been stolen from the safe.