User Reviews

The Man Who Was Nobody is one of the best in the Edgar Wallace series. Although one or two minor details in the story don't add up, the core narrative is good and holds the audience's attention at all times.

A slick young man buys a jewel with a cheque that bounces. He then disappears and both the police and a secretive lawyer try to find him. The lawyer hires a good-looking woman to track down the missing man and to tell him that "South Africa Smith is coming back" Her search leads her to beatnik cellars, smart, illegal gambling parties and prestigious mews in Chelsea. The missing man's body is later found in the Thames but the case is by no means over.

As with all the other films in this series, The Man Who Was Nobody is well photographed and edited and does not drag its feet at any time. Where this film does differ from others in the series is in the female lead. Hazel Court is far better looking and quite a bit sexier than most of the leading actresses in the other Edgar Wallace movies.

James Tynewood, a young man of fixed income and expensive tastes who doesn't believe in working for a living – easy with the money and even easier with the ladies - buys a ring ("There's no finer stone in London or Paris or New York") for some bird from a ritzy West End jeweller: price, 8 big ones. Then he disappears. His lawyer, against his better judgement, hires a woman, a Marjorie Stedman, played by Hazel Court (six months ago she wrote a story about beatniks. Pardon? You know, people who drink and gamble - OK, so she's no John Pilger) to find him and pass on a message that: South Africa Smith is back! Court goes undercover: by night with the beatniks in the attacks and cellars of Chelsea, at a casino (with Paul Eddington) and at the jewellers where Tynewood bought the ring with his fiancé. "I think she's a showgirl – the way she carried herself." Anway, Tynewood gets all washed up, literally, on the muddy banks of the Thames – death by manual strangulation – and it's left to Court and Scotland Yard to unravel this Edgar Wallace mystery.

James Tynewood (William Abney) is wanted by Scotland Yard for the theft of a diamond ring worth £8000.00 and also by a mystery man: a drifter known as South Africa Smith (John Crawford). But, Tynewood has disappeared and his lawyer, Vance (Robert Dorning), hires the glamorous private eye Marjorie Stedman (Hazel Court) to find him in order to warn him that South Africa Smith is back in Britain. Tynewood soon turns up dead, his body pulled out of the Thames although the autopsy shows he died from strangulation. Vance tries to take Marjorie off of the case, but she bluntly tells him that she does not believe that he has been entirely honest with her about it and vows to bring the murderer to book. She discovers the identity of "the mystery blonde" who was seen with Tynewood at the time of the theft of the diamond ring; a model called Alma Weston (Lisa Daniely) and she secures the apartment opposite hers in order to put her under surveillance. However, a man announcing himself as Smith forces his way into Marjorie's flat offering to help her track down Tynewood's killer, but he refuses to reveal what his connection to the murdered man is - is he the elusive South Africa Smith? The trail leads the pair to an illegal gambling club run by Joe (Kevin Stoney) and Franz (Paul Eddington) who also specialise in diamond smuggling. It transpires that Tynewood had been working for them, but they killed him after he demanded a bigger share of the profits. Vance and the police intervene in time to save Marjorie and Smith from being murdered too, but who is the mysterious South Africa Smith and why was he so desperate to track Tynewood down?

Efficient, unpretentious and entertaining, but not exactly remarkable murder mystery drama from the long running Edgar Wallace series. It has to be said though that even with its more mediocre episodes it was still of a much higher standard than one usually expects from quota quickies. This one relies heavily upon the acting and its plot twists to make up for its indoorsy settings and the lack of conventional action - the murder takes place off screen - and, to its credit, it is largely successful. You should be hard pressed to suss out why the mystery man, South Africa Smith, was determined to track down the murdered man until it is finally revealed at the climax. The solution when it comes does not score any points for originality and it relates to a long lost relative from South Africa and a stolen identity. Hazel Court offers the best performance as the bright and outgoing columnist Marjorie Stedman; while John Crawford, the imported American leading man who appeared in Alfred Shaugnessy's marvelous second feature The Impersonator (1960), is quite good as the drifter South Africa Smith. This is the only Edgar Wallace to be directed by Montgomery Tully who made several episodes of Anglo Amalgamated's featurette series Scotland Yard, which was also filmed at Merton Park Studios.