User Reviews

While working on a routine divorce case, Jeff Randall (Mike Pratt) witnesses a shooting in which a man is killed as he leaves a club. As Jeff is the only one on the scene he has to convince the police of his innocence by getting a statement from his client, which results in his losing the case. However, his luck seems to change when a beautiful blonde called Susan Lang (Denise Buckley) arrives at Randall's office. She tells him that she wants to hire him to prove that her husband, Paul (Edward Brayshaw), is having an affair with another woman. Randall does not hesitate to accept the job when she offers him £100 as an advance fee. But Marty Hopkirk (Kenneth Cope) is immediately suspicious, "Her aura is all wrong" he says. That night Jeff goes to the seedy Pelican gambling club where he finds Lang engaged in a Poker game but more disturbingly, he finds out that the husband of his lovely client is in fact a gangster tied up in protection rackets as well as gambling. Randall is warned off by the club manager, Alan Corder (Paul Maxwell) and his thugs who force him into a game of Poker deliberately fixing it so that he gets into debt as a warning not to interfere. The following day, Randall meets Susan for lunch and he tells her that he is in a good frame of mind to give up the case due to the fact that she did not warn him that her husband was "...public enemy number one!" However, Susan uses her charm to manipulate him and succeeds in persuading him to go to Paul's office and open his safe to obtain papers relating to his dodgy business activities as evidence for the divorce. But Marty appears warning him not to do it saying that "The trouble with women is they take you for a sucker and they're always right." But Randall is still determined to go through with it and he breaks into Paul's office to find him shot dead but not until he has opened the safe, which is filled with money. It is clear that Randall is being framed for Paul's murder and the police arrive and arrest him. In order to clear his name, Randall calls on Susan to come to the police station and confirm that she hired him to investigate her husband. However, the Susan Lang who comes to the station is not the same woman! She has long dark hair and not the curled blonde hairstyle worn by the Susan Lang who hired him. Naturally this woman denies ever seeing Randall at all. It transpires that Susan Lang and Alan Corder are lovers who murdered Lang in order to seize control of his empire and devised a clever plan to set Randall up as the fall guy. However, Randall manages to persuade the police inspector (Frederick Treaves) to release him in order to give him time to find the real killer and clear his name. He visits Susan Lang at her apartment and tells her the story of the blonde woman masquerading as her who hired him. Susan tells him that the woman is her sister and she offers to call her to come over and testify in his defense. Marty appears on the scene and sees the blonde wig in Susan's bedroom - she was both women! But Susan has telephoned Corder who arrives armed with a gun and the pair drive Randall to a disused lime quarry in Kent where they plan to dispose of him...

The Trouble With Women is another enjoyable episode in this classic series in that it features the usual chemistry between Mike Pratt and Kenneth Cope. Pratt's Randall is not the brightest of the two and is easily lead and he always ignores Marty's advice until it is too late and of course it usually ends up with Randall in danger of being murdered or being framed and Marty having to find some way of getting his partner out of it. But since he is a ghost and nobody but Randall can see or hear him, it makes matters very difficult. During the production of this series there were differences of opinion as to what direction the series should take with some wanting a straightforward detective show while others wanted to place a lot of emphasis on the comedic possibilities. The outcome in the end was a fifty-fifty split with some episodes sticking to the straight detective show format while others were more comedic. This one fits into the former category although there is one classic scene near to the climax that has its tongue placed firmly in its cheek. Marty visits a séance in the hope of passing on a message to the medium in order to get help to Randall. But he finds a queue of assorted ghosts including a sailor and a chef all queuing up to pass on their messages to their loved ones. "I have been on the waiting list for three months so you can take your place at the end of the queue." This offers the opportunity for amusement as well as suspense as Marty has to persuade the other spirits that it is vital he jump the queue in order to save his friend's life.

Mike Pratt and Kenneth Cope are as fun to watch as always as Jeff Randall and Marty Hopkirk (the ghost) while performances from the supporting cast are good but none of them are exactly inspiring. Director Cyril Frankel does his usual competent job and despite the limitations of studio bound sets, the atmosphere of London's seedy underworld is quite well conveyed.