User Reviews

THE DEADLY GIFT is a pretty interesting thriller from the Colonel March TV show. It stars blonde actress Sandra Dorne (a fixture of B-movie fare from the period) who randomly receives a mysterious carved box as a Christmas gift. The twist is that the guy who sent it to her has been dead ten years! She visits March who agrees to investigate.

This short tale is enlivened by the presence of a present-day murderer who works his way through the assorted cast members. Karloff and Roberts are posited as Holmes and Watson in this case which has a distinctive Holmesian flavour. Alongside Dorne we get a brief appearance from George Coulouris and a generally effective script.

Colonel March is on hand to help a friend, barmaid Duchess, who receives an inheritance from a wealthy benefactor, only the reward is a disappointing.

One of the best episodes, hands down, this one is excellent, it's an intriguing mystery, it's well structured and very well written, but the characters and solutions are excellent too, making the episode cohesive and consistent all round.

Sandra Dorne shines brighter than the previous stone, she is excellent, and so incredibly likeable, the character is very appealing.

Cracking, 8/10.

John Blake, an international jewel thief who died in a plane crash, leaves in his will a mysterious package to a barmaid to be given to her ten years after his death. In his instructions to his attorney, Harwood, he asks that not only the barmaid, Rosie Holland (known as 'The Duchess')' be present but also Colonel March. Blake and March knew each other and Blake thus knew of March's fondness for puzzles. As a frequenter of the pub where she worked, Blake only casually knew the Duchess but left her a gift as a token of his appreciation for her kindness. The gift turns out to be a worthless music box that plays the tune 'The Twelve days of Christmas.' The attorney is attacked and just before dying tells March and Ames that the attacker was after the supposed contents of the box - but there was nothing in the box. The unraveling of the puzzle of the box was very interesting but the best part of the episode was the friendly bantering between Ames and March. At one point, Ames teases March to which March replies "There is a crushing retort to that rather unkind remark if I could just think of it." And there's a wonderful bit where Ames and March try to remember the days of the 'Twelve Days of Christmas.' It was a hoot and one of the few occasions where Ewan Roberts as Ames is more that a rather bland sidekick to March. Also adding great value to the episode was Sandra Dorne as the Duchess. She made the Duchess such a vivid character. Highly entertaining episode with an intriguing puzzle and welcome dose of humor.

Episode 9, "The Deadly Gift" served as the Christmas entry, with Sandra Dorne playing pretty barmaid Rosie Holland, better known as 'The Duchess,' who receives a belated gift from a famous thief dead for 10 years, a music box that comes forth with "The 12 Days of Christmas" (recalling the 1946 Holmes adventure "Dressed to Kill"). George Coulouris plays her solicitor, Harwood, who hoped the box would contain a valuable emerald, and is murdered by a mysterious assailant searching for it. A lyric from the song offers a vital clue to Colonel March, who discovers the secret hiding place of the emerald before trapping Harwood's killer. Tommy Duggan pops up as Lawton, Rosie's boss in the pub, and John Gabriel plays a jeweller, but Coulouris is totally wasted in a nothing part. Sandra Dorne soon appeared with Christopher Lee in both "Police Dog" and "Alias John Preston," did two episodes of THE AVENGERS, and featured prominently in 1960's "Invisible Creature" and 1963's "Devil Doll" (performing a daring topless scene).