The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes was a 1971-1973 British television series about London by Gaslight detectives from both the Victorian and Edwardian Ages.
The program featured mystery stories and charismatic detectives written and created by contemporaries of Arthur Conan Doyle. For more click HERE.
Episode: FIVE HUNDRED CARATS (February 5th, 1973)
Detective: Inspector Leo Lipinzki of Kimberley, South Africa, a figure created by American author George Griffith. The first Inspector Lipinzki story was published in 1893.
Synopsis: We are now in the second and final season of The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes. In addition to his many “ancient” science fiction stories – reviewed previously here at Balladeer’s Blog – George Griffith also wrote the eight Inspector Lipinzki stories, which were later collected in the book Knaves of Diamonds in 1899.
For the first time in this series we have a story set outside Great Britain, which I found to be a welcome change of pace. Leo Lipinzki (Barry Keegan) works as a Detective Inspector for the Cape Police, but technically the already wealthy and powerful De Beers Diamond Corporation is who he really answers to.
Virtually all the murders, thefts and other crimes that Lipinzki investigates stem from IDB – Illicit Diamond Buying – amid the busy diamond mines and other establishments of South Africa. (And if you read the Inspector Lipinzki stories you’ll see that the acronym “IDB” is used ad nauseum.)
The episode Five Hundred Carats opens up with a murder that we eventually learn ties into the brilliant, seemingly impossible theft of the Great De Beers Diamond. Though in the original story George Griffith presented it as if the Inspector himself was relating the case to him, The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes substitutes the fictional “Mr. Cornelius” (Alan Tilvern), an American diamond buyer, for Griffith. Continue reading
THIRTEEN AGAINST FATE (1966) – Based on thirteen stand-alone crime stories by Georges Simenon, the creator of Jules Maigret, this BBC series was long thought lost except for three episodes which had gone unwiped by the penny-wise and pound-foolish broadcasters. In September of 2010, the entire series was discovered in America’s Library of Congress, finally making all thirteen episodes available. 
TRAPPED (June 26th) – Louis Bert, a carpenter turned petty criminal, lives in Nice with Constance, a wealthy woman he is conning. On the side he romances Lulu, a prostitute whom he passes off as his sister to the wealthy Constance. 
THE MAN HUNTER (1972) – This made for tv movie should not be confused with the later Ken Howard series of the same name about a 1930s bounty hunter. This telefilm starred Roy Thinnes as David Farrow, a Big Game hunter who plies his trade in jungle locations around the world. Farrow is hired to track down a deadly Cajun criminal who has fled into the Louisiana bayous. 
The Man Hunter opens with Clel and his boys pulling off a bank robbery which misfires, with Clel killing the son of the bank owner in the resulting violence. When the cops lose Bocock in the swampland the bank owner, Walter Sinclair (David Brian), seeks outside help.
HEIMSKRINGLA! OR THE STONED ANGELS – This was a pioneering presentation from WNET and first aired on November 6th, 1969. 
PETER PAN (1976) – This Hallmark/ ITV joint venture is not as good as the Mary Martin or Sandy Duncan versions or the original Disney animated movie, but its obscurity made it a “must review” item for Balladeer’s Blog. Dwight Hemion directed this telefilm with Andrew Birkin and American comedian Jack Burns (of Burns and Schreiber fame) adapting the screenplay. 
MIA FARROW, in her Rosemary’s Baby hairdo, portrays the title character with an accent on the little boy aspect of “the boy who wouldn’t grow up”. It’s interesting to watch her depict Peter’s cockiness as more like bravado to cover up how frightened he is. Not brilliant, but interesting. Her singing is okay.
RIVERBOAT (1959-1961) – We are less than a week away from Frontierado 2023, observed on Friday August 4th this year. For a combination Frontierado and Forgotten Television post Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at some of the best episodes of the old western series Riverboat. 
Grey Holden captained the Enterprise, but the more experienced Chief Pilot was Ben Frazer, played by the one and only Burt Reynolds. Riverboat was, for a television western, atypically set during the 1830s and 1840s. Some of my favorite episodes are historical fiction, featuring our heroes aiding Texas rebels during the Texas Revolution, clashing with river pirates, or encountering young Abraham Lincoln and a few other historical figures here and there. 
BETWEEN TIME AND TIMBUKTU – A SPACE FANTASY BY KURT VONNEGUT JR (March 13th) – Dated humor mars this generally well made 86-minute sci-fi story directed by Fred Barzyk and based on the writings of Kurt Vonnegut Jr. 
Balladeer’s Blog’s recurring feature Forgotten Television returns with this look at four television presentations of works by the Russian writer Anton Chekhov.
FIVE TOMORROWS – On February 5th 1970, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. hosted an NET Playhouse presentation of five short films which presented grim visions of the future. Vonnegut was interviewed and offered comments on the international shorts from the high flux beam reactor in Brookhaven (NY) National Laboratories’ center for advanced experimental research.
THE FEATHER AND FATHER GANG (1976-1977) – Happy Father’s Day, gentlemen! Back on Mother’s Day I reviewed 
In the tradition of Perry Mason and Matlock, Feather’s clients were always victims of frame jobs or bad circumstances, so her incorrigible father Harry inevitably resorted to extra-legal methods of clearing them. Papa Danton recruited some of his old conmen pals to help him in his efforts and dubbed the joint venture “the Feather and Father Gang.” 
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