The Vise: Mark Saber Vol 1

After the Danziger Brothers’ first series 'The Vise' Edward J. and Harry Lee decided to change the format for their follow-up success story THE VISE: MARK SABER. Here it was no longer Australian actor Ron Randell who introduced (but never featured in) all the episodes but one-armed South African actor Donald Gray – who also happened to take on the titular role as the memorable sleuth. For the Vol 1 release thirty episodes (made between 1956 and 1959) showcase the talents of this much in demand pipe smoking detective who could give Sherlock a run for his money!

With the help of various assistants and even inspectors, Private Detective Mark Saber proves he’s worth his salt when it comes to tackling murder most foul and other nasty cases though even without the help of his assistants, one-armed Saber is still more than handy when it comes to ‘a spot of bother’.
In the first nine episodes Saber has two assistants: secretary Judy (Teresa Thorne) and Barney O'Keefe (Michael Balfour) who does the undercover work (often with hilarious results). However, by the time we get to the last episode on Disc 1 ('File it under Murder') the two assistants have mysteriously disappeared and Saber, through coincidence, finds a replacement in Stephanie Ames (Diana Decker). We're off to a rollicking start with 'Manhunt' when Barney pretends to be a crook in order to penetrate a gang of criminals pulling a series of well-organised heists and it's his job to find Mr. Big. Balfour utilises his fake American accent (voguish at the time) and is well cast with some nice tongue-in-cheek liners, for example when he says to a mortuary attendant, 'I'd die to have a job like that.” Barney presents a good foil for the solid and upright Saber (who occasionally comes across as too authoritarian). The scene in the police station with Barney putting on a false front to ensnare the crooks is a little gem!

Among other highlights is 'Hear no Evil' (a Brian Clemens script from a story by Gwen Davies) and here we have a truly bravura performance from Iris Vandeleur as Miriam, a bedridden old deaf woman living in a house surrounded by her family of worthless dependents, all of whom want the old bag dead in order to claim their inheritance. Miriam gets to deliver some particularly nice lines in insults, such as referring to Barney as the missing link. With 'Murder by Design' we find ourselves in the midst of yet another good old fashioned Whodunnit when shady nightclub owner Lacey (Donald Stewart) hires Saber under false pretences to find a former associate and ends up murdered. Suddenly we have four suspects - all of whom had means and motive but using the Agatha Christie technique you should have fun working this one out.

If you thought Sid James looked great in drag wait until you see Balfour in 'There's Danger in Beauty' in which our team investigate shenanigans in a beauty parlour. Stephanie Ames (Diana Decker) turns up pretending to look for a job in 'File it Under Murder' as a woman hired by (unbeknownst to her) a snivelling little crook (Hal Osmond) to steal a file from Saber's office, which she does. Initially unaware that she's being used she soon wises up and Saber sees in her the stuff of a new secretary – which she does in fact become. Steph is something like the previous two assistants rolled into one although can be an acquired taste - many probably preferred Barney.
'Dram of Death' (by Ken Field) is absolute genius and despite the incredibly contrived plot has its comedic moments and hits the quirky spot only too well. Then again, it’s also pretty darn close to a Grand Guignol piece. When a friend of Saber's phones him, suspecting that the bottle of expensive vintage brandy given to him by his cousin is poisoned (she never gave him any presents before and they are the only two in line for a large inheritance) Saber, forever the professional, asks his friend to drop by with the brandy bottle. No sooner does the hapless chap embark from the taxi than he gets mugged by an alcoholic tramp and the bottle is stolen. This theft sets off an almost unbelievable chain of events and the ensuing twists and turns make the 25 minutes running time all the more fun!

'A Hatful of Trouble' has a very young schoolgirl somehow managing to get away from her nanny in the suburbs and appearing at Saber's Parliament Square office (completely unattended) with a fantastic tale of her suspecting her stepmother of being a spy. A real corker this one!
A young and underused Ron Moody turns up as a professional comedic imitator in 'The Hostage' (directed by Richard Lester no less) whilst Ian Whittaker fans will be delighted to see him again in a couple of episodes, one of which 'Bishop's Sometimes Bite' has him as one of a pair of clergyman in hot pursuit of gunman/ assassin Victor Maddern…

Hopefully all this has whetted your appetite. It is a moot point as to whether the idea of Mark Saber being used as the detective throughout was an improvement on the earlier series (THE VISE) but Gray does a fair job overall. You will also see the same faces over and over again. Patrick Holt plays endless different parts from good to bad and his real-life wife Sandra Dorne also crops up repeatedly. Brian Clemens wrote a number of scripts here but it is only in 'Hear no Evil' that we get an inkling of what was to come, namely The Avengers...
The actor Kieron Moore also directed a couple of episodes (having previously starred in Danziger productions) although the majority of episodes were directed by Ernest Morris. These are high quality productions for their time and well worth a look.

This 3-Disc set is presented in Blu-ray format and the episodes have been newly transferred in HD from original film elements.