The Mysterious Bullet

I hold this 1955 dvd as one of a series entitled "Scotland Yard the complete series".Carol plays a farmer's daughter who as a red herring plays a crackshot in this murder mystery.Her mother was to marry the victim landowner but there is also her farmer stepfather who has a grievance with him.A quite absorbing mid 1950s short with some top "B" players.Today it is virtually impossible to own a .22 rifle in Britain with it's draconian firearms laws these days, compared to the time this film was made.

Edgar Lustgarten is joined by a ballistic expert for this instalment of Scotland Yard.

It begins with someone doing some poaching and is caught by the gamekeeper. They also discover a dead body.

Both of them were not responsible. The bullet that killed Davy Charlesworth came from a .22 rifle.

Charlesworth was engaged to marry widow Emilie Thatcher who lives in a farm with her daughter Julie and her brother. None of them have a .22 rifle as well.

Although the Scotland Yard detective suspect a man must have killed Charlesworth. They think again when they find out that Julie is a crackshot at the funfair. She was also having an affair with the much older Charlesworth.

I am not sure if Lustgarten actually needed the expert with him. He could had done the explanation himself.

It is another well constructed story, efficiently done with both mother and daughter as likely suspects.

A Poacher and Gamekeeper come across the body of the wealthy Davy Charlesworth, but who killed him, and why, Edgar Lustgarten is joined by a ballistics expert, who tries to shed some light on the obscure bullet.

I have to be honest, this is my third attempt to try and get through this one, today, I had double espresso and got through it. It's a decent enough storyline, but what an incredibly tedious and boring production, it just doesn't have any of the sparkle of the previous episodes that I've seen, it just ambles on.

It's so static, and that poor expert looks as though he's wandered in from Grace Brothers and desperately tries to offer help, whilst grinning too much.

There are some lovely characters, such as the zany mother Mrs Patterson, and the cluck or gossipy old ladies, who are titillated by the result at The Court house.

Very slow.

5/10.

If any wishes to add this uncredited appearance to character actress Edie Martin's filmography, who plays Carol Marsh's grandmother, and the culprit's mother, (as I have done with her Wikipedia entry), that should be quite helpful, as I find the process laborious. Also, I've tried to contribute accurate information in the past, only to have it rejected. I'm very pleased to have found it, and to have added the appearance to the record:- should it not be removed.

I like the Scotland Yard series. The center of attention is so much on the mechanics of the case that audiences simply don't have time to get bored. THE MYSTERIOUS BULLET is a good example, with director Paul Gheerzo (aka Paul Dickson) spending so much time focusing on the work of the ballistics expert that he scarcely has time to roll up the plot. That doesn't really matter, as the plot is a bit cliched at the best of times.