Barbados Quest (aka Murder on Approval)

A Trans-Canada plane (Lockhead L-1049 Super Constellation) lands at London Airport with Mr Everleigh (Launce Maraschal) aboard.

Following Mr Everleigh’s purchase of the over printed Barbados stamp through the offices of Robert Coburn (Campbell Cotts) and its manager Geoffrey Blake (Brian Worth) he returns to New York unable to disclose his ownership for six months.

Events suggests to Everleigh that he has bought a fake and he wants his £10,000 back. He calls in Tom Martin (Tom Conway) to investigate who immediately catches a plane to London. It looks like a Lockheed 749 Constellation airliner flown by TWA

At the airport he is met by his friend Barney Wilson (Michael Balfour) and they drive in a borrowed Jaguar Mk V to an apartment he has fixed for them. Haven Green Court, Haven Green London W5 also seen in ‘Doctor in Distress’, ‘Echo of Diana’, ‘Danger Route’ and others.

They pull up at the main entrance, Barney knows his place as porter. Haven Green Court, Haven Green London W5

There are a few entrances but this immediate on the left after entrance fits the bill with the window arrangement. SJ

Finding that Robert Coburn knows nothing of the sale Tom decides that it is appropriate to visit Lady Hawksley (Grace Arnold) who is disposing of her late husband’s estate that includes the stamp. The entrance drive to 352 Jersey Road, Isleworth, Middlesex seen in the following capture as advised by CM.

A house befitting to aristocracy. 352 Jersey Road, Isleworth, Middlesex. (CM) Also seen in 'Stranger in Town'.

Whilst Lady Hawksley is refusing to show Tom her copy of the stamp, nephew Geoffrey Blake paces in the rear garden. 352 Jersey Road, Isleworth, Middlesex. (CM)

Tom and Barney visit Coburn's offices, 'after hours' and whilst parked up watch a local patrolling policeman. Beak Street looking towards Regent Street, W1.

The lights kept changing but nothing moved, total gridlock.

Events lead them to visit the Ajax Printing Works in the films Lambeth. Gladstone Road, Southall in Middlesex looking towards Queens Road.

70 years later Antony Blair returned to the location outside the former Southall Film Studios.

Barney is first out to see ‘the lie of the land’. Southall Studios, Gladstone Road, Southall also seen in ‘Stormy Crossing’, but as a police station.

The printing works engraver Stefan Gordoni (Ronan O’Casey) apparently made the plates for the forged stamp and took possession of them. Tom visits him at the films 89 Rodney Mews. Rather difficult to interpret this capture.

This capture represents Tom's return to his apartment where he fights with an intruder but this is not 'Haven Green Court' but a stock shot of Princes Gate Court, Exhibition Road, SW7

North of the junction with Prince Consort Road, the trees are doing their best to block the view. SJ

Stefan is shot dead in front of him and the killer makes a hasty get away. Shouldham Street from the junction with Harrowby Street, London W1. The sequence is also seen in ‘The Lost Hours’ (1952)

Looking north-west. SJ

Tom together with Jean Larson (Delphi Lawrence), Lady Hawksley’s secretary, chase after the car. CM advises that this is exiting Manson Mews, South Kensington into Clareville Road.

There seem to have been a lot of changes. SJ

They are soon well placed behind the killer. Shouldham Street at the junction with Bryanston Place, London N1

With building work at the Seymour Leisure Centre on the right. SJ

The killer arrives at the junction of Shouldham Street and Harrowby Street, W1 and is a reversal of Capture 24 in ‘The Lost Hours’ which is a correct orientation.

I've followed suit by reversing the comparison as the 40s on the corner reveal. SJ

Shortly afterwards making a sharp left turn into Brown Street, W1. The corner also appears in ‘Delayed Action’, ‘Double Exposure’ and ‘Tiger by the Tail’.

With some scaffolding. SJ

Followed by a right hand turn into Harrowby Street, W1 looking towards Mertoun Terrace/Seymour Place. Also seen in ‘Recoil’

Hmm, this is looking towards Mertoun Terrace but, on reflection, I think I should be looking the other way so this may have to be replaced. SJ

Followed by a left hand turn into Brown Street, W1 again.

Looking west. SJ

And then right into Maclise Road from Hazlitt Road, W14. The sequence is also seen in ‘Lost Hours’ (1952)

Without the elevation, I can provide more building. SJ

Tom’s right turn however is thwarted by a car pulling out in front of him. This sequence can also be seen in ‘The Lost Hours’ (1952) and ‘Recoil’ (1953), The junction of Hazlitt Road and Maclise Road London W14

A lot of tarmac in this view. SJ

He retrieves the situation but appears to find himself back at Shouldham Street at the junction with Bryanston Place, W1

The west side of the street, as seen in cap16. SJ

Pulling up in the middle of the junction they see before them an underground garage. “worth trying”, and indeed, the car that they have been chasing. CM provides the location as the ramp into Sherwood Court, with Bryanston Place to the left and Shouldham Street to the right.

Interest moves to the Tower Bridge area………..

………..and in particular the recovery of Stephan Gordoni’s body from the River. Could this be Tower Stairs?

Tom and Barney make a visit to a café to meet with a dancer Yasmina (Mayura). The Broadway, Southall in Middlesex looking across to Oswald Road.

The very same junction, taken by Antony Blair 70 years on.

As they arrive she is already there. Gordoni had given her an envelope to post, but to whom? The same café with the same shops in the background also appears in ‘Three Steps to the Gallows’. Circa 100 The Broadway, Southall.

It was a Knightsbridge address….Coburn’s place, Tom makes his way. Montpelier Avenue looking across Eaton Rise to Montpelier Road, W5

Looking east. SJ

Parks up and goes to Flat 9 where he finds Coburn dead but nevertheless coincides with the delivery of the plates. Welesby Court, Eaton Rise, W5

Slightly off-angle as the vegetation demands. SJ

Barney collects Jean as instructed. Haven Green, W5 looking towards Castlebar Road.

Looking west. SJ

But they are soon ordered to get into a passing taxi by a henchman (John Colicos). Haven Green looking towards where Haven Green turns south.

Panning left. SJ

Barney is pushed out of the cab with a message to Tom to meet with Geoffrey at the signpost in the films Croxley Lane. Identified by CM as facing north along Eaton Rise, at Matchwood Crescent, W5.

The foreground tree has flourished. SJ

Now believing that Tom killed Coburn, Det. Insp. Taylor (John Horsley) puts out a broadcast to ‘bring him in’. Some frames borrowed from ‘The Lost Hours’. Chertsey Road, Twickenham, Middlesex, says CM.

Tom and Barney make their way to the meeting place…have they been spotted? Yes, and a very convenient telephone box behind the officer. Unknown location.

A patrol car gives chase. Specifically, Windmill Lane is to the left, Syon Lane in the centre and Jersey Road on the right advises CM.

Antony Blair returned to the junction 70 years later.

Tom continues unaware. Exiting Norwood Green Road, Southall, at Tentelow Lane. (CM)

Until now, “They are on to us!”. CM finds them facing south into Tentelow Lane from Norwood Green Road.

Tom turns off into Jersey Lane from Windmill Lane with Wykes Green Lodges on Osterley Lane. Location provided by CM to which Antony Blair adds the background gatehouses stand either side to road leading into the grounds of Osterley House.

Trees now fill the once open ground in Antony's comparison.

And so do the police. Jersey Lane from Windmill Lane.

The chase continues according to CM down Horsenden Lane North, Greenford from the canal bridge seen in the following capture.

Taken from the same viewpoint by Antony Blair.

Over a bridge that crosses the Grand Union Canal and heading into Horsenden Lane South advises CM. Antony Blair shares his local knowledge and tells us that the bridge is called the Ballot Box Bridge, named after a long demolished public house that was once used as a polling station.

With a fence and undergrowth obscuring the bridge, Antony found it difficult to replicate the scene.

A lorry fortuitously pulls out in front of him to help him lose the police. The lorry belongs to a builders merchants in Leatherhead. I beleive this to be the same junction as that seen in the following capture but from a different angle.

And so they go their separate ways. I beleive this to be the same junction as that seen in the previous capture but from a different angle.

Tom has the meeting with Geoffrey’s henchman and they take him to the home of Lady Hawksley but in the car Tom manages to turn the tables. 352 Jersey Road, Isleworth, Middlesex. (CM)

Finding that Mr Everleigh does in fact own a genuine stamp and the fraudsters arrested or dead, Barney waves goodbye to Tom as he returns to America. A Vickers Viking 1B (G-AJBX) then flown by ‘Eagle Aircraft Services’ and likely to be at Blackbushe airport