Thursday, 6 November 2025

LES CINQ DERNIÈRES MINUTES: PATTE ET GRIFFE (ANTENNE 2, 1975)

Commissaire Cabrol and his deputy Ménardeau investigate the death of a fashion designer.

Patte et griffe is an episode of the feature-length French detective series Les Cinq Dernières Minutes, which ran from 1958 to 1996. 

Created by journalist, director, scriptwriter and producer Claude Loursais, Les Cinq Dernières Minutes is one of the first series in the History of French television. It was launched on January 1, 1958 on the only channel of RTF (Radiodiffusion Télévision Française), the predecessor of ORTF (Office de radiodiffusion-télévision française). Les Cinq Dernières Minutes went through many changes in three "eras" until France 2 aired its 149th episode on December 20, 1996.  The first era (1958-1973) was penned by Loursais — who directed most of it — with Fred Kassak, Louis C. Thomas, Michel Lebrun, Maurice-Bernard Endrèbe, Henri Grangé, André Maheux, Jean Cosmos, etc. This version starred Raymond Souplex as Inspecteur (later Commissaire) Antoine Bourrel and Jean Daurand as Inspecteur Dupuy. 

Les Cinq Dernières Minutes started as a live mystery gameshow. After the format and live broadcasting were dropped, the programme explored different socio-professional environments in episodes shot in studio on video and on 16mm film for the locations. The popularity of the series peaked in the 1960s-1970s and turned Raymond Souplex and Jean Daurand into TV stars. They even played similar police detectives in a couple of movies (1) and Bourrel's catchphrase (« Bon Dieu, mais c'est bien sûr! ») entered the vernacular.  From 1967 to 1973 there was a German adaptation called Dem Täter auf der Spur. In 1971, Les Cinq Dernières Minutes switched from black and white to colour. Dupuy was gradually phased out after Jean Daurand's health issues.

After the death of Raymond Souplex in 1972, four TV movies were tested by Loursais between July 1974 and January 1975 (not in their production order) on the Deuxième chaîne and Antenne 2 (2): Rouges sont les vendanges, Fausse note, Si ce n'est toi and Le Coup de pouce. Those films, independent from the series though built on its "formula", tried new investigators and they are retrospectively considered as "La période intermédiaire" of Les Cinq Dernières Minutes. The famous theme music by Marc Lanjean (3) was notably absent. Claude Loursais almost kept Christian Barbier  (L'Homme du Picardie), who starred as Commissaire Le Carré in two of the TV movies, but they didn't agree on the financial terms. In 1974, it was announced that actor Jacques Debary (Poker d'as) was the unnamed commissaire of Loursais' new (as yet untitled) mystery drama, whose shooting of the first episode had begun.  

This episode, called Le lièvre blanc aux oreilles noires, was shown by Antenne 2 on May 10, 1975 as part of... Les Cinq Dernières Minutes (4). Prior to airing, Debary's character was introduced to the press as Commissaire Broussard but had to be renamed Cabrol because of a real-life supercop named Robert Broussard. La mémoire longue, his second case, marked the return of Marc Eyraud as Ménardeau. The Columbo-esque Officier de police principal/Inspector was first seen in Si ce n'est toi, Fausse note and Rouges sont les vendanges (5). Filmed in May 1975 and aired by Antenne 2 on November 15, 1975, Patte et griffe (initially titled Veuf mode) was written by Jean Cosmos and directed by Claude Loursais. Produced by Antenne 2, it's the third Cabrol in airing order (6). Commissaire Cabrol and Ménardeau are sent to the fashion house of Lucas de Lucé, a renowned Haute Couture designer found dead in the lift of his Parisian building.

Lucé was severely diabetic and he died while he was stuck in the lift during a power outage but Commissaire Cabrol finds something strange in the lift shaft. Soon the investigation narrows in on a model name Cynthia and the husband of the designer's mistress. The conventional plot of Patte et griffe is carried by the contrast between the cynical Cabrol and the not fully awake Ménardeau plus an excellent guest cast but heavied by too much exposition, including a lecture on the remuneration of the apprentices in the Haute Couture industry and a 13-minute conversation in the middle of the episode. Stage, cinema and television actress Nadine Alari is Madeleine, Lucas' right-hand woman. On November 15, 1975 she could be seen on two channels simultaneously as she was also on FR3 in a recording of the play Marie Tudor (7). 

Though he appeared in Le lièvre blanc aux oreilles noires as a different character, François Dyrek plays Riton. Actress Anémone (Nadine) had supporting roles in three episodes of Les Cinq Dernières Minutes in a row, this one included. In the 1980s, she became a star of the big screen and had a versatile career in films such as Le père Noël est une ordure (1982) or Le grand chemin (1988). With Prudence Harrington (Cynthia), Danielle Duroux (Alice), Pierre Zimmer (Lucas de Lucé), Claude Nicot (Fleuret Coutillier), Jeanne Herviale (Fleuret's mother), Bernard Dumaine (Charles Boutok), Paula Dehelly (Madame de Ravens), Annick Roux... Produced by Pierre Terrier. Cinematography by Albert Schimmel. Video editing by Christiane Coutel. Film editing by Joseph Neveu. 

There's no original music, as often for the ORTF productions, and no credited sound illustrator for the use of library music (from the Patchwork catalogue). The association between Cabrol and Ménardeau lasted until 1991. They were replaced by Pierre Santini (Un juge, un flic) as Commissaire Julien Massard and Pierre Hoden (Inspecteur Antoine Barrier) from 1992 to 1996. Perrette Souplex, the daughter of Raymond Souplex, guest starred as Bourrel's daughter in a 1995 episode. The episodes of Les Cinq Dernières Minutes from 1958 to 1991 are available on Madelen, the streaming service of INA. Brigade des Mineurs, the 1977-1979 social drama series created by Claude Loursais and starring Jean Daurand as Commissaire Dupuy, is on Madelen too.  

The Cabrol-Ménardeau era was shown in Germany on ZDF as Kommissar Cabrol ermittelt - Die Fälle des Monsieur Cabrol.

(1) L'assassin viendra ce soir (1964) and La malédiction de Belphégor (1967).
(2) ORTF was dismantled in December 1974 and the Deuxième chaîne was renamed Antenne 2. The latter became France 2 in 1992.
(3) Arsenic Blues, composed by Marc Lanjean for the movie La Peau de l'ours (1957).
(4) Also called  "Les Nouvelles Cinq Dernières Minutes" by TV magazines.
(5) In Patte et griffe, Ménardeau is introduced as "Officier de police judiciaire Ménardeau" by Commissaire Cabrol and credited as "Inspecteur Ménardeau" in the end.
(6) According to Télé 7 Jours in January 1975, Le collier d'épingles (aired as the fourth episode) was about to be completed before Patte et griffe.
(7) Télé 7 Jours. 
  
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Monday, 1 September 2025

SIAL IV (TSR/ORTF, 1969)

Long after Armageddon, a man of the 20th century emerges from hibernation in a future where humans live with androids.
 
In the year 1970, apocalypse is imminent. An engineer named Denis Lange meets Nathanaël de Geoffroy, a professor of philosophy who gets drunk to face the end of the world. Later, Lange checks an anti-atomic shelter when an explosion shakes the place and knocks him unconscious. After more than a century in suspended animation, Denis Lange is awakened in 2145 by some android doctors. Paul Cassius, the human in charge of welcoming Denis, explains him that he's in Sial IV. It's one of the six subterranean cities built on Earth after the nuclear war. Men live now a life of leisure, happiness and serenity, while androids perform complex tasks. Machiavel, their master, wants to use Lange as a pawn against "Les Inadaptés", a group of humans which resists the Sial IV way of life.
 
The rebels are lead by Nathanaël de Geoffroy, great-grandson of the philosopher. Denis Lange is given a "personal" female android called Diana. Sial IV is a 4 x 55-minute (1) science-fiction drama in black and white, made in Switzerland for Television suisse romande and French pubcaster ORTF (Office de radiodiffusion-télévision française) by Telvetia SA. Officially founded in 1968, Telvetia was a joint venture between SSR (Société suisse de radiodiffusion et de télévision) and French company Telfrance (Thierry la Fronde, Desert Crusader). Sial IV, one of the very first prime time Swiss dramas, was shown weekly on TSR from May 30, 1969 to June 20, 1969. Before that, the channel aired two sci-fi TV movies: La dame d'Outre-nulle part (1966) and Temps mort (1968) (2). In 1966, its youth programme Le 5 à 6 des jeunes presented SOS Terre, a  science-fiction drama (3).
 
French of Greek origin film critic, director and writer Adonis "Ado" Kyrou helmed all the episodes of Sial IV. Ado Kyrou was a friend of the Surrealism movement and he won the Honorary Award at the Week of Greek Cinema festival for his film Bloko (1965). Kyrou directed four episodes of the ORTF series Allô Police (1966-1970) produced by Telfrance.  Geneva-born Claude Delarue wrote the scenario of Sial IV,  based on the novel Deadly Image (AKA The Uncertain Midnight, 1958) by English author Edmund Cooper. Previous to working for six months on the script, Delarue was a sound illustrator and journalist for TSR. He benefited from a special scheme set up by SSR to encourage young scriptwriters to write for Swiss TV. Ado Kyrou and him revised the scenario in Paris during the events of May 1968. Henri Gilabert, a French theatre actor seen on TV in Rue barrée (1967) and The Aeronauts (Les Chevaliers du ciel, 1967-1970), stars as Denis Lange. 
 
Known in France and Hollywood, Marcel Dalio is Machiavel. His resume includes Pépé le Moko (1937), La Grande Illusion (1937), The Shanghai Gesture (1941), Casablanca (1942), Sabrina (1954) and many other movies like the comedy Les Aventures de Rabbi Jacob (1973). Claude Cerval, the evil Comte de Nansac of the ORTF drama Jacquou le Croquant (1967), plays the 20th century Nathanaël de Geoffroy and his descendant. Swiss actress Lise Lachenal was one of the presenters of Le 5 à 6 des jeunes and a radio host. TV critics noticed her performance in Gillian, a 1967 episode of the anthology Spectacle d'un soir (1964-1979). In Sial IV she appears as "the young woman" in Episode 1 and then plays Diana. Her fellow countryman Jacques Verlier (Cassius) made a name for himself on the Parisian stage and in cinema in the 1950s-1960s.
 
Swiss television director Roger Gillioz plays Barnon. With Simone Bach (Mélanie), François Chodat (Tibère), Jacqueline Damien (Olga), Guy Fox (Johan), Violaine Lachenal (Karen), Marcel Vidal (President Bar), Jean Vigny (Kingston) Georges Wod (Siegfried), etc... According to Ado Kyrou, the cast comprised eighty-two actors. The filming of  Sial IV took place from September 9, 1968 to November 3, 1968 in Geneva (Telvetia Studio at Palais des Expositions, the airport, Cinéma "Paris", Musée d'art et d'histoire), the countryside (Jussy and Bernex in September 1968), a gravel quarry and the dam in Verbois, and at the Montreux Palace Hotel (4).  Telfrance and Telvetia used the Transflex process to insert characters in set elements projected frontally on a screen. The music of Sial IV is one of the numerous collaborations of French composer François de Roubaix (Le Samuraï) with Telfrance.
 
Produced by Gérard Dethiollaz. Cinematography by Jacques Manson. Editing by Pierre Houdain and Michel Hirtz for Telfrance. Special sound effects by Pierre Angles. Sets designed by Philippe Ancellin. Make-up by Jocelyne Blankenstijn. Igaal Niddam was the cameraman. Claude Delarue didn't rule out the possibility of a sequel. Most critics praised Sial IV but viewers weren't hooked. The repeat of May 1971 precised for the first time in the opening credits that Sial IV was adapted from the novel of Edmund Cooper. Reader of Aldous Huxley, George Orwell and Isaac Assimov, Claude Delarue didn't mention that Cooper was the source of his inspiration. Sial IV was saved from both oblivion and the ravages of time by Didier Bufflier, head of ArchiLab at RTS (Radio Télévision Suisse), in 2023 when he restored and digitized the four episodes. That year, the attendees of the  Festival du film fantastique de Neuchâtel (NIFFF) had the opportunity to discover two of them. 
 
Sial IV has undeniable  ambitions despite its budget limitations. The story has modern resonances and the ambience is quite reminiscent of The Prisoner (1967). The casting is excellent, particularly Henri Gilabert, Marcel Dalio, Lise Lachenal and Claude Cerval. Claude Delarue had a drama project that would have been shot entirely on a terrace but it never materialized. Anyway, he became a successful novelist and playwright.  Henri Gilabert pursued his career on stage and played in movies such as L'attentat (1972) or Le Juge Fayard dit Le Sheriff (1977).  In 1974, he appeared in a famous advert (« En France on a pas de pétrole, mais on a des idées »). Lise Lachenal remained popular amongst young viewers as the voice of Blanche in Blanche et Gaspard (1969-1976). From 1973 to 2000, she was a collaboratrice à la fiction for TSR and was the first in Francophonie to buy The Bold and the Beautiful.
 
Ado Kyrou worked again with Telfrance on the ORTF drama Face aux Lancaster (1971) and directed The Monk (Le Moine, 1972), a film starring Franco Nero. In the 1980s, actor Jacques Verlier invented a non-reusable syringe and a cable cutter for Pen Duick boats. Verlier was also a painter. Sial IV is available on Play RTS. The INA catalog indicates that it was aired in France in 1973.
 
(1) 10 half-hour episodes, then 5 x 60-minute episodes were considered.
(2) Both directed by Jean-Jacques Lagrange, pioneer of the science-fiction genre at TSR, and adapted from novels by George Langelaan (author of The Fly).
(3) Made at the Théâtre-club de Genève.
(4) October 8 and 9, 1968.
 
 
See also: 
 
https://tattard2.blogspot.com/2025/08/le-chirurgien-de-saint-chad-tsrantenne.html (Le chirurgien de Saint-Chad, another drama from Telvetia)

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Friday, 8 August 2025

LE CHIRURGIEN DE SAINT-CHAD (TSR/ANTENNE 2, 1975/1976)

A surgeon and a nurse fall in love. They face jealousy and forces behind a political intrigue in Africa.
 
Jacqueline Reignier is a nurse at the prestigious Hôpital Saint-Chad in Switzerland. She meets Patrick Villaresi, a brilliant and sarcastic vascular surgeon back from America to work at Saint-Chad. Circumstances bring them together, much to the annoyance of the stern head nurse Ursula Martin. Ursula knows Villaresi well as her mother is his father's second wife and her interest for Patrick goes beyond the smooth running of his career. Jacqueline gets to know the rest of the Villaresi family, particularly its patriarch Will. Valentin "Val" Villaresi, Patrick's brother,  must leave for Africa to investigate on an illegal transportation of weapons. 
 
« Ne croyez pas que je sois volontairement désagréable, seulement je ne vous connais pas beaucoup. Alors je ne sais encore pas si vous êtes quelqu'un de remarquable ou seulement quelqu'un de bien... je parle professionnellement. » (Patrick Villaresi) 
 
Le chirurgien de Saint-Chad is a 24 x 15-minute drama made in Switzerland for Television suisse romande and French pubcaster ORTF (Office de radiodiffusion-télévision française) by Telvetia SA (Le dessous du ciel). Officially founded in 1968, Telvetia was a joint venture between SSR (Société suisse de radiodiffusion et de télévision) and French company Telfrance (Thierry la Fronde, Desert Crusader). Le chirurgien de Saint-Chad was shown daily on TSR from September 25, 1975 to October 28, 1975. In France, Antenne 2 (1) aired a 4 x 50-minute version weekly from June 4, 1976 to June 25, 1976. Swiss journalist and screenwriter Rodolphe-Maurice Arlaud (two Maigret with Jean Gabin, Omer Pacha, Jo Gaillard) adapted the Saint-Chad book series, written by Theresa Charles (2). Paul Siegrist, a seasoned Swiss director working for TSR since 1955, helmed all the episodes. 
 
French actor and singer Jean-Claude Pascal (Un grand patron, Pêcheur d'Islande, Angélique et le sultan) stars as Patrick Villaresi. War hero at 17, young designer for Christian Dior, Pascal became the "éternel séducteur" of French cinema. He won Eurovision in 1961 and was the French voice of Dean Martin in the Matt Helm movies. On television, Jean-Claude Pascal first appeared in Vol 272 (1964) and then in Comment ne pas épouser un milliardaire (1966). For Telvetia, he played in Une autre vie (1971) and starred in the popular drama Le temps de vivre, le temps d'aimer (1973), where he also performed the theme song composed by Michel Legrand. Françoise Christophe (Fantômas contre Scotland Yard, Borsalino) co-stars as Ursula Martin. Aude Loring, a French actress living in Geneva and seen in Two for the Road (1967) or OSS 117 tue le taon  (1971), plays Jacqueline Reignier. 
 
Val Villaresi is played by Jean Claudio, an actor with an international career and a distinctive voice. Thérèse Liotard (later in Bergerac) is his wife Évelyne, Jacques Dumesnil (Les tontons flingueurs) plays Will Villaresi. Swiss actor Alain Chevallier, known in both Switzerland and France since Alice, où es-tu? (1968), the first Swiss prime time drama/series, is Christophe Pittet. He was in Le temps de vivre, le temps d'aimer. Other familiar faces to Swiss viewers include Marcel Vidal (Docteur Reignier), Séverine Bujard (Rose-Marie), Harriett Ariel as Barbara, William Jacques (Manuden), Lise Lachenal (Nurse) (3),  Charles Apothéloz (Vergnaz), etc. TSR journalist Jean-François Nicod appears as "le speaker". Director Paul Siegrist has a cameo as... Doctor Siegrist.
 
« Si par hasard un jour je vous demandais de m'épouser vous répondriez quoi? » 
 
Filming took place during 10 weeks from October to December 1974 in the village of Genolier, near Nyon (Canton of Vaud) and in its region. Les enfants des autres, an ORTF and Telvetia co-production, was shot there in spring 1973. The cast and crew of Le chirurgien de Saint-Chad spent three weeks at the Clinique de Genolier. Set up in 1972 as a fitness center, the establishment was turned into an ultra modern cardio-vascular surgery clinic in 1974 under the direction of Professor Charles Hahn. Hahn served as a consultant to the production. Paul Siegrist — helmer of several documentaries — filmed three real surgical operations in a single day, assisted only with cameraman Igaal Nidaam, electrician Jean-Luc Girardet and sound engineer Paul Girard.
 
Pianist, composer, arranger and record producer Jean-Luc Drion composed the original soundtrack of Le chirurgien de Saint-Chad. Jean-Claude Pascal sings On aura pas toujours le temps, the end title song. His friend Bernard Dimey, a poet, songwriter (Syracuse) and scriptwriter penned the lyrics. The song was a hit in Francophonie. Produced by Henri Lacombe. Cinematography by Roger Fellous (Le temps de vivre, le temps d'aimer).  The editing was done in Lyon by Gilbert Namiand and Michel Pasquier for S.E.T.I.C. (Société européenne de télévision d'information et de cinéma) (4). Sets designed by Yanko Hodgis, the decorator of L'invitation (Claude Goretta, 1973) and the ambitious miniseries La pèche miraculeuse (1976). Raphaël Rebibo, assistant operator on Le chirurgien de Saint-Chad, was its still photographer too.
 
Jean-Claude Pascal gives Patrick his casual charisma and a welcome sense of humour, alongside the excellent Françoise Christophe, the charming Aude Loring and a solid group of Telvetia regulars. The novels are skillfully transposed in Switzerland. There's a "motocross duel" and a car chase. Le chirurgien de Saint-Chad is close to the Arztroman  à la Heinz G. Konsalik. Paul Siegrist directed Docteur Erika Werner (1978), based on a novel by this author and starring Leslie Caron. Plans for a sequel of Le chirurgien de Saint-Chad were evoked, though nothing materialised. Tired of playing the "séducteurs", Jean-Claude Pascal gave priority to singing. In 1975 he replaced his uncle as the manager of the family textile business. From the 1980s, Pascal wrote several books until before his death in 1992. Coincidentally, Telvetia ceased its activities the same year. Its biggest hit was Heidi (1978).
 
In France, the 4 x 50-minute version of Le chirurgien de Saint-Chad was released twice on DVD (in 2011 and 2017) by Koba Films. This version is available on Madelen, the streaming service of INA.
 
(1) Antenne 2 succeeded to the Deuxième chaîne after the dismantling of ORTF in 1974.
(2) English wife and husband writers Irene Maude Swatridge and Charles John Swatridge.
(3) Lise Lachenal was best known in Switzerland as the voice of Blanche in Blanche et Gaspard (1969-1976). From 1973 to 2000, she worked as a collaboratrice à la fiction for TSR and was the first in Francophonie to buy The Bold and the Beautiful.
(4) S.E.T.I.C. was a subsidiary of local newspaper group A.I.G.L.E.S. (Le Progrès and Le Dauphiné Libéré).
 
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Thursday, 3 July 2025

LES CINQ DERNIÈRES MINUTES: LE LIÈVRE BLANC AUX OREILLES NOIRES (ANTENNE 2, 1975)

A murder has been committed in a mountain village. Commissaire Broussard investigates.   

Le lièvre blanc aux oreilles noires is an episode of the feature-length French detective series Les Cinq Dernières Minutes (1958-1996). 

Created by journalist, director, scriptwriter and producer Claude Loursais, Les Cinq Dernières Minutes is one of the first series in the History of French television. It was launched on January 1, 1958 on the only channel of RTF (Radiodiffusion Télévision Française), the predecessor of ORTF (Office de radiodiffusion-télévision française). Les Cinq Dernières Minutes went through many changes in three "eras" until France 2 aired its 149th episode on December 20, 1996.  The first era (1958-1973) was penned by Claude Loursais — who directed most of its episodes — with Fred Kassak, Louis C. Thomas, Michel Lebrun, Maurice-Bernard Endrèbe, Henri Grangé, André Maheux, Jean Cosmos, etc. This version starred Raymond Souplex as Inspecteur/Commissaire Antoine Bourrel and Jean Daurand as Inspecteur Dupuy. 

Les Cinq Dernières Minutes started as a live mystery gameshow. After the format and live broadcasting were dropped, the programme explored different socio-professional environments in episodes shot in studio on video and on 16mm film for the locations. The popularity of the series peaked in the 1960s-1970s and turned Raymond Souplex and Jean Daurand into TV stars. Bourrel's catchphrase (« Bon Dieu, mais c'est bien sûr! ») entered the vernacular.  From 1967 to 1973 there was a German adaptation called Dem Täter auf der Spur. Les Cinq Dernières Minutes switched from black and white to colour in 1971. Dupuy was gradually phased out after Jean Daurand's health issues.
 
Following the death of Souplex in 1972, four TV movies were tested by Loursais between July 1974 and January 1975 (not in their production order) on the Deuxième chaîne and Antenne 2: Rouges sont les vendanges, Fausse note, Si ce n'est toi and Le Coup de pouce. Those films, independent from Les Cinq Dernières Minutes though built on its "formula", tried new detectives and the famous theme music by Marc Lanjean (1) was notably absent. Claude Loursais almost kept Christian Barbier, who starred as Commissaire Le Carré in two of the TV movies, but they didn't agree on the financial terms. In 1974, it was announced that Jacques Debary (Poker d'as) was the unnamed commissaire of Loursais' new (as yet untitled) mystery drama, whose shooting of the first episode had begun. 
 
The episode, called Le lièvre blanc aux oreilles noires,  was penned by novelist and writer Jean Chatenet. Chatenet co-wrote Ardéchois coeur fidèle (1974) with Jean Cosmos. Claude Loursais helmed the video sequences but he was struck by appendicitis before filming in Bonneval-sur-Arc (Savoie). ORTF asked Claire Jortner, his script girl and wife, to replace him (2). Le lièvre blanc aux oreilles noires  was shown by Antenne 2 (3) on May 10, 1975 as part of a relaunched Cinq Dernières Minutes. Prior to airing, Debary's character was introduced to the press as Commissaire Broussard but had to be renamed Cabrol because of a real-life supercop named Robert Broussard. The new commissaire is credited Cabrol in the end titles but he never introduces himself during the episode. At the time three other episodes with Debary were in the can.
 
Henri Sorbier, a retired businessman from Lyon, lives near the small mountain village of Bonvillard with his wife, his son and his stepdaughter. When he's found dead on a chairlift, Commissaire Broussard is sent to investigate. Sorbier was feared by his wife, and hated by both his entourage and the villagers. Starting with Just Regaud, a shepherd who was forced to sell his house to Henri Sorbier. Le lièvre blanc aux oreilles noires is filled with sheep, cows and beautiful mountains. The plot is a pretext for a social documentary about the challenges of mountain villages caught between traditions and the emergence of ski resorts. In 1971, the ORTF drama Les Sesterain ou Le Miroir 2000 had a similar theme.
 
Jacques Debary portrays a commissaire who's more caustic than in the latter episodes. Élisabeth Alain, who plays Sorbier's wife Stéphanie, died at 36 after the shooting of Le lièvre blanc aux oreilles noires. Henri Sorbier  is played by the great stage, cinema and television actor Michel Vitold (L'homme qui revient de loin, Judex). Actress Anémone (Lily) had supporting roles in three episodes of Les Cinq Dernières Minutes in a row, this one included. In the 1980s, she became a star of the big screen and had a versatile career with films such as Le père Noël est une ordure (1982) or Le grand chemin (1988). Actors Henri Marteau (Etienne), François Dyrek (Just) and André Weber (Adrien) appeared in several episodes in different roles.
 
Also with Bernard Rousselet (Arnaud Sorbier), Abel Jores (Élysée),  Patrick Lancelot (Gérard Martin), Philippe Moreau (The mayor), Eva Saint-Paul (Beatrix), etc. Produced by Hélène Rambert and Oreste Delsale.  Cinematography by Pierre Mareschal. Video editing by Christiane Coutel. Film editing by M. Lebon-Stockhausen. There's no original music, as often for the ORTF productions, and no credited sound illustrator for the use of library music.  Marc Eyraud, seen in Si ce n'est toi, Fausse note and Rouges sont les vendanges, came back again as the Columbo-esque Inspector Ménardeau in La mémoire longue for an association with Debary/Cabrol which lasted until 1991.  
 
The duo Cabrol-Ménardeau was replaced by Pierre Santini (Un juge, un flic) as Commissaire Julien Massard and Pierre Hoden (Inspecteur Antoine Barrier) from 1992 to 1996. Perrette Souplex, the daughter of Raymond Souplex, guest starred as Bourrel's daughter in a 1995 episode. The episodes of Les Cinq Dernières Minutes from 1958 to 1991 are available on Madelen, the streaming service of INA. Brigade des Mineurs, the 1977-1979 social drama series created by Claude Loursais and starring Jean Daurand as Commissaire Dupuy, is on Madelen too.
 
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Friday, 6 June 2025

THE HARD WAY (LA MANIÈRE FORTE, FRANCE 2)

[Spoiler-free review] Major Chevalier, an old-school cop known for his brutal style, is brought out of retirement because of a murder bearing the signature of a serial killer he put behind bars. 
 
He's placed under the orders of Captain Kabongo, a clever and progressive detective who epitomizes everything he hates about French contemporary society.
 
The bottom line: Le dernier Flic.
 
From Stéphane Drouet and Lionel Olenga, the makers of Chérif (2013-2019), Double Je (2019) and Le Code (2021-2023), comes La Manière forte. This brilliant 90-minute crime drama pilot was written by Lionel Olenga and helmed by actor, scriptwriter and director Vincent Primault (Section de recherches, Chérif, In America). La Manière forte stars the masterful Grégoire Bonnet (Scènes de ménages, Le Code) as Major Thierry Chevalier and the excellent Clarisse Lhoni-Botte (Codename: Annika) as Captain Wendy Kabongo. 
 
A young woman is found dead by a group of paintballers. She was stabbed and the killer engraved a 7 in Roman numerals on one of her thighs. Captain Kabongo, of the Angoulème police, is called on the crime scene. Her hierarchy is troubled by the similarity of the MO with a case of serial murders for which controversial supercop Major Chevalier sent Gabriel Laporte to jail after extorting his confession. Laporte awaits for his trial while Chevalier is on early retirement. Kabongo meets the latter, who's quickly imposed on the investigation by the préfet. 
 
Neither are thrilled by this collaboration. Wendy Kabongo is feminist, ecologist and vegan. Thierry Chevalier is misogynistic, conservative, racist and homophobic. His ex-colleagues say the word "dinosaur" was invented for this biker always in a leather jacket. Chevalier's homophobia even cost him his relationship with his gay son, who happens to be the deputy public prosecutor. The wealthy Caroline Laporte, Gabriel's mother, wants her son out of prison. She also wants to make Chevalier pay for his imprisonment. Another victim is found in a vineyard. 
 
Amongst the gazillion of crime and mystery dramas on French TV, La Manière forte is very refreshing. Major Thierry Chevalier is an antihero character in the mold of Harry Callahan (Dirty Harry), Andy Sipowicz (NYPD. Blue), Gene Hunt (Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes) or Mick Brisgau (Der letzte Bulle). His only (redeeming?) qualities are a huge sense of justice and a formidable instinct. Hopefully we'll see more of the duo Chevalier-Kabongo after this celebration of the crime/cop genre including great dialogues and a well dosed touch of cynical humour.
 
With Isabel Otero (Caroline), Cyril Descours (Deputy public prosecutor Albertini) Théo Frilet (Gabriel), Arthur Beaudoire (Jérémy), Jeanne Bournaud (Charline Huygues), etc. A co-production Making Prod (a Mediawan company), L.O. Productions and France Télévisions with the support of Magelis and Département de la Charente and the participation of RTS Radio Télévision Suisse. Produced by Stéphane Drouet and Lionel Olenga. Sophie Barrat exec produces. Claude Azoulay is the production manager.
 
Music by Michael Tordjman and Maxime Desprez. Cinematography by Samuel Dravet. Editing by Emmanuel Douce. Filmed in Angoulème and Reims during summer 2024. Distributed by Mediawan Rights (The Hard Way is the international title). La Manière forte will be aired today by France 2 and it's available on france.tv.
 
 
See also: 
 

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Saturday, 12 April 2025

T.R. SLOANE/DEATH RAY 2000 (NBC, 1979)

T.R. Sloane is a 90-minute TV movie shot in 1979 but aired in 1981 and starring Robert Logan. It's a pilot for the short-lived NBC 1979 action/adventure series A man called Sloane, with Robert Conrad (of The Wild Wild West fame) in the title role.

Seven fake nuns and a giant black man with a metal hand attack the Gideon Peak Observatory. They steal the invention of Professor Gregory, a cannon shooting a powerful dehydrating ray. The Director of UNIT, an intelligence agency accountable only to the President, sends T.R. Sloane to Gideon Peak. Thomas R. Sloane III is an art historian and antique dealer but most of all he's the Director's best agent. Sloane meets Professor Gregory's niece Chrissy Randall and the scientist's assistant Sabina Dorffman. Millionaire Erik Clawson and the organization KARTEL are behind the observatory raid. They want to eliminate the attendants of a peace conference in Switzerland.

In 1978, U.S. television network NBC looked for a series a la James Bond and they discussed the idea with Quinn Martin, the boss of QM Productions. Martin built his reputation with crime drama hits The Fugitive (1963-1967), The F.B.I. (1965-1974), Cannon (1971-1976), The Streets of San Francisco (1972-1977) and Barnaby Jones (1973-1980). His style was recognizable, from the opening credits read by an announcer (Hank Simms or Dick Wesson) to the four acts and the epilogue of each episode all labelled on-screen. Beyond cops and detectives, Quinn Martin ventured into the military genre (12 O'Clock High, 1964-1967), sci-fi (The Invaders, 1967-1968) and even horror (Quinn Martin's Tales of the Unexpected, 1977).

QM Productions had something for NBC: Sloane, a scenario written in 1975 by screenwriter and producer Cliff Gould (Cade's County, The Streets of San Francisco) for  ABC although not produced (1). During Autumn 1978, Quinn Martin sold his 18-year old independent company to two of its executives in order to produce feature films and kept only a consultant position. In turn, both investors sold QM Productions to Taft Broadcasting soon after. Writer and producer Philip Saltzman, a longtime associate of Quinn Martin, founded Woodruff Productions the same year. Woodruff co-produced the last two seasons of Barnaby Jones with QM. Saltzman got involved with Sloane in December 1978 (2) as the executive producer. 

Cliff Gould was called to rewrite and produce the pilot, retitled T.R. Sloane. The role of superspy Thomas Remington Sloane III went to Robert Logan. Noticed in the 1960s for his parts in 77 Sunset Strip and Daniel Boone, he preferred sailing and travelling to acting. In 1968, Robert Logan was in Czechoslovakia for The Bridge at Remagen, where he played a soldier, when the country was invaded by the Soviet Union. While the actors and the crew left for Austria, Logan stayed to film the invasion and make photos. His career was relaunched by The Adventures of the Wilderness Family (1976). This low-budget family movie  spawned two sequels, The Further Adventures of the Wilderness Family (1978) and Mountain Family Robinson (1979). 

Veteran actor Dan O'Herlihy was cast as The Director. He joined the Mercury Theatre of Orson Welles in 1948 and played alongside Welles in the stage and movie versions of Macbeth. O'Herlihy got an Oscar nomination for the title role in Luis Buñuel's film The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (Robinson Crusoe, 1954). He was a regular in The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters (1963-1964) and The Long, Hot Summer (in 1966), and guest starred in many TV series. The Director never leaves his Kentucky farm and communicates with Sloane via voicemails. He interacts with Effie 3000, an unseen computer (voiced by Michele Carey). The only UNIT agent who has a direct contact with Thomas is his assistant Miss Blessing (Penelope Windust).

New Zealand-born stage, cinema and television actor Clive Revill (3) brought his talent and a bit of irony to the evil Erik Clawson, a character with a penchant for a cheese-loving spider and poisonous snakes. Torque, his henchman played by the impressive Ji-Tu Cumbuka (4), has a multi-function right hand in stainless steel. After stage work with the Performing Arts Society Workshop in Los Angeles, 6'5'' (1.96 m) Cumbuka made his film debut in Uptight (1968) under the direction of Jules Dassin. He participated to several TV series (including three from QM Productions), the miniseries Roots (1977) and the unsold pilot Mandrake the Magician (1979). 

The first major role of actress and former model Ann Turkel (Sabina) was in the 1974 film 99 and 44/100% Dead, where she met its star Richard Harris. They married and worked together in The Cassandra Crossing (1976), Golden Rendezvous (1977) and Ravagers (1979) (5). Before T.R. Sloane, Maggie Cooper (Chrissy) co-starred in the live-action saturday morning series Space Academy (1977). Lee H. Katzin was chosen to helm T.R. Sloane. For television he directed series, pilots such as Hondo (1967) and The Mod Squad (1968), the premiere of Space: 1999 (1975), the first Man from Atlantis TV movie (1977) and the miniseries The Bastard (1978). 

Lee H. Katzin also directed films like Le Mans (1971) or The Salzburg Connection (1972). Health issues almost prevented him to be hired on T.R. Sloane because of difficulties with the production insurance company (6) but the shooting took place between February and March 1979. The Swiss portion of the script was filmed in Colorado at Sunlight Ski Area, Glenwood Springs and Snowmass Village. Glenwood Springs and Snowmass previously doubled as Switzerland in Intertect (1973), a pilot written and produced by Philip Saltzman for QM. Robert Logan had a ranch in Aspen and was an accomplished skier. The rest of T.R. Sloane was done in California.

T.R. Sloane was previewed by NBC programming boss Fred Silverman in April 1979 (7). He decided that Robert Logan wasn't right for the role and that Ji-Tu Cumbuka's Torque should be the sidekick of Sloane. NBC agreed to order a series if QM could find the right replacement to Logan. Stephen Collins and Armand Assante were considered (8), then Silverman told the production to get Robert Conrad. For the network, Conrad starred in Baa Baa Black Sheep/Black Sheep Squadron (1976-1978), played a trapper in Centennial (1978-1979) and was the NBC team captain in six episodes of Battle of the Network Stars (on ABC) between 1976 and 1979. Except Robert Conrad was now an ex-boxer turned detective in The Duke, launched by NBC in April 1979 to the satisfaction of the actor, who expected it to return in Autumn.

Fred Silverman convinced him to give up The Duke after only four episodes and star in A Man called Sloane for $100.000 per hour-length show (9). Meanwhile, the quite similar 007 copycat pilot Billion Dollar Threat was presented by ABC on April 15, 1979. Dan O'Herlihy and Michele Carey stayed for A Man called Sloane but UNIT left Kentucky for a Californian store called The Toy Boutique and a young woman named Kelly (Karen Purcill) was now in charge of Sloane's gadgets. Thomas' car, a 1979 Di Napoli Coupe, was changed for a Samco Cord Warrior. Gerald Sanford (Barnaby Jones) replaced Cliff Gould as the producer for the series. Peter Allan Fields (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.) was appointed executive story consultant. 

Despite a budget estimated to $2.5 million (10), T.R. Sloane was still on the shelf when A Man called Sloane started on September 22, 1979. Some footage of the pilot was edited for the series promotion, an interview of Ji-Tu Cumbuka and the main title sequence of A Man called Sloane. Unlike the soundtrack of the series, composed mainly by Patrick Williams (The Streets of San Francisco), T.R. Sloane has no original music. Music editor Ken Wilhoit chose pieces from the KPM library. For instance, Fugitive by Johnny Pearson (opening credits), Agressive Jazz Theme by Keith Mansfield (Cuban mission) or Dave Gold's Big City (A) (ski scene). A Man called Sloane did well in the ratings until it faced ABC's Fantasy Island. NBC aired its 12th and final episode in December 22, 1979.   

T.R. Sloane was finally shown by the network on March 5, 1981 under the title Death Ray 2000. The pilot recovered its initial title for reruns on USA Network. A Man called Sloane arrived in France on TF1 in 1981 as Sloane, agent spécial. T.R. Sloane, titled Le maître de l'eau in French, aired on the same channel in August 1983 with a dubbing adaptation which erased all the names used in the series (Sloane was called "Stone"). Robert Logan wrote the script of the Canadian movie Kelly (1981) and starred in it. He quit acting in 1997 to pursue a life of travels and sports (polo, cycling...) Ji-Tu Cumbuka guest starred in numerous TV series and appeared in Brewster's Millions (1985) and Harlem Nights (1997). His extraordinary presence in A Man called Sloane is fondly remembered. 

Dan O'Herlihy is part of pop culture history for his roles in Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982), The Last Starfighter (1984), RoboCop (1987) and RoboCop II (1990). Maggie Cooper became a television reporter in 1989. Robert Conrad returned to his signature role of James West (The Wild Wild West, 1965-1969) in The Wild Wild West Revisited (1979) and More Wild Wild West (1980), two made-for-TV movies for CBS. Though he never had a hit series again, Robert Conrad continued to enjoy his TV legend status. A Man called Sloane was one of the rare QM series without the elements which popularized the style of its founder and it was the last series produced by the company.

(1) (2) (7) (10) Priming for Prime Time (The New York Times, September 9, 1979).
(3) Clive Revill died last month, aged 94. He's best known as the original voice of Emperor Palpatine in The Empire Strikes Back (1980).
(4) His name was given by his grandmother. Ji-Tu means "Giant" and Cumbuka means "To Remember" in Swahili.
(5) Ann Turkel and Richard Harris divorced in 1982. The same year, Ann Turkel played in the unsold pilot Modesty Blaise. She guest starred in several TV series from the 1980s-1990s.
(6) (8) Quinn Martin, Producer: A Behind-the-Scenes History of QM Productions and Its Founder by Jonathan Etter (McFarland, 2003).
(9) Encyclopedia of Early Television Crime Fighters by Everett Aaker (McFarland, 2006).
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Thursday, 6 March 2025

OUR MAN FLINT - DEAD ON TARGET (ABC, 1976)

Derek Flint, a former secret agent turned private eye, works on a kidnapping case. 

Created by American screenwriter Hal Fimberg (The Big Store), Derek Flint first appeared on the big screen as a superspy played by James Coburn in the 20th Century Fox James Bond spoof Our Man Flint (1966) and its sequel In Like Flint (1967). In 1972, author and scriptwriter Harlan Ellison (The Outer Limits, Star Trek) wrote an unproduced pilot for a proposed Our Man Flint series. The Flint property resurfaced on television in 1975 when U.S. network ABC decided to make it part of its Wide World of Entertainment.

ABC's Wide World of Entertainment (1973-1976) was a late night block of programmes composed of variety or comedy specials, talk shows, mystery/suspense made-for-TV movies (some under the Wide World Mystery banner) and documentaries. Fictions of the Wide World of Entertainment/Wide World Mystery included Thriller (1973-1976), a British anthology by scriptwriter and producer Brian Clemens (The Avengers). During spring 1975, ABC announced that "multipart suspense concepts with continuing characters as in The Quiller Memorandum and Our Man Flint" (1) would be added to its late night line-up. 

The network ordered two TV movies, Our Man Flint - Dead on Target and Our Man Flint - Ultimatum, due to be made back-to-back in Vancouver, Canada by Canawest Film Productions for 20th Century Fox. 11 days of shooting on 16mm film in October 1975 were scheduled for each movie. Founded in 1963, Canawest initially produced animated and live commercials. In 1967, the studio got a subcontract with Hollywood animation giant Hanna-Barbera. Canawest Film Productions made documentaries and industrial films too. In 1973-1974, Canawest worked on a 35mm film pilot project for Four Star Entertainment titled The X Factor (starring William Shatner).

New York state-born Stanley L. Colbert, an ex-journalist and literary agent turned producer, exec produced the Flint TV movies for the Toronto subsidiary of 20th Century Fox while Canawest vice president R.H. "Andy" Anderson produced. Before Dead on Target, Colbert produced the film Private Property (1960) (2). As the head of production of Ivan Tors Studios, he oversaw Flipper (1964-1967) and the film Gentle Giant (1967) amongst others. He was a consultant on Salty, a 1974 Canadian series syndicated by 20th Century Fox Television. The 77-minute Dead on Target was penned by Canadian scriptwriter Norman Klenman (story by Jim McGinn).

Norman Klenman previously wrote for U.S. series The Felony Squad (1966-1969) and Harold Robbins' The Survivors (1969). In 1973, he was hired to be the story consultant of The Starlost, a Canadian sci-fi series created by Harlan Ellison (credited "Cordwainer Bird") and distributed by 20th Century Fox Television. Joseph L. Scanlan (Salty, The Starlost), an American director living in Toronto, was chosen by Stanley Colbert to helm Dead on Target and Ultimatum. American actor Ray Danton was cast as "Our Man Flint" (3). This familiar face to viewers and moviegoers played secret agents in Eurospy films such as Super Agent Super Dragon (New York chiama Superdrago, 1966) or Lucky, the Inscrutable (Lucky, el intrepido, 1967).

Our Man Flint - Dead on Target starts with the kidnapping of Wendell Runsler, the president of an oil company, by a radical group called BESLA (Bar El Sol Liberation Army) and Runsler's personal assistant Sandra Carter. P.I. Derek Flint is hired to serve as an intermediary for his release. A young woman named Bonita Rogers wants to be Flint's apprentice. Similarly to Matt Helm in the eponymous ABC 1975-1976 series (4), Derek Flint switched jobs from spy to private investigator. Ray Danton's jaded detective drives a Mercedes-Benz 600 in Vancouver doubling as a big American city. The Canadian guest cast is led by actors recognizable on the U.S. side of the border.

Sharon Acker (Sandra Carter) appeared in many American series and co-starred in The New Perry Mason (1973-1974),  Executive Suite (1976) and Texas (1982). Lawrence Dane (Runsler) guest starred in The Felony Squad, Mission: Impossible, The Virginian or Mannix. In the United States Donnelly Rhodes (Lahoud) had roles in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and several series. Between 1974 and 1975 he played Phillip Chancellor II in The Young and the Restless. He was Dutch Leitner in Soap (from 1978 to 1981). In his country, Rhodes co-starred in season 2 to 4 of Sidestreet (1975-1978), starred in Danger Bay (1985-1990) and was one of the regulars of Da Vinci's Inquest (1998-2005).

Bonita Rogers is played by Gay Rowan (The Starlost). Kim Cattrall, in one of her first roles (uncredited), plays a secretary. Except for the use of an alarm system watch, a tracking device and a model plane by the main character, Dead on Target is standard 1970s cop-show fare. The title sequence is reminiscent of the first Flint feature. The music composer is not credited, only music editor Lew Lehman (as Lou Lehman). Lehman was a musician and composer but also a scriptwriter (Phobia), producer and director (The Pit). He composed library music for Score Productions Canada, which was used in Dr Simon Locke/Police Surgeon (1971-1975), The Starlost or The Swiss Family Robinson (1974-1976).

Kelly Duncan, the cinematographer of Dead on Target was Canawest's resident director of cinematography. He helmed commercials and industrial films for the company. Christopher Dew — supervising producer of the 1979 version of The Littlest Hobo — and Stan Cole edited the TV movie. Dead on Target was completed in nine days (5). The filming of Ultimatum, written by Canadian screenwriter Harry W. Junkin (The Saint), was to follow but Ray Danton couldn't continue because of a strep throat threatening his voice if he used it further. Danton went back to California, like guest stars Lloyd Bochner and Barry Morse. They were to come back after a two-week break but mid-december Danton hadn't recovered yet (6) so the production was cancelled.

In an interview for a book, director Joseph L. Scanlan declared that Ray Danton was "difficult", that he was "very disrespectful to some of his fellow actors" and made one of the actresses cry (7). Danton quit acting in 1977 to become a television director (Quincy, Tales of the Unexpected, Mike Hammer...) He passed away in 1992, aged only 60. Joseph Scanlan continued to work in both Canada and the United States, where he returned in the 1980s, directing episodes of Land of the Lost, Matt and Jenny, The Littlest Hobo, Falcon Crest, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Knots Landing, etc.

Wendy Riche, the associate producer of Dead on Target, started her career at ABC as a secretary in children's programming. Riche was quickly promoted coordinator of the network's late night programmes. She became a multi-awarded executive producer on soap operas General Hospital, Port Charles and The Bay. Our Man Flint - Dead on Target aired on ABC on March 17, 1976. It was a bonus in the 2006 Ultimate Flint Collection DVD boxset. Canawest Film Productions closed in 1977.

(1) Broadcasting (June 2, 1975). Quoted in the book A THRILLER in Every Corner by Martin Marshall (Lulu, 2020). The Quiller Memorandum mentioned by ABC was actually Quiller, the BBC 1975 series.
(2) Written and directed by Leslie Stevens, the creator of The Outer Limits (1963-1965).
(3) Credited as such in the title sequence.
(4) Based on the creation of novelist Donald Hamilton and starring Tony Franciosa. Dean Martin  played Matt Helm  in the 1960s film series.
(5) Cinema Canada #24 (December 1975-January 1976).
(6) Motion Magazine (1975).
(7) Masters of the Shoot-'Em-Up by Tadhg Taylor (McFarland, 2015).

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Tuesday, 11 February 2025

BLAUES BLUT/BLUE BLOOD (ZDF, 1990)

A penniless young Bavarian aristocrat becomes a private investigator in this lavish German series shot in five countries and created by... Brian Clemens.

Count Heinrich von Alternberg, who prefers to be called Henry Altern, returns to the family castle in Bavaria. His mother, Countess Simone von Alternberg, explains him that his deceased father left them with debts. Henry wants to discuss the situation with Carl von Alternberg, his uncle, but Carl is preoccupied by the disappearance of his secretary. He just fired a P.I. named Kümmel because the man was unable to find her. Henry tells his uncle he can do a better job than Kümmel. Assisted with journalist Lisa Prentice, his ex-wife, Henry Altern investigates. Blaues Blut (sold internationally as Blue Blood) is a 10 x 52-minute detective series aired by German pubcaster ZDF from January 15, 1990 to March 19, 1990.

Blaues Blut/Blue Blood was produced for the early evening schedule of ZDF by Tele-München fernseh gmbh + Co, a Herbert G. Kloiber's TMG (Tele München Group) company.  Its creator is the legendary English scriptwriter and producer Brian Clemens (1931-2015), who wrote all the episodes. His credits include some great TV series of the 1960s and 1970s such as The Avengers, The Persuaders!, The New Avengers, Thriller or The Professionals. Blue Blood  was initially set in the U.K. and centered on a young British aristocrat but TMG and ZDF got interested in the project, hence a few changes. Years before, the ARD network was the home of Graf Yoster gibt sich die Ehre (1967-1977) and its sleuthing count. Crime author Claus Beling, then the ZDF controller in charge of Blaues Blut, is a fine connoisseur of England.

French state television Antenne 2, Italian pubcaster RAI and Televisión Española joined as co-producers. CBS Broadcast International put some money too. Austrian stage, film and television actor Albert Fortell, seen in La nouvelle malle des Indes (1981), Who Dares Win (1982), Lime Street (1985-1986) and Little Nikita (1988), was chosen to play Henry Altern without an audition. German actress Ursula Karven (Das Erbe der Guldenburgs) was cast as Lisa after other European actresses were considered. French-born Hollywood star Capucine (Germaine Lefebvre), who worked alongside John Wayne, William Holden or Peter Sellers, naturally brought her class and distinction to Simone von Alternberg (1). 

The series was shot  in English but dubbed in the same language by Albert Fortell and a cast of American actors in Los Angeles. Then, it was dubbed in German for ZDF. Production of Blue Blood started in 1988, preceded by a 90-minute pilot titled Scandalous. Helmed by British director Robert Young (Vampire Circus), Scandalous was filmed in Munich, Tutzing, Freising, Château de Champs-sur-Marne, Picardie and at Bavaria Studios. The guest cast includes American model and actress Lauren Hutton, Friedrich von Thun, Horst Janson (Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter), Peter Kuiper, Didier Flamand, Didier Sauvegrain, Jean Bouchaud, Gérard Buhr, Michel Peyrelon, etc. Even Patrick Paroux (uncredited), known today as Monsieur Parizot in Camping Paradis and its spinoff.  

Scandalous was aired by ZDF in two parts  as episodes 7 and 8 (Der Skandal - Teil 1 and Der Skandal - Teil 2: Das Ende feiner Herren). It was released on VHS in Germany as Blue Blood - Leben und Sterben in der Society (1988) and in the U.S. as Scandalous (1989). Robert Young directed another episode, Schatten der Vergangenheit/Who was that man, shown as the sixth episode by ZDF and shot in Paris. An American woman recognizes her husband, killed in Vietnam, at a concert. Marisa Berenson (Barry Lyndon) and Günther Maria Halmer guest star. Jean Bouchaud returns as the inspector from Scandalous. With Arthur Brauss, Gérard Buhr (playing a different role than in the pilot), Jacques Marin (Marathon Man, The Island at the Top of the World), the multi-talented actress, singer and novelist Ysabelle Lacamp, etc. Technisonor provided the production services in France.

A British insurance broker asks Henry to prove a criminal dead in a plane crash is alive in Wer zweimal lebt, stirbt einmal mehr/Bounty (the first episode on ZDF).  Scottish director Sidney Hayers, a regular collaborator of Brian Clemens, reunited with Lewis Collins (The Professionals) for the occasion and a ski chase was filmed in the Austrian Lech valley. Guest star Barbara Wussow (Die Schwarzwaldklinik) married Albert Fortell in 1990. Henry Altern must drive to Rome an ambulance carrying the key witness of a corruption case in Gegen die Uhr/Life line, the first of the three episodes directed by Sidney Hayers in Italy and the second episode in the ZDF order. Franco Nero, Rossano Brazzi and Aurore Clément are the guest stars. 

The other Italian episodes are Das Mädchen aus dem Meer/Key to Katerina and Dunkle Pfade/Déjà vu (#4 and #5 in the airing order). In the former, guest starring Anna Galiena (Jours tranquilles à Clichy) and Sam Jenkins, Henry Altern and a friend are sailing when they spot someone in the sea. In the latter, Henry is in Montebello for a wedding when a young woman (Elena Sofia Ricci, Ne parliamo lunedì) accuses herself of a murder. With Austrian actress Erika Remberg (Sidney Hayers' wife) and John Karlsen, a New Zealand actor who worked a lot in Europe. Production services in Italy provided by Tangram Film srl (The Belly of an Architect, I misteri della giungle nera), the company of Roberto Levi (La Piovra) and his son Matteo Levi.

Spanish film producer Eduardo Ducay (Luis Buñuel's Tristana) handled the two episodes of Blue Blood made in Spain. Sidney Hayers did Sein letzter Coup/Thief (#3), where a friend of Henry calls him after the murder of her father. With Denise Virieux (Marie-Claire in Schimanski), Jack Taylor (the movies of Jesús Franco), etc. Fernando Rey (Buñuel, The French Connection...) reluctantly accepted to play a strange art collector (2) in Wo der Teufel wacht/Devil's Lair (#9). Juan Luis Buñuel, son of Luis, directed this episode. Before that he helmed a German-Mexican western co-produced by TMG (La rebelión de los colgados, 1986). Also with Pastora Vega and European genre cinema icon Helga Liné. Wo der Teufel wacht was shot mostly in Nerja from February to March 1988 (3). 

Eduardo Ducay found the scripts of the Spanish episodes "very bad" (4). ZDF ended the run of Blaues Blut with Tödliches Wochende/Deadly Weekend (#10). Sidney Hayers, who helmed this episode, has a cameo at the beginning with German talk show host Sandra Maichsberger (uncredited). Then a journalist asks Henry Altern how he became a private detective. Both the English dubbing and the dialogues in German contradict the events of Scandalous. The only interest of Tödliches Wochende is the presence of Gottfried John (the films of Fassbinder, GoldenEye), Hannelore Elsner (Die Kommissarin) and Hans-Peter Hallwachs. With British actress Tushka Bergen, Siemen Rühaak, Austrian model Cordula Reyer, etc. The ZDF order caused a couple of continuity issues. Ursula Karven and Capucine are absent from three episodes each.

German composer Harold Faltermeyer (Beverly Hills Cop, Top Gun) composed a grand main title theme for Blaues Blut, that he performed under the alias Network (5). Brothers Hermann and Alfons Weindorf did the incidental music. The end title of each episode is a song: Angels Don't Hide by Johnny Logan (Scandalous), Who Was That Man by Maggie Reilly (Schatten der Vergangenheit), Tears Are a Girl's Best Friend by Münchener Freiheit (Wer zweimal lebt, stirbt einmal mehr), Why Don't We Talk Anymore? by Ivana Spagna (Gegen die Uhr), She's Back Again by Far Corporation (Das Mädchen aus dem Meer), The House by The Nits (Dunkle Pfade), Just Like Diamonds by Sandra (Sein letzter Coup), Devil's Lair by Vicky Larraz — former singer of the band Olé Olé (Wo der Teufel Wacht) — and Paradise Lost by Grant Stevens (Tödliches Wochende).

Produced by Curtis Briggs, the soundtrack of Blaues Blut was released in Germany on 33rpm and CD. Back To The Sunshine by Münchener Freiheit, the end title of the U.S. version of Scandalous, is not on the album. Blaues Blut/Blue Blood wasn't renewed by ZDF because of the production costs. In Spain, TVE2 aired Sangre Azul between August and September 1989, Détective Gentleman arrived on Antenne 2 during Summer 1992 and RAI Due showed Sangue Blu one year later. German private channel RTL repeated Blaues Blut in December 1992, beginning with Scandalous.

The young broke nobleman turned crime fighter (often helping ladies in distress) is basically Brian Clemens' take on The Saint, the creation of author Leslie Charteris popularized by Roger Moore. The character played by Lewis Collins in Wer zweimal lebt, stirbt einmal mehr calls himself Sinclair (Hugh in English, Ernest in German). A British actor named Hugh Sinclair starred as Simon Templar in The Saint's Vacation (1941) and The Saint Meets The Tiger (1941). Of course Roger Moore was Lord Brett Sinclair in The Persuaders!. Brian Clemens was critical about the German production of Blue Blood, pointing out the English dubbing, the Alternberg Castle (Schloss Frauenbühl in Winhöring), the title sequence and Henry's jacket in an interview (6).

Overall, Blaues Blut is quite enjoyable with its dashing detective played with panache by Albert Fortell, good scripts, quality production values, various locations, an impressive guest cast, a cool score and a bit of action. And it's better than the 1989-1990 series of The Saint. Blaues Blut/Blue Blood is available in a 4-disc DVD boxset from Fernsehjuwelen containing the episodes in German and English (ZDF order). Bonus material is comprised of an interview of Albert Fortell, with the participation of Barbara Wussow, and the U.S. version of Scandalous (in English). Series exec produced by Manfred D. Heid. Produced by Horst Burkhard, Philippe Le Franc (France), Matteo Levi (Italy) Eduardo Ducay (Spain) and Jürgen Bieske-Feddern (Tödliches Wochende).

Brian Clemens remained very active until the 2000s, working on series like Father Dowling Mysteries (1990-1991) or Bugs (1995-1999) amongst others. Sadly, Capucine committed suicide in 1990 aged 62. Albert Fortell, Ursula Karven and Barbara Wussow pursued their respective careers successfully.

(1) Simone von Alternberg is a former French actress and Simone was the first name of Inspector Clouseau's wife, played by Capucine in The Pink Panther (1963).
(2) (4) Semblanza de Eduardo Ducay Berdejo (Zaragoza, 1926 - Madrid, 2016) by Amparo Martinez Herranz in Artigrama #30 (2015) + https://archivo-agr.blogspot.com/2016/02/de-amigo-amigo-eduardo-ducay-por-alonso.html
(3) https://www.facebook.com/MuseodeNerja 
(5) ttps://celluloidtunes.no/a-chat-with-harold-faltermeyer/
(6) Stay Tuned to The Avengers (Volume 2, Issue 8). 

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