Edgar Wallace Mysteries: Strangler’s Web (1965, John Stratton, Gerald Harper)

In Strangler’s Web, one of the later Edgar Wallace Mysteries, a former showgirl is found murdered on Hampstead Heath. Inspector Murray begins what initially appears to be a cut and dried case. Her lover, John Vichelski, is the man who discovered the body and has a major motive having become convinced that she was seeing somebody else. Vichelski’s solicitor Lewis Preston, who himself is going through something of a trying time having just split up with his wife, is convinced of Vichelski’s innocence.

Another excellent little mystery, there is a strong role for John Stratton as initially washed up solicitor Lewis Preston (when the drama opens he has been on a three day bender and his wife informs him that she is instigating divorce proceedings). The highly personable Gerald Harper plays Inspector Murray, he often played policemen at this point in his career, appearing around this time in two BBC Francis Durbridge Presents Mysteries.

There is a slightly more pop beat to the soundtrack, this was made in 1965 after all, although it does still hover on the jazz spectrum too.

production details
UK | Merton Park – Anglo Amalgamated | 1×52 minutes | 1965

Writer: George Baxt
Title Music: Michael Carr
Music: Bernard Ebbinghouse
Director of Photography: James Wilson
Producer: Jack Greenwood
Director: John Moxey

cast
John Stratton as Lewis Preston
Pauline Munro as Melanie Anderson
Griffith Jones as Jackson Delacorte
Gerald Harper as Inspector Murray
Maurice Hedley as Amos Colfax
Michael Balfour as John Vichelski
Pauline Boty as Nell Pretty
Patricia Burke as Norma Brent
Marianne Stone as Alice Preston
Tony Wall as Constable Huntly
Barry Jackson as Morton Bray
Patti Dalton as Elsie Lovett