The Four Just Men Season 1, Episode 19: The Rietti Group

1

The Battle of the Bridge

Four men who last met in battle during the Allied invasion of Italy in 1943 are reunited by the death of their former commanding officer to hear a message recorded shortly before his death. He appeals to them to form a quartet dedicated to fighting injustice and tyranny with a large sum of money he has left for that purpose. They agree and become the Four Just Men.

2

The Prime Minister

A middle eastern Prime Minister on his way to the United Nations in New York via Rome and Paris comes under the protection of The Four Just Men when he becomes an assassination target that comes to a head in Paris.

3

Village of Shame

A friend of Ben Manfred's is murdered in a small French village of Saint Paul after discovering a German sympathiser from World War II in the village. Manfred goes to the village to investigate and he finds the whole village against him, but he is determined to bring the murderer to justice and expose the traitor.

4

The Judge

When a young woman is charged with the murder of her husband by poisoning, the evidence of the popular local doctor is accepted without question by everyone except her lawyer who was once a student taught by Jeff Ryder. Ryder is asked for help and finds himself at the mercy of an angry mob and a doctor with his own sense of justice.

5

The Crying Jester

At an Italian art dealers shop Poccari takes a liking to a painting from Algerier knowing it is not genuine and when an innocent man is murdered mistaken for him he suspects the painting may have a valuable secret.

6

The Beatniques

In Cannes to cover the Film Festival Tim Collier is approached by a famous film actress who is being blackmailed when her jewellery box was stolen, containing incriminating love letters in a false bottom, when she was given a lift by three French beatniques.

7

The Deserter

A young British Army Officer on active service on an island colony under martial law goes missing for six weeks and is sent for court-martial for desertion. The officer's mother appeals to Ben Manfred for help but when the officer offers no defence and is found guilty Manfred suspects more to the case than meets the eye.

8

Dead Man's Switch

When the father of a young Puerto Rican stabbed in a brawl at a boys club decides to take the law into his own hands by holding hostage a racist and a troublemaker author of a free newsletter by holding a grenade with the pin taken out. Jeff Ryder has to risk his life to prevent further tragedy.

9

The Night of the Precious Stones

Organising a charity ball at his hotel for his Naples Boys Club Poccari receives a warning from the other Just Men that jewel thieves are joining together to steal the priceless "Empress Diamonds". The police arrest every member of the gang except one whose identity remains unknown.

10

The Deadly Capsule

Tim Collier investigates the circumstances surrounding the death of a famous atomic scientist on the road from Grenoble to Paris who was working on food preservation using a deadly radio-active capsule which has disappeared and may have fallen into the hands of children.

11

Their Man in London

An opponent of the Guatarican dictatorship is murdered in London, Manfred believes the killer is hiding under diplomatic immunity in the Guatarican embassy but on meeting the suspect's English girlfriend realises he might be a prisoner.

12

Maya

Princess Maya is the fun loving younger sister of the King of Kawlat wasting her riches on her boyfriend Bruno. Bruno, in debt, is blackmailed by rebels planning a coup and when Jeff Ryder arrives in Rome to inform Poccari that the King has been killed, Poccari realises the next target is, the next in line as Queen, the reluctant Maya.

13

National Treasure

When a dying millionaire confesses to Ben Manfred that a painting by Rembrandt in a famous London art gallery is a forgery and that he has the original and wants Manfred to return it secretly. Manfred agrees intending to use the forgery to flush out the original thieves.

14

Panic Button

The daughter of a research scientist appeals to Jeff Ryder for help when in a laboratory accident her father is exposed to a harmless amount of radiation and the people in the town, Fairview, where he lives and works believe that they will be contaminated and die.

15

The Man with the Golden Touch

A millionaire's urn to be auctioned to provide funds for a boys' home for the poor of Naples is stolen and Pietro, a former juvenile delinquent, is suspected of the crime and runs away to Poccari who believes the boy to be innocent of the crime and sets out to find the real thief with the help of the urchins of Naples. English

16

Marie

Marie is an Algerian girl in Paris with no papers and Tim Collier stops her from committing suicide but before he can question her she disappears. Determined to find her he discovers from Manfred in London that her family were killed by Algerian extremists and that she might be responsible.

17

The Survivor

Manfred is given a list of persons who are Nazi sympathisers, trying to gain positions of authority, in Germany by a former concentration camp survivor. MI5 have their own opinions on the survivor and when Tim Collier reveals the list is phoney Manfred has to discover the man's motives and intentions.

18

The Discovery

New York and an unlicensed Italian doctor is charged with murder when he gives an elderly patient an unauthorised drug. Known to Poccari and Collier, Ryder defends the doctor by desperate and unusual means.

19

The Rietti Group

Two allied wartime paratroopers staying at Poccari's hotel inform him that there was a traitor in an Italian partisan group that he was a member of and Poccari knowing death awaits the traitor agrees to help them at a reunion meeting of "The Rietti Group" at the hotel.

20

The Man in the Road

Travelling from the French Alps to Paris an American Ambassador's wife kills a cyclist and when she is blackmailed Tim Collier suspects a plot to discredit her husband.

21

Money to Burn

Lady Barling, wife of Sir Walter Barling owner of respected bank note printers Barlings, asks Ben Manfred for help when her husband is tricked into printing five million pesos for a South American republic that will be used to undermine the currency of the country and lead to a coup.

22

Crack-Up

A private plane carrying five million dollars in stolen bullion is lost without trace in the Canadian wilderness. Five years later the plane is found and Jeff Ryder is approached by the pilot's widow to prove her husband was innocent of the theft.

23

The Miracle of St. Phillipe

The theft from a French village of a sacred relic, The Samaritan Cup, and the murder of the Mayor comes to the attention of Tim Collier brought by Nicole for the annual festival. A man who has confessed to every crime in the village for the last six months is dismissed as a madman by the police.

24

The Slaver

Poccari stumbles onto a highly organised slave market based in Rome when Jeff Ryder asks him to look after an American journalist, Dexter, due to arrive in Rome to give evidence at United Nations committee. Dexter has vanished and Ricco is aided by Rosalina who is close to both Dexter and the head of the slave ring.

25

The Princess

The Princess of a small Asiatic kingdom, visiting Europe, Tim collier is trying to interview seems to be a willing target for murder and her entourage are complicit because she is unable to provide the heir her country must have to survive.

26

The Protector

Janis Gorman the head of a wealthy foundation following the death of her father believes she is going insane, suffering from delusions after she come under the influence of Dr Bannerman from England where he had a patient who committed suicide. Her American doctors ask Jeff Ryder for help. English

27

The Man in the Royal Suite

A racketeer's clerk deported from the U.S.A. arrives at the Hotel Poccari to ask Poccari to hide him from his boss also deported to Rome and still running his American rackets. Poccari takes pity on him and allows him to hide in the hotel's royal suite masquerading as a millionaire.

28

The Grandmother

A scandal involving the supply of faulty ammunition to the French army fighting in Algiers is investigated by Tim Collier and leads to one of the most honoured families in France whose reputation the proud and aristocratic matriarch of the family is determined to protect and prevent him from revealing the truth.

29

The Man Who Wasn't There

The daughter of an eminent metallurgist engaged on top secret work asks Manfred to look for her father whom the government has taken to a secret hide-out for his own safety, but coded letters written by the scientist to his daughter lead to a top secret Scottish naval base.

30

The Bystanders

When a 12-year-old girl, Katy Pearson, with a crush on a 20-year-old tennis player, Ted Fenimore, strongly tipped to be the next Wimbledon champion accuses him of molesting her, Jeff Ryder has the task of finding the truth from townspeople unwilling to help.

31

Rogue's Harvest

Poccari is approached by the girlfriend of an embittered young criminal who has hidden stolen money before he was jailed for a robbery committed 5 years earlier. Now on his release she wants Poccari's help to stop him getting into more trouble by returning the money to the victim.

32

The Godfather

Tim Collier's friend Ernst Frenke arrives in Paris with his wife and adopted son, Colliers Godson, carrying a million dollars to buy jet fighters from black-market racketeers for his small middle eastern country. When his son's real mother turns up and the boy is kidnapped for a million dollar ransom Collier has to find the kidnappers who know he has the money.

33

Riot

Visiting a client at the state prison Ryder is held hostage with three prison guards in a riot, organised by his client, about prison conditions. In a pitched battle with state troopers two troopers and four prisoners are killed leaving Ryder trying to defuse the situation.

34

The Heritage

On the Eire-Northern Ireland border a plot to blow up a police station by the IRA is foiled by Joe Nelson, a nationalist, who unlike the other saboteurs is strongly opposed to violence. Captured by the police and then freed by his fellow saboteurs to be tried as a traitor. Nelson's girlfriend asks Manfred to help resolve the problem of a heritage of divided loyalties.

35

The Last Days of Nick Pompey

Gangster Nick Pompey offers Jeff Ryder his criminal account books if he will travel to Rome to find his missing wife and daughter. Poccari assists him in tracking down the wife and daughter held by Pompey's Italian representative who wants the books to take over from Pompey.

36

The Moment of Truth

Young debutant Spanish bullfighter Cesarito Arenas has a secret fear of the ring after his father Cesar was killed in the ring at the height of his career. Vito, his trainer, enlists the aid of visiting Tim Collier who knew the boy's father and in a heart to heart tells the boy the truth about his father.

37

Justice for Gino

Gino, a notorious gangster, is murdered indirectly by his brother, Arthur, arriving in New York. Seeking information from Jeff Ryder so he can kill the murderer Ryder has to find the killer first via Gino's ex-girlfriend now with his main rival before Arthur does.

38

The Boy Without a Country

Taking up the newspaper story of Vito, a 14-year-old stateless orphan, who escaped from his life as a cabin boy on board a tramp steamer, docked in London, under a vicious captain. Arrested by the police for theft Manfred decides to help Vito to get permission to stay in England. The captain is more interested in getting his stolen property back.

39

Treviso Dam

Poccari becomes involved when a young worker phones claiming the Treviso Dam was being built with substandard concrete. Travelling the 300 miles to the Dam, Poccari is shocked to find the young man has been killed in an accident and the man had a rival for the affections of a girl.