GREAT DETECTIVES & PEOPLE OF MYSTERY #4

SEXTON BLAKE


Created by Harry Blyth under the pseudonym Hal Meredith, Sexton Blake was a British detective who has appeared in more novels and stories than any other literary detective.  Blake made his first appearance on December 20, 1893 in the adventure story "The Missing Millionaire" in a boy's weekly paper called The Halfpenny Marvel.  The paper that became synonymous with Sexton Blake was Union Jack that was launched six months later.  In 1933 it changed its name to Detective Weekly and continued printing Blake stories until it went under in 1940.  But Blake stories were also printed in their own digest called the Sexton Blake Library which ran from 1915-1964.  The first issue was on September 20, 1915 with the Blake story "The Yellow Tiger" and produced 2-4 issues a month through the mid-1960s when the series was continued in paperback books until 1968.  All total, 200 different authors produced over 4000 Sexton Blake adventures!  1600 novels, 1500 novellas, and 1000 short stories.  Among the authors were John Creasey, Arthur Maclean, and Jack Trevor Story.  76 of the novellas, consisting of 28,000 words each, were written by Edwy Searles Brooks.

Blake began his career as an imitation of Sherlock Holmes, even to the extent of residing on Baker Street.  He had his own "Watson" in the form of a boy assistant named Tinker.  Other characters were his ever-present landlady Mrs. Bardell, and a bloodhound named Pedro.  Sexton Blake was essentially a clean-cut, simpleminded and "manly" Holmes, but his longevity and two-fisted attitude made him closer in spirit to Nick Carter than Holmes, and Tinker was basically a precursor to Robin the Boy Wonder than a cousin of Watson.  There were several recurring criminals in the Blake stories like Mademoiselle Yvonne, a semi-heroine who actually loves Blake; Dr. Huxton Rymer, a mad former surgeon of Harley Street; Zenith the Albino; and Prince Wu Ling, chief of the Brotherhood of the Yellow Beetle, one of many sinister Orientals encountered by Blake.

PLAYS

Sexton Blake's first crossover into another medium was the 1907 stage play "The Case of the Coiners".  Then in 1931 came "Sexton Blake - a detective story in four acts" that starred Arthur Wontner as Blake and whose performance resulted in his being cast as Sherlock Holmes in five films.

FILMS

"Sexton Blake", a 1909 Gaumont short film, was directed by and starred Douglas Carlile as Blake who disguises himself as a minister to save a heroine from "a fate worse than death".  The film was based on the 1906 Blake story "Five Years After".  Carlile returned as Blake in "The Council of Three" (1909), "Lady Candale's Diamonds" (1910), "The Jewel Thieves Run to Earth by Sexton Blake" (1910), and "Sexton Blake v. Baron Kettler" (1912) in which the hero retrieves stolen plans.  Charles Raymond directed Philip Kay as Blake in "The Mystery of the Diamond Belt" (1914) with Lewis Carlton as Tinker.  The two also appeared in "Britain's Secret Treaty" and "The Kaiser's Spies" of the same year.  Then in 1915 Raymond cast Harry Lorraine and Bert Rex as Blake and Tinker in "The Great Cheque Fraud", "The Thornton Jewel Mystery", and "The Stolen Heirlooms".  Lorraine went on to direct "The Further Exploits of Sexton Blake" in 1919 with Douglas Payne and Neil Warrington as Blake and Tinker who save a murdered scientist's kidnapped daughter aboard the S. S. Olympic.  Payne reprised the role of Blake in "The Dorrington Diamonds" (1922) with George Bethany as Tinker.  In 1928 Langhorne Burton as Blake and Mickey Brantford as Tinker appeared in a series of short films released by British Filmcraft - "Sexton Blake, Gambler", "The Clue of the Second Goblet", "The Great Office Mystery", and "The Mystery of the Silent Death".

"Sexton Blake and the Bearded Doctor" Fox (UK), 1935.  George Curzon (Blake), Tony Sympson (Tinker), Henry Oscar, Gillian Maude.  Directed by George A. Cooper.  Blake investigates the murder of a violinist and an insurance swindle.

"Sexton Blake and the Mademoiselle" Fox (UK), 1935.  Curzon, Sympson, Lorraine Grey, Edgar Norfolk.  Directed by Alex Bryce.  Blake does not stand in the way when a determined woman takes revenge on those responsible for her father's ruin.

"Sexton Blake and the Hooded Terror" King (UK), 1938.  Curzon, Sympson, Tod Slaughter, Greta Gynt.  Directed by George King.  Blake exposes a kindly stamp collector (Slaughter) as a maniacal leader of an international criminal organization called the Black Quorum.

"Meet Sexton Blake" British National, 1944.  David Farrar (Blake), John Varley (Tinker), Magda Kun.  Directed by John Harlow.  Blake recovers a valuable formula for an airplane alloy.

"The Echo Murders" British National, 1945.  Farrar, Dennis Price, Pamela Stirling, Julien Mitchell.  Directed by Harlow.  In order to expose a murderous band of machine gun-wielding Nazis who are working secret tin mines in some sealed-off Cornish caves, Blake must fake his own death.

"Murder on Site Three" Hammer, 1958.  Geoffrey Toone (Blake), Richard Burrell (Tinker), Barbara Shelley.  Based on "Crime is My Business" (1958) by Jack Trevor Story and W. Howard Baker.

"Mix Me a Person" British Lion, 1962.  Directed by Leslie Norman, a courtroom drama with Adam Faith as a young man unjustly accused of murdering a policeman.  Based on the Sexton Blake novel "Nine O'Clock Shadow" (1958) by Jack Trevor Story, but with the Blake role rewritten as a female lawyer played by Anne Baxter.

COMICS

Sexton Blake appeared as a comic published in the weekly Knockout 1939-1960, first drawn by Jos Walker and later by Alfred Taylor.  When Blake came to television a tie-in comic ran in the weekly boy's anthology Valiant from January 1968 to May 1970.  Blake's final comic appearance was March to May 1979 as a seven-part series in the weekly Tornado.

RADIO & TELEVISION

"Enter Sexton Blake" aired on the BBC on January 26, 1939 with George Curzon as Blake and Brian Lawrence as Tinker.  "A Case for Sexton Blake" aired a year later on March 30, 1940.  In 1967 the BBC produced a Sexton Blake series for radio with William Franklyn as Blake, David Gregory as Tinker, and Heather Chasen as Blake's secretary Paula Dane.  The show aired on Thursday nights at 7 pm for a total of 17 programs that ran weekly from August 24 to December 14.

Sexton Blake also came to television in 1967 as a series with Laurence Payne as Blake and Roger Foss as Tinker.  During rehearsals for the show in 1968 Payne was blinded in the left eye by a rapier.  The series ran from September 25, 1967 to January 13, 1971, producing about 50 episodes.  Only the first is thought to still exist.  "Sexton Blake and the Demon God" was a mini-series written by Simon Raven that aired September 10 to October 15, 1978.  Jeremy Clyde was Blake and Philip Davis was Tinker.  Set in the 1920s it concentrated on the supernatural aspects of the sleuth's wilder adventures.

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