User Reviews

This episode plays out like a morality tale about the perils of acting in a furtive manner as a rich American visits England to learn out more about his ancestors.

It has more of a slow-burning quality in terms of plot development, but you always sense that the friend's connivance at betraying her flatmate's confidence is not going to end well. There is a genuine sense of foreboding.

The final twist was well worth the pay-off and I thoroughly enjoyed Donald Eccles' ' cameo as the local vicar. Eccles was familiar playing roles dealing with 'odd disappearances', his face vaguely familiar until one realized that he was the chemist (photographic darkroom) in 'The Wicker Man'.

I really liked one telling detail; when he comforts the flatmate telling her that he's sure her friend will turn up soon, he doubles up in shock after she informs him that she has been now missing for a fortnight , gripping his throat to steady his nerves. In contrast to some episodes where the violence is gratuitous (Never Speak Ill of the Dead), this simple gesture tells us all we need to infer about what happened to the unfortunate friend in the company of her travelling companion.

Tales of the Unexpected: A Man with a Fortune starts with a chance meeting between a rich Californian vineyard owner named John Smith (Shane Rimmer) & a young woman named Eva (Elizabeth Richardson) in a wine bar somewhere in England. They begin to chat & John admits he has no family & is trying to trace his ancestors whom came from a town in Norfolk called Bedham, Eva tells her flatmate Janet (Cyd Hayman) about the meeting & she senses the opportunity to maybe make some cash by conning John. Janet meets John in the local records office & says she is also looking for her ancestors who come from Bedham, John suspects they might be related which is exactly what Janet wants but things take an unexpected turn for the worse for Janet...

Episode 16 from season 5 this Tales of the Unexpected story originally aired here in the UK during August 1982, the ninth & last Tales of the Unexpected episode to be directed by Herbet Wise this is decent enough but nothing particularly special & could have been so much better. The story by Peter Lovesey was dramatised by Alan Seymour & has a nice idea behind it, it's not as predictable as a lot of episodes of this show are. Now the best & yet at the same time the worst aspect of A Man with a Fortune is the twist ending, it's effective & unexpected but it ends too abruptly & left me wanting more & quite frankly it sells itself short. It's almost as if they ran out of time & just had to finish it there & then. The story behind A Man with a Fortune would have made for a great Tales from the Crypt (1989 - 1996) which would have been able to round things off with a really gory ending like the build up is simply crying out for in my opinion & which a show like Tales of the Unexpected couldn't or indeed weren't allowed to provide. A good way to pass 25 minutes but with a stronger ending this could have been great, as it is it's merely good.

This one has dated like most Tales of the Unexpected although not as much as some stories from this series. Like this series in general there's no style or class to it. The acting is good & unusually there's no big names in there.

A Man with a Fortune could have been great if it had the balls to go with a really shocking ending which emphasised the twist, unfortunately it didn't & therefore I was left somewhat unsatisfied. Still worth a watch though.

Shane Rimmer plays John Smith in this 1982 episode of Tales of the Unexpected. Even though John is an American, Shane is actually Canadian, but I guess to many Americans and Canadians look and sound alike, just as say Chinese actors portrayed Korean roles in M*A*S*H and so on for example.

The ending was a bit of a silent twist, and I wish there was more of a conclusion, but not to be. Maybe if Tales of the Unexpected was rebooted, this episode could be first off the rank for a post-Brexit treatment. To appeal to a younger audience, maybe Vin Diesel could be the host. Or to have a link to the past, maybe Sophie Dahl (Roald's granddaughter) could be called in to do hosting duties.

Also Jean Kitson appeared as the clerk. All up, Jean appeared in three episodes of Tales of the Unexpected.

These 'Tales of the Unexpected' are certainly meant to convey the worst possible result with their often clever twist endings. But suppose just for once you had an outcome that flies in the face of viewer expectations. This could have been one of those episodes, because even though the set up is meant to give the impression that John Smith (Shane Rimmer) was a closet murderer, it could just as easily have been that Janet Murdoch's 'disappearance' meant that she ran off to America with a fabulously wealthy vineyard owner. After all, she kind of went behind Eva's (Elizabeth Richardson) back to ingratiate herself with Smith's interest in his family tree. Eva passed on the opportunity when she came up with a handful of reasons why an arrangement with Smith didn't seem practical or worthwhile. Then, when she realized what Janet had done, she remarked about her erstwhile friend and roommate with the censored line in my summary above. Now don't get me wrong, I think Smith followed through on his father's and grandfather's legacy, and was probably a killer with a good line, but you couldn't know that for sure by the ending. It's all in the power of suggestion.

I thought this was a pretty decent episode, with a very abrupt and quite startling ending, very true to the name of the programme!! The acting is exemplary and I do like the way the American strikes up a conversation at the beginning!...

The Vicar at the end was superb, I had to rewind the end scene a couple of time for maximum enjoyment!

This wasn't an episode where the outcome is easily predicted which adds to the fun as we're hit with the revelation.

All in all, an excellent episode.

As the comment by Paul says, definitely worth a watch.

A chance meeting at a restaurant sees wealthy American vineyard owner John Smith get into conversation and lunch with softly spoken young English woman Eva. He explains that he is self made and in England seeking his ancestry, in Bedham. Eva recounts the tale to her friend Janet Murdoch, she tells Eva she was foolish for letting him go without making a play for him. Janet sets off for Bedham to try and find John, her motive, greed. They meet at the records section, he invites her along to Bedham

After the flat episode in the bag, A man with a fortune has come as a welcome return to form, a truly well acted affair, Elizabeth Richardson and Shane Rimmer are excellent, I loved the conversation in the restaurant, they were beautifully natural. It's arguable that Cyd Hayman steals the episode, her switch in character is brilliantly done. I'd agree with the other reviewer that Donald Eccles was great as the Vicar, he had a wonderful, long career.

This is a brilliant episode, showing that greed is not good for your health, it boasts a wonderful twist.

8/10

Any review of this episode has to carry a spoiler warning - the twist comes out of nowhere and is genuinely 'unexpected', though the grue and gore happen offscreen and is left to the imagination - which was largely this series stock-in-trade, for those who haven't realised (we usually end at the moment of a revelation which will have devastating and ironic implications). Furthermore, the twist ending being open leaves us suspended amid myriad possibilities - maybe nothing bad happened, maybe they went away and were happy ever after, and just forget to phone anyone? Yeah, right! Red herrings a-plenty here, with the typical 'tales ...' golddigging and subterfuge as lovely but reticent Liz Richardson meets by chance harmless (and wealthy) newly single 'teddy bear' Shane Rimmer and lets slip info to her equally lovely but conniving and opportunistic flatmate (Cyd Hayman). Cyd makes abeeline to the public library, where Shane is researching his family tree. She quickly inviegles herself into his company ... but enough of this. It's a subtle, slow burning Tale. Second series appearances for Richardson and Rimmer (as you all know, the voice of Scott Tracy and beloved from dozens, maybe hundreds of appearances in sundry Star Wars, Supermans, Bonds, etc. etc. - but you knew that already).

You never know with these tales, some are predictable, others not. This is a beautifully acted topsy-turvy tale of subterfuge, greed and .... well, maybe, murder.

A rich self-made American vineyard owner played by Shane Rimmer as a lonely, but affluent winner, meets a reticent, retiring 28 year old girl in a bar, they are put on the same table for a meal and he explains he's over here to trace his ancestors, having pretty-well no relatives. His name is Smith...and his ancestors come from Bedham in Norfolk.

Eva, sweetly played by Elizabeth Richardson, is mildly encouraging, but does nothing to pursue the rich American - apart from, perhaps regrettably, with hindsight, advising her more, let's say, aspirational flatmate, Janet, played by the wonderful Cyd Hayman, who first came to prominence in a lead role in the iconic 1970's series Manhunnt, with Beethoven's Fifth as its theme,

Janet inveigles her way into the records office, appearing to be looking up the same Smith family....talk about co-incidences...if the lottery had been around then, you'd have had the same probability of winning two jackpots in a row!

Notwithstanding that, she's understandably invited by the lonely American to Bedham to search records in the parish church - and is not seen again.

When Eva makes her way there two weeks later, the vicar unleashes a tsunami of a twist; it transpires, both of the real Smith (John's) ancestors - his father and grandfather - were psychopathic murderers.

As the vicar says: 'I do think medical men (note not women!) and psychiatrists make too much of heredity' until he's told Janet hasn't been seen since; at which point, the vicar (persuasively played by Donald Eccles) symbolically grabs his throat in agitation.

Topsy-turvy, yes; there's a chance Janet has merely returned with John Smith to the vineyards of California; but it's implied the expression, like father, like son, is an apt one, here. Janet certainly does not deserve such a come-uppance for mere aspiration. Let's hope, more than forty years later, she's treading wine like the late Lucille Ball in that famous episode of The Lucy Show, sharing a glass with her grandchildren.