Colonel Humphrey Flack 

Colonel Humphrey Flack is the consummate con-man, swindling swindlers at every opportunity.

Creator:

Everett Rhodes Castle

Stars:

Alan Mowbray, Frank Jenks, Hillary Brooke

Cast

Complete series cast summary:
Alan Mowbray	...	Col. Humphrey J. Flack / ... 77 episodes, 1953-1959
Frank Jenks	...	Uthas P. (Patsy) Garvey / ... 77 episodes, 1953-1959

Storyline

Retired, witty, dapper Colonel Humphrey Flack and his partner in crime, Uthas P. Garvey, also known as Patsy, team up to play modern-day Robin Hoods around the world. Conning the con men wherever they find them, the two men change their clever tactics as often as they change locales, giving their proceeds to the needy but retaining a percentage for themselves, of course, to "cover expenses."

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Plot Keywords:

swindler | character name in title | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Family

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 October 1953 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Fabulous Fraud

Company Credits

Production Co:

DuMont Television Network

Technical Specs

Runtime:

30 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The television sitcom was based on a series of "Saturday Evening Post" stories by Everett Rhodes Castle. It was first broadcast live Oct. 7, 1953 and ran for 39 episodes until July 2, 1954. The show ran through several aliases: "Colonel Humphrey Flack," "Fabulous Fraud" and "The Impostor." In 1958 the series was filmed for first-run syndication on TV.

User Reviews

Wonderful comedic characters, with echoes of Nero Wolfe

Does television seem to get worse all the time? Then imagine what it must have been like almost 50 years ago! This wonderful comedy still resounds in my memory. Mowbray's delightful Col. Flack and his hard-bitten but game sidekick "Patsy" Garvey were con men, but with a twist: they preyed on other con artists, and usually saved the bacon of the innocent unsuspecting marks in the process.

One of the running gags was the Colonel's quoting something in Latin or some other language, to which Patsy would respond, "Which means?" Then the Colonel would deliver a pithy, often idiomatic (slang) translation. The one heard most often, usually when they were about to be found out, was "Run, do not walk, to the nearest exit!"

Alan Mowbray was _the_ quintessential English Gentleman (of dubious means), and Frank Jenks was the perfect flat-voiced, squinty American foil. The relationship between these two has definite echoes of the interplay between Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin in the Rex Stout stories.

I don't know if any episodes survive anywhere, but if any do, and you have a chance to see any of them, do so -- you won't regret it.