To be honest, I wasn't the biggest fan of these stage-bound television dramas. All they usually did was to hide their thinly derivative plots behind the veneer of an highly paid, well established, presenter - in this case Boris Karloff. This episode, does, break that mould a bit. "Amos Wilder" kills himself, secure in the knowledge that his nephew beneficiary "Ellis" (John Newland) will keep his corpse protected from the vengeance of the evil necromancer "Bentley" who's got just a bit of an axe to grind with the late lamented magician. The magical elements feature tangentially - essentially this is quite an engaging thriller set in an old dark house, with some decent dialogue, characterisations and a score that all combine to create something just a bit more substantial. The acing is nothing to write home about, but perhaps because no-one is vying for top billing, the whole is successfully more enjoyable than the sum of it's parts. The plot is a little untidy - they've tried to cram quite a lot into this hour, but that doesn't detract too much from what is really quite an eery and atmospheric little mystery.
Review of The Return of Andrew Bentley
