The murder of a young woman in London exposes deep racial tensions and prejudices inherent in the area.
In 1950s London, racial hostility toward Commonwealth immigrants is openly paraded. A pregnant girl, initially assumed to be white, is murdered. As two detectives start to investigate and discover her racial origins are much more mixed, public prejudices and those of the officers themselves are exposed.—Jeremy Perkins {J-26}
On a Sunday, the murdered body of a young redheaded Jane Doe is discovered among the brush on Hampstead Heath, in an obvious act of hate, as she was stabbed several times in the heart before her body was dumped in the heath. Going on a hunch from the minimal evidence on hand, the lead police investigators, Superintendent Bob Hazard and Inspector Phil Learoyd, discover that she is twenty-one-year-old Sapphire Robbins, a student at the Music Conservatory. What they learn from her student friends, including her obviously grief-stricken boyfriend and unofficial fiancé, David Harris, a working-class architecture student who was planning on going away to school in Rome on scholarship soon, is that she was a generally well-liked proverbial good girl. As Hazard and Learoyd start to look into Sapphire's life, they discover that she was keeping several secrets which may have been factors in her murder, and, although the secrets are all associated, it is the one that becomes evident upon the arrival of her Birmingham-based physician brother that may be the biggest individual factor. It becomes clear that several people in that known life and that secret life could have had motive, including David and his family, he living with his parents, his father Ted Harris a gilder and sign maker, and his married sister, Mildred Farr, her merchant marine husband away at sea. The investigation becomes one highlighting the problem of prejudice that permeates British society in general.—Huggo
Children playing on Hampstead Heath in London come across the body of a young light-skinned woman who has been stabbed to death. Police Superintendent Robert Hazard (Nigel Patrick) and his assistant, Inspector Phil Learoyd (Michael Craig), follow the lead of the woman's handkerchief, monogrammed with an "S," and discover that her name was Sapphire Robbins (Yvonne Buckingham), a music student. Her brother (Earl Cameron), a doctor working in Birmingham, is notified. Her fiance, an architecture student named David Harris (Paul Massie), claims to have been in Cambridge at the time of the murder.
An autopsy reveals that Sapphire had been three months pregnant. The police are surprised when Dr. Robbins arrives and they see that he is black. He and his sister were mixed race, but Sapphire was able to "pass" as white. Robbins is professional in his bearing and proud, skeptical that the police will actually try to solve his sister's murder.
Investigating Sapphire's life and acquaintances, the officers find that she frequented nightclubs with black clienteles, leading them to look for another possible boyfriend. Learoyd is quick to jump to racist assumptions about the victim's behavior, but Hazard is nonjudgmental and sometimes counters his assistant's biased views. Interviews with other possible witnesses or connections to the case reveal a range of racist attitudes in the white population.
When the officers question members of David's family, they learn that Sapphire had revealed her family background to David, and had informed his parents and adult sister Mildred (Yvonne Mitchell) about the pregnancy. David's father, Ted Hughes (Bernard Miles, had reluctantly agreed to David and Sapphire marrying despite his own racist views and the family's concern about their social standing, as well as the knowledge that David would probably have to forfeit an upcoming scholarship to study in Rome.
Visiting Tulip's Club, a nightclub favored by affluent young blacks, Hazard and Learoyd learn that Sapphire was resented by some of her contemporaries, but that she often went there with a young man called "Johnnie Fiddle" (Harry Baird).After a chase, Johnnie is caught and brought in by the police. A knife and a bloody shirt are discovered in his room, but Johnnie claims these were from a fight he had with a certain "Horace Big Cigar" (Robert Adams). In the meantime, however, David is seen acting suspiciously near the murder scene on Hampstead Heath, and it is discovered that he had returned from Cambridge earlier than he claimed on the day of the murder.
Hoping to prod further revelations from those closest to the murder, Hazard brings Dr. Robbins to the Harris home, prompting angry reactions from the family. The most violent comes from Mildred, who responds with disgust when Robbins picks up one of her daughter's toys. Mildred finally confesses to her hatred of Sapphire and to the murder. With the case wrapped up, Hazard acknowledges the larger social evils underlying the case, telling Learoyd that they "didn't solve anything . . . We just picked up the pieces."
