Producers
Nat Cohen and
Stuart Levy acquired the film rights to all of
Edgar Wallace's books and stories in 1960. The original intent was that 30 of the films would be produced by
Independent Artists at
Beaconsfield Studios while a further 20 would be made by the
Film Producers Guild at
Merton Park Studios. In the event, Independent Artists' only contribution to the series would be
The Malpas Mystery (1960) while more than double the intended 20 were made at Merton Park. The resulting adaptations were loose, with very few using Wallace's original titles. Like the concurrent
Rialto Film series then being produced in Germany (see
German krimis), there was no attempt to set them in the period settings of Wallace's original stories, probably to eliminate the need for elaborate costumes and sets. A 1962 article in
Scene magazine quotes £22,000 as the budget for an episode in production at the time of reporting. The majority of the films played as supporting features on the
ABC Cinemas circuit, which was
Anglo-Amalgamated's usual outlet; but ten of them were allocated to the rival
Rank circuit, with screenings in their
Odeon and
Gaumont cinemas. Most of the series featured a standard title sequence, in which a shadowed bust of Edgar Wallace revolves slowly against a backdrop of swirling mist, to the accompaniment of the "
Man of Mystery" theme written by
Michael Carr. "Man of Mystery" was later recorded by
The Shadows and became a number 5 hit record in the UK. Later episodes of the series used a speeded up version of the title music after the Shadows'
cover version. The film
Violent Moment (1959), was later released with the Wallace Mysteries' credits replacing the originals, even though it was not part of the series. According to
Kim Newman, insufficient episodes were available for American television, for the series was still in production; hence, the distributor Anglo-Amalgamated attached the "Wallace Mysteries" credits to some of its other mystery and crime films, such as
House of Mystery (1961), and thereby expanded the series. The series has been shown on television. In Britain, it was shown by
ITV in 1968 under the title
Tales of Edgar Wallace. Later,
Channel 4 and
Bravo rescreened the films through to the 1990s, later being re-shown on
Talking Pictures TV from 2018. It was shown on American television as
The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre, with episodes cut to fit hour-long commercial TV slots. In July 2012, Network DVD began to release the complete series on DVD, uncut and presented in its original aspect ratio. ==Films==