I used to watch this 23 minute b & w weekly series which ran from 1959 to 1960. (Great opening sequence and music BTW.) Based on Edgar Wallace’s novel, these four men fought together in one memorable 1943 WWII episode. In the first show, the viewer are introduced to all four and sees what brought them together at a chateau in 1959 by their dead commander, who challenges them to fight for justice against tyranny. He has provided a significant fund base for them to use, and in subsequent rotating episodes, each man takes a turn to fulfilling this inherited mission.
British actor Jack Hawkins (Bridge on the River Kwai) plays a dogged British MP and amateur sleuth Ben Manfred. Richard Conte (The Godfather) plays a serious New York lawyer Jeff Ryder. Dan Dailey (once a Hollywood star) plays Tim Collier, an ironic American journalist in Paris. Veteran Italian star Vittorio de Sica plays Ricco Poccari, a jocular hotelier in Rome. Each show, one of these actors becomes the protagonist with occasional phone calls to the other friends.
This was quite an ambitious U.K. series shot on location, which, no doubt, inspired on-location American series that followed like The Naked City and Route 66. The many guest stars include: Honor Blackman, Alan Bates, and Jane Asher. A very entertaining, fast-moving 975 minutes in total.