From a fine run of trim, unostentatious films Ealing Studios house director Charles Frend put out in the mid-‘50s*, this one, an exemplary Police Procedural, sees Jack Hawkins' Scotland Yard Detective-Superintendent (and devoted family man) working in the field and thru the files to find a link on a series office robberies with no sign of forced entry and always on days when the safes are loaded with cash. An inside job on unrelated businesses? What’s the connection? Unfussy, but consistently interesting within its believably quotidian middle-class limits. Labor-intensive/analogue investigation so much more involving & photogenic than looking over a detective’s shoulder at his computer screen. Nicely shot, too, Gordon Dines giving his locations a silvery nighttime glow rather than the usual noir stylings. But most of all, a showcase for the distinctive quizzical charm of Jack Hawkins' chief detective. Such good company; with a BAFTA Best Actor nom as reward. Unusual for a genre pic, and well deserved.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: John Ford must have seen this, having Hawkins more or less reprise the role in his little seen GIDEON OF SCOTLAND YARD/’58. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2019/09/gideons-day-aka-gideon-of-scotland-yard.html OR: *Frend showing his range moving from sharp war drama in THE CRUEL SEA/’53 to religious-angled family crisis on LEASE OF LIFE/’54 then the eccentric British coastal town comedy of ALL AT SEA./’57. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2019/08/the-cruel-sea-1953.html https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2020/06/lease-of-life-1954.html https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2019/12/all-at-sea-aka-barnacle-bill-1957.html
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