The Long Arm (1957)

This 1950s crime drama opens with a burglar opening the safe of Stone & Company; he trips the silent alarm and the police are there before he can escape. He isn't caught though; he even opens the door to them claiming to be the night-watchman and suggests it is a false alarm. In the morning when the theft is discovered Detective-Superintendent Tom Halliday is put in charge of the case along with his new sergeant, DS Ward. At first it looks as though it must be an inside job as there burglar had a key and there were only two keys in the office but none sound like the man the police spoke to. Halliday has a hunch that the thief must have experience but had not been caught so looks into similar cases looking for a link; they learn that a string of outwardly unconnected cases elsewhere in the country share one thing in common; each involved a safe made by the same company. The urgency of the case in increased when somebody is killed as the thief and his getaway driver flee another robbery. When their damaged car is found there are few clues; just a copy of The Daily Mail with what looks like the word 'Grange' written on it; it is this one clue that will take Halliday and Ward to Manchester and North Wales before they realise the identity of the man they are after.Anybody expecting plenty of action may be a little disappointed as apart from the man being run over and the final capture of the criminals there is little in the way of action. Instead we see the police following the clues and this is the strength of the story; the way the newspaper was traced from the car to a remote area of North Wales was particularly fascinating. Jack Hawkins and John Stratton put in solid performances as Halliday and Ward; they worked well together and even injected the occasional touch of humour to the proceedings. There is some nice location work; it is clear they went to Wales rather than just filming in the countryside with a few appropriate signs added. The only real weakness was the relationship between Halliday and his son… did children really talk like that in the '50s? Overall a pretty good film and well worth watching if it is on TV.

Very solid brit crime drama. Fine performance from Jack Hawkins. Thankfully, not so much stiff upper lip as we were used, the humour between Hawkins and his sidekick the John Stratton bubbles along and the mechanics of the plot is nicely constructed and presented. A veritable glut of fine British actors both future stars like Ian Bannon and Stratford Johns and small part favourites like Sam Kydd and Harold Goodwin. Also keep an eye out for a young Nicholas Parsons playing a copper. If you're a resident of London it will be fascinating looking at the sites of our capital and seeing how much it has changed. An undiscovered gem worth digging out

To give you some idea how small the world of British TV and movies really is,seven of the actors featured in "The Long Arm" went on to appear in either "Z Cars" and its spin - off "Softly,softly"(or both) and the marvellous Arthur Rigby was a cornerstone of "Dixon of Dock Green". Here they all enjoy a Policemans's Holiday in a rather exciting Jack Hawkins feature that packs in a lot of action in a relatively short time. Sharp and well - scripted,it features many actors beloved of 1950s moviegoers who seldom disappointed their admirers.Mr Hawkins' name on the poster could certainly put bums on seats and he was at the height of his pulling - power in 1956.His strange mixture of kindness and irascibility hit a chord with the British audience and he picked his parts accordingly.As Supt Halliday he has the 1950s senior detective off pat.Not afraid to wield power,sure of his place in the order of things but,overall,decent and fair - minded. Noir - ish but in no way an early "hommage","The Long Arm" is a superior offering in the police - procedural style that will please lovers of British Crime Movies from the age of innocence long before the "No Comment" interview was invented.

I echo Mike Wilson's views on this film, it is the classic British crime drama. Jack Hawkins is superb (and I feel that John Gregson's TV portrayal of Gideon was based on this). It even has little touches of humour which succeed in making the movie real. I would also agree with Mike that the later Gideon of Scotland Yard is poor in comparison, if Jack Hawkins had played the character in the same manner as he played Supt. Halliday, it could have been perfect. The movie has just been re-issued in the UK (Feb. 2003) on VHS.