Inspector Hornleigh

I wonder how many people have been fooled, over the years, that Alastair Sim stars in this movie as the title character; in fact, he plays Inspector Hornleigh's dimwitted sidekick (imagine a dumber Doctor Watson), and the role is largely a waste of his considerable talents. The film itself is stuffy and creaky, with a mystery plot that's uninteresting and murky. *1/2 out of 4.

In the 1930s and 40s, B-mystery films were very, very common. There also tended to be some cliches in most of them, such as having a cop (or cops) who is a total idiot and a guy who announces he's going to tell the police everything...and you KNOW he'll soon be dead before he can do so!! This picture has both of these but still manages to be entertaining and novel on occasion.

The most novel thing about the story is the initial crime. Someone has stolen state secrets...specifically, Britain's budget before it is officially released. Why could this be a problem? Well, someone knowing about this spending could capitalize on it in the stock market. But when this doesn't happen, you know that there's a bit more afoot.

The Inspector is played well by Gordon Harker and he is assisted with an absolute idiot, Sergeant Bingham (Alastair Sim). Again and again, the Sergeant reveals his stupidity and Hornleigh solves the case with just about no help whatsoever from Bingham. Per the genre, Bingham is the comic relief cop.

Is it worth seeing? Yes. While far from a must-see, it's a pleasant little crime picture. And, if you like this, the studio made several other Hornleigh pictures....though I have yet to see any of these.

In 1939, Fox amazingly went to all the trouble to send Eugene Forde to England to direct Inspector Hornleigh. Based on a totally boring BBC radio series by Hans Priwin, the movie had a Poverty Row budget that even Monogram would be ashamed of. Virtually nothing was spent on sets or effects, the extremely limited budget being roughly divided 50% on the cast, 30% on technicians and only 20% on studio overheads. The title character was played by Gordon Harker (who did a reasonable job, considering the wordy, almost actionless screenplay), while Alastair Sim was cast as his incompetent assistant, Sergeant Bingham. Although this movie has its fans, I was not impressed. Sims over-acts and over-reacts to a most irritating degree, while the minor characters make no inroads at all into the suffocatingly dialogue-bound screenplay in which a host of tedious, z-grade thespians propound no mystery worth penetrating. The only player who comes out of this melange of boundless talk with any credit is the lovely Miki Hood who not only manages to survive Philip Tannura's warts-and-all photography, but still contrives to look attractive and retain the viewer's interest even when mouthing the most inconsequential lines.

I am a sucker for a good whodunit, and "Inspector Hornleigh" was an excellent one. It had an elaborate plot and I could not guess the murderer until... come to think of it, I didn't guess the murderer until it was revealed at the end of the picture, so well-written was the screenplay. And, brother, it was written, and written, and...

This picture was loaded with dialogue, enough for 2 or 3 pictures, but in the end I felt it was all worth it. I enjoy Gordon Harker more each time I see him and he is very convincing when playing a police inspector. Here he is Insp. Hornleigh of the title, and he was every bit as good as he was as Insp. Elk in "The Frog" (1937). He is aided by Alastair Sim, playing his weak-minded sidekick police sergeant. Speaking for myself, I did not mind his antics, as films of the 30's and early 40's often tried to blend comedy and mystery, more often than not a futile effort, I have found. But it worked here.

The rest of the cast was competent, although two of the suspects looked very much alike, causing occasional confusion. Another reviewer mentioned that the sets looked cheap - that may be, but I gave it a pass and was not conscious of an effort to pinch pennies in any phase of the production.

All in all, a worthy effort and worth your while, because I always feel that, ultimately, the play's the thing, don't you?

Re-watched "Inspector Hornleigh" (1939) with Gordon Harker and Alastair Sim. This is the first of three "Inspector Hornleigh" films made 1939-1941. I've seen this one twice before. For modern tastes, may have a tad too much lightness and comedic input simultaneously delivered with dramatic incident. Alastair Sim is the butt of many retorts of Hornleigh (Harker). Many, many of the scenes are ended with a tersely comic, almost satirical bent, and though British films were ubiquitous with such tropes in the early sound period, as were a number of Hollywood films of like character, today's films have definitely gone away from such progression unless they have the light-hearted nature of Roger Moore's Bond films. Those retain a certain similar flavor. This one has a murder, and through the intrepidness of Harker, plus some little help from his partner, Sim, they find their nemesis. However, I must admit, from the first time through to this time, the solution seems like a fix to the whole, a tad too easy, and certainly not the person anyone would suspect. The ending happens as if - oops, we've spent the budget; wrap it up. It's a fun little film, but it's just that: a little film. Great actors in a secondary film. The fact that two sequels were made: well, that just shows you how good the actors are! The film's a lot of fun. Just don't expect "Citizen Kane"...