Der lange Arm

The Long Arm is directed by Charles Frend and written by Janet Green and Robert Barr. It stars Jack Hawkins, John Stratton, Dorothy Alison and Michael Brooke. Music is by Gerard Schurmann and cinematography by Gordon Dines.

Detective-Superintendent Tom Halliday (Hawkins) heads up an investigation into a number of safe cracking robberies. Which in turn turns into a murder investigation.

Out of Ealing Studios, this is a little cracker of a police procedural detective mystery. The flow of the investigation is natural, not given over to wild implausibilities, and always the air of mystery is potent. On the outskirts of the investigation there's a running thread about how policemen's wives/girlfriends suffer in their own ways, their men are married to the force, and this is delicately handled by the makers. While the moments of wry levity are not misplaced. Production is spiffing, with a number of London locations vibrantly used and given a film noir sheen by Dines (The Blue Lamp), while Frend (Scott of the Antarctic) keeps it tight and interesting whilst getting grand perfs from the cast - notably a wonderfully regal Hawkins.

So if you are looking for an old time British policer that doesn't insult your intelligence, then you need look no further. 8/10

This is a superb police detection drama, with Jack Hawkins as the warm-hearted focus of a rather complex crime saga. The best supporting performance is by Ursula Howells, who brilliantly conveys neurotic menace and desperation in just a few scenes. The young Ian Bannen is killed off very quickly, but already in this early appearance we can see his superior qualities working on screen. This 1956 British film is clearly an attempt to emulate the 1940s and 1950s Hollywood films such as 'The House on 92nd Street', directed by Henry Hathaway, since it also portrays stolid and patient police work, shown in loving detail. There are no 'noir' elements to this drama, and the crime is just crime, with no psychology or angst. The plot has some intriguing novelties. In the first safe robbery at the beginning of the film, the thief remains at the scene of the crime and pretends to be a night watchman, lets the police in, shows sympathy and bewilderment, and then makes his escape after they have gone. The whole case really is a brain-teaser, and well worth viewing by any chess player or detective enthusiast. It is a superior British film of its genre.

Director Charles Frend does a splendid job with THE LONG ARM. He elicits strong performances from the entire cast (headed by the ever reliable Jack Hawkins) and the b&w photography is something to savour. I was fortunate to watch a very good DVD copy, and it brings out street scenes, landmarks of the London and Wales of the 1950s in high quality.

It is a time capsule. THE LONG ARM immediately precedes the "kitchen sink" period of the British cinema which began in the late 1950s, and you can still see very prim and proper behavior by all, young and old.

The script is predictable enough - after all it is half-documentary - but the dialogue keeps it ticking, and it includes some barbed remarks, and humor about marriage, dating, and other social concerns.

It is a well done film but perhaps the single thing that I will remember most vividly from watching it is Ursula Howells, the pretty lady who plays the part of Mrs Gilson, and who donates £5 towards Ian Bannen's widow. How beauty and a veneer of class can deceive...

This wonderful film shot in London and Wales during late 1955 is a must for all lovers of 1950's British cinema and this late Ealing Studios masterpiece is as good as anything ever to leave the cutting room of that great British film institution. As simply a film the plot of an unsolvable robbery is very cleverly constructed and little by little the expert veteran detective (Hawkins) and his new sergeant nibble away at the clues, it may seem rather familiar but this is the template on which the likes of the TV Gideon of Scotland yard was built. Hawkins always excellent is brilliant throughout totally convincing as the career copper who loves his job. Back in the nineteen fifties the coppers always got their bad guy and no villain was beyond the law as the title infers, cynicism and shades of Gray would have to wait another decade or so more. Fans of the era such as my self sees a treasure trove of fifties stereotypes but stay at home house wives were the normal back then as was chain smoking drinking on the job if only a small beer and the odd whiskey for bigger problems, everyone wore an overcoat and a hat while London was mostly Gray dull damp smog-ed and still bombed out while car owner ship was still mostly for the better off. Please note the car park right outside the doors of the Royal Festival hall, then only a few years old, boy was parking handy back then. My old Dinky toy cars were in every day use Ford Pilot, Wolseley 4/44 police cars, a Jaguar mark on. Oh! Oh! the nostalgia and all in glorious black and white. Enjoy!

The Long Arm is an excellent film in my opinion, for 2 main reasons. Firstly it captures all the elements of a typical 1950s British film, with typical London landmarks, familiar faces from other movies, and accents and a way of life portrayed from that era prior to the onset of the society-changing 1960s. Secondly the movie provides, for someone watching for the first time, a thrilling plot with several twists which keep you interested right to the end.

Hawkins is superb as the central character - with the investigation of a hit-and-run murder obviously a more serious crime in 50s London than nowadays. This is the sort of film to watch if you are off work on a midweek afternoon.