Salute the Toff

SALUTE THE TOFF is the first of two John Creasey thriller adaptations directed by Maclean Rogers and starring John Bentley. The Toff is an upper classic crime fighter who has his own manservant and goes around solving crime in a polite way, although he's good with his fists when he needs to be. I thought the sequel to this film, HAMMER THE TOFF, had the edge, although this is still serviceable enough.

SALUTE THE TOFF is one of many films made at Nettlefold Studios, although has more location work and scene changes than most. The story begins with a missing boss and a pretty young secretary (Carol Marsh, who you may remember getting vampirised in Dracula) enlisting the aid of our sleuth to find out what's going on. The action involves the hunt for some missing papers and a rather complex insurance fraud.

The villains are a rather underdeveloped lot but on the other hand, the Toff enlists some great comic relief in support. The pub landlord and his boxing enthusiast allies are great fun and Roddy Hughes gets some great lines as the constantly put-upon servant Jolly. Bentley breezes through the thing with effortless charm, Valentine Dyall plays in support as a detective, and Marsh is simply lovely. Nothing much to dislike about this one, then.

John Bentley as John Creasey's amateur sleuth "who's caught more criminals than the police put together" nonchalantly stumbles across one corpse after another while Geoffrey Faithfull's atmospheric photography as usual competes with Wilfred Burns' obtrusive music.

Despite appearances by new boys Arthur Hill and Tony Britton, it all has a rather thirties feel to it, even down to the presence of Peter Gawthorne and Wally Patch, the latter sporting what looks like the same jauntily-worn bowler hat and flat cap he was wearing before the war.

A Toff that becomes a Sleuth! Complex Plot! Rubbish French Singing!

The only John Creasey books I've ever read are those relating to The Baron of which he wrote loads under the pseudonym of Anthony Morton – but he also wrote 59 Toff tales of which sadly I've read none. The Baron was very similar to Leslie Charteris's creation The Saint - so was The Toff except he wasn't such a shady character. Instead of leaving a calling card with a drawing of a halo on it, his depicted a caricature of a toff in a topper. Only two Toff stories were ever filmed both of which were on the BFI's 75 Most Wanted Missing Films list; the sequel Hammer The Toff was filmed at the same time as this and is still missing. This was a lively adaptation of a story published in 1941.

A gentleman is being closely watched from the mantelpiece in a guzzling smoky East End pub by some less than gentlemen, he leaves, is tailed, is murdered and his corpse carted off to an apartment. So far, so good – then a pretty young secretary comes to the Toff to help her find where her missing boss has disappeared to and the story starts to get complicated with comedy, romance, missing persons, fraud, embezzlement and more murder. It's reasonably enthralling as a story and within a strict Nettlefold Studios budget competently handled. But a film with a lot of Wally Patch in is always a joy anyway. It brings back a less complicated world we thought was impossibly complicated and which was doomed to die either from the h bomb or cynicism. I couldn't fault the affable John Bentley playing the Toff – but with his butler played by Roddy Hughes they reminded me more of The Lone Wolf. The ever-bullish Peter Bull played one of the baddies, a slimmer Peter Gawthorne is here in one of his last films as another while the incredibly skinny Tony Britton makes one of his first appearances. Hollow voiced Valentine Dyall as a detective played The Man In Blue. The little romances don't even get to the kissing stage which is always a big help in action films.

As far as I know I've never seen this before – it's dated, corny, low budget but adequate and full of old friends; I really enjoyed it and will hopefully see it again with the sequel!

John Bentley (whom some of a certain age might remember as Meg Richardson's husband in TV soap Crossroads back in the '70s) plays the aristocratic sleuth in this low-budget offering - and very suave he is, too. He's searching for a missing businessman wanted for murder after a body is found in his flat, but finds that the story behind the murder isn't quite as straightforward as it first seemed. An ok time-filler that's hindered by its modest budget, and the fact that, despite the convoluted plot, the villain is fairly obvious early on. At least Wally Patch is on hand to keep things lively.