The Arsenal Stadium Mystery

The third, last and - according to Rachel Low, the best - of three quality potboilers shot at Dehham during the spring and early summer by G. & S. Films (formed the previous year by Josef Somlo, who had arrived in Britain as a refugee in 1935) after an ambitious Technicolor production of 'The Mikado'.

In Low's words 'The Arsenal Stadium Mystery' "turned a routine newspaper serial into a lively and imaginative whodunnit with a footballing background". Thorold Dickinson (who had worked in a minor capacity on 'The Mikado') put his hours spent in the dark at the Film Society to good use with Soviet-style photography & editing of the football scenes; while his friend Leslie Banks enjoys himself as a detective with flamboyant taste in hats.

(Banks had ironically lost an eye in the First World War, since Edmond Knight was to lose one in North Africa in 1943; the same year that Richard Norris - also one of the footballers - was himself killed in action.)

Amateur team the Trojans are setting the world of English football alight by beating many of the top Division 1 teams in the country. However a friendly match against champions Arsenal will be a true test of their skill. The games starts well with Arsenal leading 1-0 (what else!) at half time. Minutes into the second half one of the Trojans collapses and is found to be dead. The police are called in and find that the player had not died of natural causes but was murdered, the investigation begins, led by Inspector Slade, who wants the whole thing done and dusted before his theatre performance with the police in 3 days time.

Another reviewer here has claimed that this film is `oft forgotten' however I must really disagree with them – this is a famous film that the vast majority of Arsenal fans will be aware of if not seen, outside of them many football fans will be aware of it. I know of it from listening to Danny Baker on the radio years ago talk about it, since then I have seen it twice as it is occasionally on TV here in the UK. It is a fantastic film in terms of curio value although it does stand up by itself in some ways.

As a mystery the film is OK and it has a pretty standard plot for this type of film, I have to be honest and say that the story didn't really grab me and the characters were too thinly developed to really care much about the victim or indeed, the killer. Strangely the film doesn't use Highbury as well as it should have done. The opening 10 minutes features a lot of play but aside from that it fades into the background a bit – personally I'd have liked a lot more of the action to have occurred in the stadium proper, more pitch side scenes would have been good (even in the empty stadium).

The football action is a mix of silly stuff and authentic style play. The silly stuff involves several staged runs where defenders are easily skipped by with little skill involved! However the game flows quite well and shows how much quicker the game today is, I found this very interesting because it has historical value to see football back then (even if it isn't a real game). The footballers in their real roles is interesting but I couldn't tell you their names so really it could have been anyone – the most obvious clue is that many of them cannot act for toffee and struggle to say a few lines convincingly (how things change eh?) but it did add to the film's charm. One of the most amusing thing about the film that I really hope is true is the gentle manner in which the crowd bullies the referee with friendly banter. At one point the referee comes over, talks to one of the crowd, gets a cheeky reply and gives a `get on' gesture! I wish it were really like that – it would certainly be much better than `who's the b*stard in the black' chanted over and over.

The film itself is saved from it's weaknesses by being actually quite funny and tongue in cheek throughout. This is all down to a great performance from Banks as Inspector Slade. He is very eccentric and just a little camp. He worries over the hat he wears, flaps around making many weird statements and is as concerned by his show as he is by the murder. His tongue in cheek delivery is perfect and it makes the film that much more enjoyable. It's hard to describe but he really is very good. His sidekick is good value as well playing the straight man well. The majority of the players (both Arsenal and Brentford Town) are OK but of more value in terms of history than performance – my favourite was the Arsenal chairman who acted well in his scenes.

Overall this isn't a great film and the mystery side of it could have been better, but the use of Highbury and the mock friendly played will make it of passing interest to the majority of football fans. However it is the enjoyable tongue-in-cheek humour (mainly from Bank's role) that makes this a much better film than it would have been if played straight!

Arsenal Football Club were the leading lights of English soccer in the 1930's and this diverting ,and very British ,movie is an attempt to capitalise on the acclaim they rightly had --and still enjoy today.

A star member of an amateur team playing a charity match at the Arsenal ground in North London is killed and Scotland Yard is called in to investigate.The Inspector -played with tongue firmly in cheek by Leslie Banks-is a decidedly eccentric character ,one who sports a range of diverse headgear throughout .His methods are effective however and the case brought to a successful conclusion.

Thorold Dickinson directs with shrewd attention to detail and the movie while no masterpiece works as a murder mystery while the little utilised soccer background adds interest especially for students of the game curious to see how the media of the time treated "the beautiful game"

Guest slots from Arsenal stars of the period add interest.

Did you know that the game played at Highbury (The Arsenal Stadium,) before the outbreak of World War II, wasn't a big League match, an important FA Cup tie or even an International, it was in fact the game that was played in the film!!! Not alot of people know that! (But they do know now!)

There are several reasons to relish this curio. It was a prentice work by Thorold Dickinson, the Hitchcock assistant and cutter who would shoot "Gaslight" and "The Queen of Spades" before becoming Britain's first professor of film. It is one of the earliest sports movies to feature real sportsmen- acting very woodenly, as befits stiff-upper-lip soccer stars. It is anchored by a mischievously eccentric performance by Leslie Banks, who a few years later was to be the magnificent Chorus of Olivier's "Henry V".

Above all, the film lets us glimpse pre-war Britain's, maybe the world's, leading football club. Arsenal FC, the "Gunners", had been raised to pre-eminence by Herbert Chapman, Britain's first modern soccer manager, until his untimely death in 1934. Five years later his team were still on top, coached by his deputy George Allison, who appears in the movie.

Highbury Stadium, the setting for the murder, was state of the art. The scene in the treatment room underlines Chapman's far-sighted, scientific approach to caring for his players. He was an early advocate of floodlights and numbered shirts, and even got the name of the local Tube station altered to advertise the Gunners. The film was a massive plug for them; alas, soon after its release the Second World War meant that the lads had to pick up real guns and compete in a more dangerous game. Afterwards Arsenal did not recover its top-of-the-tree status for 25 years. Unwittingly this production memorialises its greatest era.