24 ore a Scotland Yard

The novel 'Gideon's Day' was the first in the Gideon series by John Creasey (written under the pseudonym of J J Marric) and was published in 1955. Each book in the series followed 'G G' (George Gideon) through a period of time. Cases that came up during that time were not necessarily solved by the end of the novel: they were kind of a "slice of life" of (Creasey's image of) 50s Scotland Yard.

There are 21 novels in the Gideon series, as written by John Creasey, with the last one published in 1976 (2 years after his death). I did, however, once came across another Gideon novel, written after Creasey's death by another author using the name J J Marric. If you like the Gideon TV series and movie and are interested in the books, make SURE they are by Creasey as anything else is a very poor substitute.

A long, stressful day in the life of a scotland yard detective. Stars jack hawkins as chief inspector gideon, trying to keep his home life in balance with his work life. But of course, the work duties keep getting in the way of his personal life. It runs like an episode of dragnet, which came out first! It's okay. Directed by john ford, for columbia british studios. Ford was known for his huge films grapes of wrath, stagecoach, green valley. John ford made over twenty films with john wayne! This one is a bit dated at this point. It feels like ford was wasted on this little project, doing so many huge films. Entertaining, i guess, and probably pretty new to the british audience, seeing what scotland yard had to deal with. Hawkins was no slouch either.. he made zulu, river kwai, and ben hur.

This rarely seen (or shown) rarity from the great westerns director John Ford, was screened recently as Channel 4's weekday lunchtime movie. The film's alternative title, 'Gideon of Scotland Yard' gives us a clearer picture of where it is set and what it is about.

Not paying much attention to what it said in Radio Times beforehand, I assumed it was a Dixon Of Dock Green sort of black & white semi- documentary, along the lines of the excellent 'Blue Lamp'.

For a start, it's in colour and opens with breakfast time with the family, for Inspector Jack Gideon, all brisk and jovial. His drive to work results in going through a red light and is embarrassingly challenged by a youth PC.

From here-on in, the comedic elements dissipate as Insp Gideon's day unfolds, with phone calls and leads, all going on to illustrate 'the day in the life' that is the title. The mixture of crime is, obviously quite innocent when compared to today and the likes of 'The Bill', but this is 1958 and the censors were always prevalent, not that I'm suggesting that Ford would have set out to paint an overly colourful scenario.

The script is by Ealing Studio regular T.E.B Clarke, from John Creasey's novel and whilst it's not exactly electric, it's brisk enough, with a light tone and those of a certain age will find much pleasure in the period detail, scenes around London and the general way of doing things 'back then'.

Such viewers might have wanted to give a higher score than I am, though. To be honest, the direction could have been done by anyone proficient and whilst the studio-bound indoor sets are well done, they are just that, though also to be fair, Insp Gideon is seen going about between locations enough to remind us that he's very busy...

Finally, there is a nice John Ford sense of irony at the end though, which gives a real sense of satisfaction.

Have seen this film several times and always enjoy it. Very typical John Ford: easy-going, some high drama, some great on-location color photography, wonderful performances (with quite a bit of Fordian over-acting).

There have been some frankly negative reviews of this picture (Leonard Maltin's book gives it just 1 and a half stars!) but don't let that deter you if you just want to be entertained for 90 minutes and transported to London 1958.

It's not a thriller, not a who-done-it. It's just John Ford's treatment of a colorful day in the life of a Scotland Yard inspector and his family. If that's something that appeals to you, then by all means sit back and enjoy.

This film is unique historically for more than one reason. It is the first - I believe only - cops and robbers film directed by John Ford. It is also unique because it is an Irish production. The 'Rising of the Moon' was an Irish production directed by John Ford. He made it clear that he would like to do another. The Irish Lord who had produced the 'Rising' read a book called Gideon's Day by an unknown writer called J.J.Merric. He loved the book, rang John Ford, and sent him a copy. When he negotiated buying the book it was discovered that J.J.Merric was in fact the famous John Creasey. Ford was captivated by the book, the deal was struck, and the wheels set in motion. In the film itself there is no indication that it is Irish other than Cyril Cusack being in it. It is the only Irish film made so far that does not have an Irish factor in its content. The world premier was in the Savoy Cinema in Dublin.