Inspetor Hornleigh

The comic duo of Gordon Harker and Alastair Sim make "Inspector Hornleigh" an entertaining and watchable light mystery story. The plot itself has a couple of good touches - for example, getting good mileage out of a pair of similar briefcases - but it is the two main actors who make the film worth watching.

Harker (who plays Inspector Hornleigh) began his career with good supporting roles in three of Alfred Hitchcock's silent movies, and had a good sense of comic timing that he puts to good use here as the inspector in charge of a baffling case. Sim was an idiosyncratic, entertaining character actor who is best known for his wonderful portrayal of Scrooge in the 1951 version of "A Christmas Carol". Here he is Sgt. Bingham, the Inspector's earnest but inept sidekick, a good role for his distinctive talents.

"Inspector Hornleigh" is fairly routine as a mystery, but it is made very watchable by this entertaining comic pair who work well together. It is little known today, but in its time it was considered good enough that it led to two sequels. It is worth seeing if you like mysteries with some comic touches.

The first in the Inspector Hornleigh series starring Gordon Harker in the title role with humour supplied by his partner Sergeant Bingham, played by the Scottish actor Alastair Sim, later to star as Scrooge in A Christmas Carol.

Average film watchable particularly for fans of Mr Sim but some of the anti-Scottish comments by Hornleigh now make the viewer feel rather uncomfortable.

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.

Firstly, Miki Hood - what a beautiful young lady! I wonder why she never made it big because she's absolutely lovely. She looks like a Disney princess who could be another sister of Loretta Young.

This film is based on a long running popular radio show, with professional cockney Gordon Harker as the personable sleuth. With a long track record of good scriptwriting, the story used for this is intelligent and intriguing. Eugene Forde - never heard of him - directs this adequately and ensures the tension ramps up at a good pace.

Like another other forgotten detective series: Philo Vance, it's the plot rather than the characters which the Horleigh stories rely on. Harker does however give his grumpy old copper a bit of personality which makes this a hundred times better and engaging than the tiresome Vance movies. It's hardly Hitchcock or Holmes, Poirot or even THIN MAN but although it's not super-original, it is professionally made, well acted and well written.

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"...