Inspector Hornleigh on Holiday

An ancient fossil of a police detective movie, of exclusive interest today for the participation of Alastair Sim, although this "lame-brained sidekick to the title detective" role is hardly one of his better ones. The plot, which unfolds with all the speed of a paralyzed sloth, turns out to be mind-numbingly stupid. * out of 4.

This is the second of the Inspector Hornleigh films, starring Gordon Harker. His assistant Bingham is played by Alistair Sim.

The two men are spending a delightful holiday by the sea - indoors. The tides are six feet high. Storms rage. Winds howl.

The men are staying in a guest house in Balmoral - one of the people there is a Captain Fraser of the Royal Navy. One night he receives a phone call and rushes out, taking his pet dog along with him.

Attempting to have a vacation, Hornleigh and Bingham are there under assumed names. However, when the man's car is found wrecked at the foot of the cliff, they are taken into custody to identify the body. The body is burnt beyond recognition, but the men take note of the fact that the dog was not in the wreck.

Hornleigh reveals himself to be a police detective and gets to work helping the locals.

It turns out to be part of a complicated plot. Harker and Sim are very funny, Sim especially, and the plot has a few interesting twists.

I will be looking forward to seeing the other two in the series.

This movie, which is available on Youtube is a finely wrought charmer. The script and dialog are clever, but the performances of Gordon Harker and Alastair Sim are outstanding. Scotland Yard Inspector Hornleigh (Harker) and his often hapless sergeant (Sim) are on a dismal holiday at a seaside resort experiencing an unseasonable storm. The two stumble upon murder and fraud. The ups and downs of the twosome, the plot twists, and the comic bits as they solve the mystery are delightful. This is the second and the best of the Inspector Hornleigh trilogy. Why didn't they make a dozen of these films? They should have.

The comedy team of Harker & Sim hits its stride in "Inspector Hornleigh On Holiday", a laugh-a-minute comedy film from the 1930's British arm of Twentieth-Century Fox. Attempting to capitalize on the first in the series, "Inspector Hornleigh", Gordon Harker as Insp. Hornleigh once again plays the straight man to Sgt. Bingham, the buffoonish Alastair Sim character.

Wait a moment, though. This is supposed to be a murder mystery, a genre which normally conflicts with attempts at humor. Oddly enough, these two qualities were blended in movies made before WW II, and with what I consider disappointing results. A case in point would be "The Cat And The Canary" (1939), which I felt lost all credibility with Bob Hope in a key role.

But there is good news. This film works! Despite the Harker-Sim shenanigans, it is a fascinating mystery story with some neat plot twists and red herrings and holds the viewers interest to the finale. Following the pattern of sequels, it is not as good as the first picture but is good enough for a rating of seven.

In the second of three movies, Gordon Harker and his very Scotch assistant, played by Alastair Sim, are enduring a rainy vacation in Brighton. One of their fellow guests is killed in a car accident, and the pair are called in to identify the body. Harker suspects murder; when Sim spots the dead man walking on the street, the two investigate.

Inspector Hornleigh was invented as a radio serial puzzle mystery for the BBC. The movies, under the direction of Walter Forde, turned them into comic efforts. They were produced by Twentieth Century-Fox; like Warner Brothers and MGM, they were producing movies in the years leading up to the Second World War.

Although the Hornleigh movies were well received and the talent involved was topnotch (Sidney Gilliat and FrankLaunder are two o the writers) and Harker & Sim make an amusingly contrasting pair of coppers, I don't find the movie to be of much greater than average competence; some o the details of the mystery seem to be more melodramatic than intelligent and Sim's character began to pall quickly. Perhaps that's why he turned down any further efforts after the following episode.