Hammer the Toff

A Toffee-nosed rich, upper class person, is a sleuth & becomes a self-professed detective. This is a little better than its predecessor 'Salute The Toff', with a less complex plot.

John Bentley is the Toff, an aristocratic private eye -- he goes by "the Honorable Richard Rollinson" who encounter Patricia Dainton at a fancy hotel. She has just received a greeting card from her late uncle. Meanwhile, a criminal who is called the Hammer wants her uncle's formula for a metal; it's the usual scientific bafflegab used by writers in search of a Maguffin. The police are tracking down the Hammer, because he has just committed a murder. Previously he had used the same hammer for smash and grab jobs, which he then distributed among the poor of London's East End.

It's based on one of more than five hundred novels by John Creasey, and the director is quota quicky specialist Maclean Rogers. Shot at Nettleford Studio -- I noticed several sets from the Alastair Sim SCROOGE -- it's an efficiently directed second feature that tries to play off Bentley's and Miss Dainton's appearances in the "Temple Drake" mysteries.

It's a far more nuanced view of the police and their relationship with ordinary people than one usually gets from the movies. Certainly the people of the East End in this movie don't look on the coppers as their friends. Other than that, it's another of the approximately ten thousand mysteries the movies offered their audiences; and a fairly run mystery at that.

HAMMER THE TOFF and its predecessor SALUTE THE TOFF were two big screen adaptations of works by novelist John Creasey. The Toff was a typical private detective type character, with a manservant and aristocratic pretensions. These films were lost for many years, but recently Renown Pictures have unearthed prints of both, and subsequently HAMMER THE TOFF was shown last week on the Talking Pictures TV channel.

This is a workable little movie with plenty of achievements on what is obviously a tight budget - Nettlefold Studios could afford no other type. John Bentley, who also essayed the role of Paul Temple in a number of screen outings, is a fairly stolid but reliable hero type, on the track of a murderer who turns out to be masquerading as a Robin Hood style character.

It's a fairly convoluted story but one which rewards close viewing, because HAMMER THE TOFF is the kind of film which has a bit of everything. There are some tense set-pieces, some romantic shenanigans with the lovely Patricia Dainton, alongside police interaction. Roddy Hughes steals every scene as the put-upon manservant, Jolly. There's a supporting role for Valentine Dyall and even a bit part for Charles Hawtrey if you watch closely. Certainly this is no remarkable film, and it's not a masterpiece either, but as B-movies go there are plenty worse out there, and it held my attention throughout.

The Toff is a Saint knockoff. Hammer the Toff is cheap B movie that looks more like a quota quickie but with better production values.

Richard Rollison is the Toff. An aristocratic and well connected amateur crime fighter. He is friends with Inspector Grice (Valentine Dyall) and East End pub owner Bert Ebbut who has links with the criminal side of life.

Rollison has a calling card of the Toff. A caricature of a man in top hat, monocle, and smoking a cigarette in a holder.

In this movie Rollison meets Susan Lancaster in a train compartment and soon her uncle, a scientist is found dead. The culprit is a character called the Hammer.

Rollison tracks down the Hammer but discovers this is a Robin Hood type person and could not had killed Susan's uncle.

Maybe someone has taken the Hammer's identity or just trying to blame him.

An unpretentious and simple plot. This is a no frills and no fuss movie. The music is irritating, the story is creaky with not much action.

There is an appearance by Charles Hawtrey.

Pete Cheyney's gentleman sleuth continues - in the words of an unbilled Charles Hawtrey - "his private war against crime", taking in his stride attempts on his life by goons in the employ of an arch villain after the usual secret formula.

Valentine Dyall returns as Inspector Grice of the Yard along with Roddy Hughes as Jolly, Wally Patch as Bert and John Powe (who died before it was released) as Flatty. John Bentley in the lead, however, gets a new bright-eyed and bushy-tailed leading lady in the form of Patricia Dainton, whose uncle is played by Ian Fleming. (No! not that one!)