The Adventures of P.C. 49: Investigating the Case of the Guardian Angel (1949)

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Hugh Latimer is PC 49 who goes undercover to catch a gang of thieves operating in London and the Home Counties. Their MO is to find out information about lorry cargos and then just blatantly steal the lorry whilst the driver has a snack at a café. Just drive off with the lorry - zoom. It's a simple plan and bags the gang a tidy fortune. However, Hugh is on a mission and it means tracking down the boss.Who is the boss? Who is Mr Big? If you can't guess immediately, you are pretty stupid. The film screams it at you so there isn't any mystery and this somewhat ruins the tension in the climactic scenes. It's just not a surprise.The film is ok to pass the time but extremely stupid if you think about it. The plot that the police come up with is ridiculous. Part of Latimer's cover story is that he used to work for a gang with someone who actually works for the gang he is going to infiltrate. What happens when this crook - Martin Benson (Skinny) - comes face to face with Latimer and doesn't recognize him? They don't seem to have covered that base. WHAT??!! The film may not be brilliant but it just may trigger an urge in you to learn the craft of origami.

A police constable P.C 99 (real name Archibald Berkeley-Willoughby) goes undercover to get the goods on a gang of lorry hijackers helped by his girlfriend and backed reluctantly by his superiors at the police station. This is the first film of two based upon the adventures of P.C. 99 as broadcast on the BBC. There is not much mystery except for the identity of the gang leader but it moves fast enough and has good dialogue.Hugh Latimer is likeable as P.C. 99 and Patricia Cutts as his girlfriend Joan is even more appealing. There are good character actors in attendance like Pat Nye (Ma Brady), Martin Benson (Skinny) and the ubiquitous Michael Ripper (Fingers) to add flavour . Director Godfrey Grayson specialised in radio adaptations early in his career, also doing films about Simon Cherry, Dr. Morelle and of course Dick Barton.

PC 49, Archibald Berkeley-Willoughby, is walking his beat on a bitterly cold evening. He thinks how quiet and boring his task is; the tedium is broken by his girlfriend Joan who brings him a thermos of coffee. And then a gang of thieves make off with a truck filled with 200 cases of export whiskey, killing the Cullen's Company guard as they flee. Soon thereafter Archie and Joan are having tea at Ma Brady's (not Ma Benson as listed in the IMDb credits) a diner frequented by truck drivers. While there driver Ted Burton sees that his truck filled with a load of cigarettes is being stolen and takes off after the thieves and is unfortunately shot for his efforts. There have been six truck robberies within the month and Archie, taking on the persona of known (and now dead) thug Vince Kelly, infiltrates the gang. The gang's leader, the cold Barney, does not completely trust Archie and tells him that for his first robbery job he will have a partner, a thug named Skinny. Here things get dicey as Skinny was a pal of the real Kelly. Archie also learns that Barney is not the top boss of the gang and he is determined to find out who the real boss is. This is a thoroughly enjoyable B movie. It is suspenseful but also has some humor. One of the funniest bits is when Sgt. Wright meets one of thugs, Fingers, at Ma Brady's. Fingers has the habit of making swans out of tinfoil. Wright sees a swan that Fingers has made and comments on how much his daughter would like the swan. Fingers gives him the swan and when leaving Wright says to him "Thanks for giving me the bird." I don't know if that expression was commonly used then as it is now but if it was, that is quite a risqué, and funny, line. Hugh Latimer and Patricia Cutts were excellent in their roles of Archie and Joan. Joan is refreshingly feisty and willing to weigh into fighting the thieves. The supporting cast is also very good. The show ends on a humorous note as PC 49 returns to walking a beat. I much preferred this movie to its sequel, A Case for PC 49. Good enough to watch a second time.

Before "Dixon of Dock Green" there was "PC49",possibly of Dock Green as well,certainly some murky part of a smog bound London where the occasional car-horn was drowned by the sound of goods trains and the sad wail of ships' hooters on the turgid Thames.Created for radio,the character of Archibald Berkeley Willoughby made an uneasy translation to the world of the British "quickie" movie in the late 1940s.For a start Brian Reece who had created the role and had a huge following as a result wasn't used in the film,"49",as he was known,being played by Hugh Latimer.Furthermore, "49"'s part of London existed only in the imagination of the listeners,and bringing it to life on the screen was going to disappoint at least as many of them as it delighted.It would be easy to laugh at the world portrayed in this film,so many of the beliefs,customs and moral attitudes may seem to sophisticated 21st century audiences ridiculously naive or even reactionary.Please bear in mind that the Londoners of 1949 would find the vast majority of our enlightened" beliefs as outrageous as we find theirs.What is regarded as mainstream entertainment they would see as horrifying and obscene.This was an era when cinemas were not allowed to open on a Sunday,it was 3 years before the word "virgin" was allowed to be spoken in a movie(which was immediately awarded an "X" certificate thus guaranteeing it a popularity far in excess of its merit.Viz:-"TheMoon is Blue"). PC 49 himself was a young idealistic Met copper in the days when they wore high collar tunics and were recruited straight from the forces. He was looked up to by the boys at the Youth Club and had the grudging respect of the local ne'er-do-wells.Clean of mind and limb,we would do well to remember that men like him did exist in the bad old days when there was a blame culture and old people weren't locked away in homes the moment they became unproductive. As was the fashion at the time,49 had a fiancée - Joan - and their relationship was all rather jolly and Enid Blyton-ish.Both would have been outraged at any suggestion that they should have sex before marriage -or much of it after marriage probably.In this film she is played by Miss Patricia Cutts on whom I had a bit of a crush since I'd seen her in a "Just William" film.She disappeared from the movies for many years in the mid-fifties before appearing in "Private Road" in 1971 which sadly proved her swansong.She died at the tragically young age of 48 in 1974. 49 was absolutely sure that he was on the side of the angels,no agonising self-doubt for him,if "chummy" needed nicking he got nicked,no fannying about."Out you go,49",Sgt Wright used to say,ushering him from the office on to his beat.And off he went,happily chatting to the coaster mongers and shopkeepers,seeing old ladies across the road and confiscating catapults from schoolboys.As he dreams of hearing a shout of "Stop! Thief!" whereupon he'll take off his helmet and run like the wind with God and Right on his side,,he fades into history along with "Meccano" and "The Schoolboys' Exhibition" and,believe me ,the world is a far poorer place without him.