The Long Arm (1957)

Simply Perfect

Sick Product of a Sick System

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

This 1950s crime drama opens with a burglar opening the safe of Stone & Company; he trips the silent alarm and the police are there before he can escape. He isn't caught though; he even opens the door to them claiming to be the night-watchman and suggests it is a false alarm. In the morning when the theft is discovered Detective-Superintendent Tom Halliday is put in charge of the case along with his new sergeant, DS Ward. At first it looks as though it must be an inside job as there burglar had a key and there were only two keys in the office but none sound like the man the police spoke to. Halliday has a hunch that the thief must have experience but had not been caught so looks into similar cases looking for a link; they learn that a string of outwardly unconnected cases elsewhere in the country share one thing in common; each involved a safe made by the same company. The urgency of the case in increased when somebody is killed as the thief and his getaway driver flee another robbery. When their damaged car is found there are few clues; just a copy of The Daily Mail with what looks like the word 'Grange' written on it; it is this one clue that will take Halliday and Ward to Manchester and North Wales before they realise the identity of the man they are after.Anybody expecting plenty of action may be a little disappointed as apart from the man being run over and the final capture of the criminals there is little in the way of action. Instead we see the police following the clues and this is the strength of the story; the way the newspaper was traced from the car to a remote area of North Wales was particularly fascinating. Jack Hawkins and John Stratton put in solid performances as Halliday and Ward; they worked well together and even injected the occasional touch of humour to the proceedings. There is some nice location work; it is clear they went to Wales rather than just filming in the countryside with a few appropriate signs added. The only real weakness was the relationship between Halliday and his son… did children really talk like that in the '50s? Overall a pretty good film and well worth watching if it is on TV.

This film epitomises the way the British police were shown in the cinema of the 1950s.Working long hours with long suffering wife and child.Often working more like Sherlock Holmes than a modern detective.Doing things that would horrify modern Socco police.Taking a compact out with a cigarette box.Scratching blood stains off the front of a car by way of a pen knife.Relying on lucky breaks,such as the way that the getaway car is found.Also it has to be said that the ending has been made exciting by what would be considered slipshod police work.For some unexplained reason the burgular is not cuffed so he is able to get free.This initiates the chase,where rather improbably,Hawkins,clings on to the bonnet of a car travelling at speed.However i have to say that Jack Hawkins always rises above even mediocre material.Here as in many of his films he is constantly smoking,which contributed to his sad and untimely passing.

Agree with all previous comments. I first saw this film on TV 20 years ago on a wet Sunday afternoon and loved it. I recorded it on VHS the next time it was shown on telly, bought it when it came out on commercial VHS and have just placed an advance order on Amazon for the DVD version which is due out in February 2008.It's a glimpse into a lost world - 1950s Britain - and all the more charming for it. A surprising amount of location shooting adds to the authenticity. Facsinating to see the Royal Festival Hall, for example, standing alone before the South Bank was developed. I even went on a pilgrimage to Long Acre to check out Stone & Company Ltd - it's still there and looks exactly the same (the building that is)! The detective work is logical, methodical and low-tech. Scraping some clothes fibres of a car radiator is about the height of the forensic work.Some nice touches of humour too. Example: Jack Hawkins complaining that his Sergeant is running off to a payphone to call his girlfriend. "You haven't seen her," comes the reply, "she's worth three shillings for three minutes." That must have had them blushing in the 50s.Things only slow a bit when we're dealing with the Hawkins domestic front but that's a small complaint and was no doubt intended to inject a little social realism.Find yourself a quiet afternoon, make yourself a cup of tea, crack open the custard creams and enjoy.

The Long Arm is an excellent film in my opinion, for 2 main reasons. Firstly it captures all the elements of a typical 1950s British film, with typical London landmarks, familiar faces from other movies, and accents and a way of life portrayed from that era prior to the onset of the society-changing 1960s. Secondly the movie provides, for someone watching for the first time, a thrilling plot with several twists which keep you interested right to the end. Hawkins is superb as the central character - with the investigation of a hit-and-run murder obviously a more serious crime in 50s London than nowadays. This is the sort of film to watch if you are off work on a midweek afternoon.