Jack Hawkins is top cop Gideon at Scotland Yard. The film stays with him for a day as he tackles murder, fraud and robbery as well as trying to getting home with some fresh fish and getting to a concert with his wife and friends.
An interesting mixture this, directed by John Ford of all people. It combines often quite nasty murders including a sex crime, although not graphically, requiring Hawkins to get quite brutal and Ealingesque light comedy moments which are really quite funny. The mixture seems strange but holds together well, in part because of the breakneck speed at which all the many and varied incidents and investigations pass. Hawkins is always great at playing authority figures with charm (see The Long Arm) and he is ably supported by a bevvy of British character greats, particularly Michael Trubshaw as his wise and tolerant right hand man.
An interesting mixture this, directed by John Ford of all people. It combines often quite nasty murders including a sex crime, although not graphically, requiring Hawkins to get quite brutal and Ealingesque light comedy moments which are really quite funny. The mixture seems strange but holds together well, in part because of the breakneck speed at which all the many and varied incidents and investigations pass. Hawkins is always great at playing authority figures with charm (see The Long Arm) and he is ably supported by a bevvy of British character greats, particularly Michael Trubshaw as his wise and tolerant right hand man.