Reply With QuoteOriginally Posted by Boomer
For me it is Jack Warner in Jigsaw, just beating into second place Jack Hawkins in The Long Arm.
Mine is Alastair Sim's Inspector Cockrill in Green For Danger. Every time I watch that one I wish Alastair had played Inspector Cockrill at least once more. Cast is very good. And the mystery is played out very fair and sensibly to the viewer.
For me it is Jack Warner in Jigsaw, just beating into second place Jack Hawkins in The Long Arm.
I'm pretty fond of Donald Pleasance in Death Line. And the detective double act in the Dr Phibes movies.
Ian Hendry is great in Girl in the Headlines. Jack Hawkins has been mentioned - he was also a fine Gideon in John Ford's Gideon's Day.
Hell is a City and Jigsaw, both directed by the great Val Guest
If there's a more enjoyable British detective film than It's Not Cricket, I've not seen it yet...
Then of course we have ......
Or how about the Dick Barton films? Not much detecting really, but lots of fun!
Albert Finney (the great) in Gumshoe that I saw for the first time few days ago.....
Moon (who doesn't wear a wig in real life)
Jigsaw and The Long Arm would be my favourite procedural semi-documentary detective films.
But for pure fun, the Inspector Hornleigh trilogy takes some beating with a great chemistry between Harker and Sim.
I recall reading that Hammer gave some consideration to giving Christopher Lee's character from The Devil Rides Out another outing as a period crimefighter - that might have been entertaining.
That's my favourite, too. Alistair Sim is glorious and I think it really keeps you guessing without having ridiculous red herrings. I watched it three times before I could finally remember "whodunnit". Now that's a good mystery.
Not a British movie, but practically, with a mostly British cast is And Then There Were None. The biggest mystery to me is why Agatha Christie despised it. Although there has been several filmed versions of Ten Little Indians, I dont believe any of them have the downbeat ending of the novel, which Christie herself changed for the play. Might be interesting to see the book version and ending adapted for television.
I can't make up my mind between Green for Danger and The Arsenal Stadium Mystery................
Absolutley love Dial M For Murder.....but then again, is that a Yank film?
Other than that one....The Lady Vanishes, 1938 version!
And then of course.....Ask A Policeman!
One of my current favourites is this:
Girl In The Headlines (1963)
Dir: Michael Truman
Ian Hendry
Ronald Fraser
Jeremy Brett
Jane Asher
...or Sim in 'An Inspector Calls' - some surprises along the way in that one!
The Blue Lamp or The Long Arm. Difficult to seperate them
Would Hitchcock's 39 Steps count as a mystery? Anything with Alistar Sims is brilliant; I have an old copy of "The Terror" (transferred from VHS off the telly), and he really makes it watchable.
Oh, and how about The Green Man, maybe not a traditional mystery or detective story, but brilliant!
Sherlock Holmes of course (but that might require a seperate thread).
Merry Christmas,
John
John Bentley as Paul Temple in any of those films he made.
I think I've mentioned before that this is also one of my favourites - and I couldn't help thinking how similar the Hendry character was to John Thaw's Inspector Morse (clasical music buff, Jaguar, etc.).
To be honest these are my favourite types of film and all those mentioned get my vote. I have plenty of them on DVD or VHS - watched Jigsaw (yet again!) just a couple of days ago.
Hello All,
Having just watched 'The Long Arm' for the nth time ( and enjoyed it) it struck me how much this type of film relies on the choice of actor for chief 'tec. Jack Hawkins is excellent in this film, just the right amount of world weariness and dedication. In fact the whole cast is good, particularly his sergeant John Stratton.
These crime thrillers of the 1940s/50s are real favourites of mine and have many of them in my collection. Does anyone out there have a favourite actor as the Scotland Yard detective? Liam Redmond in'High Treason' (1951) is very good as is Gordon Jackson in 'Death Goes to School' (1953), but Jack Hawkins has my vote.
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