Hugh Latimer is the eponymous officer who manages to convince his inspector to take him off his uniformed beat and go undercover to track down a gang of violent thieves. It's based on an old BBC radio series, and his criminal escapades are gentle and engaging - though maybe not the most difficult to grasp.
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.
This interesting big screen, low budget (VERY low budget) version of a then popular radio show airing on BBC is intriguing view of one man's transfer from beat cop to undercover officer pretending to be a notorious criminal (now deceased) and how he uniquely breaks up a den of warehouse thieves. Hugh Latimore is the man only his devoted girlfriend (Annette Simmonds) can love, so he has the right mug to put into street clothes and maneuver his way into the racket run through the seemingly innocent dive restaurant run by Pat Nye's Ma Brady.
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.
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.
THE ADVENTURES OF P.C.
