The Third Key

Average thriller film. The Berlin festival award for the director Charles Frend is surprising.

A electrifying cast enlivens THE LONG ARM, an enjoyable police procedural which sees Scotland Yard's finest tackling a series of mysterious burglaries in which the robbers have been getting away scot free. An opening twist is easy to guess but this draws you in thanks to the quality writing and interesting performances from a wide and varied cast of familiar faces, spearheaded by a typically excellent Jack Hawkins in one of his trademark no-nonsense performances.

What is now commonly referred to as the 'police procedural' goes back as far as 'The Moonstone' of Wilkie Collins in the 1880's and in filmic terms has reached its highest level in 'Quai des Orfevres' of Clouzot, 'Maigret tend un piege' of Delannoy and probably greatest of all, the 'High and Low' of Kurosawa.Here we have the other end of the spectrum in this film of former editor turned director Charles Frend.

An alarm goes off in an office. 90 seconds later, the police are there.

Director Charles Frend does a splendid job with THE LONG ARM. He elicits strong performances from the entire cast (headed by the ever reliable Jack Hawkins) and the b&w photography is something to savour.

This wonderful film shot in London and Wales during late 1955 is a must for all lovers of 1950's British cinema and this late Ealing Studios masterpiece is as good as anything ever to leave the cutting room of that great British film institution. As simply a film the plot of an unsolvable robbery is very cleverly constructed and little by little the expert veteran detective (Hawkins) and his new sergeant nibble away at the clues, it may seem rather familiar but this is the template on which the likes of the TV Gideon of Scotland yard was built.

To give you some idea how small the world of British TV and movies really is,seven of the actors featured in "The Long Arm" went on to appear in either "Z Cars" and its spin - off "Softly,softly"(or both) and the marvellous Arthur Rigby was a cornerstone of "Dixon of Dock Green". Here they all enjoy a Policemans's Holiday in a rather exciting Jack Hawkins feature that packs in a lot of action in a relatively short time.

In this cracking black and white police drama, Ealing comes up trumps yet again. Made in 1956, with good locations in and around London, the story concerns Jack Hawkins, as Superintendent Halliday, who has to track down, a very clever cat burglar, who is an expert in disguises.

I echo Mike Wilson's views on this film, it is the classic British crime drama. Jack Hawkins is superb (and I feel that John Gregson's TV portrayal of Gideon was based on this).