A Case for PC 49 (1951)

User Rating:

5.4/10   

Director:

Francis Searle

Writers:

Vernon Harris (radio series)
Vernon Harris (screenplay)

Release Date:

August 1951 (UK)

Genre:

Mystery | Crime | Drama

Plot:

PC 49 grapples with a beautiful artist's model in a case involving the murder of a millionaire. |

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Based On Radio Series | Police Sergeant | Detective | Sergeant

Cast

Brian Reece	...	Archibald Berkeley-Willoughby
Joy Shelton	...	Joan Carr
Christine Norden	...	Della Dainton
Leslie Bradley	...	Victor Palantine
Gordon McLeod	...	Inspector Wilson
Campbell Singer	...	Sergeant Wright
Jack Stewart	...	Cutler
Michael Balfour	...	Chubby Price
Michael Ripper	...	George Steele
Joan Seton	...	Elsie
Edna Morris	...	Mrs. Bott
John Sharp	...	Desk Sergeant
Frank Hawkins	...	Police Sergeant
John Barry	...	Pewter
John Warren	...	Coffee Dan

Runtime:

80 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Bray Studios, Down Place, Oakley Green, Berkshire, England, UK

Company:

Hammer Film Productions

Trivia:

Brian Reece and Joy Shelton re-created their roles from the BBC Radio series on which the film was based.

Movie Connections:

Follows The Adventures of P.C. 49: Investigating the Case of the Guardian Angel (1949)

Escapist nostalgia

This was one of those unusual sequels: better than the original. It was the 2nd attempt at putting the adventures of PC 49 onto the screen, transferred from BBC radio, the 1st being filmed 2 years before in 1949. In those 2 years Hammer had come on by leaps and bounds with higher production values, better actors and acting and most of all better scripts. This still means that it creaks and abounds with those moments that contemporary serious people love to deride, so apart from it appealing to wide-eyes like me it can also draw cynical wasters too.

Meanwhile the plot is cohesive and absorbing: jewel heist complements and is a screen for an elaborate murder-of-a-millionaire plan, the hifalutin murderers themselves get targeted by their lower class drones who concoct their own elaborately vicious plan in revenge. Into this morass of immorality comes hook-nosed Brian Reece playing lanky PC 49 and Joy Shelton playing his astute fiancée Joan, who are playing their own hunches despite being continually handicapped by the staid unimagination of the Met police hierarchy. They needed an Inspector with the brains of Claude Teal, stolid Gordon McLeod had to suffice instead … Michael Ripper was here again this time as a reforming ex-con, but didn't he do life at Hammer? Favourite bits: the glamorous scenes in sexy Della's swanky penthouse apartment - how tastes have changed; The baddie contemplating the necessity of polishing off Joan but not enjoying one bit socking her on the jaw. The popular radio series ran for 112 episodes from 1947 to 1953, the BBC destroyed all but 2 editions and of course makes sure that no one will ever hear them.

To the believer, seventy-five minutes that can be well spent over and over again in the non-taxing company of some old friends, if you hated it kiss those seventy-five minutes goodbye forever!