Inspector Hornleigh on Holiday [Inspector Hornleigh on Vacation] **** (1939, Gordon Harker, Alastair Sim, Linden Travers) – Classic Movie Review 6569

Following Inspector Hornleigh (1938), the second in the series of three films has a screenplay by comedy thriller experts Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat (with J O C Orton), who affectionately and rightly called the series ‘cheap and cheerful’.

There is more comedy this time and a better, wittier script as Inspector Hornleigh (Harker) and Sergeant Bingham (Sim) go off to the British seaside at fictional Brighthaven, but get bored and so set about investigating a local crime. They go after the supposed killer of a guest at their seaside hotel and uncover a gang’s insurance fraud.

Inspector Hornleigh on Holiday is very amusing and well sustained throughout, paying proper respect and attention to both the comedy and the mystery. Launder and Gilliat also wrote the screenplay for The Lady Vanishes the previous year, so there is a similar flavour to this one too.

It is Michael Denison’s debut, aged 24, and Megs Jenkins’s second film, aged 22. Also in the cast are Linden Travers (from The Lady Vanishes), Wally Patch, Edward Chapman, Philip Leaver, Kynaston Reeves, John Turnbull, Wyndham Goldie, Cyril Conway, Eileen Bell, Beatrice Varley, Peter Bull, Derek Farr and Irene Handl.

Launder and Gilliat’s screenplay is based on the characters from the BBC radio series Monday Night at Eight by Hans Wolfgang Priwin [aka John P Wynn], and also on the novel Stolen Death by Leo Grex [aka Leonard Reginald Gribble].

It is shot in black and white by John J Cox and Arthur Crabtree, produced by Edward Black and scored by Louis Levy.

Inspector Hornleigh Goes To It [Mail Train] (1940) followed.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6569

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