A Case for PC 49 *** (1951, Brian Reece, Joy Shelton, Christine Norden) – Classic Movie Review 5,081

Hammer Films’ still-fun B-movie thriller film A Case for PC 49 is made in Britain in 1951 by director Francis Searle and features the original radio PC 49 Brian Reece.

Hammer Films’ second PC 49 British B-movie thriller film A Case for PC 49 is made in Britain in 1951 by director Francis Searle and this time features the original radio PC 49 Brian Reece as police constable Archibald Berkeley-Willoughby, taking over the movie role back from Hugh Latimer, star of The Adventures of PC 49 (1949).

In the screenplay by Alan Stranks and Vernon Harris (based on their radio series) and Francis Searle, PC 49 investigates the mysterious death of a millionaire. Model girl Della Dainton (Christine Norden) requests police protection as a cover for the murder, and gets herself PC 49, whose fiancée Joan Carr (Joy Shelton) is suspicious.

The cheap sets and a faded, creaky studio-based atmosphere are balanced by the spirited acting and a breakneck pace to make this an adequate, still-fun vintage police puzzler.

Whatever its drawbacks, there is some very considerable nostalgia value involved though. This sequel to 1949’s The Adventures of PC 49 was adapted from the famed BBC radio series, which began in 1947 and lasted till 1953, and has the advantage of boasting the radio cast this time.

Also in the cast are Leslie Bradley, Gordon McLeod, Michael Balfour, Michael Ripper, Campbell Singer, Jack Stewart, Joan Seton, Edna Morris, John Sharp, Frank Hawkins, John Barry and John Warren.

The BBC radio series ran for 112 episodes but only two are known to have survived.

Francis Searle’s first feature film as a director, A Girl in a Million (1946), turned out to be his only A picture, but he went on to enjoy a long and successful career with many B movies.

Director Francis Searle’s feature films: A Girl in a Million (1946), Things Happen at Night (1947), Celia (1949), The Man in Black (1949), The Lady Craved Excitement (1950), Someone at the Door (1950), A Case for PC 49 (1951), Cloudburst (1951), The Rossiter Case (1951), Love’s a Luxury (1952), Never Look Back (1952), Whispering Smith Hits London (1952), Murder at 3am (1953), Wheel of Fate (1953), Profile (1954), One Way Out (1955), The Gelignite Gang (1956), Undercover Girl (1958), Murder at Site 3 (1959), Trouble with Eve (1960), Ticket to Paradise (1961), Freedom to Die (1961), Emergency (1962), Dead Man’s Evidence (1962), Gaolbreak (1962), Night of the Prowler (1962), and The Marked One (1963).

Miss MacTaggart Won’t Lie Down (1966) is the first and best in a series of 30-minute films Francis Searle called Screen Miniatures, which he made between 1966 and 1972. Others in the series are The Pale Faced Girl (1968), Talk of the Devil (1968), Gold Is Where You Find It (1968), It All Goes to Show (1969), A Hole Lot of Trouble (1971) and A Couple of Beauties (1972).

Francis Searle was born on 14 March 1909 and died on 31 July 2002, aged 93.

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