Flannelfoot *** (1953, Ronald Howard, Mary Germaine, Jack Watling, Ronald Adam) – Classic Movie Review 13,437

The 1953 British crime thriller film Flannelfoot about a notorious jewel thief and murderer stars Ronald Howard, Mary Germaine, Jack Watling, and Ronald Adam.

Director Maclean Rogers’s 1953 crime film Flannelfoot is based on a story by Jack Henryabout a notorious jewel thief and murderer, and stars Ronald Howard, Mary Germaine, Jack Watling, and Ronald Adam.

Flannelfoot is an intriguing title for this interesting and likeable British support feature time-filler thriller about a hotshot newsman, Frank Mitchell (Jack Watling), crime writer on The Comet, put on the trail of a gem robber known as Flannelfoot.

Ronald Adam stars as New Scotland Yard Inspector Duggan, who is assigned by Superintendent Carter (Alastair Hunter) to the Flannelfoot jewel thief case. Ronald Howard stars as his newly appointed Detective Sergeant Fitzgerald, and Mary Germaine also stars as Kathleen Fraser, Fitzgerald’s love interest.

However, the film starts many years previously in the American sector of post-war Berlin, where Diana Coupland (in her film debut) is the alluring Dietrich-style club singer belting out a tune (‘Fascinating Man’, music and lyrics by John Tore), and Inspector Duggan is trailing a jewel thief and has a wall toppled on him by the bad guys, nearly killing him.

In the present, crime writer Frank Mitchell (Jack Watling) tells his ex-con informant Ginger Watkins (Graham Stark) to take a job with Dr Milligan (Ronald Leigh-Hunt), the owner of a car Watkins has seen Flannelfoot driving away from a crime scene, and Dr Milligan turns out to be the fence for Flannelfoot.

Mitchell’s newspaper employer Lord Wexford (Stuart Lindsell) seeks advice from his ex-writer, now crime novelist Tyrone Fraser (Kim Peacock), father of Andy (Peter Hammond) and Kathleen (Mary Germaine).

Wexford invites everyone to a house-party to flush out Flannelfoot, including alcoholic jewel collector Bill Neilson (Edwin Richfield) and his wife Angela (Vanda Godsell), asking Bill to bring his highly stealable jewel collection.

But Watkins has all too soon bitten the dust, murdered by Flannelfoot, in the first of two or three murders, before fate can finally reveal the jewel thief killer’s name.

It is a complicated, entertaining and satisfyingly hard to tell whodunit, though, since the mystery is well shrouded, thanks to there being so many suspects with a main cast of around 12 and unusually no actual central character. Ronald Howard is a fine police detective hero, Jack Watling is good as the crime writer, and there are some excellent character-actor performances, especially from Ronald Adam, Stuart Lindsell, Ronald Leigh-Hunt and Graham Stark.

Some of the interest here comes from the film’s starting point in the real-life case of a notorious elusive cat burglar of the 1930s Harry Edward Vickers, who was nicknamed Flannelfoot because he covered his boots with rags or cloth to muffle his footsteps when he was housebreaking.

But other than the title, the elusive cat burglar, the jewel thief and the burglar’s use of cloth on his boots, most of the rest of the film is fanciful, with the plot invented and the story updated to the early 1950s.

The film’s story writer is ex-Inspector Jack Henry, so it is likely that he knew the real-life Flannelfoot story well, and was inspired by it to write this fanciful tale.

It is made at Walton Studios, Surrey, England, on sets designed by John Stoll.

Release date: November 1953.

It was released on DVD on February 28, 2014 in the UK, and screens on UK Talking Pictures.

Harry Edward Vickers,

Harry Edward Vickers (3 September 1888 – 9 December 1942)

Cat burglar Harry Edward Vickers (3 September 1888 – 9 December 1942) was  active in the 1920s and 1930s and long avoid detection and capture by the Metropolitan Police. But he was finally sentenced in December 1937 to five years penal servitude for housebreaking.

The cast

The cast are Ronald Howard as Detective Sergeant Fitzgerald, Mary Germaine as Kathleen Fraser, Jack Watling as Frank Mitchell, Ronald Adam as Inspector Duggan, Stuart Lindsell as Lord Wexford, Gene Anderson as Renee Wexford, Kim Peacock as Tyrone Fraser, Peter Hammond as Andy Fraser, Ronald Leigh-Hunt as Dr Milligan, Graham Stark as Ginger, Edwin Richfield as Bill Neilson, Alastair Hunter as Superintendent Carter, Vanda Godsell as Angela Neilson, Adrienne Fancey as Cynthia Leyland, Michael McCarthy as Hawkins, and Diana Coupland as the singer.

Flannelfoot is directed by Maclean Rogers, runs 74 minutes, is made by E J Fancey Productions, is released by New Realm Pictures, is written by Carl Heck (screen adaptation) and Jack Henry (story), is shot in black and white by Geoffrey Faithfull, is produced by Edwin J Fancey, and is designed by John Stoll

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,437

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