Inspector Hornleigh *** (1938, Gordon Harker, Alastair Sim, Miki Hood, Wally Patch, Steven Geray, Edward Underdown) – Classic Movie Review 6568

Director Eugene Forde’s 1938 British movie is the first of three delightful comedy detective thrillers based on the BBC radio series Monday Night at Eight by Hans Wolfgang Priwin, which ran from 1937 to 1940.

Gordon Harker and Alastair Sim grab their chances to establish their likeable and funny screen characters as the cheery cockney Scotland Yard Inspector Hornleigh and his despised, incompetent, bumbling Scottish assistant Sergeant Bingham. The tone is changed from the radio show’s serious detective drama to a comedy in the stars’ dialogue and performances, but the other actors play it as a straight thriller.

Inspector Hornleigh is a deservedly much liked film, both then and now, though the sequels are even better. The mixture of lovely playing, lively plot and nimble handling is well nigh irresistible for admirers of vintage British comedies. The complex, interlinked yarn centres on a triple murder hunt, a foreign millionaire and the theft of the British Government Chancellor of the Exchequer’s famous black money bag with its budget secrets.

Also in the cast are Miki Hood, Hugh Williams, Steven Geray, Wally Patch, Edward Underdown, Gibb McLaughlin, Ronald Adam, Eliot Makeham, Charles Carson, Vi Kaley, Julian Vedey and Peter Gawthorne as the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

The film was shot by 20th Century Fox at Pinewood Studios in England.

It has a 1938 copyright notice but was released in 1939.

It is written by Bryan Edgar Wallace, Gerald Elliott (dialogue) and Richard Llewellyn, shot in black and white by Derrick Williams and Philip Tannura, produced by Robert T Kane, and scored by Bretton Byrd.

Inspector Hornleigh on Holiday (1939) and Inspector Hornleigh Goes To It (1940) followed.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6568

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com