The Arsenal Stadium Mystery *** (1939, Leslie Banks, Greta Gynt, Esmond Knight) – Classic Movie Review 2455

Leslie Banks gives a good, solid and splendidly offbeat star performance as Detective Inspector Anthony Slade, an oddball Scotland Yard policeman, in director Thorold Dickinson’s fair, fun 1939 little British murder mystery thriller. It is notable as one of the first feature films where football is a central element in the story.

The plot is all about a London soccer star, John Doyce (Anthony Bushell), dropping dead during a match. When it is revealed that he has been poisoned, suspicion falls on his teammates as well as his former mistress. Inspector Slade is called in to solve the crime.

Banks’s turn and the fascinating period football detail are more interesting than the moderate mystery, while the production is pretty cheap looking and somewhat faded. Greta Gynt as Gwen Lee and Esmond Knight as Trojan team member Raille also star.

Director Dickinson, who helps to write the screenplay adapted from Leonard Gribble’s novel and is also director of cinematography, made the esteemed British version of Gaslight in this year. Though a minor work and not in the Gaslight category, this antique little thriller is still an enjoyable and engaging enough cult item.

It is set at the Arsenal Stadium, Highbury, London, then the home of Arsenal Football Club, the dominant team in English football. Arsenal footballers of the day such as Cliff Bastin, Eddie Hapgood and Tom Whittaker, manager George Allison and commentator E V H Emmett pop in to add flavour. The backdrop to the film is a friendly match between Arsenal and The Trojans, a fictitious amateur side, but the match you see on screen was Arsenal’s 1939 game against Brentford, their last game at home before the outbreak of the Second World War.

It was for long a TV regular on Channel 4 and a British VHS was available and now there’s a current DVD.

Also in the cast are Brian Worth, Ian McLean, Liane Linden, Richard Norris, Wyndham Goldie, Alastair MacIntyre, Dennis Wyndham, David Keir, Johnnie Schofield, Bruce Winston, Marie O’Neill, Vincent Holman, Mike Johnson, Vi Kaley and Charles Rolfe.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2455

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