The Long Arm [The Third Key] **** (1956, Jack Hawkins, John Stratton, Dorothy Alison) – Classic Movie Review 5,151

Ealing Studios’ engrossing 1956 British crime thriller film The Long Arm stars Jack Hawkins in one of his quintessential roles as a Scotland Yard detective investigating a series of safe-breaking jobs.

Director Charles Frend’s 1956 British Ealing Studios thriller film The Long Arm [The Third Key] stars Jack Hawkins, an always welcome and more than capable player, at least when he was properly cast, unlike his Pharaoh Khufu in the previous year’s Land of the Pharaohs (1955) or his Quintus Arrius in Ben-Hur (1959). He made a good copper, as in Gideon of Scotland Yard (1958), but was also good on the other side of the law, as his heist mastermind Colonel Norman Hyde in The League of Gentlemen (1960).

This time, here in The Long Arm, he is ideally cast in one of his quintessential roles as Scotland Yard detective superintendent Tom Halliday. Along with his new eager and clever young detective sergeant Ward (John Stratton), Halliday step by step tracks down the villains who are committing such robberies as a London Covent Garden safe job.

Covent Garden tube station, Long Acre, Central London.

So, a burglar alarm goes off in Long Acre, Covent Garden, Central London, and these were the days when police would respond to it – and in one minute 30 seconds too! It’s at Stone & Co (Long Acre) Ltd, just across the road from the Freemasons’ Hall, which is in Great Queen Street, so we’re not actually in Long Acre, at all, not even Covent Garden. The nightwatchman lets them search the premises and they find all’s well. Next day the safe is found empty, opened with a key, and robbed of its £8,000 in cash.

The dismissive and dodgy seeming owner Mr Stone (Sydney Tafler) is not amused and nor is the supercilious insurance agent Mr Creasey (Peter Burton). Jack Hawkins’s Halliday treats then with equal disdain and barely concealed contempt, just this side of courteous and polite. Halliday and Ward start up a cautiously growing rapport as they begin searching for the fake nightwatchman, who it turns out has robbed 14 safes across the UK, all the same type of safe, using original keys.

It is what we now call a film noir police procedural crime film, already made popular by Ealing in their 1950 film The Blue Lamp. Director Frend involves us in a pseudo documentary style in the meticulous way the police went about an investigation that was rightly a source of inspiration and fascination to Fifties audiences. It continues to be fascinating.

The Long Arm is written by Robert Barr (story and screenplay), Janet Green (screenplay), and Dorothy Christie and Campbell Christie (additional dialogue). It is a serviceable, enjoyable, engrossing story, without being particularly unusual or outstanding, though its twists and turns are constantly involving and it plays dynamically. The film is well shot in gritty, excitingly lit black and white by cinematographer Gordon Dines, and there is an unusual score by Gerard Schürmann, underlining the action and stoking up the tension and mood. Also there is a valuable shedload of Fifties atmosphere thanks to the period situations and attitudes, the precious vintage London views, and the long list of notable character actors of the era.

Sydney Tafler as Mr Stone, Ursula Howells as Mrs Elliot / Mrs Gilson, Maureen Delaney as the daily help Mrs Stevens, William Mervyn as Royal Festival Hall manager, and Meredith Edwards as Welsh garage owner Mr Thomas are all specially effective.

The Royal Festival Hall is a Grade I listed 2,700-seat concert, dance and talks venue.

There is a very satisfactory climax in and around the Royal Festival Hall, London, the scene of yet another attempt on a safe, full of cash after a night of music and fireworks. Happily, the Royal Festival Hall still stands but the area has changed so much (no BEA terminal there any more!), just like the Freemasons’ Hall in Great Queen Street at the start of the film. Lovely to see old steam trains and stations, though less lovely to see Jack Hawkins smoking so much through the film.

Freemasons’ Hall in London is the headquarters of the United Grand Lodge of England and the Supreme Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of England. It is located in Great Queen Street between Holborn and Covent Garden.

Also in the cast are Dorothy Alison as Mary Halliday, Michael Brooke as Tony Halliday, Sam Kydd, Glyn Houston, Peter Burton, Ralph Truman, Geoffrey Keen, Sydney Tafler, Meredith Edwards, Ursula Howells, Newton Blick, Maureen Delaney [Maureen Delany], Richard Leech, George Rose, Ian Bannen, Alec McCowen, Vincent Ball, Nicholas Parsons, Stratford Johns, Arthur Rigby and John Warwick.

It is produced by Michael Balcon and partly shot on location in London and Snowdonia in North Wales. It is the last film to be made at Ealing Studios before it closed down and moved into MGM at Elstree.

The film premiered at Gaumont Haymarket cinema, London, on 22 June 1956.

It won the Silver Bear for an Outstanding Single Achievement award at the 6th Berlin International Film Festival.

The Long Arm [The Third Key] is directed by Charles Frend, runs 96 minutes, is made by Ealing Studios, is distributed by Rank Film Distributors (UK), is written by Robert Barr (story and screenplay), Janet Green (screenplay), and Dorothy Christie and Campbell Christie (additional dialogue), is shot in black and white by Gordon Dines, is produced by Michael Balcon, and is scored by Gerard Schurmann.

[Spoiler alert] Ursula Howells is credited twice in the end credits, first as her fake character Mrs Elliot, and then at the end as the criminal’s wife Mrs Gilson, and so is Richard Leech, first as ‘Nightwatchman’ and then at the end as the burglar Gilson.

The cast are Jack Hawkins as Superintendent Tom Halliday, John Stratton as Sergeant Ward, Dorothy Alison as Mary Halliday, Michael Brooke as Tony Halliday, Sam Kydd as police control room operator, Glyn Houston as police sergeant, Richard Leech as ‘Nightwatchman’ / burglar Gilson, Newton Blick as Deputy Commander Harris, Geoffrey Keen as Chief Superintendent Malcolm, Sydney Tafler as Mr Stone, Ursula Howells as Mrs Elliot / Mrs Gilson, Peter Burton as insurance agent Mr Creasey, George Rose as informer Slob, Arthur Rigby as Detective Inspector at Chester, Ralph Truman as Colonel Blenkinsop, Ian Bannen as the young workman hit-and-run victim Stanley James, Maureen Davis as the young workman’s wife Mrs James, John Warwick as Detective Inspector at shipping office, Joss Ambler as cashier at shipping office, Harry Locke as second-hand dealer, Alec McCowen as hospital doctor/ house surgeon, Nicholas Parsons as PC Bates, Warwick Ashton as newspaper circulation manager, David Davies as Welsh police constable, John Welsh as house agent at Shepperton, Richard Davies as a police officer at newsagents, Maureen Delaney [Maureen Delany] as the daily help Mrs Stevens, Jameson Clark as Detective Superintendent Ogilvie, William Mervyn as Royal Festival Hall manager, Harold Goodwin as Births and Deaths librarian, Stratford Johns as Constable, Frazer Hines as Urchin, David Lodge as Detective at Car Lot, Frederick Treves as Detective tailing Creasey, Peter Welch as CID Man, Martin Wyldeck as Officer in Criminal Records Department, Guy Standeven as Detective, and Meredith Edwards as Welsh garage owner Mr Thomas.

Alec McCowen is credited as Alec McOwen.

Jack Hawkins and John Stratton both previously appeared in the The Cruel Sea.

Top 20 British Heist Movies

My thanks to Michael Darvell.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5,151

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