An alarm goes off in an office. 90 seconds later, the police are there. The puzzled night watchman lets them in and walks them around. Eventually, the safe's alarm is reset. The next morning nine thousand pounds are missing. It seems the watchman has been in hospital for two days. Chief Inspector Jack Hawkins and his new sergeant, John Stratton are confronted with a puzzling case that will lead them all over England and Wales before they begin to get onto their unseen quarry.
It's a police procedural, which is a type of mystery I don't favor, but this movie, directed by Charles Frend, is carried by a fine mystery plot, good acting and a script that shows a bit of the coppers' lives outside their work. Because it is a procedural, it shows the routine of intelligence and footwork that leads to an arrest. It's a thoroughly solid movie out of Ealing Studios.
It's a police procedural, which is a type of mystery I don't favor, but this movie, directed by Charles Frend, is carried by a fine mystery plot, good acting and a script that shows a bit of the coppers' lives outside their work. Because it is a procedural, it shows the routine of intelligence and footwork that leads to an arrest. It's a thoroughly solid movie out of Ealing Studios.