Tonight's Movie: The Long Arm (1956) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review

A few days ago I reviewed CAGE OF GOLD (1950), my first film watched from Kino Lorber's Brit Noir Collection I.

I'll be watching more from that set soon, but first I jumped over to the new Brit Noir Collection II, also from Kino Lorber Studio Classics, and watched THE LONG ARM (1956).

THE LONG ARM, also known in Britain as THE THIRD KEY, is exactly my kind of movie, a police procedural with enjoyable leads and extensive, interesting location shooting.

THE LONG ARM, like the other two films in the set, stars Jack Hawkins. Here he plays Scotland Yard Detective Superintendent Tom Halliday. It's of note that a couple years later he also played a Scotland Yard detective, in John Ford's GIDEON'S DAY (1958), which I hope to see soon.

Halliday is teamed for the first time with the younger Detective Sergeant Ward (John Stratton) and tasked with solving the overnight break-in of a safe.

It's a curious mystery as a supposed night watchman (Richard Leech) had let in police officers when the business's alarm went off -- but it turns out the real overnight watchman is in the hospital after emergency appendix surgery. It appears it was the burglar impersonating the watchman.

Soon there's another safe break-in at a different business, this time time resulting in a murder when the getaway car runs down a young worker (Ian Bannen).

Halliday and Ward painstakingly put together a series of clues and eventually arrive at a theory...

I love procedurals and found this a completely engrossing 96 minutes. The clues are nicely paced and interesting as they are discovered, creating a story which is both logical and believable.

Scenes with Halliday's wife (Dorothy Alison) and son (Michael Brooke) are somewhat less interesting, but they paint a sympathetic picture of what home life is like for a detective when he's in the middle of a hot case.

Hawkins is an actor I appreciate more as I see each of his movies, and he and Stratton, as his coworker, develop a friendly bantering relationship as they get to know one another.

Hawkins and Stratton, incidentally, had previously worked together on the excellent World War II film THE CRUEL SEA (1953). Director Charles Frend and cinematographer Gordon Dines also worked on both films.

The screenplay for THE LONG ARM was by Janet Green and Robert Barr from Barr's story, with additional dialogue by Dorothy and Campbell Christie.

The solid cast includes Geoffrey Keen as one of Halliday's colleagues; he's a familiar face as the minister of defence in several 007 movies, including my favorite THE SPY WHO LOVED ME (1977).

I've also seen Ian Bannen in a number of films from his long career, including EYE OF THE NEEDLE (1981), NIGHT CROSSING (1982), and HOPE AND GLORY (1987).

A sad note: None of the film's three leads, Hawkins, Stratton, or Alison, made it out of their 60s, dying at 62, 65, and 66, respectively.

The Blu-ray print and sound quality are excellent.

Disc extras consist of a commentary track by Laurence Lerman, plus half a dozen trailers for other films available from Kino Lorber.

Recommended.

Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray collection.

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