The Long Arm (film)
| The Long Arm | |
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British film poster
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| Directed by | Charles Frend |
| Produced by | Michael Balcon |
| Written by |
Robert Barr Janet Green |
| Starring | Jack Hawkins |
| Music by | Gebrend Schurmann |
| Cinematography | Gordon Dines |
| Edited by | Gordon Stone |
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Production
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| Distributed by | Rank Film Distributors (UK) |
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Release date
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Running time
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96 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
The Long Arm (USA: The Third Key) is a 1956 British police procedural crime film starring Jack Hawkins. The film, which is based on a screenplay by Robert Barr, was directed by Charles Frend and produced by Michael Balcon. It was shot on location in London and Snowdonia in North Wales.
Two years later Hawkins would reprise a similar role in John Ford's Gideon's Day, a film based on the books of John Creasey.
When police respond to a burglar alarm they find nothing amiss after meeting the nightwatchman who allowed them to search the premises. However the next day the safe, having been opened with a key, is found empty. Supt Tom Halliday (Jack Hawkins) and his new Detective Sergeant, Ward (John Stratton), begin searching for the fraudulent nightwatchman.
Halliday deduces that the false nightwatchman has committed 14 safe-breaking jobs across the country, all against the same type of safe, all with keys. Visiting the safe maker, Halliday gets the names of all the staff, but they are all cleared. Shortly after another safe is cracked and a bystander is run over as the burglar gets into a getaway car. The victim manages to pass limited information to the police before dying. The hit-and-run vehicle is found in a scrap yard. The car had been stolen from a Mrs Elliot and inside they find a newspaper that leads them to a garage in north Wales and a certain Mr Gilson, a deceased former employee of the safe maker.
Halliday finds there are 28 further safes in London. He also finds out that Gilson is being tipped off which safes have a lot of cash in them by an insurance agent. The police arrange with the owner of a safe in the Festival Hall to let the insurance agent know about gala nights that generate a lot of cash. After tailing the insurance agent, the police find that he is meeting Mrs Elliot, and then get her positively identified as Mrs Gilson, the wife of the apparently dead safe key maker.
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Wikipedia