Gripping story with well-crafted characters

Brilliant and touching

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

With reference to the cardboard bridge and fake 'bus being pulled across it in "Gideons Day ", the same bizarre thing happens in the 1961 film "No Love For Johnnie ".Whenever Peter Finch and his fellow actors are on the terrace of the House Of Commons ( a studio set )with Westminster Bridge in the background, the bridge is obviously a piece of scenery and every now and then a flat cardboard 'bus and the occasional car can be seen juddering back and for. In real life of course, even in 1961 there would have been a constant stream of traffic on the bridge.It's an unbelievably ( and laughably ) cheap effect, especially in such a gritty, kitchen-sink style political drama which was pretty sensational stuff at the time of its release. Yet no one mentions it on the films IMDb page!

This is a run-of-the-mill police drama noteworthy for being directed by John Ford. Lots of familiar British character players give it some interest but it compares poorly with The Long Arm, another police picture also starring Jack Hawkins. I don't usually spot mistakes in films but I did notice two in this one. When policeman Andrew Ray follows killer Laurence Naismith down the street he picks up the newspaper Naismith has dropped and we see the headline. When we see it again it has a different headline. When Hawkins' wife Anna Lee takes a hot casserole from the oven she uses an oven cloth but two minutes later daughter Anna Massey takes the lid off with her bare hand.

This resoundingly ordinary film about the busy day of a Scotland Yard inspector is likely to be a disappointment to those seeking a great unknown film by a great film director. The themes and larger than life characters and scenery one tends to find in a Ford picture just aren't here. What we have instead is a likable Jack Hawkins playing a Scotland Yard detective with a busy life that gets in the way of his life at home. It's all pretty amusing, swiftly paced, and there are good bits throughout. Any of the above-average directors of in the US could have made this picture, and it would have looked pretty much the same. The one exception -- Jack Hawkins sidekicks act and behave in much the same way as John Wayne's sidekicks in his various Ford calvary movies.Best way to deal with this one is ignore it was directed by John Ford. Think of it as one of those cop shows on BBC America, except that it's the 50s and therefore the family being ignored is NOT dysfunctional, just comically bemused.Acting is all professional British -- all very good, efficient, and not terribly memorable when it is all over (except for Jack Hawkins, who does his usual good job here). And, because all the little mysteries must be wrapped up at the end of the day, none of those are especially complex or deep. So, at the end of the day, this is worth seeing, but not worth a film school thesis.

JOHN FORD seems a strange choice to be directing a British film starring JACK HAWKINS in the role of a very busy Scotland Yard inspector who has no time for anyone else in his domestic life as long as he's on the trail of various culprits. ANNA LEE is his patient wife at home who's more concerned with raising two children and cooking meals to pay much attention to her husband's urgent calls of duty.It's a very fragmented kind of story-telling, more a series of vignettes featuring Hawkins in his role as detective, getting able assistance from JOHN LODER (Hedy Lamarr's ex-hubby during the '40s). He covers cases involving a psychotic killer, a hit and run murder and a bank robbery--with some wit and sardonic humor injected into all the proceedings by director Ford. DEREK BOND, ANDREW RAY and ANNA MASSEY (her film debut) round out the supporting cast.Summing up: Above average thanks to some interesting, very flawed characters involved in crime and a brisk pace and brief running time that deserves praise in this day of films that go on and on forever, although the film was not a critical or commercial success.