Film Fun II

Once upon a time, footballers were ordinary young blokes who'd smile awkwardly for the camera and mug it up for the newsreels.

Once upon a time.

Which might be part of the reason why I like The Arsenal Stadium Mystery* It's a curio piece, to be sure, but more than that it's rather fun. It was released in 1940 but is a lot more pre-war than you might expect by the date. No stiff upper lips in the bomb sites. No Dickie Attenborough playing a chirpy Cockney corporal. No air raid sirens or the like. It's all a bit quiet, a bit twee and a bit gentlemen and players. And no bad thing.

An amateur football team -- The Trojans -- are playing Arsenal for no apparent reason. Cue:

• Lots of wooden acting by the real Arsenal team and George Allison (Lizzie will remember him).


• Newsreel footage of Arsenal vs. Brentford (Arsenal's last game before the Second World War).


• Real football with caseys, shirts with collars and centre forwards.


• Jolly banter between crowd and referee.


• E.V.H. Emmett providing the commentary for Gaumont British.

Oh, and a member of the Trojans team gets murdered on the football pitch.

Cue all the usual stuff you'd expect. Plus a bit of love interest (Greta Gynt and Liane Linden, two good looking women with all the erotic appeal of a shop window mannequin).

And a young scientist whose laboratory consists of some glass retorts and a frog in his kitchen (hell, all bachelor pads are like that anyway!).

There is motive and opportunity a-plenty and it is the lot of Inspector Slade to untangle the mess and solve the crime in time to allow a replay of the match. And it's not to interfere with the Scotland Yard concert party, which he is directing.

(If ever you get the chance to see this film, make sure you keep an eye on the goings-on in the background during rehearsals.)
All this gives Leslie Banks, who plays the Inspector, the opportunity to give us another of his eccentric character turns, boisterously hamming it up with a sequence of hats-for-the-occasion. In lesser hands this could be a running irritant but Banks' performance adds to the overall tongue-in-cheek of the piece which elevates it from the run of the mill detective films of the time.

And they still manage to play fair by the rules of the genre. No deux ex machina explanations, and plenty of clues along the way. Not that the climax of the picture is in any way conventional!

---

* I'll skip the obvious mysteries about Arsenal Football Club.