MovieChat Forums > Gideon's Day (1958) Discussion > quaint even for 1958?

quaint even for 1958?

posted 11 years ago by ib011f9545i
2 replies | jump to latest

I must have seen this before but get it mixed up with THE LONG ARM,another film about a SCOTLAND YARD detective.

Saw this one on CHANNEL 4 in the UK the other day.
It is not often on tv and no wonder,it is twee,unrealistic and dull.
It is interesting to see London in colour in the late 1950s but the film is obviously a foreigners view of London,even for 1958 it must have bored the audiences.

If you compare it to SAPPHIRE or other works by British directors such as Basil Dearden you might agree with me that this is only worth watching as a curio?

[–] hobnob53 11 years ago

As an American (married to a Brit) I also like the shots of London in color in the 1950s, but I think this film stands up well on its own. I don't think it's particularly "a foreigner's view" of London, though it is a "softer" kind of detective film than most British directors made at the time. But we don't really see much of London as such. (Much of the "London" we do see is a model outside Gideon's office window.) The story predominates, though the film doesn't delve into the seedier side of London that a British director might feel freer to expose.

It does give a peek at domestic life in a middle class British household of the 50s, very different from the depictions (and the reality) of such life in America at the time, which as a foreigner I find interesting. But even if you take it as an outsider looking in, it's still worth seeing, and not just as a curio. Directed by a Brit, it would still be enjoyable, and the great Jack Hawkins could do no wrong.

But I'll definitely agree it's certainly no Sapphire, or for that matter The Blue Lamp, Basil Dearden's two terrific "London cop" movies of the 50s.

[–] Prismark10 10 years ago

I actually did not think it was very quaint especially as it deals with police corruption.

Its that man again!!