Quote: Billy Bunter @ 9th December 2020, 10:19 AMWasn't the police inspector Edward Lexy? He appears in quite a few films on TPTV (including Smart Alec) and, more importantly, was schoolmaster Mr Prout to Gerald Campion's classic portrayal of you-know-who.
Yes, and I have mentioned him before in one of the other films I watched as being in Billy Bunter etc., but would take too long now to find out which one.
Loved the Billy Bunter series TV series - such fond memories. 
Home to Danger (1951)
This started off alright, daughter comes home to England because her father had died with the suggestion that he had committed suicide, and on the reading of his will it had been changed so that she got his share of a business that the late father's business partner was hoping/expecting to receive - he treats this all light heartedly, but you can see "things" are stirring and afoot.
We then see the business partner being blackmailed, the daughter being the target of an assassin played by of all people a twitchy Peter Jones (!), and you know who the villain of the piece is because he is played by the villainous Alan Wheatley, who was the evil Sheriff of Nottingham in the TV series of The Adventures of Robin Hood.
So, everything is in place for a good thriller, but then the plot dissolves in a farce full of holes.
The only other person I knew in it was Stanley Baker playing a thicko jack of all trades on the family estate.
Short fortunately so just about worth a watch, and the other thing that puzzled me was it had two advertising breaks with "End of Part One" etc., yet it is not listed as a film made for TV.
Some excellent cars in this!! A RH drive big American lump I couldn't identify, but again the IMDCB came up trumps (they have no info this time!!) identifying it only as a pre-war McLaughlin-Buick Special, and there was another huge model in the form of a Humber Super Snipe Pullman MkII. Also a very nice Sunbeam-Talbot 90 Drophead and another pre-war car in the shape of a Standard Flying Fourteen - you can always tell a Standard as they have a little flag on the bonnet, just above the rad. grille.
Anything to Declare? (1938)
Usual nutty professor develops a gas that neutralises any toxic gas and an evil professor, professing to be a peace ambassador (the norm then) is determined to steal the formula - seen similar before, but this one is full of plot holes and laboured acting, and a hilarious shoot out.
The idea probably thought of following on from the use of gas in WWI with possibly the threat of the Nazis using it in the war that loomed.
Short film fortunately, so just about bearable, with no one of note in it - pretty professor's daughter though, played by a Belle Chrystall
The Fall of the House of Usher (1948)
Always wondered what this film was about, as it sounded fascinating, BUT this version....................
Very mixed reviews of this on the IMDb - as for me, I thought it was a load of old tosh and the not surprising that everyone in the film, except for oneeverappeared in a film again - I'm not surprised.
Amateurish in every respect with some of the worse stilted acting that completely destroyed this Poe classic tale. I also notice that on its original release it was given the rare 'H' for Horror certificate - even in 1948 it surely couldn't have been that horrifying.
Piccadilly Third Stop (1960)
Very good robbery/heist/safe full of dosh film, with smoothy Terence Morgan again in the lead, creepy vicious again Dennis Price, Mai Zetterling and William Hartnell excellent as the master safe cracker. Also, a French/Japanese actress called Yoko..........no, not that one.
Three of them break into a foreign embassy which is holding £100,000 in used notes, via the London underground tunnels, which in itself show some continuity and factual mistakes, but hey, it's only a yarn.
Very good shots of then and now on Reelstreets and most of the classic cars spotted on the IMCDB, which makes a nice welcome change.
Date with Disaster (1957)
So, this is where William Hartnell learnt his safe breaking skills! I presume he remembers this film where he carries out an identical job (in the later film) by drilling the safe lock with same (?) electric drill and filling it with gelly as he does in "Piccadilly Third Stop" I reviewed only yesterday.
Token Yank Tom Drake (never heard of him) is partner in a garage/car sales yard with the dodgy partner in the shape of oft seen Maurice Kaufmann with love interest Shirley Eaton. Kaufmann and an ape Sales Manager go into a three way break in with Hartnell to steal £20,000 worth of wages.
Job goes well, but as Hartnell fears, the inexperienced Kaufmann cannot keep the secret until after the dust has settled and so things go pear shaped.
Mostly thumbs down on the IMDb, but I thought it was a very good film, with some great location shots (available on Reelstreets) and being a secondhand car yard a really good selection of classic post war British cars, which thankfully are also well catered for on the IMDCB
The Snorkel (1958)
Crap title nearly put me off, but glad I watched it as was a cracking good murder thriller from the house of Hammer without the gimmicks, and the last cinema release for child star Mandy Miller who is now 14 in this.
MM's stepfather kills his wife, making it look like a suicide inside a sealed room, as he hides himself under the floorboards with a snorkel connected to tubes leading to the outside and fresh air - no spoiler here as that is how the film starts as you see him do the nasty deed.
MM is convinced he killed her mother just as he killed her father many years before, but no one will believe her, even after the stepfather tries to drown her while they were out swimming. The film then goes on to show how MM tries to prove to all and sundry that she is not imagining this by her evil stepfather, played brilliantly by German actor Peter van Eyck who I'd never seen before.
Also had a young William Schhhhh Franklyn in it.
Very good film worth seeking out - ignore the shit title!
Personal Affair (1953)
30 year old Glynis Johns playing a 17 year old schoolgirl (! with all wide eyed innocence) who gets a serious crush on one of her teachers who innocently doesn't realise this, then speaks to her about it, telling her she can't be in love with him, it's just a schoolgirl crush, besides he's happily married etc. - after that she disappears, speculating all sorts of sordid details about him and his pupil.
Eventually he is heading toward a murder charge, but they can't find the body, if she's dead that is.
Very good gripping thriller.
Two of her school friends are played by Shirley Eaton and Nanette Newman (!!), with major parts for Leo Genn (the teacher, who I always get mixed up with Robert Newton, though God knows why!).
Certainly worth a look.
Glynis Johns,Shirley Eaton and Nanette Newman.
They could all appear in a schoolboy's fantasy.
Would all three together at the same time be too much to ask do you think? 
The Broken Horseshoe (1953)
Apparently one of the first cinema releases based on a TV serial by Francis Durbridge, and is a good story bogged down by too much detail, I think.
Hospital doctor (Robert Beatty) treats a hit and run victim who on leaving hospital is murdered, and then on the scene comes the mystery woman (pretty Elizabeth Sellars) who spins a cock and bull story about how she's in with the victim. Beatty's intrigued, falls in love with her and (here we go again) decides to solve the case and not tell the police even though his brother in law is the detective investigating the murder. (Well at least it's not a newspaper reporter this time) But he becomes more involved (they never learn) and it goes tits up.
Worth a watch if you've nothing better to do.
Sparrows Can't Sing (1963)
Heard/read so much about how good this was, so decided to finally give it a look.
Leading role for Barbara Windsor and....................well, I managed to watch an hour of it and couldn't stand the shouty East End "humour", which just got on me tits, to be honest.
Loads of famous comedy characters including Stephen Lewis (I 'ate you Butler. Get that bus art!) who apparently co-wrote it with the "famous" Joan Littlewood, based on his stage play.
But WHY do they have to shout at each other all the time? No, for me this is purgatory, but I suppose if you are a fan of that other load of shit "Eastenders" on TV, you would think it wonderful - there were for and agin' it on the IMDb.
The Traitor (1957) alternative title The Accursed - WHY? The Traitor is more apt.
7 former members of an anti-Nazi group, lead by Donald Wolfit, meet each year on the anniversary of the death by execution of the war time leader of their group, and on this night they meet they will find out from an agent in post war Germany who the traitor amongst them was. Wolfit has the job of executing the traitor - one of them in the meeting, held at his house in England.
They await the agent who will tell them who the villain is, but as he arrives in the dead of night through the front door of the house to be met by Wolfit, he say "We have made a mistake..........." and slumps to the floor with a dagger in his back.
So now, the traitor has played his final card, but as they gather to discuss what has happened, American and British intelligence officers arrive at the house on a ruse that there car has broken down, but it turns out they were in pursuit of the same person.
The plot thickens.........................again mixed bag of reviews on the IMDb, but I enjoyed it.
There Is Another Sun (1951) Wall of Death Yank title which for once I agree with as I've no idea how the original relates.
Set in a travelling fairground, Laurence Harvey is a boxer in a booth and moody, smouldering Irish actor Maxwell Reed a rider on the Wall of Death who is trying to get back into speedway - a sport he had a serious crash in 2 years previous, which resulted in a young rider dying.
Harvey thinks the sun shines out of his arse and will do anything to help him get back into speedway - even after Reed steals a car from the wall of death owner after nearly half killing him so he can buy a bike, while dancer Susan Shaw tries to make Harvey not make a fool of himself.
Mr Partridge of Hi De Hi (Leslie Dwyer) is the boxing booth owner who also tries to help and hopes to marry the fortune teller, played by the wonderful Hermione Baddeley.
Not bad, and interesting to see a young Harry Fowler as a speedway rider who also nearly gets killed.
I've heard that about Harvey and arses.