Protraph Lack of good storyline.

Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Griff Lees Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Spikeopath The Long Arm is directed by Charles Frend and written by Janet Green and Robert Barr. It stars Jack Hawkins, John Stratton, Dorothy Alison and Michael Brooke. Music is by Gerard Schurmann and cinematography by Gordon Dines.Detective-Superintendent Tom Halliday (Hawkins) heads up an investigation into a number of safe cracking robberies. Which in turn turns into a murder investigation.Out of Ealing Studios, this is a little cracker of a police procedural detective mystery. The flow of the investigation is natural, not given over to wild implausibilities, and always the air of mystery is potent. On the outskirts of the investigation there's a running thread about how policemen's wives/girlfriends suffer in their own ways, their men are married to the force, and this is delicately handled by the makers. While the moments of wry levity are not misplaced. Production is spiffing, with a number of London locations vibrantly used and given a film noir sheen by Dines (The Blue Lamp), while Frend (Scott of the Antarctic) keeps it tight and interesting whilst getting grand perfs from the cast - notably a wonderfully regal Hawkins.So if you are looking for an old time British policer that doesn't insult your intelligence, then you need look no further. 8/10

malcolmgsw This film epitomises the way the British police were shown in the cinema of the 1950s.Working long hours with long suffering wife and child.Often working more like Sherlock Holmes than a modern detective.Doing things that would horrify modern Socco police.Taking a compact out with a cigarette box.Scratching blood stains off the front of a car by way of a pen knife.Relying on lucky breaks,such as the way that the getaway car is found.Also it has to be said that the ending has been made exciting by what would be considered slipshod police work.For some unexplained reason the burgular is not cuffed so he is able to get free.This initiates the chase,where rather improbably,Hawkins,clings on to the bonnet of a car travelling at speed.However i have to say that Jack Hawkins always rises above even mediocre material.Here as in many of his films he is constantly smoking,which contributed to his sad and untimely passing.

richard-payne-2 The Long Arm is an excellent film in my opinion, for 2 main reasons. Firstly it captures all the elements of a typical 1950s British film, with typical London landmarks, familiar faces from other movies, and accents and a way of life portrayed from that era prior to the onset of the society-changing 1960s. Secondly the movie provides, for someone watching for the first time, a thrilling plot with several twists which keep you interested right to the end. Hawkins is superb as the central character - with the investigation of a hit-and-run murder obviously a more serious crime in 50s London than nowadays. This is the sort of film to watch if you are off work on a midweek afternoon.

Gerald-5 Apart from the unique acting style of Jack Hawkins (before his so sad illness), one thing which marks this film out from modern detective yarns is that the detective work follows logical sequences - little depends on chance and nothing on fantastic coincidences.It is a rattling good yarn - I only wish the same could be said of todays films.And the supporting cast!!! Ian Bannen gets run over and killed and (Sir) Alec McCowan is an unimportant doctor. But everyone has to start somewhere.Those were the daysGerald (aged 72)