Gideon's Day

Inspector George Gideon of Scotland Yard starts his day badly: a young constable writes him a traffic ticket. It does not settle down after that. He learns that one of the detectives he trusted most has been taking bribes, goes after an escaped man who has killed a girl, looks for a young woman suspected of involvement in a payroll robbery, and towards evening lands in the middle of a bank job. He is also supposed to get home in time for dinner. John Ford made this film in England, adapted from John Creasey's novel, and it stands entirely outside the western world he is known for. The telling is squeezed into a single day; comedy and murder sit side by side in the same scene. Jack Hawkins plays Gideon. The film was shown in colour in Britain, while in America it was distributed cut and in black and white prints.