Rent The Arsenal Stadium Mystery (1939)

Leslie Banks is funny - The Arsenal Stadium Mystery review by BN

Really not sure why I added this to my CP list but actually it wasn't a bad mystery. I know nothing about football; this I think has real newsreel shots of playing; it was the first British film to be made with a central soccer theme. Was surprised it was 1939 as the suits and hairstyles looked much earlier '30s to me. In B&W (which apart from the girls in their hats, curly hairstyles and huge shouldered suits) made it somewhat difficult to identify the men, who all looked the same to me, so by the end I was getting totally mixed up who was who, along with the character names being quite unusual. Real commentators and football luminaries of the time appear as themselves.

Leslie Banks is Scotland Yard's Inspector Slade and at times looks a complete bumbler, as is his sidekick (didn't catch who that was). Banks has quite a few very funny moments, but he's sharp and the mystery unravels so he gets his man in the end.

Comedy Whodunit. - The Arsenal Stadium Mystery review by Steve

This unique combination of oddball comedy, football and whodunit adds up to one of the great British cult films. After an extended action sequence on the field at Highbury where one of visiting players is murdered, we are introduced to the inspector (Leslie Banks) who is training his officers for a drag show.

So policemen in tutus becomes a recurring feature. Banks is (in my opinion) often quite a grey presence in early British films, but here he is a revelation as a strange, quirky flamboyance freely escapes his buttoned up exterior. There is a trace of camp, but not enough to dominate.

The film is more surreal, with the actual legendary Arsenal side of the '30s up against a team of proper actors speaking their inhibited pre-war received pronunciation. One of them is a killer, and the chief suspect is played by an unrecognisably handsome Brian Worth! Yes, a very young Foggy Dewhurst. The performances are comically stiff, by design.

The mystery is fine. The football setting is offbeat. The pantomime humour is a riot. The film is a testament to that strand of eccentricity often present in British comedy. And the breezy brass band soundtrack just enhances this feeling of oddness. There is an impression of the director throwing everything at the screen. And it all sticks.