''The Flying Squad'', also known as ''Edgar Wallace's The Flying Squad'' is a 1940

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

crime film Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as Drama (film and television), dr ...

directed by

Herbert Brenon Herbert Brenon (born Alexander Herbert Reginald St. John Brenon; 13 January 1880 – 21 June 1958) was an Irish-born U.S. film director, actor and screenwriter during the era of Silent film, silent films through 1940. Brenon was among the e ...

and starring Sebastian Shaw,

Phyllis Brooks Phyllis Brooks (July 18, 1915 – August 1, 1995) was an American actress and model. She was born Phyllis Seiler in Boise, Idaho. Some sources have also inaccurately cited 1914 as her year of birth, but 1915 is the correct year according to So ...

and

Jack Hawkins John Edward Hawkins, CBE (14 September 1910 – 18 July 1973) was an English actor who worked on stage and in film from the 1930s until the 1970s. One of the most popular British film stars of the 1950s, he was known for his portrayal of mili ...

. It was based on a 1928 novel by

Edgar Wallace Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace (1 April 1875 – 10 February 1932) was a British writer of crime and adventure fiction. Born into poverty as an illegitimate London child, Wallace left school at the age of 12. He joined the army at age 21 and was ...

, which had been previously filmed under the same title in

1929 This year marked the end of a period known in American history as the Roaring Twenties after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 ushered in a worldwide Great Depression. In the Americas, an agreement was brokered to end the Cristero War, a Catholic ...

(silent) and

1932 Events January * January 4 – The British authorities in India arrest and intern Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel. * January 9 – Sakuradamon Incident (1932), Sakuradamon Incident: Korean nationalist Lee Bong-chang fails in his effort ...

Plot

Officers of the

Flying Squad The Flying Squad is a branch of the Serious and Organised Crime Command within London's Metropolitan Police Service. It is also known as the Robbery Squad, Specialist Crime Directorate 7, SC&O7 and SO7. It is nicknamed The Sweeney, an abbrevia ...

attempt to tackle a drug-smuggling organisation.

Cast

* Sebastian Shaw as Inspector Bradley *

as Ann Perryman *

as Mark McGill *

Basil Radford Arthur Basil RadfordAdam Greaves, "Radford, (Arthur) Basil (1897–1952)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, May 201available online Retrieved 3 August 2020. (25 June 189720 October 1952) was an English chara ...

as Sederman *

Ludwig Stössel Ludwig Stössel (12 February 1883 – 29 January 1973) was an Austrian actor. He was one of many Jewish actors and actresses who were forced to flee Germany when the Nazis came to power in 1933. Biography Stössel began performing on the stage ...

as Li Yoseph *

Manning Whiley Manning Hedges Whiley (23 January 191529 January 1975) was a British actor. Partial filmography * '' Trunk Crime'' (1939) - Bentley * '' The Four Just Men'' (1939) - (uncredited) * '' Pack Up Your Troubles'' (1940) - Muller * ''Contraband'' (19 ...

as Ronnie Perryman *

Kathleen Harrison Kathleen Harrison (23 February 1892 – 7 December 1995) was a prolific English character actress best remembered for her role as Mrs. Huggett (opposite Jack Warner and Petula Clark) in a trio of British post-war comedies about a working-cla ...

as Mrs. Schifan *

Cyril Smith Sir Cyril Richard Smith (28 June 1928 – 3 September 2010) was a British Liberal Party and Liberal Democrat politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Rochdale from 1972 to 1992. Smith was first active in local politics as ...

as Tiser *

Henry Oscar Henry Wale (14 July 1891 – 28 December 1969), known professionally as Henry Oscar, was an English stage and film actor. He changed his name and began acting in 1911, having studied under Elsie Fogerty at the Central School of Speech and Dr ...

as Sir Edward, Police Commissioner *

Kynaston Reeves Philip Arthur Reeves (29 May 18935 December 1971), known professionally as Kynaston Reeves, was an English character actor who appeared in numerous films and many television plays and series. Early life Reeves was born in London on 29 May 1893 ...

as Magistrate *

Allan Jeayes Allan John Jeayes (19 January 1885 – 20 September 1963) was an English stage and film actor. Jeayes was born in Barnet, Hertfordshire, the son of Isaac Herbert Jeayes, archivist and Assistant Keeper of Manuscripts at the British Museum. ...

as Johnson

Critical reception

In ''British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959'' David Quinlan rated the film as "mediocre", writing: "Not very good."

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, vi ...

wrote, "routine stuff, just as unimaginatively done here as it was in the 1932 film of the same name".

References

External links

* 1940 films Films directed by Herbert Brenon British crime drama films Films based on British novels Films based on works by Edgar Wallace Films set in London Films shot at Associated British Studios British black-and-white films Remakes of British films 1940s police procedural films British police films 1940s English-language films 1940s British films Cultural depictions of Metropolitan Police officers English-language crime films {{crime-drama-film-stub