Another early Hammer production watched for the "House of Hammer" podcast "A Case for PC49" is the follow up to "The Adventures of PC 49 Investigating The Case of the Guardian Angel". I found that film to be a bit better, technically, than the other Hammer films from the late 1940's but with a slow story that rallied a bit for it's conclusion. This, almost twice as long as that film, again had some appealing moments, but ultimately a story that wasn't interesting enough.
Della Dainton (Christine Norden) is a model and femme fatale who, with her boyfriend, the gangster Victor Palantine (Leslie Bradley) comes up with a scheme to murder her ex for his inheritance. Their plan involves a policeman to be on site to act as witness and alibi and, using a fake threat on her life, they are provided with PC Berkeley-Willoughby, the titular PC 49 (Brian Reece). Their plan would work perfectly, except for a vital clue that could unravel the scheme and which ends up in the hands of PC49's fiancé Joan (Joy Shelton).
Whilst not as technically sound as the Dick Barton film that came out this same year, the version of the film that I saw on Youtube was reasonably accomplished, from a sound recording point of view particularly. There were some humorous moments, mostly revolving around Miss Dainton's appearance, the effect she has on PC49 and Joan's reaction to it. Christine Norden's performance is good, as are the turns from Jack Stewart and Michael Balfour as two of Palantine's heavies that become dissatisfied with their lot in this scheme. Brian Reece has replaced Hugh Latimer as PC49 himself, and he shifts the character into a broader comedic range than before. Having never heard the radio series, I can't speak as to which performer is providing a more faithful version of the character.
It did struggle to maintain my interest through, particularly once the set-up work had been done and I drifted in an out of the last two thirds of it. Dick Barton, for me, is never troubled by his on the beat brother.
Oh and "My Sunday Helmet" absolutely needs to be a euphemism.
