The Third Key

Original title: The Long Arm

IMDb RATING

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The sleuths of Scotland Yard try to solve a series of burglaries.The sleuths of Scotland Yard try to solve a series of burglaries.The sleuths of Scotland Yard try to solve a series of burglaries.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.0/10

1.4K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award
- 1 win & 1 nomination total

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
The last film made at Ealing Studios, London.

Goofs
When a kid try to sell a new car's lamp, the policeman took him back to the junk yard and the lamp is still in car.

Sorry, not a goof. The two lamps on the front of the damaged car are the headlights, or lamps if you prefer. The boy had taken the fog lamp off the car. The fog lamp was a third lamp as may be seen at 34 mins when the collision occurs. The fog lamp is clearly seen on the nearside just above the bumper. When the car is on on the dump, the fog lamp is not there.

Quotes
[during the final chase, Halliday leaps onto the bonnet of the getaway car and stops it by smashing its windscreen with his truncheon; as it lurches to a halt, he falls off the bonnet onto the ground. Ward helps him up]
Detective-Sergeant Ward: Are you all right, sir?
Detective-Superintendent Tom Halliday: I'll live, I think.
Detective-Sergeant Ward: Nothing broken?
[Halliday pauses and looks mortified]
Detective-Superintendent Tom Halliday: Yes - a promise I made to let *other* people take the risks!

Crazy credits
SPOILER: In the end credits Ursula Howells is credited twice: first as her fake character Mrs. Elliot, and then at the end as Mrs. Gilson, the wife of Gilson the criminal.

Connections
Referenced in Those British Faces: A Tribute to Jack Hawkins 1910-1973 (1993)

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 days

Gerald (aged 72)