Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Stoutor It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

malcolmgsw Given that Edgar Wallace wrote over 200 books it would be difficult to write a film utilising a gang without borrowing heavily from Wallace.So we start with a gang who are committing robberies in the Midlands and the police seem incapable of catching the criminals.So obviously it is a case for Paul Temple and a woman crime reporter.Some of the gang get caught by the police or get cold feet.Just when they are about to spill the beans they are killed by one means or another.As is usual the head of the gang is someone that we should have thought of in the first place.There is an action packed climax when we finally find out the identity of the gang leader.Must have been impressive on the radio.

Leofwine_draca The first of four film adaptations concerning the mild-mannered gentleman detective, Paul Temple. Not to be confused with Simon Templar, of course; Temple is a far lesser creation, who doesn't seem to do a great deal apart from plod his way around crime scenes and drink a lot. He started out on the radio before appearing in this four-film series.The plot of this one charts a gang of jewel thieves who ruthlessly murder anybody with a chance to expose them. There are a couple of neat set-pieces here, like an apparent suicide in a pub which turns out to be a murder, but as a whole it's oddly unexciting. When the main characters fail to get worked up about sudden death and murder right under their very noses (a character is even bumped off in the courthouse!) the viewer is unable to either.SEND FOR PAUL TEMPLE just about gets by with some mild atmosphere and some not-bad performances, although the entire cast was unknown to me. But it really pales in comparison to contemporary cinema, in particularly the film noir genre which was raging across the pond, which is no surprise given the low budget and rather limited nature of the film.

dbborroughs First of an on again off again series from England based upon a long running radio mystery series. Temple is a mystery writer who sometimes get roped into helping Scotland Yard. In this film a series of deadly snatch and grab robberies are occurring across the nation. When a Scotland yard detective and friend of Paul's comes to see him, he is found a short time later apparently having committed suicide. This puts Temple on the case and also hooks him up with the woman who will eventually become his wife, the dead man's sister. Long rambling story feels more like a dense mystery novel rather than a typical mystery film. I'm not sure if all of the convulsions and twists and turns are really necessary since bits of the plot are clear to anyone looking in from the outset (I knew who the ultimate bad guy was the minute he was introduced). While the film feels meaty it also feel much longer than its 87 minutes I liked it but at the same time I kind of wished it would have moved along a little faster. reservations aside its worth taking a look at if you're a fan of the series or of 1940's mysteries.

Mozjoukine The attempt to turn radio's Paul Temple into a movie series had limited success.This film is uneven and all the information is carried in its radio writer dialog. The cast are undistinguished but production values get by. They even have a go at a staged in the studio Ram Raid, which is a whole lot better than their toy car bridge crash. Pacing is surprisingly quite lively.The characters can be divided into regulars, including an unfunny "yellow face" comic butler, and suspects. The stamp of the pre-war Edgar Wallace thrillers is firmly upon it all, without the film reaching even their modest levels of interest.With its eye firmly on the Empire quota, it's so stodgily British as to numb an audience into wondering what the Big Picture in the program will be like. Our suit and tie wearing, BBC accented hero was never going to be a threat to Charly Chan and Michael Shayne.