The Arsenal Stadium Mystery

1939

Action / Comedy / Crime / Sport / Thriller

4
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 54% · 3 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 54% · 250 ratings
IMDb Rating 6.2/10 10 795 795

london, england murder whodunit black and white football (soccer) arsenal

Plot summary

During a charity football match between Arsenal and touring amateur side Trojans, the Trojan's new star player collapses and dies. Inspector Slade of Scotland Yard is called in and declares it was murder. It takes all his ingenuity and another death before the motive is discovered and the killer revealed.

Director

Thorold Dickinson Photo
Thorold Dickinson

Top cast

Terry Kilburn Photo
Terry Kilburn as Errand Boy
Esmond Knight Photo
Esmond Knight as Raille - Trojan Team Member
Charles Rolfe Photo
Charles Rolfe as Witness
Anthony Bushell Photo
Anthony Bushell as John Doyce - Trojan Team Member
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
791.06 MB
968*720
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
24 fps
1 hr 26 min
Seeds ...
1.43 GB
1440*1072
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
24 fps
1 hr 26 min
Seeds ...

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by peterwburrows-70774 7 / 10

Before they were 'Gooners'

As an Arsenal fan I enjoyed this film. These days you wouldn't get members of any top football team to appear together and be apart of the plot, couldn't afford them. Decent plot and it had good pace. Lesley Banks as the Detective in charge was the star of the film along with those hats!
Reviewed by kidboots 8 / 10

a gripping mystery with a football background

Thorold Dickinson, who directed the much superior 1940 version of "Gaslight", also directed this mystery, which was one of the first films where football played a very central part to the plot. It was Arsenal's last official league fixture before World War 11 and several of their players and staff were featured in the film. The Trojan players on the pitch were from Brentford football club.The film begins with a promotional newsreel that introduces players from both Arsenal and the Trojans - both teams are watching but Trojan's star player is missing. John Doyce (Anthony Bushell) is a "swell head", who is romancing Gwen Lee (Greta Gynt - Britain's closest answer to a sex symbol in the 1940s) - but she is engaged to another player, Phillip.As the game on Saturday progresses it is clear that Doyce wants to be the whole show and is not a team player - he is not popular among the other players. At half time he receives a diamond ring in a box - before the end of the match he is dead.Enter the eccentric detective, Inspector Slade (Leslie Banks), who has been called away from organizing the annual policeman's panto to solve the murder of the philandering footballer. Meanwhile Gwen has gone to Doyce's flat collecting photos, letters and anything that may incriminate her. The police are anxious to find her and their search is made easy as she is a top model and her face is in every newspaper and magazine. They are hampered by Gwen's mysterious flatmate Inga (Liane Linden,a Swedish actress, who surprisingly made only a handful of films) who tries to throw them off the scent. Has she something to hide????Everyone has a grudge against Doyce - he was also blackmailing some of his teammates. When Gwen is found dead, with a bottle of digitalis in her hand, Slade instantly suspects murder!!! With an ambiguous newspaper clipping about a body floating in the river Fosse, Slade feels that she was killed because she knew who murdered Doyce.I thought it was an excellent mystery laced with comedy. I did not guess "who done it" but the person was found out in a very unusual way.Did anyone notice the strange news poster that proclaimed "We Warn Hitler's British Friends"!!!Leslie Banks is my favourite British actor. Even though his first film was the classic American horror film "The Most Dangerous Game", he also appeared to advantage in a couple of Alfred Hitchcock films - "The Man Who Knew Too Much" (1934) and "Jamaica Inn" (1939).Highly Recommended.
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