Favorite fictional early (before 1930) detective poll besides Sherlock Holmes

[Magpie]

I remember watching a low budget British B movie dating from the early 60s, in which a small gang of crooks stage a robbery by breaking into a bank vault. In the process, they are disturbed by a security guard whom they club to the floor and leave in the vault. They get safely away with the money. Then one of them recalls that it's Friday, and the guard won't be discovered until Monday, by which time he might be dead. The death penalty is in existence, and if they are ever caught the charge will be murder. So, they set about breaking back into the vault....

Would that possibly be "The Day They Robbed The Bank Of England"?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053752/

[Robert]

Hi Magpie

Can't be certain, but I don't think so.

[sdreid]

I actually prefer the private detective screen depictions that happen in the 1930s - great fashion - great cars and, unlike cases set after the mid-60s, the drama of the potential death penalty in Britain.

There's also no such thing as the Depression in these stories.

[sdreid]

There are sometimes depictions of squalor but they are usually passed off as skid row or the other side of the tracks.

[Mayerling]

Hi Magpie

Can't be certain, but I don't think so.

I recall seeing a low budget film about a bank robbery with a similar plot, but the woman stuck in the vault the thieves try to save dies just after they rescue her (ironically with police assistance). I recall one of the thieves involved (who was supposed to contact the bank manager so he could get the woman out, had gotten killed in an automobile accident before he could do so, which is why the other two thieves return to try to get her out. It wasn't a bad film.

Jeff

[Mayerling]

Saw a teaser for the new season of Sherlock last week.

Doesn't spill a lot, but it does look like the regular cast is all coming back.

Hope against hope - can they bring back that splendid "Jim Moriarty"? I know he blew his brains out but Holmes "jumped" off the side of the building and survived.

Jeff

[Mayerling]

There are sometimes depictions of squalor but they are usually passed off as skid row or the other side of the tracks.

There are suggestions of the Depression in that squalor. Think of "The Thin Man" where Mrs. Nunheim is screaming about how her husband never brings back money, and later (at the dinner party) she is agreeing that the rich can get away with anything and blame it on the poor.

Also think about a film with crime themes interwoven: "Dead End" where the poor ghetto is next to the new rich luxury condo, and the "Dead End" kids worship the successful gangster "Duke Mantee" (Humphrey Bogart) and even beat up and rob a rich kid. The Depression isn't all that far off.

Jeff

[sdreid]

It's sort of paradoxical that the era with the most poverty was also the era of the most expensive cars, at least until recently.

[Penhalion]

Apparently I'm new enough that I can't participate in the poll so I'll just post my info here.

My favorite is Lord Peter Wimsey. Loved the Ian Carmichael productions from the 1970's and really enjoyed Edward Petherbridge in the late 80's productions. I read all the books as a teenager.

[Cogidubnus]

Nice one Penhalion...there are nine or ten of those on the shelf above my head right now...the rest sadly have disappeared down the years...I keep intending to replace them...one day perhaps I will...

I'm quite sad that Bulldog Drummond has gone out of fashion...I remember borrowing those from the library as a youngster (I had a, somewhat carefully supervised, adult library ticket from the age of eight or so!)...used to love them...still I expect if I read them today it wouldn't be the same!

All the best

Dave

[Wolf Vanderlinden]

Not to be pedantic, Jeff, but Bogard's character in Dead End was Baby Face Martin. He played gangster on the run Duke Mantee in Petrified Forest.

Wolf.

[Mayerling]

Not to be pedantic, Jeff, but Bogard's character in Dead End was Baby Face Martin. He played gangster on the run Duke Mantee in Petrified Forest.

Wolf.

Be pedantic by all means. I was wrong this time about the character's name.

[Steve S]

Nice one Penhalion...there are nine or ten of those on the shelf above my head right now...the rest sadly have disappeared down the years...I keep intending to replace them...one day perhaps I will...

I'm quite sad that Bulldog Drummond has gone out of fashion...I remember borrowing those from the library as a youngster (I had a, somewhat carefully supervised, adult library ticket from the age of eight or so!)...used to love them...still I expect if I read them today it wouldn't be the same!

All the best

Dave

They're all around on kindle...Great fun, bashing the beastly Bolsheviks!

[sdreid]

It would be nice to see a new big budget Drummond movie.

[Magpie]

It would be nice to see a new big budget Drummond movie.

Agreed.

Isn't there some sort of copyright quagmire surrounding the character at the moment?

Did anyone see the recent big(gish) budget version of Arsene Lupine?