Inspector Hornleigh on Holiday

Gordon Harker - Inspector Hornleigh
Alastair Sim - Sergeant Bingham
Linden Travers - Miss Meadows
Wally Patch - Police Sergeant
Edward Chapman - Captain Fraser
Philip Leaver - Bradfield
Kynaston Reeves - Dr. Manners
John Turnbull - Chief Constable
Wyndham Goldie - Sir George Winbeck

Implausible but ingenious comedy thriller that was the second instalment of three in the Inspector Hornleigh series. The script and acting are excellent, and so is the view of the stormy British coastline. Gordon Harker is miscast as the droll Hornleigh but Alastair Sim is as always superb as his harassed Scottish sidekick.

On their annual seaside holiday at the Balmoral boarding house in Brighthaven, Inspector Hornleigh (Gordon Harker) and his erstwhile assistant Sgt Bingham (Alastair Sim) are stuck indoors due to a storm blowing outside, and during their leisure time engage in a game of snooker with fellow guest Captain Fraser (Edward Chapman). When Fraser receives a phone call he becomes noticeably anxious, and Hornleigh is inquisitive as to why a naval officer didn’t know his starboard from his portside.

Later the police arrive at the boarding house looking for witnesses; it seems Fraser has committed suicide by driving his car over a cliff and in the process was burned to death. The local police consider it an accident, but Hornleigh has his own suspicions and begins to investigate. He soon exposes a murderous scheme to defraud insurance companies by faking the deaths of weighty policy holders and substituting other corpses for those of the victims. The shadowy ringleader, Bradfield, contacts his fellow conspirators by radio but Hornleigh hatches a scheme to ensnare him by disguising a reluctant Bingham as a hospital corpse.