Hollywood's chronicler of Irish culture John Ford chose a British subject for this film. Gideon Of Scotland Yard is about a day in the life of a high ranking inspector in Scotland Yard. Jack Hawkins plays the hard working an often exasperated inspector who gets a lot accomplished during this particular day, but he's frustrated by both work and home problems.

Our Inspector Gideon is a happily married man to Anna Lee and has a daughter Anna Massey who is a violin virtuoso. One of the minor plot lines involving Lee giving Hawkins specific instruction to pick up a salmon at the fish market. Hawkins has far more to fry than fish during this day.

One is the sex killing of a young girl by a very creepy Laurence Naismith and the hunt for him. He's apprehended by an alert young Bobby played by Andrew Ray who otherwise manages to make a pest of himself all around with his earnest dedication to the job. The incident is similar to another sex killing in Sergeant Rutledge although in that film Ford made it the entire film.

The main plot however involves Hawkins confronting another inspector Derek Bond and telling him that their version of Internal Affairs has him nailed on corruption. Later on Bond is run down by a car deliberately and that starts Hawkins on an investigation that leads to the apprehension of some major criminals during a heist.

I have to single out Cyril Cusack who played a stoolie and just the kind of colorful character that Ford would put in one of his Irish films. He's got some nasty people after him, but apparently lives a charmed life.

A very entertaining film by John Ford, not one of his more known works, but definitely worth a look.