Gideon's Day (1958)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

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

I watched this (not from beginning)and could not believe how dire it is -Jack Hawkins shouting his way from one pipe smoking scene to the next-full of middle aged men again all shouting.The sergeant who acted like an obedient robot- bowing and sitting on a chair all evening waiting orders from " his master". I welcomed the calming scenes with Andrew Ray -who was sneered at because he had a double-barrelled name. There lots of mistakes-different heading on newspaper-how did he get into flat of artist?-his daughter picked lid of casserole dish with bare hands-it had just come out of oven! I watched it to the end cos I couldn't believe my eyes or ears. NUFF SAID GOING TO LIE DOWN NOW

I fall easily into the worlds of great filmmakers. I do, even when the skills are outstripped by the ambition. I have many that I seek out.So it puzzles the daylights out of me that I just cannot see Ford as one of the greats. Not as a filmmaker. Yes, I grant that he deeply understood the western and was able to fill it several times, counting "Grapes" as a western. But when he tries to tell a story as a story instead of a variation on something embedded in us, he falls flat."Valley" was nicely photographed, but was a disaster in terms of the long form. Probably the most offensive film was his "Irish" film which brought the western and plunked it down in Ireland. It was as crass as the American in the thing.So I sought this out. This would have been a thrice matured Ford, one worried about narrative structure. Here, he walked into the only other genre as entrenched as the western, the detective story. I wanted to see. If he was a master, if he understood the form at all, we may see something extraordinary. It didn't matter whether it was a good film or well received. I expected it to be interesting to see the choices he made.Well, there's the same spicing with humor as usual. And the same competent lighting. The actors seem at ease.But check this out: there is no long form at all, only a sequence of episodes, some of which are loosely related. What we get instead is Ford experimenting with the pace of dialog. All of his regular films have a languid rhythm of speech. I think he made John Wayne act and carry himself with this retarded swagger. In fact, I think he created the man himself, who he routinely called stupid.In this film, I believe Ford wanted to play with a different pace. The lines here are delivered fast. This denotes (at least here) quicker minds than usual. There surely are a large number of crimes being solved with offhanded ease. Part of the joke is how easily it appears to others in the story as well.That may have been enough reason for Ford to make this. But it is hardly enough for us to watch it.Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

I knew I could come here and find someone proclaiming this as one of Ford's best 50s films, and I was right. Not only one of his best 50s films, but better than The Grapes of Wrath and How Green Was My Valley. Uh - no. Maybe Ford's worst, if not, right up there. The people praising the pace must have only seen the US black-and-white version, because the two-hour color version from the UK is excruciating. One uninteresting vignette after another. Yes, good actors, and an active score by Douglas Gamley, but it's just really, really bad.They insist I write more - why is that? I just said all I had to say, but they say it wasn't long enough, but this must be a new rule or something because in this very thread there is a "review" exactly two lines long. So, let me add one final thought - this film is not good.

John Ford produced this picture and it was very entertaining from beginning to the end with Jack Hawkins playing the role of Inspector George Gideon who is a top crime expert in London, England and always manages to get his criminal. George Gideon is never at home and one morning his wife asks him to bring home some salmon for guests she was having for dinner and he files the fish away in a file cabinet in his office. However, Gideon does catch a serial killer with the help of a rookie policeman and always seems to drink while on duty and comes home for lunch with his fellow Scotland Yard buddies and has a fews beers and then runs off to solve another crime. Anna Lee plays the role as Gideon's wife and never complains about his weird comings and goings. This film had me laughing through out the entire picture and I therefore consider this to be a great comedy film from 1958.