GB
1952
1hr 15mins
Dir: Maclean Rogers
Starring: John Bentley and Carol Marsh
A private sleuth known as The Toff helps a secretary track down her missing boss
This crime drama was based on the 1941 novel Salute the Toff by John Creasey, the 6th in the series featuring upper-class sleuth Richard Rollinson, also known as “The Toff”. This film and another Toff adaptation Hammer the Toff were shot back-to-back at Nettlefold Studios in the summer of 1951, with identical production credits and many of the same actors. Hammer the Toff was issued to cinemas in March 1952 as the sequel to Salute the Toff, which was released as Brighthaven Express. There would be no further entries in the series of films, and for nearly thirty years it was believed that both were lost. Hammer the Toff features some good passing shots of Southern Region steam-hauled expresses (qv), yet the railway content in Brighthaven Express consists solely of a studio bound set with a single gratuitous shot of passing wheels. However, the film is included here as it features a shot of a passing London tram in its final year of operation.
