Hugh Latimer is PC 49 who goes undercover to catch a gang of thieves operating in London and the Home Counties. Their MO is to find out information about lorry cargos and then just blatantly steal the lorry whilst the driver has a snack at a café. Just drive off with the lorry - zoom. It's a simple plan and bags the gang a tidy fortune. However, Hugh is on a mission and it means tracking down the boss.Who is the boss? Who is Mr Big? If you can't guess immediately, you are pretty stupid. The film screams it at you so there isn't any mystery and this somewhat ruins the tension in the climactic scenes. It's just not a surprise.The film is ok to pass the time but extremely stupid if you think about it. The plot that the police come up with is ridiculous. Part of Latimer's cover story is that he used to work for a gang with someone who actually works for the gang he is going to infiltrate. What happens when this crook - Martin Benson (Skinny) - comes face to face with Latimer and doesn't recognize him? They don't seem to have covered that base. WHAT??!! The film may not be brilliant but it just may trigger an urge in you to learn the craft of origami.

THE ADVENTURES OF P.C. 49 is another cheapie from the Hammer Films stable, released in 1949 alongside seemingly a dozen similar productions. It's based on a popular BBC radio character, a crime-fighting copper who was also in print in the newspapers. Hugh Latimer plays said P.C. 49, a policeman who longs for more excitement than tackling the latest traffic violation. He finds it when he encounters a gang of violent thieves and is singularly placed to tackle them himself. Although this is a cheap story that takes place in just a few different locations, including a greasy spoon cafe, I enjoyed it. It seems to be inspired by the 'Ma Baker gang' who terrorised America in the 1930s and even has a little action to recommend it. Two stalwart supporting actors of the 1950s, Michael Ripper and Martin Benson, turn up in effective tough guy roles and there's some nice peril at the climax too. A sequel, without Latimer, called A CASE FOR P.C. 49, followed.

A police constable P.C 99 (real name Archibald Berkeley-Willoughby) goes undercover to get the goods on a gang of lorry hijackers helped by his girlfriend and backed reluctantly by his superiors at the police station. This is the first film of two based upon the adventures of P.C. 99 as broadcast on the BBC. There is not much mystery except for the identity of the gang leader but it moves fast enough and has good dialogue.Hugh Latimer is likeable as P.C. 99 and Patricia Cutts as his girlfriend Joan is even more appealing. There are good character actors in attendance like Pat Nye (Ma Brady), Martin Benson (Skinny) and the ubiquitous Michael Ripper (Fingers) to add flavour . Director Godfrey Grayson specialised in radio adaptations early in his career, also doing films about Simon Cherry, Dr. Morelle and of course Dick Barton.

PC 49, Archibald Berkeley-Willoughby, is walking his beat on a bitterly cold evening. He thinks how quiet and boring his task is; the tedium is broken by his girlfriend Joan who brings him a thermos of coffee. And then a gang of thieves make off with a truck filled with 200 cases of export whiskey, killing the Cullen's Company guard as they flee. Soon thereafter Archie and Joan are having tea at Ma Brady's (not Ma Benson as listed in the IMDb credits) a diner frequented by truck drivers. While there driver Ted Burton sees that his truck filled with a load of cigarettes is being stolen and takes off after the thieves and is unfortunately shot for his efforts. There have been six truck robberies within the month and Archie, taking on the persona of known (and now dead) thug Vince Kelly, infiltrates the gang. The gang's leader, the cold Barney, does not completely trust Archie and tells him that for his first robbery job he will have a partner, a thug named Skinny. Here things get dicey as Skinny was a pal of the real Kelly. Archie also learns that Barney is not the top boss of the gang and he is determined to find out who the real boss is. This is a thoroughly enjoyable B movie. It is suspenseful but also has some humor. One of the funniest bits is when Sgt. Wright meets one of thugs, Fingers, at Ma Brady's. Fingers has the habit of making swans out of tinfoil. Wright sees a swan that Fingers has made and comments on how much his daughter would like the swan. Fingers gives him the swan and when leaving Wright says to him "Thanks for giving me the bird." I don't know if that expression was commonly used then as it is now but if it was, that is quite a risqué, and funny, line. Hugh Latimer and Patricia Cutts were excellent in their roles of Archie and Joan. Joan is refreshingly feisty and willing to weigh into fighting the thieves. The supporting cast is also very good. The show ends on a humorous note as PC 49 returns to walking a beat. I much preferred this movie to its sequel, A Case for PC 49. Good enough to watch a second time.