Salute The Toff

BFI Most Wanted: the hunt for Britain's missing films

Directed by Maclean Rogers, 1952

A gentleman sleuth carries on a private war against crime.

Fay Gretton (Carol Marsh) finds herself in a spot of bother.

Credits

Director Production Company Original Novel Photography Editor Art Director Music	Maclean Rogers Nettlefold Films John Creasey Geoffrey Faithfull Jim Connock Alec Gray Wilfred Burns
Cast: John Bentley (Richard Rollison, the Toff); Carol Marsh (Fay Gretton); Valentine Dyall (Inspector Grice); Roddy Hughes (Jolly); Wally Patch (Bert Ebbutt); Vi Stevens (Emily Ebbutt); Peter Bull (Lorne); Tony Britton (Draycott); Arthur Hill (Ted Harrison)
75 mins, 6,807 feet, sound, black & white.

Why are we so keen to find it?

John Creasey was one of the world's most prolific authors - in a 40-year career he wrote over 500 books and hundreds of short stories, using over 20 different pen names. It was once said that he could write a book a week. Several of his many memorable characters were transferred to the big and small screen, among them Commander Gideon of the Yard in Gideon's Day (1958) and Gideon's Way (ITV, 1964-66): and the protagonist of one of ITV's first colour series, The Baron (1966). Perhaps his most memorable character was the Toff, who featured in over 60 novels and appeared in two films produced by Nettlefold Films, at their Studios, based at Walton-on-Thames, Salute the Toff was produced at Nettlefold in July 1951. A sequel, Hammer the Toff (also 1952), is also on our Most Wanted list.

What's it about?

The Hon. Richard Rollison, aka the Toff, is a gentleman sleuth who was once wealthy, but suffered financial losses on the stock market. He takes on cases to help the underdog, and has friends ranging from the Mayfair Set to the poorest of people living in London's East End. He is beloved by those he helps and feared by the underworld; his calling card is a top hat, a monocle, and a cigarette in a holder.

In Salute The Toff, a young secretary reports to Rollison that her employer, Jimmy Draycott, is missing. When he enters the man's Chelsea flat Rollison is confronted with the body of a dead man. Rollison's friend, Inspector Grice of Scotland Yard, discovers that the young man is Gerald Harvey, the son of millionaire industrialist, Mortimer Harvey. Draycott soon becomes the number one suspect, and it is up to the Toff, with the help of his East End friends, to prove him innocent.

Last seen?

The film was released in February 1952 by Butchers Films, who owned Nettlefold Studios, it was sold to US TV in 1953, and shown on ITV in 1957 in a somewhat edited version running just under 60 minutes.

What else do we know about it?

The two 'Toff' movies appear to have been made back to back, between July and September 1951; all of the technical credits on both films are identical.

Does anything survive?

The BBC bought the Butchers archive in the 1980s and screened a number of the films, the archive then seems to have been passed to Thames TV, and later Carlton TV (now ITV), who both showed a selection of the library. Is Salute the Toff resting, uncatalogued, in one of these libraries? For now, at least, we don't know.

Reviews

Daily Film Renter thought it "a deep and varied plot of robbery and murder, calculated to keep audience attention alert, a popular winner in the mystery and murder category."

Today's Cinema praised the star - "John Bentley, gives a pleasant performance as the emphatically old school-tie hero" - but its reviewer betrayed a slightly sniffy view of the film and its audience, judging it "bustling crime and detection action of the brand beloved by the masses." For Kine Weekly, Salute the Toff was a "sturdy, comprehensive yarn."

Tony Mechele, Filmographic Services Officer, BFI National Library

You can find more about British films of the early 1950s, including entries on surviving films and video clips for users in UK schools, colleges, universities and public libraries, at BFI Screenonline. You can also view similar titles at the BFI Mediatheques.