The Arsenal Stadium Mystery (1939)

The Arsenal Stadium Mystery is a 1939 British mystery film, and is one of the first feature films where football is a central element in the plot.

The film is a murder mystery set, as the title suggests, at the Arsenal Stadium, Highbury, London, then the home of Arsenal Football Club, who were at the time one the dominant teams in English football. The backdrop is a friendly match between Arsenal and The Trojans, a fictitious amateur side; one of the Trojans' players drops dead during the match, and when it is revealed he has been poisoned, suspicion falls on his teammates as well as his former mistress. Detective Inspector Slade (Leslie Banks) is called in to solve the crime.

The film stars several Arsenal players and staff (such as Cliff Bastin and Eddie Hapgood), although only manager George Allison has a speaking part. The Trojans' body doubles on the pitch were players from Brentford, during the First Division fixture between the two sides on 6 May 1939; this was the last match of the 1938–39 season and Arsenal's last official league fixture before the outbreak of the Second World War.

It is often said that the Brentford players wore a special striped kit for the occasion.
The film was directed by Thorold Dickinson, and shot at Denham Film Studios and on location at Arsenal Stadium. It was written by Dickinson, Donald Bull and Alan Hyman, adapted from a novel by Leonard Gribble.

Dickinson planned a follow-up, The Denham Studio Mystery, which was intended to incorporate footage from the abortive film of I Claudius, but this fell through.

Synopsis

Lors d'un match de football amical entre les professionnels du club de l'Arsenal et les amateurs de l'équipe Trojans, un nouveau joueur étoile des Trojans s'effondre. Appelé sur les lieux, l'inspecteur Slade de Scotland Yard déclare que le joueur a été assassiné. Toute l'ingéniosité de l'inspecteur et, malheureusement, une autre mort violente seront nécessaires avant que ne soit démasqué l'assassin.

Actors