Hue and Cry, Charles Crichton, 1947

Alastair Sim is a delight to behold as always in the British Hue and Cry, but the film s true star is approximately 40 years younger and two feet shorter than the estimable Sim. Harry Fowler plays Joe Kirby, an intelligent cockney lad who is addicted to a weekly boys magazine. He begins to notice a curious pattern emerging in the dialogue of a serialized bloodandthunder detective story. And well he should: a gang of literate crooks are using that story to transmit information concerning robberies, smuggling, fencing, and the like. When the local constabulary refuse to take Joe s warnings seriously, he rallies his chums together to foil the crooks.