Made in 1939, The Arsenal Stadium Mystery is a strange, eccentric, and compelling movie with perhaps the best football sequences ever filmed. It even includes 'acting' from the actual Arsenal manager of the time, George Allison. Our Soccer Studies experts, Jerry and Marty, discuss why begrudgingly they have to admire the film. And, even though they're Tottenham fans, have to concede that - once again - that their North London rivals have the historic edge over them.
The only university that makes you chuckle AND learn at the same time.
Made in 1939, The Arsenal Stadium Mystery is a strange, eccentric, and compelling movie with perhaps the best football sequences ever filmed. It even includes 'acting' from the actual Arsenal manager of the time, George Allison. Our Soccer Studies experts, Jerry and Marty, discuss why begrudgingly they have to admire the film. And, even though they're Tottenham fans, have to concede that - once again - that their North London rivals have the historic edge over them.
The only university that makes you chuckle AND learn at the same time.
The Arsenal Stadium Mystery
OPENING MUSIC OF FILM
FADE DOWN
JERRY
Welcome to Jerry and Marty Talk Footy – but not in ways you expect. It’s the world’s only podcast which takes an academic look at various aspects of soccer. I’m Jerry… and he’s Marty…
MARTY
Hello – I’m the intellectual and he’s the… umm… what are you exactly?
JERRY
Immune to your sarcasm. So, we’re part of the famous Soccer Studies School here at South Mimms U, and we like to take oblique and often surprising looks at the sport we love so much. We’re world renowned for that…
MARTY
World renowned? Are you sure?
JERRY
Name me one other academic soccer school that has the depth of expertise that we can offer?
MARTY
Well, there’s a bloke in North Mymms who has a blog on the history of football that’s very popular.
JERRY
North Mymms! We never utter those words here on the South Mimms U podcast. They are our deadly rivals.
MARTY
But the blog is pretty good…
JERRY
Sorry, dear listeners, Marty and I don’t always see eye-to-eye on certain subjects. Which is strange because, in fact, Marty Auchincloss here is an expert on sporting rivalries…
MARTY
Though, I must stress that I don’t see YOU, Jerry as a rival.
JERRY
You don’t? Why’s that?
MARTY
There’s no need, my dear fellow, no need.
JERRY
OK. So, Auchincloss, that’s an interesting name. Any relation to the famous American Auchinclosses?
MARTY
None, I’m afraid.
JERRY
The Auchinclosses are a prominent American family. Hugh Dudley Auchincloss is famous for being… well… a famous second husband. He became stepfather to the renowned writer, Gore Vidal, and then married Jacqueline Bouvier’s mother to become the future Jackie Kennedy Onassis’s stepfather. This was back in the 30s and 50s respectively.
MARTY
Though, Jerry, that’s not strictly relevant to our discussion today.
JERRY
Indeed. Today we’re going to talk about… well… I don’t know if I really want to do this episode of the podcast if I’m honest.
MARTY
Is it because it’s about Arsenal football club?
JERRY
It is. Frankly.
MARTY
And you’re a die-hard Tottenham Hotspur fan aren’t you…
JERRY
Indeed, I’m ‘Tottenham till I die’ as they sing on the terraces.
MARTY
But being Tottenham, err till you die… or at least until they kill you - does not stop you from acknowledging that… well… that your North London rivals have been more successful than you, does it? I mean that’s a fact. The record books are very clear. They have won more than us.
JERRY
Us? At least you’ll admit that you’re a Spurs supporter too. We do full disclosure on this podcast.
MARTY
I am a Spurs fan. And I’m proud of it. But, let’s get to the main subject matter.
JERRY
Yes… sorry. We’re going to talk about a film – an old film.
MARTY
We are – The Arsenal Stadium Mystery.
JERRY
You see… there… that sticks in my craw… the fact that they had a film named after them and we haven’t.
MARTY
Ah, actually, there’s the 1983 TV film, Those Glory Glory Days which is about the Double winning side of 1960-61.
JERRY
Right… and that was pretty good…
MARTY
It was. Still is.
JERRY
So, it’s one-all when it comes to footie movies.
MARTY
Err… no… then there’s Fever Pitch based on the Nick Hornby autobiography.
JERRY
Hell… two one to the Arsenal.
MARTY
Indeed. At least it’s not their famous ‘one nil to the Arsenal’ chant… though, it can be argued that the Arsenal Stadium Mystery, which was made in in 1939, was the medium through which that idea… the idea that Arsenal like to win one-nil… was first popularised.
JERRY
Really?
MARTY
Listen to this.
CLIP OF GEORGE ALLISON SAYING ONE-NIL IS HOW WE LIKE IT
JERRY
Right… and that was which actor?
MARTY
That wasn’t an actor at all. That was George Allison who was the actual manager of Arsenal Football Club in 1939 when the film was made.
JERRY
You’re joking…
MARTY
What sets The Arsenal Stadium Mystery part is that it was filmed at Highbury, Arsenal’s famous old ground in Islington, North London…
JERRY
Only 4 miles from The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium… or White Hart Lane as I still like to call it.
MARTY
That’s right.
JERRY
Let’s not get into the fact that the Gunners are usurpers… they’re a South London team squatting on our patch.
MARTY
That’s a subject for another podcast I think.
JERRY
We’re still angry after an entire century of injustice.
MARTY
OK, calm down. We should focus on the film. It’s actually considered one of the finest football films evert made.
JERRY
We should make the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium Mystery…
MARTY
And that mystery is how on earth do we manage to never quite fulfil our potential as a so-called ‘big club.’
JERRY
You don’t sound like a Spurs fan…
MARTY
On the contrary, my penchant for lost causes makes me the perfect Spurs fan.
JERRY
OK, so, if we must, let’s talk about Arsenal.
MARTY
It’s my contention that studying the success of your rivals is actually good for you.
JERRY
It just makes me depressed.
MARTY
That’s because you don’t approach rivalry in the right way.
JERRY
How should I approach it then?
MARTY
By acknowledging their strengths, studying their successes, and working out why you feel bad when they succeed.
JERRY
That’s a bit too dispassionate for me… a bit too… logical. Football isn’t logical. Being a football fan isn’t logical.
MARTY
No, it isn’t, but nor is being a movie buff… or any other kind of enthusiast. My point is that you gain strength from focusing on the strengths of your opponent instead of just wishing them away. The only way to be better than them is… to understand HOW to be better than them.
JERRY
OK, I get the point. So, let’s talk about the film.
MARTY
OK – it was shot in Denham Studios, which was near Uxbridge, just west of London. It was opened in 1936 and was also known as London Studios. It was created by the famous British producer, Alexander Korda.
JERRY
It’s now flats right?
MARTY
Luxury apartments, yes. But much of the film is actually set in the Arsenal stadium at Highbury.
JERRY
Hence the title.
MARTY
Yes, hence the title. They didn’t create a set for the ground itself… they filmed the football scenes at Highbury which, at the time, was the most famous stadium in the country. The west Stand was built in 1932 from a design by the acclaimed architect, Claude Waterlow Ferrier. The existing ground had been built by Archibald Leitch who had transformed the way stadia were designed throughout the previous decade or so.
JERRY
I remember it… it’s still there…
MARTY
As apartments, yes.
JERRY
Apartments, the fate of many great buildings.
MARTY
Indeed. Ferrier was known for such buildings in London as the Army and Navy Club in Pall Mall as well as Trafalgar House and Waterloo Place. Check them out on Google, you’ll see what I mean… if you remember Highbury… you can still check that out of course. It’s an impressive building.
JERRY
There you go again… they get the impressive buildings and great teams too.
MARTY
Oh, surely, you’ll agree that the new Spurs stadium is impressive.
JERRY
It is.. though… it’s a matter of taste. Anyway, so the film was shot at Highbury.
MARTY
And that was a very big deal in the late 1930s because… and I know you’ll hate me for saying it… but Arsenal was THE team of the thirties.
JERRY
Sure, they were.
MARTY
They won the title three years in a row under the legendary manager, Herbert Chapman – 1933, 1934, and 1935
JERRY
God… did they?
MARTY
They did.
JERRY
And they even had a tube station named after them.
MARTY
That was Herbert Chapman’s doing. He persuaded the London Underground to change Gillespie Road into Arsenal Stadium. Not long after, the ‘stadium’ was dropped. Chapman was a great manager and a brilliant promoter of his team. He turned Arsenal into a brand.
He died just before the third title win in a row and George Allison took over and finished the job.
JERRY
George Allison, who acted in the film.
MARTY
The very same. Now, he’s an interesting man. Here’s a clip of him introducing another real person, the newsreel and sports commentor, E.V.H Kemmet.
CLIP
JERRY
I love the accents…
MARTY
George Allison had started out as a sports journalist and commentator. He was one of the pioneering radio commentators of the age. He and his colleague invented the art of live commentary.
JERRY
The BBC was still in its infancy, of course, it was founded in 1922. October of that year to be exact.
MARTY
And live commentaries changed the way sport was consumed in Britain – football… as well as cricket, rugby, and horse racing, were now accessible to many more people. That increased the reach of clubs and sportsmen and women and began to turn them into celebrities.
JERRY
Allison sounds like quite a character.
MARTY
He was. There’s a good article by Mike Huggins from 2007, published in the journal, Contemporary British History that charts the rise of sports commentary and how it unified the nation… to a degree. He details how the BBC were careful not to make the commentaries too technical… too focused on the technicalities of the sport so that more people could enjoy them.
JERRY
Right… now I see the quote you’ve put in the notes… can I read it?
MARTY
Please do.
JERRY
OK – this is from the article… “Being too technical was a serious fault, as only about ten per cent would understand. Secondly, continuity should always be maintained. An early handbook described George Allison, a man whose dimensions extended ‘chiefly sideways’, at the 1927 Derby, leaning out from the roof and held by a burly BBC staffer. He continued commentating furiously about the reception of the winner while a colleague went to the unsaddling enclosure.”
MARTY
I like that image… the portly George Allison hanging by his trousers from the commentary booth. I wonder if Martyn Tyler on Sky Sports has ever been in that position.
JERRY
I bet Gary Neville has…
MARTY
That’s just a rumour. If I may, I’ll quote from the article again. “George Allison, the football commentator, succeeded in balancing reporting with unbridled enthusiasm, even if occasional cries from the heart alerted listeners to the side he was on. Allison regularly reflected on his commentaries and felt he tried to keep ‘a steely grip on his enthusiasm’, while conveying excitement through his voice, in ‘a way which conveys to the listener a mental photograph of what is taking place’ But his commentaries were occasionally sprinkled with exhortations to players to shoot, pass or tackle, and cries of excitement, such as ‘By Jove’. He occasionally drank port, to soothe his throat during commentary, and later even admitted that he sometimes invented action to keep the listener interested during boring games.”
JERRY
I suppose you could do that on the radio… just make up stuff when the game is a bore-draw… maybe modern commentators are tempted to do it.
MARTY
It’s impossible now. Anyway, the film – The Arsenal Stadium Mystery – was based on a crime novel by a once reasonably popular writer called Leonard R. Gribble, who actually got permission from Allison and the Arsenal football club to use the names of real players in his story.
JERRY
Right… that’s interesting. So, he contacted them with a story, and they said he could weave real players into the story… that’s great, actually.
MARTY
It’s a minor work. An ad for the book in The claimed that it was ‘more thrilling than a cup final.’
JERRY
Depends which cup final.
MARTY
Good point.
JERRY
How was the film received?
MARTY
One review commented that ‘it made no great stir in the film world but is for all that an encouraging thing.’
JERRY
Bit lukewarm.
MARTY
It went on to say, ‘One need not be an enthusiast of football to enjoy its excellent football pictures or the ingenuity with which they are fitted into the structure of the film.’ And that’s the point of us talking about it.
JERRY
Because it’s the only film that has players as themselves…
MARTY
The only one to do that as part of the very structure of the film. I’m sure it’s the only film in which a successful serving manager acts as himself… and actually ACTS… not well… but passingly well.
JERRY
OK, so the book was turned into a film… and half of it was shot at Highbury… who made it?
MARTY
A director called Thorold Dickinson. He was a noted film editor and directed a few films which, though not stand out classics, attracted a lot of praise from other film makers for their wit and cinematic technique.
JERRY
Thorold… that’s a strange name.
MARTY
It’s old Norse for follower of the god Thor.
JERRY
Right… but he’s British…
MARTY
Yes. He made the first film version of Gaslight, only to see the prints destroyed when the rights were sold to Hollywood and the classic Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer version released in 1944 became the one everyone knows. Dickinson kept his own print of his original… and it’s much darker and more cinematic by all accounts.
JERRY
So, is The Arsenal Stadium Mystery a dark film?
MARTY
Not at all. It’s surprisingly witty. In fact, it’s very British in terms of its humour.
JERRY
What’s the story?
MARTY
It’s a bit silly… but that is what makes it so charming. The film starts with a fake newsreel announcing a charity game between the might Arsenal and an amateur team called the Trojans.
JERRY
Trojans?
MARTY
I know what you’re going to say… isn’t that an American brand of condoms…
JERRY
Well, it is isn’t it?
MARTY
It is… and curiously, it was launched in 1916… so… there might have been some sly humour going on… somewhere. Anyway, we see the actual Arsenal players in the newsreel and… then we pull back to see that the real players are watching the screen. We’re introduced to the Arsenal team…
CLIP
JERRY
Those are famous names.
MARTY
Ted Drake… Cliff Bastin… Gordon Bremner… Bryn Jones… Leslie Jones…
George Male… and Alfred Kirchen, to name just a few.
JERRY
And George Allison.
MARTY
And Allison as well as Tom Whittaker… who became Arsenal Manager in 1947 when Allison retired and promptly won the league in 1948.
JERRY
Oh God… not again.
MARTY
They did it again under him in 1953. Plus winning an FA Cup in 1950.
JERRY
God.
MARTY
Is this getting too painful?
JERRY
It’s a bit painful.
MARTY
But it’s all so long ago…
JERRY
Doesn’t matter how long ago it is – for a football fan… history always hurts.
MARTY
Or brings joy.
JERRY
Depends who you support.
MARTY
Well, if you’re a Sunderland fan you can take pride in having won the league a few times… because now… the club has declined considerably. But…
JERRY
But when you’re up there and you never quite ever get there… it’s worse.
MARTY
That’s probably a podcast on its own.
JERRY
Anyway… so… this film starts with the charity match.
MARTY
Yes, and you see the teams getting ready and then a real match being played by Arsenal and… in disguise… Brentford.
JERRY
In disguise? That’s good. ‘Are you so-and-so in disguise’ is an ironic chant at many games.
MARTY
Well, this WAS Brentford in disguise… they were the Trojans in long shot… and then the close-ups were done from a low-angle with the actors and cleverly intercut with the action.
JERRY
So, the crowd is real… I mean they didn’t turn up for the filming as extras…
MARTY
No. The match took place. It’s a fascinating insight into what crowds looked like. Mostly men. Most of them in hats and flat caps. Some with rosettes and rattles. Most intently watching the game. A pretty good pitch – for the time – and that dark, heavy leather ball. It’s played at a very fast pace. Lots of attacking moves.
JERRY
Herbert Chapman was famous for describing the best football as being focused on ‘rapier like attacks’ and constant movement.
MARTY
Ah, so you doo know something about the subject…
JERRY
I prefer Bill Nicholson… but you’ve got to accept that Chapman was a trailblazer.
MARTY
He brought many innovations to the game… and even tried ones that took a long time to be accepted like floodlights and a white ball so that the crowd could follow the action better on muddy pitches in gloomy conditions.
JERRY
OK, so… he was a great football innovator. I’ll give him that.
MARTY
That’s big of you, Jerry.
JERRY
So, the story…
MARTY
Ah yes. There’s a rivalry established between two of the players over a glamourous girl… an advertising model as she’s called… and one them collapses on the pitch, fatally poisoned. And then it’s time to call Scotland Yard and bring in the famous Inspector Slade. We cut to a big hall at the Yard and policemen in tutu’s…
JERRY
Tutu’s?
MARTY
The kind ballet dancers wear, yes… and they’re rehearsing a show.
JERRY
Bizarre…
MARTY
And amusing. This clip will give you a flavour of the scene.
CLIP
JERRY
That’s so… British…
MARTY
And Inspector Slade, brilliantly played by the actor Leslie Banks dives into the case and, of course he solves it.
JERRY
What’s that about the hat?
MARTY
That’s one of his quirks… he chooses a different hat depending on his mood or the stage of the investigation. He does one complete scene with George Allison which works very well. Here it is.
CLIP
JERRY
So, what happens next?
MARTY
Well, the plot has the usual twists and turns, and we get to the point where a trap is set to catch the murderer when they replay the match… the murdered player was poisoned when he nicked his thumb on a returned engagement ring which had a strange new poison on it. So, Slade sets a trap and puts powder on a jar in the treatment room where that ring is hidden so that its gets onto the hands of the guilty man… and turns it black… like ink. It’s a bit silly… but when it happens during the match it actually works as a sequence.
JERRY
And the guilty man gets caught.
MARTY
He does. And he’s arrested during the match. Cleverly, they use different parts of the Arsenal v Brentford match they used at the start.
JERRY
That was a REAL match… a LEAGUE match?
MARTY
Yes, a league match and it happened to be the very last league match played at Highbury before the war which, of course, broke out in September 1939 at the start of the new season.
JERRY
Amazing.
MARTY
The film might not be a classic… but it’s got some great scenes… I like the humour… at the end Slade goes back to his first love, producing the Metropolitan Police revue. But one scene sticks out for me – it’s when George Allison talks tactics for the match with his players.. who are all in natty suits.
CLIP: TEAM TALK
JERRY
That has been fascinating. I really want to see it now.
MARTY
Even though it’s Arsenal?
JERRY
But it’s black and white Arsenal… that’s not so painful.
MARTY
You’re a magnanimous fellow, Jerry.
JERRY
Thank you MARTY. And thanks for enlightening us on what is perhaps the best football movie ever made.
MARTY
It’s been a pleasure.
JERRY
And thank you dear listeners for your time… if you get a chance to see the film, take it. Even if you are a Spurs fan… or a supporter of anyone… including Arsenal. At least you’re not from North Mymms!
Goodbye.