| Solo for Sparrow | |
| Director: | Gordon Flemyng |
| Producer: | Jack Greenwood Abhinandan Nikhanj |
| Based On: | novel The Gunner by Edgar Wallace[1] |
| Starring: | Anthony Newlands |
| Music: | Bernard Ebbinghouse |
| Cinematography: | Bert Mason |
| Editing: | Robert Jordan Hill |
| Studio: | Merton Park Studios |
| Distributor: | Anglo-Amalgamated Film Distributors (U.K.) |
| Runtime: | 56 minutes |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | English |
Solo for Sparrow is a 1962 British second feature ('B')[2] crime film directed by Gordon Flemyng and starring Glyn Houston, Anthony Newlands and Nadja Regin, with Michael Caine in an early supporting role.[3] [4] It was written by Roger Marshall based on the 1928 Edgar Wallace novel The Gunner, and produced by Jack Greenwood and Abhinandan Nikhanj as part of the Edgar Wallace Mysteries series.[5]
The film was released in America in 1966, when the producers capitalised on Caine's new-found fame and released it with his name above the title.[6]
Inspector Sparrow is a provincial detective. When crooks accidentally kill a shop cashier while stealing the keys to the jewellery shop where she works, Sparrow takes his annual leave and works on the case unofficially. He successfully tracks down the criminals and turns them over to Scotland Yard.
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Fairly routine case of crime and punishment in the Edgar Wallace series, with the sudden flashes of imagination that often redeem these purely commercial operations. Some of the minor crooks are quite skilfully drawn, and a starkly staged interview between Sparrow and a billiard-playing informer is conceived with a real flair for the sinister effect. The thrills are predictable, and the climactic rescue couldn't have been better timed if John Wayne were leading the U.S. Cavalry. But Glyn Houston gives a sturdy performance as Sparrow, and the whole thing is diverting enough."[7]