The Arsenal Stadium Mystery

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The Arsenal Stadium Mystery
Arsenal manager George Allison gives a tactical team-talk to his players
Directed by	Thorold Dickinson
Produced by	Josef Somlo
Written by	Thorold Dickinson, Donald Bull and Alan Hyman
Starring	Leslie Banks Greta Gynt Ian McLean Liane Linden Anthony Bushell Esmond Knight
Music by	Miklós Rózsa
Cinematography	Desmond Dickinson
Editing by	Sidney Stone
Distributed by	General Film Distributors
Release date(s)	1939
Running time	84 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
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The Arsenal Stadium Mystery is a 1939 British 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 the dominant team 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, who wore a special striped kit for the occasion, during the First Division fixture between the two sides on May 6, 1939; this was the last match of the 1938-39 season and Arsenal's last official league fixture before the outbreak of World War II.

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.