November 1, 1939: "The Arsenal Stadium Mystery" Premieres

George Allison delivering his pregame team talk

November 1, 1939: The Arsenal Stadium Mystery premieres. It is the 1st feature film set around a major professional sports team in the British Isles. Thorold Dickinson directed. He had become known for directing musicals, and would go on to direct John Gielgud as Benjamin Disraeli in The Prime Minister.

From 1930 to 1938, 9 seasons, Arsenal Football Club, based at the Arsenal Stadium, a.k.a. Highbury for its neighborhood in North London, had won 5 Football League Division One titles (1931, '33, '34, '35 and '38, and just missing in '32 and '37) and 2 FA Cups (1930 and '36, losing the Final in '32). Herbert Chapman was the manager who built this team. Upon his death in 1934, George Allison was appointed manager, and kept it going.

The story involves Arsenal FC playing an exhibition game, or a "friendly" as it's known in soccer, against the Trojans, a fictional amateur team that appears to have a decent-sized following. Arsenal's last League game of the 1938-39 season, a 2-0 win over West London team Brentford, was filmed for this movie.

Before the game, Allison is shown addressing the players in the dressing room, but none of the players has a speaking part in the film. While right back George Male, as usual during that season, served as Captain, he also served as the head coach, as Allison usually watched the game from the press box. In this film, he is shown sitting next to a radio announcer, played by E.V.H. (Edward Victor Henry) Emmett, in real life a commentator for a film newsreel, Gaumont British News.

Alf Kirchen scored in the 1st half, and Ted Drake added a goal in the 2nd half. Both goals were shown in the finished film. At halftime, Allison tells Emmett, "One-nil to The Arsenal. That's just the way we like it." The phrase "One-nil to The Arsenal" stuck in fans' minds, and, in the 1993-94 season, when it seemed like, if Arsenal won at all, it was by a 1-0 score, including in the European Cup Winners' Cup Final, they starting singing "One-nil, to The Arsenal!" to the tune of "Go West," a Village People song that had recently been covered by British pop duo Pet Shop Boys.

But, within the story of the film, halftime saw one of the Trojans players drop dead. The Arsenal team doctor determines that he has been poisoned, and suspicion falls on various people, including his teammates, and his former mistress -- who, before the film ends, also ends up poisoned. Detective Inspector Slade, played by Leslie Banks, must solve the crime. The culprit does turn out to be one of the other Trojans players.

Allison remained Arsenal manager until 1947, and lived until 1957. Emmett lived until 1971. Banks only made it until 1952.

Arsenal would again be the subject of a feature film in 1997, Fever Pitch, based on the memoir of teacher turned author Nick Hornby. That film goes back and forth between his childhood (first 1968, then 1972) and the 1988-89 season, when Arsenal struggled to stay on top of the League, finally winning it in a dramatic finale against Liverpool FC.

In 2006, Arsenal moved into the Emirates Stadium, about half a mile west of Highbury. The stadium's historic North Bank and southern Clock End were demolished, and its East and West stands were converted into apartments.

*

November 1, 1939 was a Wednesday. Actress Barbara Bosson was born.

England had already suspended Football League play for the duration of World War II, and wouldn't have been playing on a Wednesday, anyway, barring a backup of postponements. In North America, baseball season was over. Football was in midweek. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And the NHL season didn't start until the next day. So there were no scores on this historic day.