The great Western director John Ford’s idea of filming a British police procedural was to make it a lot like his Westerns.

He’d make the hero ironic — serious when need be, but comically bewildered at times. Domestic life would play a big part. He’d stuff the picture with incidents, plot threads and characters, and populate the supporting cast with familiar faces — some British, some Irish.

There might not be any horses or sagebrush, but you could bet your last farthing there’d a company of men being men, with a little gunplay.

“Gideon’s Day” premiered in the U.K. in Eastmancolor and later inspired a British TV series in the ’60s. It came to the U.S. as “Gideon of Scotland Yard,” apparently shown in black and white. It isn’t mentioned among Ford’s Finest because it isn’t.

It’s a day in the life of a Detective Chief Inspector named George Gideon, played by Jack Hawkins, who explains in voice-over that he’s with the Metropolitan Police, better known by the name of its headquarters, “Scotland Yard.”

Over the course of a very long day, Gideon will cope with crime sprees that began in Manchester and end in London, with murderers and “payroll snatchers,” lifelong hustlers, a dirty cop and innocent victims.

He will juggle the stereotypical demands of movie domestic life — “Don’t forget the salmon” pleas from his wife (Anna Lee), don’t miss “my recital” from 18 year-old daughter Sally (Anna Massey) — miss a couple of meals, dash from the phone to the office to crime scenes to The Old Bailey (court) to church to single sentence interrogations of suspects and a jump to furious conclusions over an underling who may be taking bribes.

Gideon will light his pipe approximately 62 times and a few cigarettes to boot as he checks in with a “dope” hating informant (Cyril Cusack), buy drinks for the informant’s Cockney wife (Maureen Potter), brushes past a bullied vicar (Jack Watling), invades the privacy of a cute criminal accessory (Dianne Foster) and joins in a safety-deposit-box robbery’s stand-off.

He will browbeat his underlings (John Loder, Barry Keegan, Michael Trubshawe, Frank Lawton) into working the same insane hours that he does, and suffer the sputtering complaints of his moose-head mounting chief (Howard Marion-Crawford).

And damned if case after case after case is solved, resolved or tidied up on Gideon’s harried single day in May.

As police procedural, even with a little bit of sleuthing involving tire tread analysis, victim interviews and “leads” procured off camera, “Gideon” is rubbish.

But as a by-the-book green recruit (Andrew Ray) insists on writing one and all a traffic ticket, only to by-the-book nab a suspect, as that vicar is pranked one time too many, and that “damned salmon” is forgotten for the umpteenth time, Ford’s flair for the corny and the comic shines through.

There’s something very folksy, Fordsy and Irish about this accused posh Brit’s reaction to the warning “If you’re fool enough to fire that gun…”

“I don’t see why you should speak in the subjunctive! I am going to fire this gun.”

Based on a novel by John Creasey (under the nom de plume J.J. Marric), Ford makes his modest intentions with this material and this working vacation in London clear as the film opens with a musical nursery rhyme — “London Bridge is Falling Down.”

Hawkins smokes and sputters and lashes out and voice-over narrates his dismay at the work, the nature of the cases and the system as he’s chewed-out for being late to a suddenly-moved-up court appearance, which requires his presence for all of about 40 seconds. Hawkins is light on his feet and light in town as Gideon is rushed from dawn to well after dusk, and those “dinner plans, darling” will go by the boards.

Ford built communities on his sets, bringing back favorite stars, character actors, stunt folk and wranglers (and even an on-the-payroll according player) to his Western location shoots. He even did this on a few non-Western dramas and the ironically-titled Irish comedy “The Quiet Man.”

Unable to do anything of the sort with “Gideon,” Ford made do and tried not to appear to be phoning it in. But the way the film’s violent action finale feels tacked on after the fact just underscores how anti-climactic this not-quite-cop-thriller/not-quite-cop-comedy feels, start to finish.

Rating: “approved,” TV-PG

Cast: Jack Hawkins, Anna Lee, Michael Trubshawe, Derek Bond, John Loder, Frank Lawton, Andrew Ray, Barry Keegan, Jack Watling, Dianne Foster, Cyril Cusack and Anna Massey.

Credits: Directed by John Ford, scripted by T.E.B. Clarke, based on a novel by John Creasey. A Columbia release on Tubi, other streamers

Running time: 1:31