Gideon Of Scotland Yard 1958 Based on Gideon's Day by John Creasey, screenplay by T E B Clark, directed by John Ford. Yep, the same John Ford you're thinking of, John Wayne and Stagecoach. According to the Wikipedia the film was poorly promoted and released in B&W despite being shot in color. It lost money but not too much. I watched the film on YouTube, it's a nice copy under the original British title of Gideon's Day. It was released in the US as Gideon Of Scotland Yard.
Jack Hawkins plays Detective Chief Inspector George Gideon of the Metropolitan Police. It's a long day for DCI Gideon, he's got a lot of family obligations, then there's all those crooks clambering for his attention. He's got a bent copper, visitors for tea, an escaped mental patient, his daughter's violin recital, a young woman is murdered, his bent copper gets run down and the tire tracks are from the same car that used in recent payroll thefts. He ends the day catching some rich socialites robbing a safety deposit company.
It's a good movie, the script is pretty solid and the cast is even better. Some of my favorite British actors are on the case: Jack Hawkins, Cyril Cusack, Ronald Howard, Howard Marion-Crawford, Laurence Naismith, Anna Lee, Derek Bond, John LeMesurier and Miles Malleson.
I enjoyed it beginning to end. I'd watch it again sometime.