Maidgethma Wonderfully offbeat film!

TeenzTen An action-packed slog

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Sienna-Rose Mclaughlin The movie really just wants to entertain people.

JohnHowardReid A Robert Velaise Production for Romulus Films. Not copyrighted in the U.S.A., but a Continental Distributing release. New York opening at the Coronet: 2 April 1963. U.K. release by British Lion: 21 April 1963. Australian release through British Empire Films: 3 October 1963. Sydney opening at the Lyceum. 8,503 feet. 94 minutes. Cut to 91 minutes in the U.S.A. (Available on an excellent ITV DVD).SYNOPSIS: To the upper-crust customers of his Bond Street dress salon, Monsieur Jules is suave, elegant and impeccable. But behind the plush front and the French accent, he is Pearly Gates, the Cockney kingpin of London's most efficient gang of thieves.NOTES: Number 16 at British ticket-windows for 1963.COMMENT: An extremely funny film, for which Penelope Houston (tough editor of Sight & Sound) has, oddly enough, little but praise — praise with which I am only three-quarters in accord. She commends Cliff Owen for his "agile timing". Personally, I found Owen's timing way off, and I was constantly aware that this very funny script would have been even funnier if the direction were more slick. It is typical of Owen's incompetence that he has allowed Richard Bennett to negate so much of the material with his pedestrian score, and even Miss Houston has to admit "the director doesn't make much of the (Battersea Funfair) setting." Fortunately, not even Owen's bumbling can overshadow the adroitness of his cast: The stars are in top form, and I was still laughing over John Le Mesurier's impersonation of a good humor man an hour after I'd left the theater. (Incidentally, his name is pronounced "Le" as in French, "Mess-a-ra" to rhyme with "ma" or "car").OTHER VIEWS: A slightweight cops and robbers idea has been pepped up into a briskly amusing farce thanks to a combo of deft direction, thesping and writing. — "Rich" in Variety.The latest lark for jolly good felons is "The Wrong Arm of the Law". . . And who should be leading the culprits in this assault on the risibilities, but Peter Sellers, who has a record as long as your arm. Mr. Sellers, you may remember, started his career in comical crime under the able instruction of Alec Guiness in "The Ladykillers". . . The snafu that occurs when the criminals and the cops combine their brains and their pretensions to technical know- how makes a wildly comic climax for this film. — Bosley Crowther in The N.Y. Times.

BOUF I loved this when it was first released. 45 years later, it hasn't lost much of its charm. It boasts a great central idea, which develops into one of the most pleasurable, fast-moving loads of innocent nonsense I've seen in a long while. Peter Sellers is on good form, as are comedy co- horts, Bernard Cribbins, John Le Mesurier, Lionel Jeffries, Sam Kydd, and Dennis Price (as Educated Ernest)...even Nanette Newman does a good job. The dialogue is full of the sort of English dagginess made even more popular at the time by co-writers Galton & Simpson; it's great to hear people called 'nit' or 'berk' and the police referred to as the 'bogeys'. And it's not just nostalgia. Cliff Owen's direction seems to get the best out of everyone. Not all of it still works, but it won't detain you, and if you've a taste for British comedy of this era, it won't disappoint. There was a cheap VHS available a few years ago with inaudible sound. I saw the version broadcast by ABCTV in Australia - excellent quality.

BadWebDiver This is an absolutely hilarious comic crook caper, very much in the style of THE LAVENDER HILL MOB, THE Italian JOB and CROOKS & CORONETS. It's one of those stories where the crooks are pleasant people, with the traditional "honor amongst thieves" motto, who only steal from the very rich, and never actually cause anyone physical harm.(Slight spoiler warning)Then a new mob arrives in London Town from Australia (yes, the Aussies are the real villains in this - sob, sob); and don't play fairly. This affects the status quo, so the General Council of Crims and the Police Force join forces to stop them.With great comic stars like Peter Sellers, Bernard Cribbins (of "Right Said Fred" novelty song fame), Lionel Jeffries, and John Le Mesurier (most memorable as Wilson of the old UK comic series DAD'S ARMY); as well as great Aussie stars Ed Devereaux and a quite young Bill Kerr (who's really seedy in this), I was totally hooked. As it made my top 100, you could say I'm very fond of this uproarious effort.

philcald This film is full of many wonderful characters from the mainstream 50's British cinematic comedy era. The film centres on the criminal gangs of London being double crossed in their criminal activities by a bunch of foreign criminal gang members who impersonate Metropolitan Police Officers.They turn up at the scene of the crime and then disappear with the stolen goods leaving the criminals in limbo waiting to be arrested by the real police.Arthur Mullard, Peter Sellers, Lionel Jeffries, Bernard Cribbens and many more make this a gem of a title to watch. Some of the film was produced around Teddington, South West London, the scene of the mass arrest at the railroad level crossing was filmed in a Teddington street called Fairfax Road.The crossing was taken out of use many years ago but the building on which Peter Sellers and his cohorts sat observing the proceedings is still in place adjacent to the point where the crossing was.The area where the Jaguar car driven by Mullard screams over the bridge is the railway road bridge at Strawberry Hill (not far from Teddington).I humbly give this film 9 out of 10, but then maybe I'm biased as I just love old British comedies such as this. Produced by Romulus Films and distributed by British Lion Films, what could be better?