Füge eine Handlung in deiner Sprache hinzuInfamous thief attempts reformation through 12-step program led by former criminal to marry girlfriend. His job as department store Santa tests his resolve for change.Infamous thief attempts reformation through 12-step program led by former criminal to marry girlfriend. His job as department store Santa tests his resolve for change.Infamous thief attempts reformation through 12-step program led by former criminal to marry girlfriend. His job as department store Santa tests his resolve for change.
- Regie
- Drehbuch
- Hauptbesetzung
- Laurence Montague
- (as Wilfrid Hyde White)
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Captain Forsdyke (Leslie Phillips) is a career criminal always tempted by pickpocketing and safecracking. His real name is Cox and never even seen real service. His girlfriend Babette (Julie Christie) a showgirl wants him to go straight.
Babette comes across a group called Crooks Anonymous, founded by Mr Montague (Wilfrid Hyde-White) they help hardened criminals go straight.
Forsdyke is taken by Brother Widdowes (Stanley Baxter) during a robbery when he is disguised as a policeman and taken to the Crooks Anonymous headquarters. Forsdyke admits to Montague that he wants to give up the life of crime and marry Babette.
During his time the society puts him through numerous tests to help him give up his former life such as locking him in a room filled with safes, which contain cigarettes, food, drink and a number of booby traps which make opening them hazardous.
Forsdyke finally manages to succeed in being resisting temptation to an opportunistic crime and is released into society where he gets a job as Father Christmas in a department store. He is also set to marry Babette.
However one night a perfect opportunity to commit a crime arises, he rings Crooks Anonymous, but each time they send someone round to rescue him, they also succumb to temptation.
The film has some 1960s Swinging London tropes, such as Christie as the glamorous blonde but what it has going is a sly story of villains made to go straight told with charm. Stanley Baxter has a hoot donning various disguises as he outwits Forsdyke at every turn. There are a host of familiar character actors that were a staple of 1960s British cinema, catch Dick Emery early on in the movie.
It is a must-see for fans of British comedy, with a lot of 'I saayyy' and 'sport', witty humor, an unrivalled politeness of the characters and, last but not least, almost invisible sexual innuendo ('You'll get my Christmas present later', says a man when hasty leaving after a kiss).
I enjoyed it a lot, thanks to decent comedic acting of Leslie Philips, Wilfird Hyde-White and Stanley Baxter (in a fitting part in which he changes his outfit all the time, as a predecessor of his own TV show that started a year later). Perhaps only Julie Christie, in her first serious role, is a bit of a dissonance. But she would be great in Fahrenheit 451 a couple of years later.
Director Ken Annakin made all kinds of films (The Battle of the Bulge, for example), but was really into silly adventure comedies with rather long titles, like Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 hours 11 minutes and Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies, all scripts from Jack Davies, as is also this one. Of course, it is all a bit dated now and then, but sometimes I wonder why this kind of innocent comedy has just died out in this day and age. It is almost impossible nowadays to see a film that is not either totally ludicrous, or over-dramatic. That's why we have this problem today that so many comedies are packed with boring melodrama. Not this one though!
Watching this film I thought I was could have been watching one of those films that critique and not too gently gay conversion therapy..
Julie Christie is in this film which was three years before her breakout Oscar performance in Darling. Nothing Oscar worthy here though.
It's a British comedy that wouldn't go over too well in America. Can you imagine the characters in a Martin Scorsese epic getting cured of their bad behavior in Crooks Anonymous?
It does have a few amusing moments.
The usual suspects show up, including Wilfred Hyde-White as the head of the reforming organization, James Robertson Justice as the obnoxious head of a department store on Christmas eve and Stanley Baxter as a Dwight Frye sort of master of disguise. Ken Annakin's comedy is rather brittle, but all the parts work.
The movie is Julie Christie's film debut, and the camera, under the supervision of Ernest Steward, clearly lusts for her. No matter where she is in the shot, it seems lit to feature her liberally visible body.... or perhaps it's just me. The early 1960s was a time when ogling but (barely) censor-compliant comedies seemed to be the only thing keeping the British film industry afloat. As the only young woman in sight, Miss Christie was the obvious choice for rubbernecking.Nonetheless, it's clear that the camera loves her.
Wusstest du schon
- WissenswertesFilm debut of Julie Christie.
- PatzerWhen Fosdyke (Leslie Phillips) is left alone after being taken to Manderville Hall he falls into the trap of opening a safe behind a picture. In the first shot he is suddenly interrupted by Senior Brother (Wilfrid Hyde-White) and closes the picture over the safe, but when it is reopened the handle is at right angles to where it was before.
- Zitate
Babette La Verne: Show me one thing. Just one thing in this room that you've come by honestly.
Dandy Forsdyke: [He looks and looks and, after some difficulty, takes a frame from the mantle which has a photograph of Babette] Well, um, Well, there must be something. What about this, eh?
[And then he explains]
Dandy Forsdyke: The picture, I mean. Not - not the frame.
Babette La Verne: [Tearfully] Even the camera you took it with was stolen.
- VerbindungenReferences Yogibär (1961)
- SoundtracksI Must Resist Temptation
(uncredited)
Music by George Martin and Muir Mathieson
Lyrics by Brian Innes
Sung by Leslie Phillips
[Played during opening title card and credits]
Top-Auswahl
Details
- Erscheinungsdatum
- Herkunftsland
- Sprachen
- Auch bekannt als
- Crooks Anonymous
- Drehorte
- Kynance Mews, South Kensington, London, England, Vereinigtes Königreich(Kenton Mews - Dandy's house)
- Produktionsfirma
- Weitere beteiligte Unternehmen bei IMDbPro anzeigen
- Laufzeit1 Stunde 28 Minuten
- Farbe
- Seitenverhältnis
- 1.37 : 1