Having pulled over a train robbery where they succeed in stealing a pair of printing plates from the mint, Walt's gang find themselves top of Superintendent Mungo's `to do' list. Seeking to get away from the heat the gang go to a monastery on an England off the south coast of England. Despite finding the life of work and celibacy hard going the gang find the remote location the perfect place for reworking hot nick before selling it on.
Very much of it's time, this comedy features plenty of famous faces from British comedy and a style of humour that is based more on attitude than fantastic jokes. As such it isn't really that funny but is more amiable than anything else. The laughs are expected to come from the juxtaposition of the cockney slang with the monk's dress. It works to a certain extent but really you need to be content to make do with this style of humour and not much else. I rarely laughed out loud and the set up only brought a vague sense of humour to the film.
The story goes nowhere in particular. I won't be spoiling anything to say that our gangsters soon fall into the monk's life with a certain affection. Rather than go anywhere the film just gets as much mileage out of the set up as possible before quickly drawing things to a close with an unsatisfying and hasty conclusion. It is pretty poor but if you're after a dated piece of British comedy then this is OK but not as funny as the better of the Carry On series.
The cast are OK. All well know faces playing their caricatures to full effect. Windsor is a little annoying and the film uses her for her blonde bimbo looks and her breasts. The majority all have cockney clichés to act out and do it with a certain amount of fun. It's good to see faces like Cribbins, Fraser, Kaye, Brambell and Hayes in a film.
Overall this is not very good but I didn't expect very much from basically a sub-Carry On caper movie. Manages to get some smiles out of the set up but really it's a bit stretched with nowhere to go at the end.
