It's Not Cricket

Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne are at it again: this round, after getting dishonorably discharged from the army for allowing a "dangerous" Nazi to escape, they open a private detective agency and get involved in the search for a stolen diamond. They have certainly come a long way since "The Lady Vanishes" (1938), the film that introduced them to the public (albeit with different identities): this time verbal humor, which is kind of their trademark, has been reduced in favor of rather basic slapstick, culminating in a multiple-vehicle chase at the end. Another notable thing is that the comic Nazi villain and his dim-witted sidekick share about the same amount of screen time as the two "official" leads. Pouty young Diana Dors makes a short walk-on appearance. ** out of 4.

A below average comedy where the only humour was given by Maurice Denham playing the German spy. The only thing of interest is this was one of Diana Dors' first movie roles. If you want a brilliant British comedy from 1949 watch Whisky Galore.

With the right script Nauton Wayne and Basil Radford were as funny as any.Alas this is not one.Much of their comedy came from understatement and so the one truly funny scene in this film is with Diana Dors.Shame they didn't pick her as their secretary.Too much of the time the film is far too farcical and quite frankly the pair are lost.The idea of jewels hidden in a ball had whiskers on it when it was used here,as is the scene set backstage in a theatre when they mess up the performance of everyone.In fact the most entertaining part of that skit is the musical seal.It is a great shame that they were not given much better material to work with.

Charters and Caldicott have been promoted by the film producer to head this comedy.Naunton Wayne and Basil Radford were popular playing these two bumbling characters in several films but I still think their performance in "The Lady Vanishes" 1938 was best and especially in the latter film I liked Basil Radford describing a particularly feliticous piece of play by Wally Hammond which he illustrates with sugar cubes representing the players on the field.I too was annoyed when Dame May Witty asked for the sugar cubes to be handed back to her table in the restaurant car.My summary title may seem a trifle arrogant but one has to remember we had just been through another world war and the nation needed to have something to laugh at in the cinema in the days before widespread TV ownership.Yes the comedy was primitive and producers still relied on old fashioned slapstick humour in the main to entertain the masses.Adequate 6/10

This spoof on the spy and detective genres is patchy but contains some flashes of humorous inspiration which still appeal more than half a century later. I had about half a dozen genuine belly laughs over the absurd antics of Otto the incompetent spy, Bright and Early the incompetent private detectives and a string of pompous, self-important British stereotypes. There's an awful lot of slapstick in between the occasional clever lines and you'll need to be a bit of a Marx Brothers or Buster Keaton fan to appreciate this minor British comedy to the full. But still a little better than much of what passed for comedy around this time.

Oh, and for all you folk in the USA, you'll only need to come to grips with about 60 seconds of actual cricket!