Too Many Crooks

This film popped up on TCM last week and I'm glad I caught it. I'm a fan of British comedies, from Ealing to Carry On, but this one had somehow escaped my radar. It's a delightful cast, and they make the most of scriptwriter Pertwee's gags (even the tired ones). There are little bits of plots from elsewhere, such as O Henry's RANSOM OF RED CHIEF (the unlovable kidnap victim) or the original LADYKILLERS (banknotes in the breeze). An upbeat, jazzy 50s score adds to the merriment, and George Cole is a stand-out for the many different characters he portrays throughout the film. Terry-Thomas, Bernard Bresslaw & Sid James, and Brenda De Banzie also deserve special mention. If you recall that Ms De Banzie played a very sinister villain just three years earlier in THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH, you'll appreciate her acting range. You might even want to watch twice so you don't miss some of the more subtle verbal gags.

Absolutely hysterical! I have never forgotten any of the Mario Zampi comedies I first saw as a teenager in the 1950s, especially this one & Laughter in Paradise. George Cole was in both (he's still around & working, lucky for us) & gives a brilliantly funny performance. Terry-Thomas has never been funnier. In this film he's like a broader version of Rex Harrison. Many of the set pieces (such as the undertakers in top hats pulling a criminal caper) & performances (especially by George Cole) seem like predecessors of Monty Python. The entire cast is perfect & includes Sid James & Bernard Bresslaw from the Carry On movies. One of the funniest films I've ever seen.

I definitely do not agree that this film is a bit of a let down (as another commenter suggested).

Although this is considered to be a "B-movie", it possibly contains Bernard Bresslaw's finest ever performance. He is absolutely brilliant as Snowdrop. Another class act is John Le Mesurier as the judge when Billy Gordon (Terry-Thomas) goes to court. On top of that you've got Sid James being one of his best known characters (i.e. the down at heel crook he played in Hancock's Half Hour on radio and TV and in the film Father Brown), George Cole as an early Arthur Daley, but a bit more on the wrong side of the law than Arfur ever was, and a supporting cast containing the likes of Nicholas Parsons (a great B-movie actor, unfortunately now better known as a game show host), Brenda de Banzie,Vera Day and Joe Melia. The plot was later used to provide the basis for the American film Ruthless People. As usual, a British B-movie shows incredible attention to detail (the "Keep Death Off The Road" gag and the van they finally arrive at St Albans with Gordon's kidnapped wife spring to mind). The scene where Gordon's wife returns is worth watching the rest of the film for, even if you aren't too keen on it (although I personally think this is one of the best films ever made, so I know I'm biased!).

Just watched this again and I am a bit bemused to say the least as to why this film is so overlooked in the catalogue of British comedies of the period, or any period. It is sensationally scripted for a start, this has to be one of the sharpest British screenplays of all time. It is as dark as any of the more celebrated Brit-coms, such as Ladykillers, but unlike that film it doesn't take itself so seriously, being directed and played as a light comedy, almost a theatrical farce. And it is possibly this lightness of touch that has left it sidelined against the others. Terry-Thomas is at his slimiest as the womanising miser who's amassed a fortune by avoiding the dreaded taxman, and George Cole is very nearly as good as the bungling self styled Mr. Big of a hapless criminal gang. The busy plot turns this way and that and has some really funny scenes in it, but the best thing about this film is in the cleverness of the screenplay and the subtle nuances of comedy that are handled very slickly by the cast of expert comedy character actors.

One of the better British farces of the late fifties, the plot of Mario Zampi's "Too Many Crooks" was later used for the Bette Midler vehicle "Ruthless People". The humour here is broad and decidedly British and is often laugh-out-loud funny. The cast comprises of some of the best British comedy actors of the time, (Terry-Thomas, George Cole, Bernard Bresslaw, Sidney James), as well as that wonderful character actress Brenda De Banzie as the kidnap victim whose husband, (the sublime Terry-Thomas), refuses to pay the ransom to get her back. What happens next may be predictable but thanks to Michael Pertwee's screenplay is also hugely enjoyable and on its own simple level, Zampi's direction is just about perfect.