Gangster tuttofare

A silly but rather charming comedy about two inept American rooks who hatch a plan to rob an English stately home. they ingratiate themselves with the eccentric peeress who owns the home and her grandson, and while they pretend to be interested in improving their hosts' fortunes wait for their American confederates to arrive. meanwhile, however, they find themselves getting attached to their genial English hosts, and are increasingly reluctant to go through with the plan to rob them.

Edith Evans as the eccentric peeress is entertaining as always, and the rest of the cast are good too, including a very amusing cameo by Hattie Jacques. While it's not a great film, this is very amusing and although the story is far fetched it is satisfying. not a film to watch if you are hoping for great drama or great wit, but if you are satisfied with just some simple laughter and fun this film should please you.

Even though it's a bit dated, this tale of crooks with hearts of gold is still fun to sit through. The highlight of the film is probably Dame Edith Evans as Lady Sophie, the madcap, gambling, barnstorming old aristocrat. British viewers might not enjoy the implication that what Europe really needs is American know-how to make things profitable. ;)

Telly Savalas ! a couple years BEFORE Kojak. here he's a prisoner, just getting released from jail. and Sergeant Hulka from Stripes! (Warren Oates). Together, they come up wtih a scheme to rob the eccentric British Lady Sophie (Edith Evans). now they just need to convince their old crime boss (Cesar Romero) to finance it. They manage to get inside, and find its more complicated than they thought. a very slow, simmering, boil of a comedy. Turns out Lady Sophie is a wild woman, and they might just have a hard time keeping up with her. she likes a bit of adventure, herself. Savalas plays it very lightweight, and a little over the top, and it all works. a couple surprises along the way. Written and directed by Jim O'Connolly. Only directed a few things. this one is also known as Sophie's Place. i hadn't heard of the other films he did, but he was a british director, so i probably wouldn't know them.. This one's pretty good. a different kind of story.

I guess I was expecting a lot more with this comedy, seeing that it somehow managed to wrangle Telly Savalas and Warren Oates to star in it. While the movie is never painful or boring to watch, it just isn't that funny. It has the right spirit in the background, having an amiable nature and without a mean streak or anything really negative happening. And the cast gives it a good shot, not just the two main American stars. But the attempts at humor that are played in the foreground are pretty lame, soft and not particularly clever. If Savalas and Oates were not in this movie, the end results could be easily mistaken as being an example of one of many lame family comedies the Walt Disney company made around this period.

These types of movies were sort of common in America in the early 60s. A kind of comedy caper like Ocean's 11, It's A Mad Mad Mad World or Who's Minding the Mint. This movie was made in Britain in the later 60s. I'm not sure how they marketed this movie but it failed to find an audience probably because Brit8sh audiences qere more into more screwball type comedy and American audiences were done with this genre. MASH was just released.

This movie is cute like Who's Minding the Mint was cute. Some sympathetic bad guys who learn some lessons. The cast is interesting, Telly Salavas who either did this just before or after playing Blofeld in On Her Majestys Secret Service., Warren Oates and Harry H Corbett who is a treat to watch. He is better known as Harold in Steptoe and Son and the Carry On movie series.

It's not a movie for everyone. As I said, it is a little dated for American audiences even then. If you are fan of those earlyn60s American comedies and wondered what a British take of one would be like, here it is.