Too Many Crooks (1959) - film review

A gang of small-time crooks are having a hard time making a dishonest living, thanks to the ineptitude of their leader, Fingers.  Sid and his fellow gang members, Snowdrop and Whisper, are about to mutiny when Fingers comes up with another brilliant plan: to rob the seriously wealthy businessman Billy Gordon.   Again, this proves to be another disaster: Gordon catches the crooks in the act and scares them off by pretending to have a surveillance system.  In truth, the businessman is loath to call in the police, fearing that his income tax dodging may land him in hot water.  This explains why he is none too pleased when his daughter, Charmaine, affiances herself to a tax inspector.  Fingers is undeterred by this latest setback and comes up with another foolproof plan.  If the gang can break into Gordon’s house and abduct his beloved daughter, they will be able to ransom her for a small fortune.  Once more, the crooks bungle the operation and end up kidnapping their victim’s wife, Lucy, by mistake.  Gordon can hardly believe his good fortune.  He has been longing to get rid of his wife for years so that he can resume the life of the carefree bachelor, so of course he refuses to pay the ransom.  Lucy is outraged by her husband’s betrayal and decides to join forces with her crooked abductors to rob Gordon of every penny he possesses...

This classic British comedy brings together three comedy giants - Terry-Thomas, George Cole and Sid James – to deliver one of the most hilarious caper movies of the 1950s.  Replete with comic situations that can hardly fail to reduce an audience to hysterics, Too Many Crooks showcases some of the best British comedic talent of the time and is one of those rare films that seems to get funnier the more times you watch it.  It was directed with gusto by Mario Zampi, who also brought us such memorable comedies as Laughter in Paradise (1951) and The Naked Truth (1957). 

The consummate king of the comedy cads, Terry-Thomas is at his absolute best here, stealing every scene he appears in through his charisma and innate flair for comedy.  It helps that the script is absolutely smothered in the juiciest one-liners, but without a comic performer of the calibre of Terry-Thomas this would be a far lesser film.  The sequence where his character desperately attempts to rescue his ill-gotten gains from his burning house is pure vaudeville, surpassed only by the side-splitting courtroom scene.

In addition to the great Terry-Thomas, the film features several other notable comedy performers.  Foremost of these is George Cole, who had recently become a star of British cinema through his appearance in the St Trinian’s films.  Cole made a career of playing sympathetic rogues and swindlers, which culminated in his portrayal of Arthur Daley in the long-running British television series, Minder.  Here, George Cole is partnered with two other icons of British cinema, Sid James and Bernard Bresslaw, who would both achieve lasting fame as stars of the Carry On films.  Here, these three comic talents form an unbeatable team, each playing on his well-known film persona – Cole the dodgy dealer, James the irascible scamp and Bresslaw the mentally deficient strong-arm man. 

The ample supporting cast includes several familiar faces: John Le Mesurier (hilarious as the magistrate who has to confront Terry-Thomas three times in the courtroom), Nicholas Parsons (the future host of Sale of the Century and the long-running BBC radio series Just A Minute),Terry Scott (another Carry On regular and star of BBC TV sitcoms), amongst others.  Brenda De Banzie also gives great value as Terry-Thomas’s vindictive wife; she is perhaps best known today for her supporting role in Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956). With such a strong cast line-up, Too Many Crooks could hardly fail to be a classic.  Laughter is easy and the minutes race by (even faster than the driverless hearse) when you are in the company of such masterful mirth merchants.  This is pure comedy Heaven.

© filmsdefrance.com 2009

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