Sunday, May 17, 2009

Movie review – “It’s Not Cricket” (1949) *

Charters and Caldicott were given another crack at their own vehicle but the results are frustratingly poor. They get out of the army, where they worked in the intelligence corps, and set up a private detective agency – one of those ideas which are funny for about a second before you realise it’s not based in any sort of reality for the characters.

They get involved in looking for the lost dog of an opera star and an escaped Nazi (an atrociously mugging performance by Maurice Denham) who has a diamond. Diana Dors is funny in her scene as a man hungry secretary – it’s a shame her part wasn’t bigger. But this gets worse and worse as it goes on. Lazy, unfunny and an utter waste of the perfect film title for these two characters. Charters and Caldicott have another scene where they are in bed together - there's no rationale for it (eg in The Lady Vanishes there was a room shortage), so it's hard to come up with any other interpretation than they're into each other.

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