Good movie but grossly overrated

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Over in Beaconsfield there was a West London rival in this British Lion presentation owing much to TV I'd guess in style with this amiable farce. There's perhaps nothing comedically side-splitting here, but countless chuckles, persistent quirkyness, and a massive shot in the arm for me watching now of a nostalgia for simpler times and easier laughs. Living in the Uxbridge area, I loved spotting the final robbery scene near a hump-backed bridge in Cowley, tracing the few elements that have survived half a century. The locations are gritty & soot-caked but the characterisations pure and sweet, like the police superintendent being tops, then Sellers' charming master criminal. The collision of the cops and crooks is very droll and the whole thing belts along at a fair clip. It doesn't really seem to matter by the end exactly what happens except to be assured a good time was had by all.

This wonderful film was written by the legendary Galton and Simpson, and I invite you to watch it purely to savour the authentic Hancock dialogue throughout, even though the lad 'imself isn't in it. He's there in spirit in every scene, however. Crook Peter Sellers: "I'm planning a job so big it'll make Maigret's pipe fall out." That's slightly unconvincing coming from Sellers, but it's pure Hancock. It's like discovering a lost (extended) episode of Hancock's Half Hour.

Pearly Gates and Nervous O'Toole, the two biggest villains in London, suddenly start finding their blags are being rumbled by a trio of Australian con-artists posing as coppers. Unable to stop this gang, they team up with Inspector "Nosey" Parker of Scotland Yard to see if their combined forces can restore much-needed order to the criminal way of life.One of the funniest British movies of all time, written by no fewer than seven men, including two of the best comedy writing duos; Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, and John Warren and Len Heath. The great charm of this picture is the way it presents London gangland as a bunch of lovable clods who don't mean any harm but who take their jobs and their workers' rights very seriously. Pearly is one of Sellers' greatest creations, who tries to encourage professionalism amongst his men (he's showing Rififi, The Day They Robbed The Bank of England and The League of Gentlemen as "training" films) and there's a wonderful sequence where he chairs a villains' union meeting, complete with agenda, motions and procedural points of order ("The Chair recognises the bird on the front row."). The real star for me though is the wonderful Cribbins as befuddled, eye-twitching Nervous, complete with brothel creepers, pork pie hat and too-small suit, chastising both his men and his kleptomaniac nephew Kevin ("Ya teeving little nit !"). Jeffries, saucy Newman and gifted Aussie actor Kerr are all terrific as well, and the whole shebang rattles along at a terrific pace with buckets of funny dialogue and inventively daft situations. Don't miss an unbilled cameo by Dennis Price, as Educated Earnest of Leamington Spa. Sadly, they really don't make them like this anymore.

Pearly Gates is an criminal who makes a living posing as a French fashion expert selling clothes to the rich of London'' society classes. Meanwhile his gang continues to carry out his crimes. However on several occasions they get stopped by the police – who then take their stolen goods, but let them go. Gates realises that his lot are getting ripped off by an other gang posing as policemen. Assuming it is rival Nervous O'Toole, Gates is astonished to find out that Nervous' gang is getting it too. They join up with the police to set up this new gang and catch them.I taped this on the strength of the cast and it is therefore quite appropriate that the cast should make this better than it probably is. The plot is quite amusing but a little too unlikely. The police gang should have been made a little nastier rather than just stealing from thieves – as it is there is no justification for the police to team up with two gangs to put one out of business. However this is a minor quibble as the plot never needs to really stand up that much. The comic antics are OK but the script is not as hilarious as other reviewers have implied. There are several good sequences and some good lines that make it worth watching and consistently amusing but not as hilarious as one would have expected on the strength of the cast.Happily the cast do their best to lift this film above the level set by the script. Sellers is really good – switching between mock-French and cockney accents with ease and comic timing. He is ably supported by Jeffries on good form and Cribbins who is funny with a reasonable Irish accent. The opposing gang is poorly represented but support is good from Le Mesurier, Nanette Newman and a few other faces.Overall this isn't classic British comedy as the cast list would suggest, but it is an amusing caper farce with plenty of reasonable laughs along the way. The cast work hard to make the material better than it is on paper and this is well worth a watch if you like this time of film.