The Wrong Arm of the Law

source: The Wrong Arm of the Law

I loved this when it was first released. 45 years later, it hasn't lost much of its charm. It boasts a great central idea, which develops into one of the most pleasurable, fast-moving loads of innocent nonsense I've seen in a long while. Peter Sellers is on good form, as are comedy co- horts, Bernard Cribbins, John Le Mesurier, Lionel Jeffries, Sam Kydd, and Dennis Price (as Educated Ernest)...even Nanette Newman does a good job. The dialogue is full of the sort of English dagginess made even more popular at the time by co-writers Galton & Simpson; it's great to hear people called 'nit' or 'berk' and the police referred to as the 'bogeys'. And it's not just nostalgia. Cliff Owen's direction seems to get the best out of everyone. Not all of it still works, but it won't detain you, and if you've a taste for British comedy of this era, it won't disappoint. There was a cheap VHS available a few years ago with inaudible sound. I saw the version broadcast by ABCTV in Australia - excellent quality.

This isn't one of Peter Sellers' best films, though it still is worth a look. It's a crime spoof about a gang that dresses up like the police and robs the crooks once they've committed their jobs. This aspect of the film is okay, but what I really liked was how the police and organized crime worked together to stop this masquerading gang! They didn't seem to like how this gang upset the unwritten rules between the cops and the robbers so they combined resources to find and stop them! The best part of this was the role played by Lionel Jeffries as the Inspector. While he was a supporting actor in the film, his performance really overshadowed Sellers'. That isn't to say that Sellers did a bad job--he was wonderful as the criminal mastermind. But Jeffries played the stupid policeman so well that you couldn't help but look forward to when he was in the film. This is a decent movie with a very good ending, but the film falls far short of the wonderful and near-perfect Ealing crime comedies (THE LAVENDER HILL MOB and THE LADYKILLERS). About the only serious negatives are that there are some real lulls in the film--it just didn't sustain the humor throughout.

I will admit that I didn't pay full attention, and I did doze off somewhere in the middle, but I suppose it's worth a go. Basically cockney Pearly Gates (Peter Sellers) is the leader of a gang of crooks, with no-one carrying guns or resisting arrest. Then along comes another gang, led by Irish Nervous O'Toole (Bernard Cribbins) that can apparently do better than them. With the help of turned Insp. Parker (Lionel Jeffries) they plan to set a trap for the biggest car robbery with £50,000 to be had. Also starring Davy Kaye as Trainer King, Nanette Newman as Valerie, Bill Kerr as Jack Coombes, Ed Devereaux as Bluey May, Reg Lye as Reg Denton, Dad's Army's John Le Mesurier as Assistant Commissioner, Graham Stark as Sid Cooper, Martin Boddey as Supt. Forest, Irene Browne as Dowager, Arthur Mullard as Brassknuckles, Dermot Kelly as Misery Martin and Vanda Godsell as Annette. I think it's because I dozed off and didn't pay full attention that I can't say I laughed a lot, but the ending robbery is quite good viewing. Worth watching!

Channel Four in the UK showed it this afternoon, and...I may have seen it years ago, but as I watched it.. wondered if it was an Ealing.Was the airfield Elstree.. didn't know. I was always a Sellers fan. Of course he was a performer, on TV chat shows as well as films. I strongly disagree he wasn't funny on TV chat shows. Parkinson was always good with him on. I want those shows on DVD, and am asking a friend in BBC archives, did they escape tape scrub? Hendrix on Lulu show was apparently one that survived as a technician checked it before scrub.. and made a phone call. So.. the film is an utter delight. Very silly of course, and yes, the 'going wrong' set up robbery near the end hilarious. I love these films as they still give a reminder, or an idea what life was like back then. If one can recognise locations, even better. My DVD collection is growing way too fast with these films being shown. Ronnie Corbet reminded us the other night when they made their TV shows.. they were never rushed. Rehearsed to perfection.. and it showed. Well,the old films still have charm and are a good reminder of life in those days. I didn't know Cliff was Mr. Bongo in Expresso Bongo! We need this escapism even more these days. New films with cgi are all very well.. but these comedies were straight up, almost reality.

Australian confidence tricksters pose as London policemen in order to steal from known hardcore criminals out on the job. Peter Sellers -- like Elvis, Prince and Jimi Hendrix -- came along with exactly the right talent at exactly the right time. His acting here exposes the truth about him: He was a brilliant comedy actor at a time when the best others could manage was either one note characters or lame camera mugging. (Lionel Jeffries and Bernard Cribbins -- here playing a dutiful, but dim police officer and an Irish hood respectively are good examples!) Sellers (Pearly Gates) outclasses the rest of the cast put together in a kind of double roll as a London criminal mastermind and (when the mood takes him) a "French" dress designer. The whole thing is dated as hell, and features that well known standby of British crime films of the villains having the "its a fair cop, guv" attitude to the law. Indeed this has both sides of the law working together to solve their mutual problem! They put this on a compilation DVD and you can see why: It is not really good enough to stand on its own two feet, but it is not really bad enough not to have some video value. Sellers was a genius and a comedy legend. Without being the slightest bit funny himself (look at his performances on chat shows) he could take quality material in to outer space. Here he only has mediocre material to work with, but he carries you through without a glance at your watch. P.S The scenes at Battersea Amusement Park remind you what the place look liked -- if you ever went there -- before it was closed. Probably due to a fatal accident on the roller-coaster you can actually see in the background.

Peter Sellers comedies from before 1964 often come off to me as dingy, dated, and a bit twee. So "The Wrong Arm Of The Law" surprised me. I wasn't expecting to enjoy it as easily as I did. The movie's title comes from a predicament mob boss Pearly Gates (Sellers) calls the "oldest bleeding con in the business": Dress up like coppers, catch other criminals in the act, steal their loot, and get away. After being stung eight times, Gates' own gang call on the real law for help. It's easy to confuse this with "Two-Way Stretch", another caper comedy Sellers made three years before, with both Bernard Cribbins and Lionel Jeffries in key support roles. "Two-Way Stretch" is amusing but stale; this holds up both as a story and large-scale character piece. By day, Gates sells high-end women's clothing with the help of a fake French accent, using his knowledge of the well-to-do to mastermind burglaries. Cribbins is a rival crime boss so non-threatening he shows off his family photos; Jeffries is inept police inspector "Nosey Parker", who suspects a buy-off attempt when Gates first appears in his office. "I'm not trying to bribe you, mate," Gates replies. "I don't carry loose change." Also on hand to bring considerably sex appeal is cat-eyed, slinky Nanette Newman, Pearly's girl. Watching her make out with Sellers' stomach in one scene is pretty erotic stuff; she is also cleverly integrated into the rest of the story. Director Cliff Owen did mostly British TV work. He shows himself here an accomplished cinematic stylist. An opening credit sequence recalls "Catch Me If You Can". The ending is remarkably satisfying; all the story elements come together with surprising grace. You wish Sellers' later, bigger-budget comedies were as well crafted. One caveat: There are no big laughs in "Wrong Arm", just many small ones and amusing asides that keep coming. There's a gentleness reminiscent of an Ealing comedy. When the different gangs discover they're all being had by the same outside interest, they call a meeting where parliamentary rules of order are carefully observed. A pickpocket demands to be heard as the "voice of the small man". Jeffries is the best thing in the film. You know he's a wally, but you like him anyway, and feel a bit when he makes a mess of things with his superiors. "Why do they always pick on me?" he whines, not at all like the hard-case he played in "Two-Way Stretch". Sellers is very good as well, sliding effortlessly between his London and French accents. People who generally avoid Sellers films before "Strangelove" are well advised to make at least this one exception. "Wrong Arm" is a smooth treat that still stands up well, right up there with "The Ladykillers" and "I'm All Right, Jack" in quality and lighter than either.

London's crooks are finding that no matter what job they pull, the London Constabulary are waiting to feel their collars. All of which comes as a great surprise to the police as they know nothing about it. It appears that a new firm of antipodean crooks are on the manor, who are not only stealing from London's finest thieves, they are also impersonating police officers in the process. There's only one thing for it, the constabulary and the villains must unite to restore the standard police/criminal workings in London! The British Crime Crooks Caper, when it comes to film, is a long and distinguished list, comprising of brilliant stuff like Ask A Policeman 1938, much loved stuff like The Italian Job 1969 and enjoyable fare like Too Many Crooks 1959. The Wrong Arm Of The Law 1963 falls into the latter category, hugely enjoyable with sharp scripting and performances to match. Boosted by the considerable writing talents of Ray Galton & Alan Simpson, the picture manages to steer well clear of being overtly twee, something that Crooks In Cloisters was guilty of the following year. The humour on show here by and large comes courtesy of the unlikely alliance between London's good and bad elements, a code and adherence to rival ethics brings about some delightful mirth. Both parties are fierce rivals but there is still unwritten rules that both sides must follow, and thankfully the astute pen scribbling from Galton & Simpson creates some smashing set pieces and quite ridiculous {in a good way} scenarios. All of which would have gone to waste if the cast did not fulfil the scripts potential, but when you got Peter Sellers, Bernard Cribbins and a quite fabulous Lionel Jeffries fronting your movie, you are definitely in good hands. The Wrong Arm Of The Law is highly recommended to anyone who loves an old fashioned British comedy. 7.5/10

This is a film based upon a clever idea, but despite throwing Peter Sellers, Bernard Cribbins, Arthur Mullard, and Lionel Jeffries at it, and despite having a script by Galton and Simpson and no less than five other writers tweaking the script, it is a failure. Surprisingly, Nanette Newman, whose purpose is unrelated to the comedy of the film, is the most effective performer, and manages some meaningful menace and allure. Cliff Owen directed. He was a pal of Ray Galton and Alan Simpson (two wonderful guys whom I knew well for a time) and directed their 1972 feature film of STEPTOE AND SON. The idea behind this film is that there is a gang of crooks in police uniforms who rob the crooks who have just done their own robberies. They get tip-offs from Nanette Newman. The real cops can't figure it out at all. So that is all very jolly. But someone needed to pull it off. No, I don't mean the heist, I mean the film. Peter Sellers is not funny at all. But then, he often wasn't. And so there you are.

This is an absolutely hilarious comic crook caper, very much in the style of THE LAVENDER HILL MOB, THE Italian JOB and CROOKS & CORONETS. It's one of those stories where the crooks are pleasant people, with the traditional "honor amongst thieves" motto, who only steal from the very rich, and never actually cause anyone physical harm. (Slight spoiler warning) Then a new mob arrives in London Town from Australia (yes, the Aussies are the real villains in this - sob, sob); and don't play fairly. This affects the status quo, so the General Council of Crims and the Police Force join forces to stop them. With great comic stars like Peter Sellers, Bernard Cribbins (of "Right Said Fred" novelty song fame), Lionel Jeffries, and John Le Mesurier (most memorable as Wilson of the old UK comic series DAD'S ARMY); as well as great Aussie stars Ed Devereaux and a quite young Bill Kerr (who's really seedy in this), I was totally hooked. As it made my top 100, you could say I'm very fond of this uproarious effort.