It's Not Cricket (1949)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Directors:

Roy Rich
Alfred Roome

Writers:

Gerard Bryant (writer)
Lyn Lockwood (writer)

Release Date:

April 1949 (UK)

Genre:

Adventure | Comedy

Plot:

Kicked out of Army Intelligence, a pair of upper class twits set up as private detectives. The result is refined English chaos.

Plot Keywords:

Beautiful Woman

Cast

Basil Radford	...	Maj. Bright
Naunton Wayne	...	Capt. Early
Susan Shaw	...	Primrose Brown
Maurice Denham	...	Otto Fisch
Nigel Buchanan	...	Gerald Lawson
Alan Wheatley	...	Felix
Jane Carr	...	Virginia Briscoe
Patrick Waddington	...	Valentine Christmas
Edward Lexy	...	Brig. Falcon
Leslie Dwyer	...	Batman
Frederick Piper	...	Yokel
Diana Dors	...	Blonde
Mary Hinton	...	Lady Lawson
Margaret Withers	...	Mrs. Falcon
Brian Oulton	...	Simon Herbage

Runtime:

UK:77 min (original version)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:U (original rating) | UK:U (video rating)

Filming Locations:

Gainsborough Studios, Islington, London, England, UK

Company:

Gainsborough Pictures

Trivia:

In order to achieve the British Board of Film Censors "U" classification cuts were made to the original movie.

Flashes of brilliance, and hardly any cricket.

This spoof on the spy and detective genres is patchy but contains some flashes of humorous inspiration which still appeal more than half a century later. I had about half a dozen genuine belly laughs over the absurd antics of Otto the incompetent spy, Bright and Early the incompetent private detectives and a string of pompous, self-important British stereotypes. There's an awful lot of slapstick in between the occasional clever lines and you'll need to be a bit of a Marx Brothers or Buster Keaton fan to appreciate this minor British comedy to the full. But still a little better than much of what passed for comedy around this time.

Oh, and for all you folk in the USA, you'll only need to come to grips with about 60 seconds of actual cricket!