Too Many Crooks Details

Hilarious light comedy

When 'Too Many Crooks' was first issued, the film fan magazine 'Picturegoer' described it as 'a sub-Ealing type comedy' and 'flimsy fun'. This dismissal doesn't do the film justice: it may not have the depth or complexity of the classic Ealing comedies, but it has some wonderfully hilarious sequences. There's the episode when our friends are chasing their hearse downhill -- and the moment when the wealthy tax-dodging Billy Gordon (Terry-Thomas) realises that his adored daughter is engaged to a tax inspector (Nicholas Parsons) -- and the episode of the fire -- and the courtroom scene, in which John le Mesurier is superb as the magistrate and Sydney Tafler as the defending lawyer trying to do his best to defend a lost cause (Billy Gordon) -- and the scene when two sets of policemen in turn come to ask Gordon what has become of his wife ... and of course the finale. Brenda de Banzie is superb as Gordon's long-suffering wife and martial arts expert, all five of the gang of crooks are beautifully played, and all in all this film is a treat.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Dated (but Terry-Thomas is magical)

Very dated I am afraid which I think is due to the bad direction. In my opinion this film could, on paper, have been very enjoyable. All the right people with the right talent were in it however it felt as though it was lacking something.

However Terry-Thomas, as always, is just pure genius. It is worth watching the film for him alone.