''It's Not Cricket'' is a 1949 British

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending ( black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the o ...

directed by

Alfred Roome Alfred Wallace Roome (22 December 1908 – 19 November 1997) was an English film editor and occasional director. Biography Born in London, in 1908, he first worked in the film industry as a film editor on the 1932 British comedy film '' Thark ...

and starring

Basil Radford Arthur Basil RadfordAdam Greaves, "Radford, (Arthur) Basil (1897–1952)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, May 201available online Retrieved 3 August 2020. (25 June 189720 October 1952) was an English charac ...

, Naunton Wayne,

Susan Shaw Susan Shaw (29 August 192927 November 1978) was an English actress. Biography Shaw was born Patsy Sloots in West Norwood, London. She had wanted to become a dress designer and was working as a typist at the Ministry for Information when she di ...

and

Maurice Denham William Maurice Denham OBE (23 December 1909 – 24 July 2002) was an English character actor who appeared in over 100 films and television programmes in his long career. Family Denham was born on 23 December 1909 in Beckenham, Kent, the son ...

. It is the second (after 1941's ''

Crook's Tour ''Crook's Tour'' is a 1941 black and white British film directed by John Baxter featuring Charters and Caldicott. It is adapted from a BBC radio serial of the same name. Plot Charters and Caldicott are touring the Middle East (Saudi Arabia) ...

'') of two starring films for Radford and Wayne who appeared as supporting players in ten other films. It was also one of the final films made by

Gainsborough Pictures Gainsborough Pictures was a British film studio based on the south bank of the Regent's Canal, in Poole Street, Hoxton in the former Metropolitan Borough of Shoreditch, north London. Gainsborough Studios was active between 1924 and 1951. The com ...

before the studio was merged into the

Rank Organisation The Rank Organisation was a British entertainment conglomerate founded by industrialist J. Arthur Rank in April 1937. It quickly became the largest and most vertically integrated film company in the United Kingdom, owning production, distribut ...

Plot

Major Bright and Captain Early are intelligence officers in the British army of occupation in post-World War 2 Germany. They are sent home on leave, but fail to notice that their new

batman Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on March 30, 1939. I ...

is actually wanted war criminal Otto Fisch. He vanishes on arrival in England and the two officers are punished by early

demobilisation Demobilization or demobilisation (see spelling differences) is the process of standing down a nation's armed forces from combat-ready status. This may be as a result of victory in war, or because a crisis has been peacefully resolved and milit ...

. Uncertain what to do in

civvy street "CivvyStreet" (sometimes written as "Civvy Street") is a spin-off episode of the British television soap opera ''EastEnders'', broadcast on BBC1 on 26 December 1988. The episode is a flashback to World War II and is set at Christmas 1942. The epis ...

, they decide to use the "skills" they learned in the army and set up a

private detective A private investigator (often abbreviated to PI and informally called a private eye), a private detective, or inquiry agent is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private investigators of ...

agency, "Bright and Early". They engage a secretary, Primrose Brown, but she's not very busy as they have as yet no clients. Primrose's boyfriend/fiancee invites them all to a weekend

country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peop ...

party for a

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

match, but what they don't know is that the cricket ball they buy in London actually contains a valuable

diamond Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the chemically stable form of carbon at room temperature and pressure, b ...

that Fisch has stolen. It has been hidden in the hollow ball by his friend and protector Mr Felix, who runs a sporting goods shop. As the match gets under way Fisch and Felix watch from the cover of the trees, then infiltrate the game and steal the ball. A free-for-all chase ensues, and Bright and Early manage to recover the ball and the diamond. They have now become celebrities and don't lack for eager clients. Fisch is still working for them, as they remain unaware of his identity.

Cast

Critical reception

It was one of 15 films selected by Steve Chibnall and Brian McFarlane in ''The British 'B' Film'', their survey of British

B films B, or b, is the second letter of the Latin-script alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''bee'' (pronounced ), plural ''bees''. It rep ...

, as among the most meritorious of the B films made in Britain between

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

and 1970. They said it contained "some of the most humorous moments in a British film of the period", and praised the performances, Maurice Denham's in particular.Steve Chibnall & Brian McFarlane, ''The British 'B' Film'', Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2009, pp. 265–66.

References

External links

* * {{Gainsborough Pictures 1949 films British crime comedy films British sports comedy films 1940s crime comedy films 1940s sports comedy films Gainsborough Pictures films Films directed by Alfred Roome Films set in England Films set in London Films produced by Betty Box British black-and-white films 1949 comedy films 1940s English-language films 1940s British films