View source for It's Not Cricket (1949 film)

{{other uses|It's Not Cricket (disambiguation){{!}}It's Not Cricket}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2016}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2016}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = It's Not Cricket
| image          = "It's_Not_Cricket"_(1949).jpg
| caption        = British pressbook
| director       = {{ubl|[[Alfred Roome]]|Roy Rich}}
| producer       = {{ubl|[[Betty E. Box]]|[[Peter Rogers]]}}
| writer         = {{ubl|Gerard Bryant|Lyn Lockwood|Bernard McNabb}}
| narrator       =
| music          = [[Arthur Wilkinson]]
| cinematography = Gordon Lang
| editing        = Esmond Seal
| starring       = {{ubl|[[Basil Radford]]|[[Naunton Wayne]]|[[Susan Shaw]]|[[Maurice Denham]]}}
| distributor    = [[Gainsborough Pictures]]
| released       = {{Film date|1949|04}}
| runtime        = 77 minutes
| country        = United Kingdom
| language       = English
| budget         =
}}
'''''It's Not Cricket''''' is a 1949 British [[comedy film]] directed by [[Alfred Roome]] and starring [[Basil Radford]], [[Naunton Wayne]], [[Susan Shaw]] and [[Maurice Denham]]. It was written by Gerard Bryant, Lyn Lockwood and Bernard McNabb. It is the second (after 1941's ''[[Crook's Tour]]'') of two starring films for Radford and Wayne.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20090113221428/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/38028 ''It's Not Cricket''] at [[BFI Film & TV Database]]</ref> It was one of the final films made by [[Gainsborough Pictures]] before the studio was merged into the [[Rank Organisation]].
==Plot==
Major Bright and Captain Early are intelligence officers in the British army of occupation in [[Allied-occupied Germany|post-World War 2 Germany]]. They are sent home on leave, but fail to notice that their new [[Batman (military)|batman]] is actually wanted [[War crime#London Charter / Nuremberg Trials 1945|war criminal]] Otto Fisch. He vanishes on arrival in England and the two officers are punished by early [[demobilisation]]. Uncertain what to do in [[wikt:civvy street|civvy street]], they decide to use the "skills" they learned in the army and set up a private detective 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]] party for a cricket match, but what they don't know is that the cricket ball they buy in London actually contains a valuable diamond 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==
{{cast listing|
* [[Basil Radford]] as Major Bright
* [[Naunton Wayne]] as Captain Early
* [[Susan Shaw]] as Primrose Brown
* [[Maurice Denham]] as Otto Fisch
* Nigel Buchanan as Gerald Lawson
* [[Alan Wheatley]] as Felix
* [[Jane Carr (actress, born 1909)|Jane Carr]] as Virginia Briscoe
* [[Patrick Waddington]] as Valentine Christmas
* [[Edward Lexy]] as  Brigadier Falcon
* [[Leslie Dwyer]] as Batman
* [[Frederick Piper]] as Yokel
* [[Diana Dors]] as Blonde woman
* [[Mary Hinton (actress)|Mary Hinton]] as Lady Lawson
* [[Margaret Withers]] as Mrs Falcon
* [[Brian Oulton]] as Simon Herbage
* [[John Boxer (British actor)|John Boxer]] as 1st Military Policeman
* [[Cyril Chamberlain]] as 2nd Military Policemen
* [[Charles Cullum]] as Sir Leslie Lawson
}}
==Production==
Alfred Roome directed the film with Roy Rich, with Rich focusing on dealing with the actors. Roome called the movie "a slapstick action thing, really, almost a children’s picture. What I’d do now is cut out all the terrible, boring romance stuff with Susan Shaw; there was a lot of other chat that should have gone too, but other than that, it’s not too bad... We managed to doll the sets and clothes up quite nicely, so that it looked quite expensive."<ref>{{cite book|first=Brian|last=McFarlane|year=1997|url=https://archive.org/details/autobiographyofb0000unse_i5w8/page/499/mode/1up?q=%22slapstick+action%22|title=An autobiography of British cinema : as told by the filmmakers and actors who made it|page=499|isbn=9780413705204 }}</ref>
==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 movie|B films]], as among the most meritorious of the B films made in Britain between [[World War II]] 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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Chibnall |first=Steve |title=The British "B" film |last2=McFarlane |first2=Brian |date=2009 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan on behalf of the British Film Institute |isbn=978-1-84457-320-2 |location=New York |pages=265–266}}</ref>
''[[The Monthly Film Bulletin]]'' wrote: "Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne exploit to the full every humorous possibility to be found in this somewhat thin story, which degenerates into pure slapstick in the closing sequences."<ref>{{Cite journal |date=1 January 1949 |title=It's Not Cricket |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1305821868 |journal=[[The Monthly Film Bulletin]] |volume=16 |issue=181 |pages=97 |url-access=subscription |via=ProQuest}}</ref>
==References==
<references />
==External links==
* {{IMDb title| 0040482 }}
* {{BritMovie title| Its-Not-Cricket_1949 }}
{{Gainsborough Pictures}}
[[Category:1949 films]]
[[Category:British crime comedy films]]
[[Category:British sports comedy films]]
[[Category:1940s crime comedy films]]
[[Category:1940s sports comedy films]]
[[Category:Gainsborough Pictures films]]
[[Category:Films directed by Alfred Roome]]
[[Category:Films set in England]]
[[Category:Films set in London]]
[[Category:Films produced by Betty Box]]
[[Category:British black-and-white films]]
[[Category:1949 comedy films]]
[[Category:1940s English-language films]]
[[Category:1940s British films]]
[[Category:English-language crime comedy films]]
[[Category:English-language sports comedy films]]