Crooks in Cloisters
Dir: Jeremy Summers
1964
**
Jeremy Summers' comedy Crooks in Cloisters has a great premise but I'm not sure he made the most of it. A gang of small time crooks, known as Little Walter's gang, have pulled off the smallest ever train robbery and are forced to hide from the police in a disused monastery on a small Island off the British South Coast. As the gang (made up of some of England's comedy favorites; Barbara Windsor, Ronald Fraser, Bernard Cribbins, Melvin Hayes - and featuring Wilfrid Brambell) settle in in the life of a Monk, they contemplate their criminal lifestyles somewhat but still keep up business as usual as master forgers and smugglers. With greats like Windsor, Cribbins and Fraser in the cast it's hard to dislike but the belly laughs are far and few between. It's likable, maybe even lovable, but in truth it's a poor mans Carry on and a bit of a misfire but then if only all misfires where this charming.