Crook's Tour

After finally alighting from the Night Train to Munich, Charters & Caldicot continued their travels abroad (obviously without leaving Elstree) to much less amusing effect tangling with slinky blonde femme fatale Greta Gynt in Budapest. It's a tedious, garrulous affair with annoying continuous music on the soundtrack which makes it even more of a trial; and the boys went back to their previous hilarious selves during the rest of the war in guest cameos instead (although they later showed they still could carry a feature in the much funnier postwar production 'It's Not Cricket').

CROOK'S TOUR is a weak war-era comedy that I'm afraid I found dated in the worst kind of way. Despite the hard work put in by the two stars, this is an extremely boring kind of film, a comedy in which I didn't laugh once. It's another tired premise involving mistaken identity which leads to our heroes being pursued by villains and bad guys across the world. Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne are here reprising their roles from THE LADY VANISHES, but without a good script and director this is sluggish and unmotivating; my advice is to stick with Hitch.

Coldecot & Charters ride again in a brisk romp through the desert and Europe. The production values are strictly "B-" but that's all part of the fun. Greta Gynt, sings well, acts well, and is gorgeous as the femme fatale who is some sort of agent - but for which side? The other supporting roles are also quite well played. Coldecot's fiancé is very funny in each of her scenes. My favorite scene is when Charters accidentally knocks a fellow he had presumed to be Charters into the Bosperous straits as a door in their hotel marked bathroom is really a deathtrap leading to the water below. Coldecot argues that the door should be marked Bosperous, not bathroom. That type of humour abounds throughout - taking the absurd and the dangerous in stride and bantering about it as if it were normal. I found this movie a lot of fun and a highly enjoyable way to spend my time.