Too Many Crooks - 1959 ***

I think in all honesty, that if Terry Thomas and Sid James hadn't propped up the majority of this film then I would have been rather disappointed.

A gang of crooks set out to kidnap a wealthy man's (Thomas) daughter, but get his wife instead who, unbeknownst to them is driving her husband up the wall. The initial excitement of having kidnapped his beloved and thinking of the huge ransom they can ask for is short-lived when he tells them that they can have her for nothing because he's fed up of her and has his eye on his new secretary.

Hearing this, his wife decides to get her own and join the crooks, and help them to a vast sum of his money, stupidly stashed under the floorboards of his house.

The plot sounds funny and it really is, but I felt the presence of some actors (such as Bernard Bresslaw) really dampened the mood. Bresslaw would later go on to play in the Carry on films with Sid James, but his character is so desperately unfunny and dull that it's only luck that gives us Sid James to actually make us laugh. (Why is Sid James always called 'Sidney' in his films??)

Terry Thomas is always funny, and as I said at the top, without him this film would not be as well thought of as it is. Despite being a thoroughly unpleasant character he still manages to be charming and very 'caddish' which only Thomas can be. 3 stars for him.