CROOKS ANONYMOUS
UK, 1962, 83 minutes, Black and white.
Leslie Phillips, Stanley Baxter, Wilfrid Hyde White, Julie Christie, James Robertson Justice, Michael Medwin, Pauline Jameson, Robertson Hare, Dandy Nicholls.
Directed by Ken Annakin.
Crooks Anonymous was the work of writer Jack Davies, writer of many comedies of this period. Director is Ken Annakin who had already worked in the British industry with small-budget films, made a number of successful Disney films including The Sword and the Rose as well as The Swiss Family Robertson and, after this period which included The Fast Lady with much the same cast as this film, he went on to big-budget films starting with Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying machines and The Battle of the Bulge.
Leslie Phillips is at home in this kind of role, the compulsive safe cracker who has no education but passes himself off literally as a dandy with a plum accent. Stanley Baxter has the opportunity to show his skill with various disguises as he plays the overseer at an institution for reforming criminals called Crooks Anonymous. It is managed with his usual unctuous style by Wilfrid Hyde White. Pauline Jameson is his starry-eyed assistant. The film was one of the first made by Julie Christie. She appears as a stripper (very, very modestly in an opening scene) and becomes a romantic heroine. It is, watching this film, difficult to believe that within three years she would have an Oscar for Darling.
The strong British supporting cast of actors included James Robertson Justice doing his usual gruff style, this time as the manage of a department store. Dandy Nicholls, soon to be in Till Death Do Us Part, is a rich woman in a jewellery shop at the opening of the film.
1.Popular English comedy of the time? Eccentric characters? Black and white photography? Musical score? The tongue-in-cheek approach to crime?
2.The title, the institute for reforming criminals, the parallel with Alcoholics Anonymous – only far more severe?
3.London settings, apartments, the Peek-a- Boo Club, the department stores, the cells in Crooks Anonymous?
4.The comedy styles of the cast, their being familiar from other films? British manners, the satire on the idle rich? The satire on subservient department store heads and the gruff owner of the store, the satire on standover tactics for criminals? The contrast with Babette as the honest woman who reforms all the criminals?
5.The plausibility of the plot, the focus on Dandy, his being in the jewellery store, taking the ring from the rich woman, giving it to Babette as he proposed? His being in love with Babette, going to the Peek-a- Boo Club and robbing the man of his wallet? Babette and her demands? The irony of her meeting Mr Widdowes disguised as a clergyman in the park? Her agreeing that Dandy go through Crooks Anonymous process? His going to the headquarters, meeting Senior Brother, with Prunella? The interviews, Widdowes looking after him, taking him to the cells, everything hidden in the safes, his desperation and trying to open the safe for a cigarette? His being allowed out, with Ronnie, the woman and the breakdown, his being left alone, his stealing her luggage and getting the lift with Widdowes disguised and brought back again? The continued training? The final test, Widdowes disguised as the duchess, Dandy giving her her purse back? His being allowed out, going home and everything sold? His getting a job, playing Santa Claus, overwhelmed by the kids? His being asked to present to bust to Sir Harvey? His ruining it? Locked in the room, discovering the safe, ringing for help, the crooks all deciding to take the money? The encounter with Babette, her sending them back? Dandy’s regrets? His trying to reform Woods? The marriage, Babette being a guardian angel – and the wedding night interrupted by her first job looking after Woods? The character of Dandy, a mixture of the hero and the crook?
6.Widdowes, Stanley Baxter’s style, being sinister, the range of disguises from the bishop, the salesman, the blind beggar, the duchess? His succumbing to the money in the safe? Senior Brother, his background, the story of his reform, Miss Manderville and his setting up Crooks Anonymous? The temptation? Succumbing? Ronnie, genial, testing Dandy, his being called in, his calling the others in? Prunella and her being overwhelmed by the money? Their being in the safe, putting out the ray, the bags, the Santa Claus disguises? And the drunk seeing them going and coming and thinking he was having DTs? Their motivation, their addiction, the reform?
7.Babette, her work in the club, wanting to marry Dany, in love with him, the discussion with Widdowes, her voicing the message to him during his course, happy that he succeeded, her disappointment and sending him back? The marriage, her being a guardian angel?
8.British films like this with a gallery of eccentric characters from the jewellery storekeeper at the beginning, the rich man and his rich wife and her wanting the rings, the gallery of reformed characters at the party, the head of department in the store and the other heads? Entertaining?
