SimonJack "The Wrong Arm of the Law" is a British caper comedy. Or, more accurately, a comedy of many capers with some satire of the London underground and law enforcement. It has a top cast of English comedy actors of the day. Peter Sellers, Lionel Jeffries, John Le Mesurier, Graham Stark, Bill Kerr, and Bernard Cribbins head the list. The film has a good plot - an Aussie gang of three men shakes down various gangs of crooks right after they pull heists in London. The foreigners wear police uniforms and pretend to be busting up the action, only to take off with the loot and leaving the actual thieves standing against a wall and then bewildered. The foreign gang finds out about these jobs through a female member, Valerie. She's a moll who somehow got to be the girlfriend of Pearly Gates (Peter Sellers). Gates has his own gang pulling jobs all around town, and he's also the head of the London underground syndicate. Gates is in the "rag" business - he owns an upscale women's dress shop and salon. He poses as a French purveyor of haute couture. This is the source of much of the laughs because Sellers is so good, believable and funny in this role. His legit front business has been making a killing, while six of his gang's heists in a row have been foiled by the fake police gang. The comedy comes mostly from Sellers and Lionel Jeffries, who plays the Scotland Yard Inspector Parker. He's in charge of the effort to stop the rash of recent robberies. Gates calls a meeting of all the underground gangs, and they decide to ask Scotland Yard to work with them to catch the IPO gang (Impersonating Police Officers). This is mostly a two-man show. It could have been much funnier with more comedy in the dialog. The script might have spread some funny or clever lines among more of the players. My seven stars may be pushing it some, but Jeffries and Sellers alone make the film worthwhile.Here's a favorite line from the film. Pearly Gates, "I made 168,000 knickers selling frocks last year - gowns, I mean." Inspector Parker, "Yeah. Well, if that isn't crooked, I'd like to know what is."

Craig Harris From memory this was pure '50s-style, knockabout London comedy. But seeing it afresh: OK, not quite as funny (very classy performances, though); unexpectedly good to look at, and really rather not-'50s. The direction's at times self-consciously modern, but, more tellingly - check out the costume design. Even plainclothed old bill were in knife-sharp Italian suits and shirts; skinny ties. For a film shot in '62 this was more than somewhat a swingin' number. A line had been crossed - we weren't post-war any more.

PHASEDK Channel Four in the UK showed it this afternoon, and...I may have seen it years ago, but as I watched it.. wondered if it was an Ealing.Was the airfield Elstree.. didn't know. I was always a Sellers fan. Of course he was a performer, on TV chat shows as well as films. I strongly disagree he wasn't funny on TV chat shows. Parkinson was always good with him on. I want those shows on DVD, and am asking a friend in BBC archives, did they escape tape scrub? Hendrix on Lulu show was apparently one that survived as a technician checked it before scrub.. and made a phone call. So.. the film is an utter delight. Very silly of course, and yes, the 'going wrong' set up robbery near the end hilarious. I love these films as they still give a reminder, or an idea what life was like back then. If one can recognise locations, even better. My DVD collection is growing way too fast with these films being shown. Ronnie Corbet reminded us the other night when they made their TV shows.. they were never rushed. Rehearsed to perfection.. and it showed. Well,the old films still have charm and are a good reminder of life in those days. I didn't know Cliff was Mr. Bongo in Expresso Bongo! We need this escapism even more these days. New films with cgi are all very well.. but these comedies were straight up, almost reality.

bob the moo Pearly Gates is an criminal who makes a living posing as a French fashion expert selling clothes to the rich of London'' society classes. Meanwhile his gang continues to carry out his crimes. However on several occasions they get stopped by the police – who then take their stolen goods, but let them go. Gates realises that his lot are getting ripped off by an other gang posing as policemen. Assuming it is rival Nervous O'Toole, Gates is astonished to find out that Nervous' gang is getting it too. They join up with the police to set up this new gang and catch them.I taped this on the strength of the cast and it is therefore quite appropriate that the cast should make this better than it probably is. The plot is quite amusing but a little too unlikely. The police gang should have been made a little nastier rather than just stealing from thieves – as it is there is no justification for the police to team up with two gangs to put one out of business. However this is a minor quibble as the plot never needs to really stand up that much. The comic antics are OK but the script is not as hilarious as other reviewers have implied. There are several good sequences and some good lines that make it worth watching and consistently amusing but not as hilarious as one would have expected on the strength of the cast.Happily the cast do their best to lift this film above the level set by the script. Sellers is really good – switching between mock-French and cockney accents with ease and comic timing. He is ably supported by Jeffries on good form and Cribbins who is funny with a reasonable Irish accent. The opposing gang is poorly represented but support is good from Le Mesurier, Nanette Newman and a few other faces.Overall this isn't classic British comedy as the cast list would suggest, but it is an amusing caper farce with plenty of reasonable laughs along the way. The cast work hard to make the material better than it is on paper and this is well worth a watch if you like this time of film.