The Big Job

This is of those films that is so good, it doesn't really matter that it's in black and white.

It's a quintessential farce, but it's absolutely hilarious, and so well done. A team of bank robbers hide the loot before they are caught and do their time. Lo and behold, when they get out, they find a police station built around the hiding place.

Even the denouement fails to be an anticlimax.

It's a rare opportunity to see some of the comedic leads play their role dead pan, which only heightens the comedy. It also includes Sylvia Sims, a normally serious actor, hilariously excelling herself.

It would be a leading candidate for the perfect comedy film. Don't miss it!

Based around the old chestnut of having crooks rob a bank, bury the loot but later find that that the area has been built upon, this is a fun mid-sixties comedy. Not quite a 'Carry On' (it's not as funny, for a start), it does share much of that series style (as well as sharing the production team, writer and three of its stars).

Sid James is, well, Sid James in this. A bit muted perhaps, but it's always nice to see him. He is backed expertly by the likes of Dick Emery and Lance Percival, a fine pair of comedians who seldom were seen on the big screen. The big revelation (for me at least) is Sylvia Syms splendid comic performance. Syms is best known for her serious dramatic roles in the likes of 'Victim' or 'Ice Cold In Alex' and it is a pleasant surprise to see her in a comedy.

'The Big Job' has its problems, the plot as mentioned above, was hardly original and plans for this movie began in the late fifties. Quite a few writers had a bash at the script (including Spike Milligan) and the final script, by Talbot Rothwell, while fair, was far from the comic masterpieces he was coming up with for the 'Carry On' series proper.

If 'The Big Job' isn't a comedy classic, it is an entertaining little movie, well worth catching on one of its many television re-runs.

Or, Carry On Where You Left Off. This Rogers/Thomas British comedy used to be on UK TV regularly up to 30 odd years ago, along with other films such as Two Way Stretch. While that and many others still get shown this has got forgotten, it's not hard to see why: it's sub-Carry On humour in dreary black and white surroundings with only some of the usual cast.

Bumbling gang of crooks steal £50,000 in 1950, get caught, hide the loot in a tree, go to jail, get out 15 years later to find the tree now in the backyard of a new police station. And so it goes on – how to get that money out with various ultimately slapstick ideas conjured up by George The Brain (the inimitable Sid James). His over-loyal gang of Sylvia Syms, Dick Emery and Lance Percival back him up through thick and thin, mainly thin – it might have been an interesting plot move for Percival to have to get married as well…What a shame Deryck Guyler didn't get some more lines. There's some good mundane and comedic ideas buried in here, I thought the film was pretty cool when I was 11 but that world has long gone. The only 3 women in this were all sex-mad superficial stereotypes. Favourite bits: Sid continually demanding tanners for the telescope; hiding the earth from the digging a la Great Escape, some typically coarse – but side-splitting – solutions to that particular problem! Flat humour for most of the film, just when it seemed to be getting going it was gone – obviously abiding by the maxim to always leave 'em asking for more.

Especially for any Brit over 40 it's easy viewing, an enjoyable familiar farce featuring familiar faces.

Produced by the team behind the 'Carry On' films and starring many regulars, 'The Big Job' has often been cited as unofficial entry in the series, but the set-up is much more of the Ealing variety. 'The Ladykillers' and 'The Lavender Hill Mob' form the template as a gang of criminals rent a room under false pretences, claiming to be birdwatchers when they are really interested in a nearby tree where they stashed some loot before serving time; whilst behind bars though, a police station has been built around the tree! The film chiefly derives laughs from the gang's failed attempts to rescue the money and the utter oblivion of the police force. This is an uneasy combination (the plot hinges on neither side possessing common sense) but there are many hilarious moments as all cast members are in fine form. Half a decade before his 'Please, Sir' days, Deryck Guyler is especially funny as the stuffy lead police sergeant, and Sid James, Joan Sims and Dick Emery as expectedly great. Sylvia Sims has a bit of thankless role as Sid's girlfriend, and the film as its weakest when focused on their marriage of a convenience (as well as a latter similar marriage) but for the most part, the irony of the basic set-up thankfully remains in focus. This is where the film succeeds best with an interesting message in terms of crime never paying (the ultimate fate of the money is a great twist too). Those expecting something as clever as 'The Lavender Hill Mob' or 'Carry On Camping' might be disappointed, but 'The Big Job' is a fairly solid film on its own terms, some incredulous silliness aside.

Silly story, silly characters ... very watchable.

There is no let up in the pace of the dialogue and action throughout and there are many amusing moments.

I liked the twist from the Carry On films where the women (Sylvia Syms and Joan Sims) are lusting after the men who are just not interested and too busy planning The Big Job even on their wedding nights - "Are you coming to bed?" "What for?"