Only When I Larf

This is a glossy tongue-in-cheek tale of two conmen and their girlfriend accomplice constantly trying to keep one step a head of the game with mixed success.

A love-triangle develops as the young protege tries to take over from his old mentor and to steal his girlfriend to boot. Needless to say, their feuding only complicates things and leads to a good twist at the end.

The good-natured direction is upbeat and enthusiastic, the acting is accomplished right down to the supporting cast and the theme tune by Ron Grainer is catchy and interspersed by pleasant incidental scores. This movie is well worth viewing should you be lucky enough to find it on tv one afternoon.

A poor title for what turns out to be a rather uninspiring film. A good, brisk and smartly-directed pre-title segment sets the scene - here we have a group of smart grifters conning greedy or immoral 'marks' out of hefty chunks of cash and living very nicely off the proceeds. As far as an over-arching story goes, things are pretty thin and we only see it at the very end, after a rather episodic series of cons. Attenborough is good, Hemmings is cheeky but not very likeable and Stewart is attractive and supplies the final twist. There's nothing much else to say about it.

If there's any movie that's disappeared, remains totally forgotten and rarely shown on TV, it's this movie. It's interesting how some movies vanish without a trace. The title implies a Carry On, Norman Wisdom, Frankie Howerd style of comedy but it's nothing of the sort.

It's a well-made, carefree caper film with a youthful and dashing David Hemming and an icy, impossibly beautiful Alexandra Stewart teamed with Richard Attenborough. Hammer Films fans will appreciate seeing Melissa Stribling, the Count's almost-bride from Horror of Dracula, and wife of Basil Dearden, director of this picture written by Len Deighton (The Ipcress File).

Essentially this is a 3 episode caper movie shot in exotic places exhibiting all the worst attributes of swinging sixties britain. The worst is the score by Ron Grainer,whose claim to fame is the Dr Who score.The music is far too obtrusive,particularly in the first 20 minutes.I could hardly hear the dialogue.

The earnestness of Dearden & Relph's earlier collaborations had by their glossy international entertainments of the late sixties been replaced by a cynical larkiness, abetted in this case by Whistling Jack Smith's jolly main theme.

There are darker moments such as (SLIGHT SPOILERS COMING:) the fate of Edric Connor, although the even worse fate suffered by one of the original marks in the stylish pre-credits sequence stays in the original novel; an indication of how much more light-hearted this adaptation is than Len Deighton's original book.

Melissa Stribling has probably the best of her occasional roles in her husband's films.