Crooks Anonymous (1962)
Directed by Ken Annakin

Film Review

Crooks Anonymous is a lightweight but eminently likeable British comedy whose main claim to fame is that it offered Julie Christie her first film role.  It was her leading part in the popular BBC television series A for Andromeda (1961) that had first established Christie as an actress, although her follow-on role, as a moralistic stripper in this low budget comedy, probably did little for her career prospects.  Co-star Leslie Phillips is also pretty well wasted, thanks to a script which fails to make much of its central premise and he struggles to be remotely funny, even with situations that would appear to be a comedy goldmine.

Scottish comedy legend Stanley Baxter is the film's main attraction as he provides most of the laughs - particularly when he is dragged up, to hilarious effect.  Other comedy stalwarts Wilfrid Hyde-White and James Robertson Justice help to sustain the flagging narrative, making the most of any humour that comes their way.  The paucity of gags and pedestrian plot guarantee that Crooks Anonymous was never going to be a classic, but it has just enough comedy mileage to be an entertaining timewaster, thanks mainly to the pedigree of its cast.  Dick Emery, a comic legend in the making, crops up briefly, as does Dennis Waterman (as a boy) in one of his earliest film appearances.  Immediately after this modest comedy binge, director Ken Annakin teamed up again with Leslie Phillips, Julie Christie and Stanley Baxter for a somewhat more enjoyable prospect, The Fast Lady (1962).

Film Synopsis

Try as he might, Dandy Forsdyke just cannot turn his back on a life of crime.  A habitual petty thief, he can't help picking pockets, shoplifting and breaking into safes, even though he has promised his fiancée, Babette, that he intends to go straight.   By chance, Babette comes into contact with a criminals' self-help group, Crooks Anonymous, run by the fastidious Mr Montague, himself a reformed crook.  Before he knows it, Dandy has been admitted to the group's palatial headquarters and is soon receiving the benefits of an intense course of aversion therapy.  The treatment proves successful and Dandy is released, apparently a reformed character.  He finds employment as a Santa Claus at an exclusive department store, but temptation soon rears its ugly head and Dandy's criminal instincts get the better of him.  Locked away in the store's safe is a quarter of a million pounds, waiting idly over the Christmas holiday for someone like Dandy to walk away with...