Too Many Crooks
Directed by Mario Zampi
Michael Pertwee; story by Christiane Rochefort and Jean Nery
1959/UK
Rank Organization/Mario Zampi Productions
First viewing/YouTube

Sid: [Billy Gordon has refused to ransom his wife] What are we supposed to do now? Keep her as a pet?

The leading lights of classic British comedy make a for a genuinely funny comedy of errors.

Fingers (George Cole) is the hopelessly incompetent mastermind of a gang of crooks that barely tolerate him.  He comes up with a scheme to rob millionaire and notorious tax evader Billy Gordon (Terry-Thomas).  When this fails miserably, his next idea is to kidnap Billy’s beloved daughter, who is about to marry a tax inspector.

As usual everything goes wrong and they end up with Billy’s wife (Brenda de Banzie).  The womanizing cheat doesn’t want her back.  The gang is up a tree until the wife decides to get delicious revenge.

Though the source is not credited, this is basically a take-off on O’Henry’s classic short story “The Ransom of Red Chief”.  One of my favorite comedies of all time is Ruthless People (1986,) which is drawn from the same source.The dry wit, double entendres, and Monty Pythonesque physical humor in this film made it thoroughly enjoyable.

Trailer