It’s Not Cricket (1949)
Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne star in this 1949 British comedy film directed by Alfred Roome. They appear in It's Not Cricket, not as Charters and Caldicott, but as Major Bright and Captain Early. Their co-stars are Susan Shaw and Maurice Denham as Otto Fisch. It’s Not Cricket was one of the final films made by Gainsborough Pictures before it was merged into the Rank Organisation.
Bright and Early are intelligence officers in the British army occupying post war Germany and are sent home on leave. Failing to notice that their new batman is the wanted war criminal Otto Fisch, he vanishes on arrival in England. As punishment for allowing the war criminal to escape, the two officers are punished by early demobilization. Back in civvy street and not knowing what to do, Bright and Early decide to utilise their army intelligence skills and set up a private detective agency, inevitably called "Bright and Early".
The fiancee of their new secretary, Primrose Brown (played by Susan Shaw) invites them to a weekend country house party for a cricket match. By coincidence, they buy a new cricket ball to take to the game; unbeknown to Bright and Early, the cricket ball contains a valuable stolen diamond that is hidden in the hollow ball by Otto Fisch’s friend and protector Mr Felix (Alan Wheatley).
Fisch and Felix watch the cricket match from an ajoining copse of trees with the objective of stealing the ball and recovering the diamond. In the ensuing chase, Bright and Early recover the ball and diamond. No longer seen as outcasts, they become heroes with a queue of clients wanting their assistance. As their client base grows, so does the number of staff they employ, including Fisch, whose real identity they are still unaware of
 It's Not Cricket DVD
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Cast and Production team Its Not Cricket 1949 Roy Rich co-Director Alfred Roome co-Director Betty E Box co-Producer Peter Rogers co-Producer Distributed by Gainsborough pictures Lyn Lockwood writing credits (screenplay) Bernard McNabb writing credits (screenplay) Gerard Bryant writing credits (additional scenes) Naunton Wayne Captain Early Basil Radford Major Bright John Boxer Military Policeman #1 Nigel Buchanan Gerald Lawson Jane Carr Virginia Briscoe Cyril Chamberlain Military Policeman #2 Charles Cullum Sir Leslie Lawson Maurice Denham Otto Fisch Diana Dors Blonde Leslie Dwyer Batman Arthur Hambling Barman Mary Hinton Lady Lawson Sheila Huntington Shoe shop assistant Hamilton Keene Intelligence sergeant Edward Lexy Brigadier Falcon Viola Lyel Hearty female Meinhart Maur Maharajah Brian Oulton Simon Herbage Frederick Piper Yokel Susan Shaw Primrose Brown Patrick Waddington Valentine Christmas John Warren Orderly Alan Wheatley Felix Margaret Withers Mrs. Falcon Frederick Kelsey Passer-by outside Sports Shop Paul Beradi Cricketer Cowley Brown Man in theatre Audience Peter Brace Bar Patron Eddie Boyce Orderly at Intelligence HQ |