Crook's Tour

Charters (Basil Radford) and Caldicott (Naunton Wayne) were delightful in "The Lady Vanishes" (1938) as two unflappable British tourists, as part of a large ensemble cast, an ingenious plot, and Alfred Hitchcock's expert direction. In "Crook's Tour" (1941), lacking all of those things, they are asked to carry the movie basically on their own, and it's too heavy a burden. It might have worked as a short, but at feature-length there simply aren't enough laughs. The supposed globetrotting is unconvincing - it is quite clear that nobody ever left the studios. Greta Gynt is stunning and has a lovely singing voice, one which perhaps we hear a little too much of. ** out of 4.