Crook's Tour (1940) User Reviews

Foreign Countries are so Full of Foreigners

[dglink · 7/10 · 27 May 2015]

Charters and Caldicott, those delightfully self-absorbed cricket fans of Hitchcock's "The Lady Vanishes" and Reed's "Night Train to Munich" return in a film all their own. The very British pair of gents are traveling through the Middle East, when their tour bus runs out of gas. Quite annoyed to spend a night in the middle of the desert, the quite proper Englishmen do not even have a change of clothes for dinner. When they reach Baghdad, the pair come into possession of a phonograph record with a coded message and unwittingly become involved with a nest of German spies. Blithely unaware of their predicament, they bumble along to Istanbul and barely escape falling into the river through a hole in the floor behind a hotel door marked "Bathroom." Caldicott is miffed of course; the door should be marked "Bosphorus." The plot is light with enough holes to shame Swiss cheese and irrelevant to the fun, which lies with the witty dead-pan interplay between Basil Radford as Charters and Naughton Wayne as Caldicott. International politics are of no concern to the pair, especially when compared to cricket scores, and their travels are just a journey from one pesky inconvenience to another. Charters and Caldicott are the tourists who should never leave home, because foreign countries are so full of people who neither speak English nor understand the importance of cricket.

Charters and Caldicott are like a droll Abbott and Costello, minus the slapstick, and "Crook's Tour" resembles an Abbott and Costello movie. Like Abbott, Caldicott is a magnet for attractive women; despite his unlikely engagement to Charters's horse-faced sister, he returns the flirtatious interest of blonde Greta Gynt as La Palermo. Unfortunately, the movie also resembles the Abbott and Costello flicks with unwelcome musical intrusions, and, although the film is a relatively short 80 minutes long, La Palermo warbles a couple forgettable tunes that only slow down the action and take screen time from the stars. Despite the amusing leads, director John Baxter is no Hitchcock or Reed, and the film is more routine programmer than classic. However, the team of Radford and Wayne make the trip worthwhile.

Charters and Caldicott in the Middle East

[vaggmk-1 · 7/10 · 11 April 2007]

This is the third of the four films in which Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne play Charters and Caldicott, a couple of true-blue, somewhat dim, Englishmen whose main enthusiasm is cricket, their second being golf.

Charters and Caldicott first appear, in supporting roles, in Hitchcock's "The Lady Vanishes". They next played very similar parts in "Night Train to Munich"—the reluctant and rather bumbling assistants to the dashing lead players.

In this film they play the leads and though still tentative about becoming involved, they certainly do—and triumph in the end. Starting out in the desert in Saudi Arabia on a tour bus they reach Baghdad and while killing time, waiting for their train to Istanbul, go to a nightclub for something to eat. Here the management assumes they are two agents sent to pick up some top secret German plans to sabotage an Iraqi oil pipeline. They are given these and are pursued by the enemy agents to Budapest and to a castle on the Hungarian border, escaping several attempts on their lives by a series of flukes.

Not a great film, but certainly amusing, and for those who enjoyed the first two films, a must-see.

Whimsical at best, and un-eventful comedy-spy movie...

[dwpollar · 5/10 · 8 May 2020]

1st watched 7/24/2016 : Whimsical at best, and un-eventful comedy-spy movie using the Charters & Coldecott characters originally created in the Hitchcock movie "The Lady Vanishes." The story is kind of a "Road To"-like plot similar to the Crosby/Hope series of movies where an un-involved duo gets pulled into International intrigue by mistake. In the film - the main characters, played by Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne, are mistakenly identified as spys because they order the same items off a menu as the actual Spys are supposed to, and are handed a phonograph with secret plans instead of a recording of a singer they have just watched. This begins a crazy set of ever-changing circumstances that sends the duo everywhere from Northwest Africa to the European nations, than eventually back to England. There are some laughs if you listen closely, and some musical moments from looker Greta Gynt, but other than that - the movie is just an excuse to plop these characters into a story that makes no sense and tries to get some laughs. Coldicott's character even has a fiancee who is Charter's sister, and of course, he is tempted by the owl-dancing singer mentioned earlier and others --- showing us, at least, that we are not dealing with a gay couple - thwarting the rumors from "The Lady Vanishes." I almost wish they were - the movie might be funnier. Anywho - not a lot of reason to have this movie - it doesn't really do much for these characters - probably better off if they had been just in the one movie.

A Classic that should be on Video

[trev-11 · 6 June 2001]

After the Lady Vanishes (1938) Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne reprised

their roles as the cricket mad rather inept upper class Englishmen Charters and Caldicott. They bumble through Europe their stiff accents and manners getting themselves into trouble and rubbing people up the wrong way. They are on a

Railway Station and they stop to show respect to the Ruritanian states national anthem. They stand rigid to all 23 verses which no one else takes any notice of and miss the train. They set out to conquor a mountain and they get covered in muck have all sorts of accidents but eventually the British bulldog comes out and they get there. Turning the corner at the summit they find a road and they follow it until they come to a sign. Getting out the phrase book it is deciphered as Bus Stop and just then it draws up. The road went up the other side of the mountain. Hilarious if only to look at Charters and Caldicott's deadpan

expressions. Charters and Caldicott reprised the roles twice more in the Night Train to Munich which returns to spies and Millions like us a wartime morale

boosting film.

Baghdad Cafe

[richardchatten · 3/10 · 10 February 2021]

After finally alighting from the Night Train to Munich, Charters & Caldicot continued their travels abroad (obviously without leaving Elstree) to much less amusing effect tangling with slinky blonde femme fatale Greta Gynt in Budapest.

It's a tedious, garrulous affair with annoying continuous music on the soundtrack which makes it even more of a trial; and the boys went back to their previous hilarious selves during the rest of the war in guest cameos instead (although they later showed they still could carry a feature in the much funnier postwar production 'It's Not Cricket').

entertaining if totally forgettable, very very British wartime romp

[OldAle1 · 5/10 · 3 December 2007]

Presented as an extra on the Criterion DVD of Hithcock's THE LADY VANISHES is the third of the films starring the two cricket enthusiasts first appearing in that picture, Crook's Tour which unlike the Hitchcock film has languished in obscurity. The two sportsmen, Charters and Caldicott, are on holiday in Persia as the film starts, on their way to Arabia. Their tour bus breaks down but they are quickly rescued by a sheik who happens to have attended the same school as Charters -- the English still treasured Empire in 1941, at least in film. Through a series of quite preposterous mix-ups and coincidences the two quickly become embroiled in a plot by the Nazis to destroy Arab oil pipelines, unwittingly taking the place of a couple of German spies as they traverse a route Eastward to Budapest. Along the way they meet (time and a gain) a beautiful German singer/spy who may be helping them or trying to kill them, and avert death several times through the most ridiculous of chances.

I don't normally like to use words like "dated" but surely the appeal of this film is mostly going to be to English viewers of a certain age; most of the charm of Charters and Caldicott remaining unflappable and saying stereotypical upper-crusty Englishisms like "I say", "old man" and "Jolly what" over and over grew thin by the second reel. At no point until quite near the finish do they seem to understand or even care that they're in danger, and surely they are never in danger or breaking a sweat or removing their ties. Still, it moves at a fairly rapid pace and the leads (Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne) are amusing enough.

Sluggish

[Leofwine_draca · 3/10 · 23 July 2019]

CROOK'S TOUR is a weak war-era comedy that I'm afraid I found dated in the worst kind of way. Despite the hard work put in by the two stars, this is an extremely boring kind of film, a comedy in which I didn't laugh once. It's another tired premise involving mistaken identity which leads to our heroes being pursued by villains and bad guys across the world. Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne are here reprising their roles from THE LADY VANISHES, but without a good script and director this is sluggish and unmotivating; my advice is to stick with Hitch.

Very British "road movie" as much fun as any later made by Hope & Crosby

[herbqedi · 9/10 · 22 January 2009]

Coldecot & Charters ride again in a brisk romp through the desert and Europe. The production values are strictly "B-" but that's all part of the fun. Greta Gynt, sings well, acts well, and is gorgeous as the femme fatale who is some sort of agent - but for which side? The other supporting roles are also quite well played. Coldecot's fiancé is very funny in each of her scenes. My favorite scene is when Charters accidentally knocks a fellow he had presumed to be Charters into the Bosperous straits as a door in their hotel marked bathroom is really a deathtrap leading to the water below. Coldecot argues that the door should be marked Bosperous, not bathroom. That type of humour abounds throughout - taking the absurd and the dangerous in stride and bantering about it as if it were normal. I found this movie a lot of fun and a highly enjoyable way to spend my time.

Better in small doses

[gridoon2024 · 5/10 · 29 December 2023]

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.

There's always a funny side to war.

[mark.waltz · 8/10 · 25 August 2022]

One of the best ways to defeat an enemy (at least on the stage and screen) is to make them look like buffoons, even if they are the most dangerous enemy you've ever fought. And sometimes, the enemy who isn't the highest up in power is truly a buffoon. Charters (Basil Radford) and Caldicott (Naunton Wayne) are back, having been around when the lady vanished, and were around on that night train to Munich. They're up to their old ways as the leads in this comedy spy thriller where they are mistaken for spies simply because they order what the spies were supposed to at dinner in a very fancy club and restaurant in the middle of the desert.

An absolutely lively romp filled with absolutely wonderfully eccentric and weird character, including a beautiful singer Greta Gynt (as "La Palermo"), the Mata Hari of world war era middle east. If this was filmed cheaply, you can't tell by the production design. It is exquisite. This may not be the only film to parody World War II espionage, but it's one of the best I've seen in years. There's also a bathroom that anyone desperate enough to use it would get a terrific surprise, as well as other traps and twists. It's easy to compare this to "Road to Morocco", but I think it's closer to the Bob Hope comedy "They Got Me Covered". Practically every American comic did a spy comedy of this nature, but this British film is perhaps the most sophisticated with a definite subtle tongue in cheek.