Crook’s Tour – 1941 | 80 mins | Comedy | B&W

Plot Synopsis

Shaky comedic flag-waver featuring the cricket-loving asses from the old boy network, Charters and Caldicott, the duo whose amiable cameos enlivened The Lady Vanishes (1938) and Night Train to Munich (1940). The screenplay by John Watt and Max Kester was based on a radio serial by Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat. Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne would again be the lead duo is the subsequent comedy It’s Not Cricket (1949).

Hawtrey Caldicott (Naunton Wayne) and Sinclair Charters (Basil Radford) are holidaying in the Near East with Spindles Tours when their charabanc runs out of fuel and they are stranded in the Arabian Desert. Fortunately, a passing Sheik proves to be a member of the old boy network and invites the marooned duo to dinner. They are helped to Baghdad, where they are mistaken for German agents in a nightclub and handed in error a gramophone record which contains vital information for Britain’s enemies.

They are then pursued to Istanbul by Nazi agents who endeavour to recover the record. They are persuaded to go to the Hamilton hotel, which despite looking like an ordinary hotel is actually a private villa owned by the Nazi’s. The duo also meets double-agent La Palermo (Greta Gynt), an attractive singer who warns them they are in danger. Unimpressed by service in Istanbul, Charters and Caldicott head to Budapest – still tailed by German spy Rossenger (Gordon McLeod), La Palermo and a whole heap of espionage and danger.