The Wrong Arm of the Law

The Wrong Arm of the Law - 1962 | 95mins | Comedy | B&W

The Production Team

Director: Cliff Owen.
Producer: Aubrey Baring and E.M. Smedley-Aston.
Script: Len Heath and John Warren. (from a story by Ivor Jay and William Whistance Smith)
Additional Dialogue: John Antrobus, Ray Galton and Alan Simpson.
Cinematography: Ernest Steward.
Editing: Tristam Cones.
Art Direction: Harry White.
Costume Design: Jimmy Smith.
Makeup Department: Eileen Bates and Stuart Freeborn.
Sound Department: Bill Howell and Allan Morrision.
Original Music: Richard Rodney Bennett.
Music Direction: John Hollingsworth.

The Cast

Peter Sellers - Pearly Gates
Lionel Jeffries - Inspector Parker
Bernard Cribbins - Nervous O'Toole
Davy Kaye - Trainer King
Nanette Newman - Valerie
Bill Kerr - Jack Coombes
Ed Devereaux - Bluey May
Reg Lye - Reg Denton
John Le Mesurier - Assistant Commissioner

Plot Synopsis

The Wrong Arm of the Law (1962) brought many of the same actors who had appeared together earlier in The Way Stretch (1960). Peter Sellers starred in this more elaborate tale as the gang leader Pearly Gates, who has a double life as Monsieur Jules, the manager of a fashion house.

The criminal world of London is being reduced to chaos by an Australian 'IPO mob', who, acting on information provided by Gates' girlfriend Valerie (Nanette Newman), impersonate police officers and take the spoils of the true criminals after the crime has been safely committed. The crimes are relatively victimless, involving jewellery thefts from the rich, or robbery from institutions such as banks and post offices. Gates is instrumental in getting a deal between organised crime and Scotland Yard, which eventually results in the capture of the rogue gang, which is lured into carrying out a fake van robbery. Pearly, who had his own plans for the robbery, tries to flee the country with the loot but discovers that the money is fake and ends up on a desert island designing grass skirts for his new fashion house.