The Wrong Arm of the Law

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The Wrong Arm of the Law
original film poster
Directed by	Cliff Owen
Produced by	E.M. Smedley Aston Aubrey Baring
Written by	John Antrobus Ray Galton Len Heath
Starring	Peter Sellers Lionel Jeffries
Music by	Richard Rodney Bennett
Cinematography	Ernest Steward
Distributed by	British Lion Films
Release date(s)	1963
Running time	94 min.
Country	U.K.
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The Wrong Arm of the Law is a 1963 black-and-white British comedy movie starring Peter Sellers, directed by Cliff Owen and written in part by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. Though not an Ealing Studios production, it is in the whimsical, gently satirical manner associated with Ealing's output, and features many familiar British comic performers.

The plot, set in London, concerns a gang of criminals from Australia, who impersonate officers of the law to perpetrate robberies. Local gang leader Pearly Gates (Sellers), who operates from the cover of a French couturier, finds his takings cut severely, and blames rival crook Nervous O'Toole (Bernard Cribbins). When it emerges that they are both being scammed by the same gang, they join forces, along with Lionel Jeffries' Police Inspector "Nosey" Parker, to bring the so-called "I.P.O mob" to justice. Nanette Newman provides the love interest, the ubiquitous John Le Mesurier plays a senior policeman, and a young Michael Caine has a small and uncredited role.

There is a tradition in Britain of using comedy as a way of ridiculing the establishment and many British films use comedy in this way. As Peter Sellers, the crook, says to Lionel Jeffries, the police inspector, “My clients are prepared to co-operate with the police in an effort to re-establish the accepted status quo apropos the criminal and society.” One could not wish for a better example of the relationship between the police and the criminal fraternity as depicted in British movies than is suggested in that one line in this movie.

In the final scene the crook and the police inspector have escaped abroad together with the money, although of course it is not real money, (that would have been even more subversive, to have let them get away with the loot).