Cinema: Sibling Revelry

The Jokers are two wealthy, wastrel brothers (Michael Crawford and Oliver Reed) who decide to get their kicks by pinching the crown jewels from the Tower of London.

To this end, they plant bombs all over town, then phone anonymous tips to Scotland Yard. The bobbies bob up in the lion house at the zoo, the Albert Memorial. At one point, they even invade a ladies’ loo. By the time a call comes to defuse a bomb in the Tower, the Yard’s guard is down, and the boys, disguised as demolition experts, easily lift the loot. Caught and incarcerated in the Tower, at film’s end the culprits are conspiring to commit more sibling revelry—an escape that will make their big crime seem small-time.

Not a bad idea for a funny film—ten years ago. Unfortunately. The Jokers are by now low cards in a worn-out deck. The subject of countless scenarios from The Lavender Hill Mob to How to Steal a Million, the hoary story of the happy heist is as much a cliche as the tale of the gun fighter who wants to hang up his shooting irons. Brisk pacing might have helped, but Michael Winner’s dilatory direction slows the picture’s pulse. The only theft that comes off is Michael Crawford’s—and he steals the show. Currently starring in Broadway’s Black Comedy, Crawford, at 24, displays a plastic face and an elastic grace—comic credentials that should allow him to travel in faster and funnier company.