The Wrong Arm of the Law

The Wrong Arm of the Law is a 1963 British comedy crime film directed by Cliff Owen, in which London's criminals and the police form an uneasy alliance to catch a rival gang that robs crooks while disguised as police officers. It stars Peter Sellers as the Cockney crime boss "Pearly" Gates, Lionel Jeffries as Inspector Fred "Nosey" Parker, and Bernard Cribbins as rival gang leader Nervous O'Toole.^{1 • 2}

Cast and production

Sellers plays Gates with a double identity: suave French-accented boutique owner Monsieur Charles Jules in public, snarling Cockney when the law appears. He uses his wealthy matronly clients' travel plans to schedule robberies of their empty houses. The character keeps his gang content with luncheon vouchers, home movies, and paid holidays in Spain, which Time Out's review described as a "welfare state criminality" undermined by the Australian arrivals.^{10 • 11}

The film reunited Sellers, Jeffries, and Cribbins from the successful Two-Way Stretch (1960).¹¹ The writing team combined the creators of radio's Hancock's Half Hour, Galton and Simpson, with Goon Show scriptwriter John Antrobus and Warren and Heath, who had also scripted Two-Way Stretch.³ Supporting players included Davy Kaye as Trainer King, John Le Mesurier as the Assistant Commissioner, Graham Stark as Sid Cooper, Ed Devereaux as Bluey May, and Reg Lye as Reg Denton.¹² Tutte Lemkow's character Siggy Schmoltz was voiced by Sellers.⁹ A young Michael Caine appears uncredited in the Battersea Park funfair sequence, and Dick Emery, John Junkin, and Cardew Robinson also appear uncredited.⁶

Many robbery scenes were filmed around Beaconsfield and Uxbridge: the early Post Office robbery at Burkes Parade and Post Office Lane in Beaconsfield, the gang meeting at Havens Court in Ealing, the bullion transport robbery at Cowley Mill Road and Waterloo Road in Uxbridge combined with Bushy Park Road in Teddington, and the escape flight from Denham Airport. The film features a 1961 Aston Martin DB4 GT, which Sellers liked so much that he bought it after shooting, contingent on the engine being replaced with a 4.0-liter Lagonda Rapide unit.⁶

Reception

The film was one of the 12 most popular films at the British box office in 1963, according to The Times; Kine Weekly listed it in the alphabetical run of popular titles behind the year's four biggest films, From Russia with Love, Summer Holiday, Tom Jones, and The Great Escape.⁶ In The New York Times, Bosley Crowther, the paper's longtime film critic, wrote a positive review, calling it "strictly lightweight clowning, longer on plot than on wit and wholly dependent on the archness of Mr. Sellers to give it a cachet," while praising Lionel Jeffries as the cop.⁶ A 1964 New Zealand Listener review called it "one of the best British comedies of recent years" and compared it to Ealing's The Lavender Hill Mob.¹³ On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 60% Tomatometer score from four reviews, with recent critics rating it 3/4 and 4/5; a dissenting Esquire review by Dwight MacDonald described feeling "hit over the head by blunt instruments for two hours."⁸

The British Board of Film Classification, which passed the film for cinema release in October 1962, describes it as a comedy in which "a criminal fraternity enters into an uneasy alliance with the constabulary to eliminate a rival gang that are posing as police officers to intercept stolen goods," with content advice noting only very mild violence, language, innuendo, and discrimination.⁴

Legacy and availability

The BFI's program notes place the film's humor in a distinctly British line, combining "a dash of Ealing (particularly The Lavender Hill Mob, 1951) and the energetic absurdity of the Goons."³ Time Out's retrospective review reads it as "a sly portrait of Britain slowly emerging from the 'Never Had It So Good' days into the Wilson era."¹⁰ A restored version was released on Blu-ray and digital on 2 May 2022 by StudioCanal.¹⁴

The film is available on BFI Player and BFI Player Classics, for rent or purchase on Prime Video, and on Netflix in several European countries including Italy, Spain, Finland, Greece, Croatia, and the Czech Republic; it is not on Netflix in the United States.^{7 • 15}

Dating

Sources disagree on the production year. The BFI and the BBFC catalog the film as 1962, consistent with the October 1962 cinema classification, while most streaming guides, IMDb, and contemporary reviews date it 1963, the year of its March release.^{2 • 4 • 7}

References

1. The Wrong Arm of the Law, Rialto Pictures catalogue
2. The Wrong Arm of the Law (1962), British Film Institute
3. The Wrong Arm of the Law, BFI Southbank Programme Notes
4. The Wrong Arm Of The Law, British Board of Film Classification
5. The Wrong Arm of the Law, BFI Player Classics
6. The Wrong Arm of the Law, The Goon Show Depository
7. The Wrong Arm of the Law streaming, JustWatch
8. The Wrong Arm of the Law, Rotten Tomatoes
9. The Wrong Arm of the Law (1963), IMDb
10. The Wrong Arm of the Law review, Time Out
11. The Wrong Arm of the Law (1962), CitizenCaine
12. The Wrong Arm of the Law, Full Cast & Crew, TV Guide
13. The Wrong Arm of the Law, New Zealand Listener, 14 February 1964, Papers Past
14. The Wrong Arm of the Law review, film-authority.com
15. Is The Wrong Arm of the Law on Netflix?, PinMovies

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026

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