Despite being known as "the poor man's Morecambe & Wise", Cannon & Ball had a charm and personality which are now sadly missing from most of today's so called comedy acts. In 1982, they had reached such a huge status in Britain (and you couldn't escape their "Rock on, Tommy!" catchphrase at the time) that they got to star in their own feature-length comedy movie vehicle - The Boys In Blue, a remake of the old Will Hay classic Ask A Policeman. Hated by critics and, supposedly, much of the general public who went to the cinema to see it, The Boys In Blue was branded a bit of a flop. But it fared far better on the video rental circuit during the mid-80s where it was more appreciated as home viewing rather than when it was released on the big screen.
The plot: Sgt. Cannon (Tommy Cannon) and PC Ball (Bobby Ball) run the police station in the quiet town of Little Botham. When the station is threatened with closure due to a lack of crime, they decide to invent some crimes to justify their existence. When they try to steal a painting from a local rich businessman (Roy Kinnear), they accidently stumble across a gang of real art thieves who have just stolen £1 million worth of paintings. It is up to the two bungling cops to stop them escaping with their haul.
Besides Tommy Cannon and Bobby Ball, the movie also stars a cast of well-known British entertainment faces including Eric Sykes (who is rather funny in this), Roy Kinnear, Jack Douglas, gorgeous Suzanne Danielle (of Carry On Emmannuelle fame), Edward "Think Bike!" Judd, Jon "The Doctor" Pertwee, Arthur English and Nigel "Look Around You" Lambert, amongst others. Directed (and co-written) by the legendary Val Guest - who also directed Confessions Of A Window Cleaner, Au Pair Girls, Carry On Admiral, The Abominable Snowman, the Quatermass and Up The Creek films, The Day The Earth Caught Fire, When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth and some scenes in the original Casino Royale, besides many others.
The Boys In Blue is a light, entertaining and nicely daft British comedy which is perfect fodder for a late night or Sunday afternoon - and it has a rather funky soundtrack too (which somebody should release). The catchy theme song was released as a single - of which you can get here.
The Boys In Blue
1982
XVID
Approx. 87 mins
700 mb
MU / RS
Ripped & encoded by X-Y-Z-Cosmonaut.



