Review for Go To Blazes

We Brits like nothing better than a funny heist movie. 'Go to Blazes' may not quite reach the dizzy heights of 'The Lavender Hill Mob' or 'The Ladykillers' but it certainly runs a very fair second place. Made in 1962 with a top notch comedy cast, this caper by numbers feels very familiar as a gang of likeable career crooks plot and scheme to pull of the crime of the century.


It's really quite surprising that a film of this calibre doesn't get a more frequent airing on the box and is being released on DVD for the first time in the UK. As a result, fans of classic British comedy will be delighted to add this to their collection.


Bernard, Harry and Alfie are three lovable rogues who, despite elaborate plans to beat the law, never seem to get away with it. The film opens with a bungled robbery and during the ensuing car chase they get held up as all traffic is stopped for a fire engine - and as a consequence they get caught and sentenced to do a couple of year's porridge.


On the way to the nick they have a collective brain-wave. If they could steal a fire-engine, all traffic would stop for them and it would give them a perfect get-away. So they put their two years behind bars to good use, planning their next caper.


Once released, they steal a car from immediately outside the prison and set about trying to acquire a fire-engine of their own. Realising that buying one, even second hand, is outside their reach they decide to do the proper thing - and steal one.


Once they have the engine, their first outing in it is badly hindered when they are mistaken for real firemen and are nearly exposed as the charlatans they clearly are. With this is in mind, they decide that they need to train as firemen and they seek the advice of a in inventor and criminal mastermind (Robert Morley) who sorts them out with the appropriate training with a an ex-fir chief who has now turned to crime (played by the criminally under-rated Dennis Price of 'Kind Hearts and Coronets' fame).


In the meantime, the most handsome and youthful member of the criminal trio has fallen for the exotic charms of 'Chantal' (Maggie Smith) a French fashion designer who he met when diving into her premises whilst trying to wriggle away from the law in a previous and bungled robbery.


Of course, it transpires that Chantal is no more French than he is and with her business losing money she is about to defraud insurers by setting alight to her entire season's collection. It also transpires that her premises are frighteningly convenient for tunnelling into a near-by bank.


The heist goes to plan but as they make their escape in the fire engine two small girls flag them down with an emergency. They are then faced with a moral dilemma - to help and be caught or to merely drive on. I won't spoil the fun entirely except to remind you that we Brits tend to like our crooks to be lovable at heart and we can't possibly ever let crooks be seen to get away with it either, so you can probably guess which way the dice fall on this one.


All in all, a cracking comedy which, despite being fairly predictable, is a lot of fun.

Though there are no extra features here the transfer is exquisite for DVD - very little print wear and tear and a rich, crisp transfer which looks really top notch.


This is definitely one to order to help beat the post-Christmas blues and thoroughly recommended. If you like 'A School for Scoundrels'; 'The Lavender Hill Mob' and 'The Ladykillers' then this is for you.