Crichton’s stellar heist caper presents Holland’s crime as a belated attempt at self-actualization by a man who’s lived his life to this point passively.

... A wonderfully disreputable little farce.

Alec Guinness is delightfully dry as the thinking worm and Stanley Holloway a perfect foil as the blustery geegaw manufacturer.

It’s a very breezy, casually funny caper that revels in how paper-thin the characters’ motivations are.