It's Not Cricket (1949 film)

It's Not Cricket
British pressbook
Directed by	Alfred Roome Roy Rich
Produced by	Betty E. Box Peter Rogers
Written by	Gerard Bryant Lyn Lockwood Bernard McNabb
Starring	Basil Radford Naunton Wayne Susan Shaw Maurice Denham
Music by	Arthur Wilkinson
Cinematography	Gordon Lang
Edited by	Esmond Seal
Distributed by	Gainsborough Pictures
Release date	April 1949
Running time	77 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

It's Not Cricket is a 1949 British comedy film directed by Alfred Roome and starring Basil Radford, Naunton Wayne, Susan Shaw and Maurice Denham. It is the second (after 1941's Crook's Tour) of two starring films for Radford and Wayne who appeared as supporting players in ten other films. It was also one of the final films made by Gainsborough Pictures before the studio was merged into the Rank Organisation.

Major Bright and Captain Early are intelligence officers in the British army of occupation in post-World War 2 Germany. They are sent home on leave, but fail to notice that their new batman is actually wanted war criminal Otto Fisch. He vanishes on arrival in England and the two officers are punished by early demobilisation. Uncertain what to do in , they decide to utilise the "skills" they learned in the army and set up a private detective agency, "Bright and Early". They engage a secretary, Primrose Brown, but she's not very busy as they have as yet no clients.

Primrose's boyfriend/fiancee invites them all to a weekend country house party for a cricket match. But what they don't know is that the cricket ball they buy in London actually contains a valuable stolen diamond that Fisch has purloined. It has been hidden in the hollow ball by his friend and protector Mr Felix, who runs a sporting goods shop.

As the match gets under way, Fisch and Felix watch from the cover of the trees and manage to infiltrate the game, stealing the ball. A free-for-all chase ensues; Bright and Early manage to recover the ball and the diamond. They now become celebrities and don't lack for eager clients. Fisch is finally seen working for the detective agency, the two detectives still apparently unaware of his identity.