Operation Snatch

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For "Operation Snatch", the seizure of Doukhobor children by Canadian authorities, see Freedomites

Operation Snatch
Ken Jones
Distributed byRegal Films International (UK)
Release date
  • March 1962 (1962-03) (UK)
Running time
87 min.
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Operation Snatch (also known as Top Secret [1]) is a 1962 British comedy film starring Terry-Thomas and George Sanders and directed by Robert Day.[1][2][3] It was written by Alan Hackney, Len Heath and John Warren from a story by Paul Mills.

Plot

The story takes place in

Barbary apes were ever to leave, the British would lose Gibraltar
. This wartime comedy has Terry-Thomas as the keeper of the apes. When one of the apes goes missing, he is required to go behind enemy lines to capture another one, or be personally responsible for the loss of Gibraltar.

Cast

Production

Finance was raised on the strength of Terry Thomas' name and a rough outline, due to the actor's popularity in America. Terry Thomas said "It seems I am just at the moment a 'thing.’ They are intrigued by me. They haven’t got anything like me, I don’t think it’s only my accent. Perhaps my face?”[4]

Reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Clumsy British farce, in which a badly directed Terry-Thomas endeavours to extract laughs from a wan script which pins its faith in jokes about monkeys, bananas, thickly-accented spies and fatuous British espionage agents."[5]

The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 3/5 stars, calling it "enjoyably daft," writing: "There are too many stock characters, but this does have several ridiculously funny scenes."[6]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Operation Snatch". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 9 February 2025.
  2. ^ Crowther, Bosley (25 September 1962). "Screen: Terry-Thomas and Slapstick; Gibraltar Is Setting of 'Operation Snatch' Picture Pits Comedian Against a Thin Plot". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 May 2018.
  3. BFI. Archived from the original
    on 17 February 2017. Retrieved 5 May 2018.
  4. ^ Champ, John (28 September 1961). "Production". Kinematograph Weekly. p. 16.
  5. The Monthly Film Bulletin. 29 (336): 54. 1 January 1962. ProQuest 1305823317
    .
  6. ISBN 9780992936440
    .
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