Every Little Crook and Nanny *** (1972, Lynn Redgrave, Victor Mature, Paul Sand) – Classic Movie Review 8518

The 1972 film Every Little Crook and Nanny is a surprisingly entertaining comedy about a mafioso (Victor Mature) losing his 12-year-old son (Phillip Graves) to his nanny (Lynn Redgrave) as she masterminds the kidnapping of the Mafia kid.

Co-writer/ director Cy Howard’s 1972 movie Every Little Crook and Nanny has a great title and is a surprisingly entertaining comedy about Italian-American mafioso mobster Carmine Ganucci (Victor Mature) losing his 12-year-old son Lewis (Phillip Graves) to his nanny Miss Poole (Lynn Redgrave) as she masterminds the kidnapping of the Mafia kid.

Writer-director Howard adapts the story from the novel by Evan Hunter [Ed McBain] and keeps it on the rails, and encourages refreshing performances from Redgrave and Mature. There was always a twinkling sense of humour lurking beneath Victor Mature’s screen persona and here is the proof. In any case, with well placed performances by Paul Sand, Maggie Blye, Austin Pendleton, John Astin and Dom DeLuise, you cannot go far wrong.

It didn’t tickle the fancies of big enough audiences of the day though.

Victor Mature came out of retirement to star in his first major film role since 1966. He said: ‘They caught me when I felt like saying yeah.’

After the 1961 film The Tartars with Orson Welles. Mature decided to retire from acting at age 46, later saying: ‘It wasn’t fun anymore. I was OK financially so I thought, what the hell, I’ll become a professional loafer.’ After five years of retirement, he was lured back to parody himself in After the Fox (1966), co-written by Neil Simon, then in 1968 played a giant, The Big Victor, in Head, starring The Monkees.

The screenplay is by Cy Howard, Jonathan Axelrod and Robert Klane.

The cast are Lynn Redgrave as Miss Poole, Victor Mature as Carmine Ganucci, Paul Sand as Benny Napkins, Maggie Blye as Stella Ganucci, John Astin as Vito Garbugli, Dom DeLuise as Mario Azzecca, Austin Pendleton as Luther, Louise Sorel as Marie, Phillip Graves as Lewis Ganucci, Lou Cutell as Landruncolo, Leopoldo Trieste as Truffatore, Pat Morita as Nonaka, Phil Foster as Lt. Bozzaris, and Pat Harrington Jr as Willie Shakespeare.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8518

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com