Too many fans seem to be blown away

People are voting emotionally.

Best movie ever!

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

There's a delightful slyness to this British prison comedy that fools its audience from the start by having Peter sellers playing a character who looks like Peter Sellers! This is the first time where I see him looking and acting like he might on a daily basis, that is if he weren't well, Peter Sellers. He's a conman serving his sentence, visited by preacher Wilfred Hyde White on the pretense of saving his soul, and finding himself involved in a breakout attempt (only overnight you see...) to aide his old partner (White!) in completing a robbery, obviously establishing alibis, and foolproof. Everything is a o.k. until a notoriously tough guard (Lionel Jeffries) arrives, risking exposure and putting the caper at risk.A great series of sight gags are clever and hysterical. The cake made for a departing guard by one of the prisoner's mothers contains a file (habit the prisoner says), and Jeffries' attempts to lead the prisoners in rigorous exercise leads to him falling though the ground into an old escape tunnel. This moves very fast, features a great musical score, and makes some wise commentary about the pompousness of certain types of authority figures. I really longed to see this group of cons get away with their caper, and certainly not see Jeffries (comically cold) succeed in being successful in his style of rehabilitation.

The sole reason to see "Two-Way Stretch" -- and not a good one -- to watch Peter Sellers at work early in his career. He displays exactly none of the comic ability that later made him famous. Except for Wilfred Hyde White as an outside confederate of Sellers and his two prison companions who regularly visits them disguised as a vicar, the other members of the cast strive entirely too hard, without much success, to provoke laughter. The film has a preposterous premise and a large number of preposterous moments. That would be okay if the preposterous plot, the preposterous moments, and the preposterous characters were funny but they rarely are. The only thing one can say for them is that they get more laughs than Sellers. Based on this film alone, it's hard to understand why his career took off.

A trio of prisoners, aided by outsiders, plan and execute an elaborate escape plan from under the nose of militant prison guard (Jeffries) and the gardening fanatic warden (Denham). Sellers is superb as the mischievous Dodger, with David Lodge and bumbling Bernard Cribbins his cohorts on the inside. Criminal mastermind Soapy Stevens (Hyde-White) who engineered Sellers' incarceration is top of the wanted list, and Sellers is determined to get him his comeuppance. Also hilarious is Irene Handl and Liz Fraser as the 'girls', using their collective skills (brains and beauty, respectively) to aid and abet Sellers' escape plan.Jeffries is the real sleeper here; his comical, gestapo like prison captain, continually tortured by Sellers' antics, earns him the ire of the usually passive warden Maurice Denham (Denham more concerned with the quality and size of his garden produce than Jeffries' constant bleating about Sellers). The bane of his existence, Jeffries promises to catch Sellers out, but of course, he only ends up with egg on his face, again and again. Poor Lionel.Liz Fraser is a voluptuous beauty, and her thick cockney accent and dumb-blonde demeanour make her the ideal vice. Her knack for these type of parts earned her recurring roles in several "Carry On" films later in the sixties, a series that excelled at 'accentuating' her talents, you might say. The mercurial Bernard Cribbins, a relative newcomer in this picture, also had the good fortune to team up in a couple of "Carry On" films, as well as several other Sellers' vehicles.Not just a Sellers picture, all the cast succeed with their timing and delivery, but it's Lionel Jeffries who showed here his diverse ability to express humour, in addition to the straight roles he played throughout his long and distinguished career. Slapstick and farce, simple to enjoy, highly recommended.

One of a brace of classic comedies to come out of Britain in the late 50s-early 60s, "Two-Way Stretch" combines all the elements: great comic actors, tight little story line, fast pace, and not overbroad slapstick. Sellers, Cribbins, and Jeffries reprise (sort of!) their roles in "Wrong Arm of the Law," with Sellers and Cribbins the crooks and Jeffries representing the Law. But this time Jeffries is a delightfully wicked "screw," out to "get" the two lay-about inmates in any way he can. A brilliant piece of work, as was his more "Clouseau"-like performance in "Wrong Arm." And kudos to Wilfrid Hyde-White, masterminding the whole thing from his vantage point as a venal vicar! As usual, there is strong support, as well, from the unsung females, the buxom and zany Liz Fraser as Sellers' girlfriend, Ethel, and the incomparable Irene Handl as Cribbins "mum." A delight all-round!