Peter Sellers stars as an inmate in a "model prison" run by
Maurice Denham. Though Sellers is disinclined to escape (he's never been as comfortable in his life), he is convinced to do so by phony vicar Wilfred Hyde-White, who breaks into jail to outline a robbery scheme. Hyde-White's plan is to have Sellers and his cellmates
David Lodge and
Bernard Cribbins take a brief "vacation" from jail, pull off a big-time robbery, then return undetected to prison, thereby establishing a perfect alibi. Within its 87-minute time span, Two-Way Stretch takes satirical potshots at political bleeding hearts, obese Middle Eastern potentates, and regulation-bound British police officials. One cannot be faulted for wishing that Peter Sellers had stuck to engaging small-scale British farces such as this and had never ventured into such unamusing big-budgeters as
The Bobo and
There's a Girl in My Soup. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide