Only When I Larf is a 1968 British comedy crime drama, directed by Basil Dearden and starring Richard Attenborough, David Hemmings, and Alexandra Stewart.

[1][2] It was adapted from the 1968 novel Only When I Larf by Len Deighton, and features Attenborough as an ex-brigadier con man in a variety of guises.

[2] In New York City, a trio of confidence tricksters enter a tall office block and go to an empty unit on the 39th floor.

[3] The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Richard Attenborough gives a virtuoso performance as a conman capable of imitating anyone from Lawrence of Arabia to the popular conception of a psychiatrist, and David Hemmings has a few moderately entertaining lines about the Army being the classic con-trick.

Apart from that, the film overflows with technically adept, tourist-type local colour; and a recurring joke about a man with a spear stuck in him who claims it hurts 'only when I larf' is a fair indication of the general level.

"[4] Vincent Canby wrote in The New York Times: "Beneath the surface sheen (the color photography and the décor are smashing) and the bright performances, there are hints of the existence of a real world.

They can be seen in what is essentially the father-son rivalry between Attenborough and Hemmings, in the disguises they employ so easily in their work (and which, of course, are parts of their lives), and in man's primordial conviction in the perfidy of woman, at least, as represented by Miss Stewart.Dearden doesn't allow this sort of thing to change the basic shape of the movie, which might have been more interesting if he had.

[5] Variety wrote: Only When I Larf is a pleasant little joke ... with sound, unfussy direction and witty, observed thesping. ...

Hemmings is equally effective as the discontented young whiz-kid lieutenant and Stewart, with little to do, manages to look both efficient and sexy.

[2] Time Out wrote: "Richard Attenborough dons assorted disguises and is sometimes brilliant – notably as a manically jolly psychiatrist.

Otherwise this is a plodding adaptation of Len Deighton's jokey novel about a trio of confidence tricksters (Attenborough, Hemmings, Stewart), which opens with a lengthy pre-credits sequence detailing their method of operation, repeats this twice over with variations, and ends on a note of hollow laughter.