Write Off: Lavender Hill Mob early crime caper comedy gem!

The Lavender Hill Mob is an Academy Award winning and very popular British film which further whet the appetite of film-goers around the world for the type of droll, clever, comedies Ealing Studios was quickly becoming famous for in the 1950's.

Alec Guinness was nominated for an Academy Award for his wonderful performance as the shy, somewhat milquetoast bank employee Holland. For 20 years Holland has worked as a transfer agent for the delivery of gold bullion, biding his time fantasizing that he might one day come up with a perfect plan to heist a truck load of gold bullion. If only he could figure out how to smuggle the gold bullion out of the country.

The film opens with Guinness as Holland being a popular customer in a fancy latin-american flavored café where he is over-tipping waiters, giving money away to beautiful women (Audrey Hepburn in a pre-star cameo appearance) to buy themselves something nice, and bragging to his companion about how he had turned his life around. We then meet the shy, dishwater dull,always on-time, always proper, hard working, un-ambitious, bank employee as he watches gold being turned into bars, the bars loaded into an armored truck, and riding along with the truck to the bank for its delivery.

When a new boarder arrives at the Lavender Hill boarding house he resides at, Holland may have found the opportunity he has patiently waited 20 years for. Pendlebury (played wonderfully by Stanley Holloway) is an eccentric businessman who makes tourist trinkets such as Eiffel Tower Paperweights.

Quickly the two begin to mastermind one of the largest robberies in England history. They enlist the aid of two professional thieves Lackery and Shorty played to perfection by Sidney James and Alfie Bass. The robbery is meticulously planned, and of course the best laid plans are bound to go awry especially in a comedy caper film. We are actually rooting for these rather inept criminals to succeed, even as the mishaps begin piling up one atop the other. The unexpected twists and turns lead to a bit of a chase at the Eiffel Tower in Paris itself and then an exciting and quite clever chase into and out of a Police Academy.

The film is still a delightful comic gem. Light, breezy, with every scene done just right. It was an an Oscar winner for T.E. Clarke's story and inventive screenplay. Charles Crighton who would near the end of his career direct A Fish Called Wanda, helms this clever film.

While the film is a bit dated, it's very British flair or should I say air, remains intact. It's not the funniest film you are likely to see but it's a neatly constructed film that established the formula for several copy-cat Ealing and comedy caper films afterward.

Guinness is a delight, and has a wonderful partner in Holloway. If you like British comedy, be sure and catch one of its finest examples: The Lavender Hill Mob, soon.

This review is part of a write-off occurring August 27th, 2000, to honor the memory of the recently departed Sir Alec Guinness. Please be sure to check out the Sir Alec related offerings from fellow write-off participants:

knix (who put this wonderful write-off together),

Andrew_Hicks, fdknight , redwolfoz (who has posted a page of participants on his web site) , mangiotto , grouch (who gave Kim some assistance), janesbit1 , energy81 , Stone77777 , ZentropaJK , Brundledan ,brando814 Donlee_Brussel,Curtis_Edmonds ,bigjack , Macresarf1 , lars_lindahl , ChrisJarmick, psychovant

Some of the best reviews I've read in a long time have been written for this wonderful tribute to the recently departed Alec Guinness. Be sure and do some reading, and rating before you rush out and rent some of the fine Alec Guinness films suggested.

Chris Jarmick (Author: The Glass Cocoon Available- November
2000)