235. The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)

Directed By Charles Crichton

Synopsis

A man responsible for the transfers of gold bullion into the bank gets an idea of how to steal 1 million pounds through transforming the gold into Eiffel Tower Replicas and smuggling them to Paris. He assembles a team for the caper, but things go slowly wrong, and in the end he is the only one who escapes... well with only 25,000 and just for a year.

Review

This is another one of the jewels in the crown of the Ealing Studios, it isn't as good as Kind Hearts and Coronets, but then what is? But it is still a very amusing and actually pretty exciting film.

The action sequences here are as good as anything made at this time, be it running down the Eiffel Tower at great speed or the final car chase which is also amazing. Alec Guinness is amazing as always, and there is a very young Audrey Hepburn in the opening scene which is a nice little bit of trivia.

This film shows us a very vibrant cinema industry in Britain in the early 1950s where comedies were actually funny unlike what would happen some decades later with stuff like Carry On, which even if they have kitsch charm are nowhere near the sheer quality of the direction of this film. Incidentally Sid James has a part in the film as one of the main characters.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Audrey Hepburn makes an early film appearance in a small role as Chiquita near the start of the film. Reportedly, she was supposed to have had a major part in the film, but other commitments prevented this, so Guinness lobbied for her to be given a walk-on part. Playing an apparent consort of Holland's, she is given some money by Holland (a "birthday present") and says "How sweet of you!" before departing. This was the first film featuring Hepburn to be given major distribution in the United States (most of her other early roles were in movies that were only distributed in Great Britain or Europe).

Robert Shaw, later famous for his roles in such films as Jaws and From Russia With Love, makes his film debut in a wordless role as a chemist in the police exhibition sequence.

Desmond Llewelyn (later Q from the James Bond films) has an uncredited part as one of the French customs officers.

Hepburn's role: