The Lavender Hill Mob

My favorite of Alec Guinness's Ealing Comedies, The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) is a short, sweet, simple comedy that manages to get everything right.

Meek bank clerk Henry Holland (Alec Guinness) is in charge of overseeing the bank's bullion shipments. His employers dismiss him a tiresome busy-body, little knowing that he's about to hatch a magnificent robbery. Along with craftsman Alfred Pendelbury (Stanley Holloway) and professional crooks Lackery (Sid James) and Shorty (Alfie Bass), Holland plans to make off with the gold, melt it down into souvenier Eiffel Towers, which will be sent to Paris and there collected. The robbery goes off without a hitch, but complications ensue when the Towers are accidentally sold to a group of English school girls, unravelling their perfect plan.

The Lavender Hill Mob is a basic caper film, infused with comedic genius. Director Charles Crichton and screenwriter T.E.B. Clarke do a wonderful job slowly unspooling the well-structured plot, larding it with wonderful, very British humor. We enjoy watching these mild-mannered gentlemen prove themselves criminal masterminds ("It's good job we're both HONEST men!"), plotting like children who have read one too many detective novels. The film's high point is Holland and Pendelbury's wonderfully frantic, delirious run down the Eiffel Tower, a hilarious set-piece that builds to ridiculous proportions. A rambunctious car chase at the climax is equally well-done. The movie has an infectious spirit of fun that's impossible to resist; it lacks the depth and subtlety of Kind Hearts and Coronets and The Man in the White Suit, but as sheer entertainment it's superior to both.

Alec Guinness gives a fun performance; Henry is a hilarious protagonist, a nebbish who fancies himself a hardened criminal ("Call me Dutch!"). Stanley Holloway is a revelation; often obnoxiously broad and hammy (My Fair Lady, Brief Encounter), he dials it down here and gives a marvellously warm and hilarious performance. Sid James and Alfie Bass contribute around the edges. Audrey Hepburn is luminous in a pre-stardom walk-on role; Robert Shaw can also be spotted.

The Lavender Hill Mob is a really fun, pleasant little comedy. Its simplicity is the major part of its charm.