Leofwine_draca THE LAVENDER HILL MOB is the first of the classic Ealing comedies I've watched. For the first half of the film it's a familiar enough heist story, in which an unlikely group of robbers come together to pull off an audacious robbery involving a huge quantity of gold bullion. So far, so familiar; not bad, but hardly the stuff of greatness. Then the second half kicks in, and things change entirely.The film becomes a journey following the exploits of unlikely duo Stanley Holloway and Alec Guinness as they go on a hunt for part of the missing shipment, which has by now been melted down and turned into miniature Eiffel towers! Suddenly the story is bizarre, madcap, and crammed to the hilt with genuinely laugh out loud comic moments. The dizzying scene on the Eiffel tower is a highlight but it's the chase-themed climax which is the real stuff of greatness.THE LAVENDER HILL MOB is a noteworthy movie for featuring performances from future greats. Audrey Hepburn's here in a single scene as a waitress, while Robert Shaw also makes his debut. You can even see Desmond Llewelyn (Bond's Q) if you look closely enough. The production values are top notch and the film as a whole has a witty and intelligent air to it which is missing from most modern comedies. I can't wait to check out more of the studio's work.

moonspinner55 A million pounds in bullion is stolen from a British bank; the crooks successfully hide out in a foundry, melting the gold down and pouring it into molds for Eiffel Tower paperweights...but what happens when one little schoolgirl gets away with a souvenir and turns it over to the police? Sluggish and talk-heavy at the start, this comedic caper eventually becomes a breathless chase film, aided by the wonderfully 'light-fingered', light-headed team of Alec Guiness and Stanley Holloway. Their flight by foot from the actual Eiffel Tower is piece-of-genius filmmaking, while director Charles Crichton and screenwriter T. E. B. Clarke are adept at keeping the thieves affable...anti-heroes, as it were. "Mob" provided the virtual formula for many other heist pictures to follow, a genre wherein the audience is prodded to cheer for the criminals as if they were the good guys. This is acceptable here as a bright-eyed early example, with a first-rate cast and production. An added bonus: Audrey Hepburn, pre-"Roman Holiday", in a bit part as a grateful recipient of Guinness's affection. **1/2 from ****

cleargraphics I came across this movie by accident and it turned out to be pretty good and entertaining. It stars Alec Guinness, who later became the elderly Obi-Wan Kenobi in Stars War IV - A New Hope. The Lavender Hill Mob is kind of a crime-caper-comedy and I think the two 1950s Alec Guinness movies, The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), and The Ladykillers (1955) were the precursors to the Peter Sellers Pink Panther movies of the 60s and 70s.This film has some pretty advanced 1951 visual effects involving the Eiffel Tower, in Paris, and a spiral staircase inside the Eiffel Tower. It was pretty impressive filmmaking and screen writing for a movie that was only shot in black and white.The Lavender Hill Mob is fast moving and it really requires you to engage your brain to watch. It's definitely worth seeing.

ShootingShark Henry Holland is a milquetoast clerk in charge of gold bullion deliveries who harbours a secret dream to make off with a shipment. When by chance he meets Alfred Pendlebury, who owns a souvenir business with a small foundry, it seems providence has cast them together and the heist is on.One of Ealing Studios' most successful films - writer T.E.B. Clarke won an Oscar - this is a lovely, gentle reminder of a more innocent post-war age, where villains trusted each other with the loot and nobody got hurt. Its success for me is largely down to Guinness' mild-mannered charm as he alternates between meek predictability with his superiors and gleeful exuberance as his masterplan comes to fruition. The whimsy of scenes like the delirious whirling flight down the steps of the Eiffel Tower, where the camera seems to generate the giddy elated panic of the characters, are infectious and exhilarating and the story keeps us empathising with Holland right up to the amusing pathos of the ending. Everybody else is great too, and as with all of Ealing's work the quality of the filmmaking is top-notch. Douglas Slocombe's fluid camera-work is wonderful throughout, such as the big track-in on Holloway in the police station when he mistakenly thinks the game's up, and the clever editing by Seth Holt (who went on to edit and direct several interesting movies for Hammer Films) pulls all the comic potential out of the situations. There's also a great little score by Georges Auric. A great comic caper movie, beautifully directed by Crichton, who also made The Titfield Thunderbolt, A Fish Called Wanda and the very funny golfing episode in Dead Of Night. An interesting comic companion piece to the straight police drama The Blue Lamp, also written by Clarke. Look fast at the start for a very young Audrey Hepburn.