The Lavender Hill Mob
|
|
The Lavender Hill Mob is a 1951 comedy film from Ealing Studios.
Henry "Dutch" Holland (Alec Guinness, a timid poorly paid bank clerk, who has been in charge of gold bullion deliveries for many years, discovers that he is about to be moved to a new department. Within one week, he masterminds the robbery of the gold delivery, with the assistance of Stanley Holloway. They blackmail two petty crooks, Smith (Sidney James) and Shorty (Alfie Bass) into helping and they pull off the robbery. They plan to melt the gold and export it to France disguised as miniature souvenir Eiffel towers, but the plan goes wrong when one of the towers is recognised by the police. After a wild multiple car chase through London, Holland escapes and travels to South America. In the prelude to the film, Holland is seen being arrested by British police and being extradited to Britain.
The movie was written by T.E.B. Clarke and directed by Charles Crichton. It won the Academy Award for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay and Alec Guinness was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role.
Lavender Hill is a street in Battersea, a district of South London, in the postcode area SW11, near to Clapham Junction railway station. The railway plays a significant part in the film.
Audrey Hepburn makes one of her first film appearances in a small role 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. 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).
The film score was by Georges Auric.