The Lavender Hill Mob

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The Lavender Hill Mob
DVD cover of The Lavender Hill Mob
Directed by	Charles Crichton
Produced by	Michael Balcon
Written by	T.E.B. Clarke
Starring	Alec Guinness Stanley Holloway Sid James
Music by	Georges Auric
Distributed by	Universal Pictures (USA)
Release date(s)	June 1951 (UK) October 15, 1951 (USA)
Running time	81 min.
Language	English French Portuguese
IMDb profile

The Lavender Hill Mob is a 1951 comedy film from Ealing Studios. The movie was written by T.E.B. Clarke and directed by Charles Crichton. Alec Guinness and Stanley Holloway starred as gold thieves.

It won the Academy Award for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay. Guinness was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Henry "Dutch" Holland (Guinness) is a timid bank clerk in London who has been in charge of gold bullion deliveries for many years. He discovers that he is about to be moved to a new department.

Within a week, he plans the robbery of the weekly gold delivery, with the assistance of fellow lodger Mr Pendlebury (Holloway). They blackmail two petty crooks, Lackery Smith (Sidney James) and Shorty (Alfie Bass) into helping them carry out the robbery.

The plan is to melt the gold in Pendlebury's foundry and export it to France disguised as miniature souvenir Eiffel Towers. But the plan goes wrong when one of the towers goes astray and is recognised by the police. After a high-speed multiple car chase through London, Holland escapes to South America, whilst Pendlebury is arrested. In the opening scene of the film, Holland is being arrested by British police for extradition to Britain. It is not made clear what happens to Smith and Shorty.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Trivia

Lavender Hill is a street in Battersea, a district of South London, in the postcode area SW11, near to Clapham Junction railway station.
Audrey Hepburn makes an early film appearance 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. She does speak briefly to Holland, but what she says is virtually unintelligible. 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 is being remade, with a projected release date in 2006.