The Lavender Hill Mob

2025-10-07T23:12:13Z

2A00:23C7:AE3F:5D01:C08A:3FB8:7731:BC0E: /* Plot */

{{Short description|1951 film by Charles Crichton}}
{{About|the 1951 comedy film}}
{{Use British English|date=September 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2024}}
{{Infobox film
| name = The Lavender Hill Mob
| image = The Lavender Hill Mob.jpg
| caption = British quad poster
| director = [[Charles Crichton]]
| producer = [[Michael Balcon]]
| writer = [[T. E. B. Clarke]]
| starring = [[Alec Guinness]] <br />[[Stanley Holloway]]<br />[[Sid James]]<br />[[Alfie Bass]]
| music = [[Georges Auric]]
| cinematography = [[Douglas Slocombe]]
| editing = [[Seth Holt]]
| studio = [[Ealing Studios]]
| distributor = [[General Film Distributors]]
| released = {{Film date|1951|06|28|UK|ref1=<ref name="Art & Hue">{{cite web|url=http://artandhue.com/shop/stanley-holloway/|title=Stanley Holloway |work=Art & Hue |date=2019 |access-date=24 April 2019}}</ref>|df=y}}
| runtime = 81 minutes
| country = United Kingdom
| language = English
| budget =
| gross = $31,288<ref name="BOM">{{Cite Box Office Mojo|title=The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)|url= https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl2707914753/?ref_=bo_we_table_46|access-date=28 May 2024}}</ref>
}}

'''''The Lavender Hill Mob''''' is a 1951 British [[comedy film]] from [[Ealing Studios]], written by [[T. E. B. Clarke]], directed by [[Charles Crichton]], starring [[Alec Guinness]] and [[Stanley Holloway]] and featuring [[Sid James]] and [[Alfie Bass]]. The title refers to [[Lavender Hill]], a street in [[Battersea]], a district in [[London SW11]], near to [[Clapham Junction railway station]]. It was one of the first films to feature [[Audrey Hepburn]], in a minor role.

The [[British Film Institute]] ranked ''The Lavender Hill Mob'' the [[BFI Top 100 British films|17th greatest British film of all time]]. The original film was digitally restored and re-released to UK cinemas on 29 July 2011 to celebrate its 60th anniversary.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2011/jul/15/cockney-characters-lavender-hill-mob-movies?intcmp=239 The Guardian 15 July 2011: ''Cream of the cockney crop''] Retrieved 19 April 2012</ref> It is one of fifteen films listed in the category "Art" on the [[Vatican's list of films|Vatican film list]].<ref>{{Cite web|date=2012-04-22|title=USCCB – (Film and Broadcasting) – Vatican Best Films List|url=http://old.usccb.org/movies/vaticanfilms.shtml|access-date=2021-06-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120422064928/http://old.usccb.org/movies/vaticanfilms.shtml|archive-date=22 April 2012}}</ref>

==Plot==
Henry "Dutch" Holland lives the life of luxury in [[Rio de Janeiro]], and spends an evening dining out with a British visitor. During their meal, he narrates a story concerning how he changed his life by instigating an intricate [[gold bullion]] robbery. One year ago, Holland served as an unambitious London bank clerk, who for twenty years was in charge of gold bullion deliveries. Although dedicated to his job with a reputation for fussing over details, he had begun to devise a scheme to steal a consignment of gold bullion. His plan was missing a way to sell the gold because the [[black market]] in Britain would be too risky; he did not yet know how to smuggle it abroad.

One evening at his boarding house in [[Lavender Hill]], he meets with artist Alfred Pendlebury, who has taken up lodgings in the building. He learns that Pendlebury owns a [[foundry]] that makes presents and souvenirs that are sold in holiday destinations, one of which is [[Paris]].

Realizing that Pendlebury is the key to his plan's success, Holland explains his scheme to the artist who agrees to help. When the clerk discovers he is due to be transferred to another bank department, the pair put their plan into immediate action, recruiting the aid of petty thieves Lackery Wood and Shorty Fisher. On the day of the robbery, Wood and Fisher hijack the bullion van and switch the gold to one of Pendlebury's works vans. Holland then assumes the role of an unfortunate victim who is hailed as a hero for raising the alarm, after nearly drowning by accident. As his associates melt down the gold bullion and recast it as [[Eiffel Tower]] paperweights to be exported abroad, Holland gives false statements and misleading clues to the police, led by Inspector Farrow. The group soon toast to their success, despite Wood and Fisher being unable or unwilling to travel to Paris to collect their share in person, entrusting the other two to provide it.

The day after their last consignment of stolen gold is sent to Paris, Holland and Pendlebury head to France to retrieve them from a souvenir kiosk atop the Eiffel Tower supplied by Pendlebury's firm. They are horrified when they find one of the boxes containing the golden paperweights has been opened by mistake and six have been sold to a group of English schoolgirls. The pair make a wild chase to pursue them back to Britain, manage to track down the schoolgirls, but only get back five of the paperweights. The girl holding the sixth one refuses, intending it as a gift to a policeman she is friends with. Holland and Pendlebury pursue the girl, and watch in horror as the paperweight is brought to an exhibition of police history and methods at [[Hendon Police College]]. Holland's worst fears come true when Farrow, having begun to realize the truth, spots the paperweight and orders a chemical test on it.

Left with no choice, Holland snatches it, and he and Pendlebury make their escape in a stolen police car. A confusing pursuit begins across London, as Holland uses the car's radio to feed false, misleading information to the officers pursuing the pair. They find themselves forced to offer a passing police officer a lift, causing them to be discovered. As Pendlebury becomes trapped, Holland escapes with the six golden paperweights, which leave him with a tidy sum to enjoy a new life. Back in Rio, after finishing his tale to his visitor, Holland admits that the money is now all gone. As the pair walk out, it is revealed that Holland is handcuffed to the man and has been arrested for his crime.

==Cast==
{{cast listing|
* [[Alec Guinness]] as Henry "Dutch" Holland
* [[Stanley Holloway]] as Alfred "Al" Pendlebury
* [[Sid James]] as Lackery Wood
* [[Alfie Bass]] as Shorty Fisher
* [[Marjorie Fielding]] as Mrs. Chalk
* [[Edie Martin]] as Miss Evesham
* [[John Salew]] as Parkin
* [[Ronald Adam (actor)|Ronald Adam]] as Turner
* [[Arthur Hambling]] as Wallis
* [[Gibb McLaughlin]] as Godwin
* [[John Gregson]] as Inspector Farrow
* [[Clive Morton]] as Station Sergeant
* [[Sydney Tafler]] as Clayton
* [[Marie Burke]] as Senora Gallardo
* [[Audrey Hepburn]] as Chiquita
* [[William Fox (actor)|William Fox]] as Gregory
* [[Michael Trubshawe]] as British Ambassador
* [[Jacques Brunius|Jacques B. Brunius]], [[Paul Demel]], [[Eugene Deckers]] and [[Andreas Malandrinos]] as Customs Officials
* [[Cyril Chamberlain]] as Commander
* [[Moultrie Kelsall]] as Detective Superintendent
* [[Christopher Hewett]] as Inspector Talbot
* [[Meredith Edwards (actor)|Meredith Edwards]] as P.C. Williams
* [[Patrick Barr]] as Divisional Detective Inspector
* [[David Davies (actor born 1906)|David Davies]] as City Policeman
* [[Desmond Llewelyn]] as Customs Official (uncredited)
* [[Richard Wattis]] as opposition [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] (MP) (uncredited)
* [[Marie Ney]] as School Headmistress (uncredited)
* Jacqueline Curtis as schoolgirl (uncredited)
* Alanna Boyce as June Edwards (uncredited)
* [[Robert Shaw (actor)|Robert Shaw]] as Police Laboratory Technician (uncredited)
}}

==Cast notes==

[[Audrey Hepburn]] makes an early film appearance in a small role as Chiquita near the start of the film.<ref name="Bradshaw" /> [[Robert Shaw (actor)|Robert Shaw]] also made his first film appearance, playing a police laboratory technician towards the end of the film. English actress [[Patricia Garwood]] made her first film appearance in this movie at the age of nine.

==Production==
Charles Crichton says the origin of the film came with the success of ''[[The Blue Lamp]]''. [[Michael Balcon]], head of Ealing, got screenwriter Clarke to come up with ideas for a follow-up.<ref>{{cite web|title=Charles Crichton Interview|url=https://historyproject.org.uk/sites/default/files/HP0072%20Charles%20Crichton%20-%20Transcript.pdf|date=14 December 1988|website=British Entertainment History Project|page=17}}</ref>

Clarke is said to have come up with the idea of a clerk robbing his own bank while doing research for the film ''[[Pool of London (film)|Pool of London]]'' (1951), a crime thriller surrounding a jewel theft. He consulted the [[Bank of England]] on the project and it set up a special committee to advise on how best the robbery could take place.<ref name="TheAurumFilmEncyclopediaGangsters">''[[The Aurum Film Encyclopedia]] – The Gangster Film'', edited by [[Phil Hardy (journalist)|Phil Hardy]], Aurum Press, 1998</ref><ref name="EmpireSpecialCollectorsEditionTheGreatestCrimeMoviesEver">''[[Empire (magazine)|Empire]]'' – ''Special Collectors' Edition – The Greatest Crime Movies Ever'', published in 2001</ref>

Extensive location filming was made in both London and Paris.<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044829/locations "Filming locations"] on IMDB. Retrieved December 2011</ref> The scenes show a London still marked by [[bomb sites]] from the [[Second World War]].

;London
* [[Bank–Monument station|Bank Underground Station]]
* [[Bank of England]], [[Threadneedle Street]]
* Bramley Arms Pub, Bramley Road, [[Notting Hill]] (finale: end of the chase)
* [[Cheapside]]
* Carlton Road, [[Ealing]] (zebra crossing on way to police exhibition)
* [[Gunnersbury Park]] (police exhibition)
* [[Queen Victoria Street, London|Queen Victoria Street]], [[Blackfriars, London|Blackfriars]] (scene of bullion robbery)
* [[RAF Northolt]], [[Ruislip]] (airport)

;Paris
* [[River Seine]]
* [[Eiffel Tower]]

The scene where Holland and Pendlebury run down the Eiffel Tower's spiral staircase and become increasingly [[Dizziness|dizzy]] and erratic, as does the camera work, presages [[James Stewart]]'s condition in [[Alfred Hitchcock]]'s ''[[Vertigo (film)|Vertigo]]'', made seven years later.<ref name="EmpireSpecialCollectorsEditionTheGreatestCrimeMoviesEver"/> A film montage of sensational newspaper headlines marks the crime as taking place in August 1950, whilst posters for the Hendon exhibition state that it marks the centenary of the death of Sir [[Robert Peel]], which occurred on 2 July 1850. In the car chase scene at the end of the film, an officer uses a [[police box]] to report seeing a police car being driven by a man in a top hat. In fact, the driver is a modern-day police officer from the exhibition wearing the uniform of the police as originally set up in 1829 by Peel, known as "Bobbies" or "Peelers" after him.

==Reception==
''The Lavender Hill Mob'' had its charity world premiere at the [[Marble Arch Odeon]] cinema in London on 28 June 1951.<ref name="Art & Hue">{{cite web|url=http://artandhue.com/shop/stanley-holloway/|title=Stanley Holloway |work=Art & Hue |date=2019 |access-date=24 April 2019}}</ref>

It had rentals of $580,000 at the U.S. box office.<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=Variety|title=Alec Guinness Now Money Star in US|url=https://archive.org/details/variety193-1954-01/page/n293|page=2|date=13 January 1954}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/details/variety206-1957-03/page/n9/mode/1up?q=%22west+of+zanzibar%22|magazine=Variety|title=Rank's Rebel Yell|date=6 March 1957|page=10}}</ref> The film was a hit at the British box office, being judged by ''Kinematograph Weekly'' as a "notable performer" at British cinemas in 1951.<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=Kinematograph Weekly|title=These were the winners in 1951|date=20 December 1951|page=9-10}}</ref>


[[Bosley Crowther]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'' gave the film a positive review, writing "Charles Crichton has directed the whole thing with a touch of polite and gentile mockery applied to wholehearted farce: that Mr. Guinness and Mr. Holloway are deliciously adroit in their roles."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Crowther |first=Bosley |date=1951-10-16 |title=THE SCREEN IN REVIEW; 'The Lavender Hill Mob,' With Alec Guinness, First Offering at New Fine Arts Theatre |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1951/10/16/archives/the-screen-in-review-the-lavender-hill-mob-with-alec-guinness-first.html |access-date=2024-07-04 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref name="variety1951">{{cite web |author1=Variety Staff |title=The Lavender Hill Mob |url=https://variety.com/1950/film/reviews/the-lavender-hill-mob-1200416855/ |website=Variety |date=1 January 1951}}</ref>

Reviewing the film on its sixtieth anniversary, Peter Bradshaw of ''[[The Guardian]]'' called it "tremendously good fun, though lighter in tone than Ealing's two scabrous masterpieces [[Kind Hearts and Coronets]] and [[The Ladykillers (1955 film)|The Ladykillers]], and not quite matching their elegant perfection" noting that the superb setup is not quite matched by the aftermath of the heist.<ref name="Bradshaw">{{cite news |date=21 July 2011 |last=Bradshaw |first=Peter |title=The Lavender Hill Mob – review |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/jul/21/the-lavender-hill-mob-review |newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|location=London |quote=A before-she-was-famous cameo from Audrey Hepburn is a surreal frisson.}}</ref> [[Kim Newman]] writing for Empire magazine gave it 4 out of 5, "Guinness is masterful as the apparently unassuming Mr. Holland".<ref>{{Cite web |date=2000-01-01 |title=The Lavender Hill Mob |url=https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/lavender-hill-mob-review/ |access-date=2024-07-04 |website=Empire |language=en}}</ref>

{{Rotten Tomatoes prose|score=100|count=70|average=8.6|consensus=Fiendishly funny and clever, ''The Lavender Hill Mob'' is a top hat Ealing Studios effort.|ref=yes |access-date=17 April 2024}}

== Accolades ==
The film won the [[Academy Awards|Academy Award]] for [[Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay|Best Writing, Story and Screenplay]]. Guinness was nominated for the award of [[Academy Award for Best Actor|Best Actor in a Leading Role]].<ref name="variety1951" /> The film also won the [[BAFTA Award for Best British Film]].

== Stage adaptation ==
A [[The Lavender Hill Mob (play)|stage adaptation]] of the film written by [[Phil Porter]] and directed by [[Jeremy Sams]] opened in October 2022 at the [[Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham]] before touring the UK, starring [[Miles Jupp]] as Henry Holland and [[Justin Edwards (actor)|Justin Edwards]] as Alfred Pendlebury.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2022-06-15 |title=Miles Jupp to star in stage version of The Lavender Hill Mob |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2022/jun/15/miles-jupp-to-star-in-stage-version-of-the-lavender-hill-mob |newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|location=London |access-date=2022-08-13 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Lavender Hill Mob |url=https://www.everymantheatre.org.uk/shows/the-lavender-hill-mob/ |access-date=2022-10-24 |website=Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[1951 in film]]
* [[BFI Top 100 British films]]
* [[British films of 1951]]
* [[Heist film]]

==References==
;Notes
{{Reflist}}

;Bibliography
* Vermilye, Jerry. ''The Great British Films''. Citadel Press, 1978. {{ISBN|0-8065-0661-X}} pp. 147–149

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
* {{IMDb title|0044829}}
* {{TCMDb title|81005}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070901070412/http://www.oldmovies.net.au/the-lavender-hill-mob/ ''The Lavender Hill Mob'' review at Old Movies]

{{Charles Crichton}}
{{Michael Balcon}}
{{BAFTA Best British Film}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lavender Hill Mob, The}}
[[Category:1951 films]]
[[Category:1950s heist films]]
[[Category:Cultural depictions of Metropolitan Police officers]]
[[Category:Best British Film BAFTA Award winners]]
[[Category:British black-and-white films]]
[[Category:British crime comedy films]]
[[Category:British heist films]]
[[Category:Ealing Studios films]]
[[Category:Films scored by Georges Auric]]
[[Category:Films about bank robbery]]
[[Category:Films directed by Charles Crichton]]
[[Category:Films produced by Michael Balcon]]
[[Category:Films set in London]]
[[Category:Films set in Paris]]
[[Category:Films whose writer won the Best Original Screenplay Academy Award]]
[[Category:Films with screenplays by T. E. B. Clarke]]
[[Category:1950s crime comedy films]]
[[Category:1951 comedy films]]
[[Category:1950s English-language films]]
[[Category:1950s British films]]
[[Category:English-language crime comedy films]]

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The Lavender Hill Mob