The Lavender Hill Mob (1952)
You’d never think the gold bullion delivery man would steal all the gold bullion, but that's exactly what he stole.
What makes a comedy feel “British”? Is it deadpan dialog in a funny accent? Witty miscommunications and mix-ups? A chase scene set to “Old MacDonald Had A Farm”? Don’t worry, the very British caper The Lavender Hill Mob has it all.
Milquetoast Henry “Dutch” Holland (Alec Guinness1) decides after twenty dutiful years of supervising gold bullion deliveries to pull a heist. His accomplice is neighbor Alfred Pendlebury (Stanley Holloway), a die caster in the import/export business whose skills give Dutch the opportunity to smuggle the stolen gold out of London.
But it’s not a two-man job—it’s a four-man job. Thus ensues the greatest scene in the movie: laying a trap for London’s greatest thieves by [checks notes] loudly, publicly discussing a broken safe full of money.
THAT SAFE IN MY OFFICE, SOMETHING’S GONE WRONG WITH THE LOCK. IT WORRIES ME A LITTLE, LEAVING THE STAFF WAGES THERE OVERNIGHT. YOU KNOW THE ADDRESS, ‘GEWGAWS2 LIMITED.’ WHY, ANYONE COULD BREAK INTO THE PLACE TONIGHT AND HELP THEMSELVES!
And it totally works: they catch two thieves and proposition them to be part of the bullion job. Soon these four new friends are ripping off the armored car and (mostly) getting away with it. Some arbitrary farcical complications then crop up and we get a slew of slapstick chase sequences3, culminating in a delightful twist ending. It’s 81 pretty good minutes of movie.
Rating: 7/10, it’s nebbish, British Ocean’s 11.
Cast and Crew
Alec Guinness mentions that he’s “too old” in this movie, yet he’s only five years into a film career that will run into the 1980s. Guinness was a major theater star before switching to movies (he played Shakespearean roles across from guys like Laurence Olivier) but his film work started with David Lean’s Great Expectations (1946). Lean and Guinness collaborated many more times, including on a film soon to be in this column.
By 1952, Guinness was mostly known for Ealing comedies (i.e., comedies made by Ealing Studios), including the famous 1949 film Kind Hearts and Coronets. In that one, a man resolves to murder the eight people ahead of him in line for a dukedom; all eight are played by Alec Guinness.4
The Lavender Hill Mob director Charles Crichton seems to be noteworthy not for his work in the ‘40s and ‘50s, but specifically for directing A Fish Called Wanda in 1988, 23 years after his previous directorial effort.5
Audrey Hepburn is in this movie in one of her earliest roles for about 15 seconds. Her character’s name is “Chiquita” and I think she’s supposed to be Brazilian? Still, she’s got her signature haircut and gamine charm fully formed and it won’t be long until she breaks out in a big way.
Another guy buried deep in the credits? The inspector is played by Christopher Hewett, who starred as the title character in the ABC sitcom “Mr. Belvedere” (1985-1990). “Mr. Belvedere” is about a proper English butler who takes a job butlering in Pittsburgh for Bob Uecker’s family. Wait…the Bob Uecker who was the broadcaster for the Milwaukee Brewers? Yep. TV’s weird.
The Trivia
One of Dutch’s gang mentions that “patience is a virtue” and cites Shakespeare as the author of that aphorism, which he’s not. It’s actually much older: some sources peg it to “Piers Plowman,” from 1360 by William Langland.6 “Piers Plowman” is an allegory that follows the journey of the character Will who seeks spiritual truth and moral guidance. Through vivid dreams and encounters, Will learns about the struggles of society, the corruption of the church, and the pursuit of true virtue.7 Booooring—give me “Mr. Belvedere” any day.
An exhibit at the police station mentions Robert Peel. Peel was a two-time British Prime Minister (1834–1835 and 1841–1846) who founded the Conservative Party from the ruins of the old Tory party. He’s best known (in America, anyway) as the father of modern British policing due to his founding of the Metropolitan Police Service. Cops in London are nicknamed “bobbies” after him.
And if we’re talking about 19th-century British PMs, let’s discuss Benjamin Disraeli. Don’t worry, he was portrayed by Alec Guinness in the 1950 film The Mudlark, so this fits here. Disraeli was a writer of famous novels like “The Wondrous Tale of Alroy” and was quoted as saying “when I want to read a novel, I write one.” He also had Jewish roots, back when that was less than desirable. Finally, the Conservative Disraeli is known for trading off twice with the Liberal William Gladstone for the Prime Ministership towards the end of the 1800s.
Oh, and the Cream album “Disraeli Gears”? Based on a malapropism and not about the PM at all.
Odds and Ends
Pendleton quotes John Greenleaf Whittier’s poem “Maud Muller” when he says, “For of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: ‘It might have been!’ ”...when discussing leaving the country, a hood says “Bob’s your uncle”; this phrase is the English equivalent of the French “et voilà”…More British stuff: a pound was comprised of twenty shillings and those shillings were commonly called “bob” (though those bobs weren’t avuncular).
“Gewgaw” is another word for “bibelot” is another word for “gimcrack” is another word for “gaud” is another word for “bauble.”
If you dig “The Benny Hill Show,” The Lavender Hill Mob just might be for you.
Peter Sellers, who we will be seeing in this column, played multiple roles in his own films to emulate Guinness, who was his idol.
I love these stories of retired folks coming back and doing the thing that they used to do. Another neat one: Bud Grant, the famed Minnesota Vikings coach, retired in 1983 but was offered the Vikes headset again in 2004, 21 years after leaving football. He was ready to take it but demanded being the highest-paid coach in the league, which management balked at. Great stories about Bud Grant abound in the Secret Base series “The History of the Minnesota Vikings.”
Some argue that the saying is even older. We’re just gonna talk about “Piers Plowman” because it’s deeper in the trivia canon than, say, the 5th century Latin poem “Psychomachia” (another candidate for the source).
Jeopardy sometimes also wants you to know that the word “ragamuffin” was initially the name of a devil from “Piers Plowman” before being applied to children in tattered clothing.