Lavender Hill Mob

UPC: 5055201815934

Studio: Ais

Summary: Charles Crichton directed this Ealing caper comedy, with a witty script by T.E.B. Clarke that won an Academy Award. Alec Guinness is Henry Holland, an unassuming transporter of gold bullion who, after working for twenty years with no rewards in sight for his faithful service to his company, decides to reward himself by stealing one million pounds worth of gold. Calling on his old friend Pendlebury (Stanley Holloway), a manufacturer of paperweights and an amateur sculptor, and a couple of Cockney crooks, Lackery (Sidney James) and Shorty (Alfie Bass), they conspire to lift a gold shipment. After absconding with the gold, Henry melts the gold into a collection of souvenir Eiffel Towers, which he then ships off to Paris. But chaos reigns when a group of English schoolgirls purchase the gold towers, and the gang now become embroiled in a wild goose chase to recover their stolen gold. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Category: Comedy

Awards: Best British Film – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Director – Directors Guild of America Best Actor – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Story and Screenplay – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Screenplay – National Board of Review

Lavender Hill Mob

Format: Blu-ray

Release Date: 08/02/2011

Bob Mastrangelo

The Lavender Hill Mob and The Ladykillers can almost serve as companion pieces to each other. Both are hilarious British caper comedies of the 1950s, but both also feature astonishingly different central performances from Alec Guinness. While in The Ladykillers Guinness is a fiendish crook whose criminality is evident from his first appearance, in The Lavender Hill Mob he is a mousy milquetoast named Holland, the unlikeliest of thieves who uses the trust that others place in him to set his plan into motion. Guinness' delightful performance as Holland earned him his first Oscar nomination, and he is supported by a fun cast that includes Stanley Holloway, Sidney James, and Alfie Bass. T.E.B. Clarke's Oscar-winning script ingeniously sets up the story by having Holland recount his tale after-the-fact, and Clarke's characters and story line possess an unpredictability that makes the film easily maintain interest throughout. More than 35 years later, director Charles Crichton made another caper comedy, A Fish Called Wanda, that recaptured the carefree sensibility that makes The Lavender Hill Mob so enjoyable. It is also worth noting that a very young Audrey Hepburn has a brief appearance in the opening scene and veteran character actor Peter Bull can be quickly spotted in an unbilled cameo. ~ Bob Mastrangelo, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Eugene Deckers  Actor 
Ann Heffernan  Actor 
Archie Duncan  Actor 
Arthur Mullard  Actor 
Moultrie Kelsall  Actor 
Frank Forsyth  Actor 
Cyril Chamberlain  Actor 
Fred Griffiths  Actor 
Andrea Malandrinos  Actor 
David Davies  Actor 
Sydney Tafler  Actor 
Joe Clark  Actor 
Patrick Barr  Actor 
Christopher Hewett  Actor 
John Warwick  Actor 
William Fox  Actor 
Jacques Brunius  Actor 
Meredith Edwards  Actor 
Marie Ney  Actor 
Robert Shaw  Actor 
Jacques Cey  Actor 
Charles Lamb  Actor 
Tony Quinn  Actor 
Paul Demel  Actor 
Georges Auric  Composer (Music Score) 
Michael Balcon  Producer 
T.E.B. Clarke  Screenwriter 
Charles Crichton  Director 
Alec Guinness  Actor 
Stanley Holloway  Actor 
Sidney James  Actor 
Alfie Bass  Actor 
Marjorie Fielding  Actor 
Ronald Adam  Actor 
Edie Martin  Actor 
John Salew  Actor 
Arthur Hambling  Actor 
Gibb McLaughlin  Actor 
John Gregson  Actor 
Clive Morton  Actor 
Frederick Piper  Actor 
Peter Bull  Actor 
Patric Doonan  Actor 
Marie Burke  Actor 
Audrey Hepburn  Actor 
Michael Trubshawe  Actor 

Country: UK