The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)

Prior to The Lavender Hill Mob, Ealing Studios produced an award-wining British police drama titled The Blue Lamp in 1950. This movie was shot in a pseudo-documentary style with some similarities to the film noir genre. Ealing’s resident screenwriter Tibby Clarke went through 11 drafts to generate the screenplay for The Lavender Hill Mob hoping to capitalize on the studio’s previously released successful movie. Starting out as a gloomy film with a racial subplot, the film ended up instead as a comedy heist. Even though it wasn’t a true ‘film noir,’ it still retained some of the same elements in terms of high contrast lighting, usage of shadows, and the criminally-driven bank heist plot. Ealing Studios itself is currently the oldest working studio facility for film production in the world, operating since 1902 (“History”). Even today, The Lavender Hill Mob remains one of their most well-known and beloved works of cinema ever produced.

Alec Guinness

The Lavender Hill Mob is a classic British comedy. A long tradition of comedic cinema exists in the United Kingdom. Even today, ‘British humor’ is still one of the most distinctive and easily recognizable, often created on the bases of satire aimed at the ‘absurdity of everyday life.’ Lines are often given with deadpan delivery, and often topped with sarcasm or self-depreciating humor. Topics range from puns, innuendos, sexual taboos, class system disparity, or intellectual jokes. The Lavender Hill Mob seemed to be a prime example of nearly all of the defining characteristics of classic British humor. The main character was Holland, a middle-class bank worker who enviously dreamed of a richer life style. Stuck in a mundane, carefully calculated, and meticulously repetitive routine, Holland soon found himself in a peculiar predicament. He had the chance to rob the Bank of England and get away with it. Holland’s deadpan expression was partially hidden behind small round glasses and topped with a classic bowler hat as he awkwardly navigated his world in a socially misfit manner. Honestly, he couldn’t have looked more British if he was Stephen Fry walking a corgi in front of Buckingham Palace. True to the contrasting formula of the classic comedic duo, his partner, Pendlebury, was a bit more outgoing but also rather less bright. This allowed them to get into some pretty ridiculous situations as they bumbled through a bank heist that somehow seemed to have been pulled off by experienced criminal masterminds, to the eyes of the public anyway. Spoiler alert, they get caught, and this is probably why the film is also one of only 45 Vatican-approved “important films” (Rezac). After all, the only way one could possibly still release such a 'morally corrupt’ and ‘anti-patriotic’ film would be to show the criminals getting caught. Furthermore, the fact that the screenwriter, Clarke, actually asked the Bank of England how one would go about robbing it for the sake of making a film about it is absurd enough. The fact that in response, the Bank of England actually set up a special committee to advise Clarke how best to go about robbing them is stranger still. Honestly, the fact that this exchange actually took place at all seems more zany than the entire film itself. 

Alec Guinness and Stanley Holloway

In terms of comedy writing in The Lavender Hill Mob, the film had an excellent sense of timing and a number of clever gags. One such example was the sequence near the beginning of the film where Holland and Pendlebury spent about five minutes trying to trap a criminal, who had in fact been watching all of their struggles while calmly eating a sandwich. Another was the strangely absurd scene in which a policeman hitched a ride from Holland and Pendlebury (driving a stolen police car) and began passionately singing along to the tune of ‘Old McDonald’ which was blasting from the radio. However, no British comedy is ever truly a British comedy without at least one jab at the French. This one happened to manifest itself in the short quip over the French pronunciation of the letter ‘R,’ and the longer sequence of the ridiculously meticulous boarding process with the different French customs officers. The writers also played off of the ‘bromance’ element, a genre that hadn’t quite been given a name at the time, for comedic effect. One of the most memorable scenes from the entire film was when Holland and Pendlebury broke open the mold of their first gold Eiffel Tower. The two gazed lovingly at their creation, cradling it like a child, and gave each other tender glances. “Our firstborn,” said Holland, sweetly, as if the allusion wasn’t already obvious enough. True to the time, the film prospered off of the comedy found in showing two men who were close friends, for this was contrary to the ‘manly’ and often isolated tough-guy image that was much more widespread in films.

Stanley Holloway and Alec Guinness

Apparently, the blundering chaos depicted in The Lavender Hill Mob on screen extended beyond the film. Behind the screen, film safety regulations likely came about from situations such as what happened while shooting the iconic dizzying descent from the Eiffel Tower. 

Rehearsing a scene in which Stanley [Holloway] and I were required to escape from the top of the Eiffel Tower, [Crichton] said, “Alec, there is a trap door over there - where it says ‘Workmen Only’ - I'd like you to run to it, open it and start running down the spiral staircase. Stanley will follow.” So, I did as he asked. A very dizzying sight to the ground greeted me. But I completed half a spiral before I noticed that three feet in front of me the steps suddenly ceased - broken off. I sat down promptly where I was and cautiously started to shift myself back to the top, warning Stanley to get out of the way. “What the hell are you doing?” the director yelled. “Down! Further down!!” “Further down is eternity,” I called back. Stanley and I regained the panoramic view of Paris pale and shaking. No one had checked up on the staircase and no one apologized; that wasn't Ealing policy. (Semlyen)

Hopefully, a very similar iconic scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo was copied for its brilliant cinematic affect without the near fatality.

Alec Guinness and Stanley Holloway

Another detail that would have been insignificant upon the film’s release, but unmistakable now, was the brief on-screen appearance of Audrey Hepburn. At the time, The Lavender Hill Mob was only her fifth film role, and her name was unheard of. She had only been cast in minor parts prior to The Lavender Hill Mob, generally uncredited and playing unnamed characters. Despite this, and even though she only had one line of dialogue in the film, Hepburn caught the eye of her co-star. “I don’t know if she can act,” Alec Guinness recalled telling his agent, “but a real film star has just wafted on to the set. Someone should get her under contract before we lose her to the Americans.” (Semlyen) Guinness would later use this power of predicting the future in his role as Obi-Wan.

Audrey Hepburn and Alec Guinness

            The Lavender Hill Mob has many groundbreaking moments and won the Academy Award for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay. Guinness was nominated for the award of Best Actor in a Leading Role. The film also won a BAFTA award for Best British Film, and was claimed to be ‘the most fun you can have in black and white’ (Semlyen).  Being an ardent Buster Keaton fan, and a devotee to silent German expressionism, I must respectfully disagree with their usage of the word ‘most.’ Good comedy is not determined by color, or lack of. It’s about fitting in a way to make fun of the French. 

Works Cited

“History.” Ealing Studios, www.ealingstudios.com/about-ealing/history/. Accessed: 13 April 19, 

2018.

Rezac, Mary. “How Many of the 45 Vatican-Approved 'Important Films' Have You Seen?” CNA 

Blog, 11 Aug. 2017, www.catholicnewsagency.com/blog/how-many-of-the-45-vatican-

approved-important-films-have-you-seen. Accessed: 13 April 2018.

Semlyen, Phil De. “A Pictorial History Of The Lavender Hill Mob.” Empire, Empire, 19 Oct. 

2015, www.empireonline.com/movies/features/history-lavender-hill-mob/. Accessed: 13 

April 2018