The Lavender Hill Mob (60th Anniversary Edition)

Introduction

Ealing Studio's is one of the most famous of British Cinema's studio's, originally built in 1902 and is the oldest continuously working film studio in the world. It's peak years were certainly around the 50's with the release of classic Ealing comedies such as Kind Hearts And Coronets, The Lavender Hill Mob and The Ladykillers, but more recent releases through the studio have included the revised St Trinians franchise and Shaun of the Dead.

The Lavender Hill Mob now comes to blu-ray, allowing the current generation of film buffs to see how classic comedies were made within a U certificate and without profanity or vulgarity. Produced in 1951, the film was directed by TV veteran Charles Crichton and scripted by T.E.B Clarke, who won an Oscar for his efforts. This 60th anniversary issue has been extensively remastered in both picture quality and sound to give optimum viewing performance.

Henry Holland (Alec Guiness) is a mild mannered bank transfer agent who has successfully delivered gold bullion for the previous 20 years. Holland is shy and retiring but fastidious and cautious, qualities that make him seem inconsequential to his employers, who mistake these qualities for lack of imagination. Unknown to them though, Holland has aspirations to be rich and has long dreamt of robbing the bank of its bullion during a delivery.   Everything is in place but one detail, he can't quite fathom how to move the gold abroad once it has been stolen - this is a must as he would be unable to sell it in the UK.

Then one day he has the fortune of meeting aspiring artist Pendlebury (Stanley Holloway), who moves into the same boarding house. Pendlebury reveals that he owns a company that makes souvenirs and exports them, including gold-painted lead models of the Eiffel Tower to be sold at Paris' premier attraction. As Pendlebury not only designs these souvenirs but also makes them via his smelting plant, an idea is lodged in Holland's brain. He takes Pendlebury into his confidence and persuades him to become his partner and use his smelting plant to melt down the bullion and smuggle it to France as souvenirs. Both men quickly realise that they need a couple of professional criminals to help them and manage to snare both Lackery (Sid James) and Shorty (Alfie Bass) through a planted story involving safe problems and the storage of massive staff wages left unattended overnight.

Now the Lavender Hill Mob is in place, the training for the robbery is put into place but things don't quite go as planned despite the extremely detailed plan. Firstly, Holland is unexpectantly promoted as a favour by his employers who are feeling a little sorry for him, although Holland manages to stall them for a week - putting pressure on the gang to hit this week's delivery. Despite pulling off the robbery, not everything goes according to plan and there are a number of unexpected twists and turns to follow...

Picture

The film has been restored in its original 1.37:1 aspect ratio, scanned in from original 35mm elements and restored in high definition. A lot of work was done on the picture to remove dirt, scratches, warps and torn or missing frames, with some frames being replaced. Therefore the picture has never looked so good and a short restoration featurette gives a rather good comparison of the picture before and after. It really has never looked so good and sharp.

Sound

Sound is mono 2.0 and was transferred from a preservation 35mm print and then further improved with pops, click, hiss and distortion being minimised or removed altogether. There's also a nice set of optional English subtitles to go with it.

Extras

The menu is a bit of a letdown or poorly designed. It's pretty static with a simple illustration of film art but the choice of colours for each of the static options and the moving options are just too close to each other to really keep an eye on what you're choosing. Can't remember too much difficulty on the first screen, but it was definately a problem within the Extras screen.

Introduction by Martin Scorcese - nice enough intro from Scorcese but he makes a mistake or two regarding the film, which is surprising.

Excerpt from BECTU History Project with Charles Crichton

Good Afternoon: Mavis interviews T.E.B Clarke

Restoration comparison

Restored Trailer

Behind The Scenes stills gallery

Overall

I've never actually seen this film before despite it often being quoted as a classic film and one of Alec Guiness' defining roles. In a way I'm both disappointed and relieved, disappointed that I didn't have the nerve to check this out sooner but also relieved in that I've seen the film in all its glory and therefore not disappointed in any way with either picture or sound quality. This is a keeper and a great comedy that surely stands the test of time and repeated viewings.

The main central pairing of Guiness and Holloway is inspired as they play off each other, Guiness as the shy but cunning civil servant against Holloway's brash and almost buffoonish souvenir designer. Sid James and Alfie Bass, not in it quite as much, are suitably impressive as caricatured criminals in the "cor blimey Guv, you got me bang to rights, so you 'ave" mould. It's rather quaint that both crooks trust the two leads enough not to scarper with their share,but it's also inspired that Alfie Bass would prefer to go to the Test match and Sid James character is not allowed to go to Paris as his 'missus' won't let him, although he'd have been ok with Manchester or any other big city in England. It is a quite convoluted story that leads the two main characters all over the place with some rather great twists and turns that involve both a dramatic descent from the Eiffel Tower, a rather bizarre and bureaucratic way of getting out of France and the most fantastic and inspired police chase before a rather neat ending.

What is great about this film is that you really want the gang to pull it off and feel concern as events seem to conspire against them. Most of this is down to the actors but an impressive script and some rather good editing are also part of the success. This really is superb.

Recommended.