Movie #77 The Lavender Hill Mob

Made in 1951 by Charles Crichton The Lavender Hill Mob is a British heist movie.  It stars a young Alec Guinness (Obi-wan Kenobi) and Stanley Holloway.  Guinness is an armored car watch guard for the bank.  His is accountable for gold bars being shipped from the furnace to the bank.  Holloway is a part time artist and purveyor of trinkets.  One of these being mini Eiffel Tower paperweights. 

Guinness gets a scheme worked out to steal the gold and use Holloway's shop to turn the bars into gold paperweights.  That way they can ship them to France unnoticed where they can sell them.  The two round up a couple of petty thieves and create the Lavender Hill Mob. 

This is a very funny movie for a heist film.  It is just short of being slapstick at times.  I love the scene at the dock where they are trying to get some gold paperweights that were sold to English school children by mistake.  It reminds me of how difficult it is to get through the airports today.  This movie also has a mind blowing sequence that takes place going down a winding staircase at the Eiffel Tower.  I have now Idea how they got some of those shots!

I give The Lavender Hill Mob a 3.5/5 stars.  Check out the Trailer Park to see for yourself.