Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

jimbo-53-186511 Holland (Alec Guinness)is employed as a bank clerk and is responsible for the shipment of gold bullion oversees, but has dreamed of living the high life for a long time. Pendlebury, an aspiring artist and maker of souvenirs also has the same dream in life as Holland. When the two men meet and discover they share this common ground, they hatch a plan to get rich quicker with the help of two ex-cons by smuggling the gold into France by smelting it down and marketing it is Eiffel Tower souvenirs. But have they bitten off more than they can chew? Comedy films which focus their main plot as being about greed and dishonesty can be risky projects (after all, who is going to care for mean-spirited characters in a film with a mean-spirited plot line). The Lavender Hill Mob turns the mean-spiritedness slightly on its head by at least affording our protagonists some depth - they don't want to hurt anyone or cause any suffering to anyone, they just want to be rich. Of course I'm not condoning their actions (stealing is wrong), but with the characters set-up in this manner it does allow us to understand our characters motivations even though we all agree that what they're doing is wrong.Holland and Pendlebury are responsible for the 'technical' aspects of the smuggling, but they are assisted by two ex-cons Lackery (Sid James) and Shorty (Alfie Bass). Straight away these guys do not seem to be your average ex-cons and don't possess a ruthless streak that we would expect to see from such people. I remember one part where Lackery says that he can't go to Paris with the others and when one of the mob asked him why he replied 'The missus won't let me'. I thought that was a stroke of genius and it just shows that some jokes never get old.The plot is a relatively good one and when watching it I can see that The Lavender Hill Mob may have influenced other films (the likes of Oceans 11 and The Italian Job probably owe a bit to this film). It is a funny film, but it's one that I found amusing for the most part rather than hilarious. There are some parts that didn't work so well for me (the bit where Holland and Pendlebury are running down the stairs at the Eiffel Tower was more silly than funny) and the scenes in the Passport office were also a little repetitive and overdone.Still for what it is it is funny and Crichton's tight-direction means that the film never really hits any lulls and thanks to its short running time it doesn't outstay its welcome. It's inoffensive and mostly amusing and is the sort of film that should prove to be generally pleasant viewing for all the family.

elvircorhodzic THE LAVENDER HILL MOB is the comedy that abounds extremely healthy humor. The humble bank employee after twenty years of service decided "serve" gold which he has been entrusted to transport, and that purpose devises and organizes perfectly clumsy and ridiculous robbery in which will help him a friend and several professional criminals.This is a movie that will help in the short term to lighten the mood. Here we do not talk about the bad guys, lawlessness, corruption and tolerance in man. The protagonists seem quite "drunken". One of them is quite calm and unobtrusive, the person who apparently would not hurt a fly, and yet the plan rather comical robbery and tremendous work in order to carry out his plan to the end. His friend was impatient and aggressive. They possess a strange propensity for giving up when things get awkward.It is interesting to see two completely different character in the same business. The robbery! Complications are comical and inevitable. Really top-notch entertainment, which offers plenty of British humor, a few funny chases and hilarious conflict in characters, so that pretty authentic location which is certainly surprising. I do not think that in any way making fun of someone or something. The acting is pretty good. Alec Guinness as Henry "Dutch" Holland and Stanley Holloway as Alfred "Al" Pendlebury They are skillful and highly entertaining in pairs. The ingenious and persistent against rash and cunning.

jc-osms Yet another quirky, fun Ealing Comedy with main man Alec Guinness again taking the lead as the dull, downtrodden gold bullion inspector who waits twenty years to come up with a foolproof inside-job heist to foster his dream of living it up in some exotic South American country. His unlikely accomplices are old lags Sid James and Alfie Bass, while his right hand man is antique reproducer Stanley Holloway who unwittingly inspires Guinness's gold-plated idea for concealing the goods.As ever, it's all very stylish and yet knockabout stuff, from the bizarre way Guinness and Holloway "advertise" their need for their henchmen, the crazy mixed-up car chase through London, their dizzying race down the Eiffel Tower, the visit to the young girls school to attempt to get back the six golden Eiffels, another crazy mixed-up chase at the Police Training School not to mention the delightfully concise and unexpected resolution at the end.Within these disparate elements there are many memorable details which just stick in the brain like Guinness reading pulp fiction to his avid OAP landlady, a fully tied up and gagged Guinness throwing himself on the ground and into the Thames to make the robbery look real, Holloway's absent-minded pilfering of a street trader's painting ("It was a Landseer last week!"), which jeopardises the operation, Guinness's escape in and out of a London Tube Station to escape the pursuing policemen, Guinness and Holloway's hilarious attempts to board a boat in the face of French red-tape inscrutability and even a blink and you'll miss it cameo by a very young Audrey Hepburn as a grateful chanteuse down Mexico way, all this and more might give you an idea of the structured yet skittish way it's all knitted together, although what a crazy patchwork quilt it is in the end.Best not to examine the plot strands too much and how they go together, just go with the flow as they say and savour in particular Guinness's admirable submersion in his role as well as director Crichton's breakneck direction style - especially the descent from the Eiffel Tower which will have you reeling. I rather agree with the sentiment that they should have all, or at least Guinness, gotten away with it, but I suppose the "crime doesn't pay" moral was important for the austere times, although as I said earlier the adroit way old Alec gets his own comeuppance makes for a memorable ending. Any Ealing Comedy, especially those starring Guinness, is worth watching and this crazy caper is definitely one of them.

PimpinAinttEasy THE LAVENDER HILL MOB is a wonderful heist comedy that preceded THE LADYKILLERS by 4 years. Alec Guiness and Stanley Holloway are pretty square masterminds of a bullion robbery where everything seems to be going fine until a bunch of English school girls thwart their well laid out plans. Much hilarity ensues.The plotting is brilliant with some truly hilarious and surprising twists to the story. Especially the "surprise" at the end. There is a brilliant car chase and nearly everything about this movie was perfect. There is hardly a false note anywhere, not even in the most outrageously funny scenes.(10/10)