Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Freeman This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

SimonJack "The League of Gentlemen" is based on a 1958 novel of the same title by English author John Boland. This film has a stellar cast of leading and great British actors of the mid-to-late 20th century. It was a smash hit in England and played well around the world, including the U.S. Its success inspired the comic series, "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," which itself, led to a 2003 film by the same name. That film, along the lines of the super action heroes genre starred Sean Connery, but it had mixed success and failures at national box offices. The movie is superb, with excellent performances by all. Jack Hawkins plays Lt. Col. Norman Hyde who is a bitter ex-soldier who wants to get even with the government for declaring him surplus and retiring him early from the British Army. But, he read a book about a perfect robbery. So, he spends his last days in the service pouring through records to find the perfect miscreant officers to help him pull off a major bank heist. The movie opens with Hyde hosting the gang to a lavish dinner. They don't know one another. Hyde invited them each with half a 5-pound note and the promise to give the other half on their meeting. The story develops from there. There is some excellent acting in this film by British standouts Hawkins and others. Nigel Patrick is Major Peter Race, Roger Livesey is Captain Mycroft (aka, "Padre"), Richard Attenborough is Lt. Edward Lexy and Bryan Forbes is Captain Martin Porthill. Forbes also wrote the screenplay for the film. I checked this review as a spoiler for the following criticism. How could the London Police and Scotland Yard solve this case and arrest the gang in just 12 hours? I'm not against their capture instead of getting away. But getting caught the same day the robbery took place? This is a heist that was perfectly planned. As good as Scotland Yard and the London City Police may be, the story asks the audience to believe that they could solve the crime and apprehend the crooks in just 12 hours. That's far more unbelievable than the fact of the crime itself. How did the police crack the case? A young boy outside the bank had a habit of writing down vehicle license plate numbers. He wrote down the number on the truck. Truck licenses differ from those of cars. And the police just happened to come across the boy. A constable, many days earlier, saw the gang working out of the warehouse that Hyde had acquired. He didn't see what they were doing through the open bay door. But the inspector later said that the constable wrote down the license numbers of the truck he saw, and of a car outside. The car was Hyde's. Remember that this takes place in 1960. There were no computers to store police records and data then. Yet, in less than 12 hours the police found the small boy who had written down license numbers. They found the license of the truck he had written down. It had a car license plate, so obviously it was a robbery vehicle. Then, they checked all the notes of all the constables of all the days and weeks before that time. What would lead them to do that? London was a city of 8,000,000 people. How many thousands of constables would have walked beats and made notes in all that time? Why would they have a clue to the bank robbery? Surely, every day any number - perhaps hundreds of constables write down things they think are suspicious. So then, having found the same license number of the truck, they looked up the license number of autos the constable noted in the vicinity and found that of Lt. Col. Hyde's car. And with that, they make the connection that Hyde is the leader of the gang that just robbed the bank. So, they surround his home where they know they will capture the gang. And all of this in less than 12 hours. For a realistic account of a superb police effort to solve a crime, I recommend the movie, "Patriot's Day." Made just three years after the 2013 bombing of the Boston Marathon, that film chronicles the tremendous efforts to find the terrorists. The Boston police, neighboring police, and FBI pulled out all stops. Aiding them in this were several high tech things. They had computers that could check records and data. Cameras on the street helped them spot the likely suspects planting the bombs. They traced cell phones of school friends of the youngest terrorist. Yet, with that superb police work, with much sophisticated equipment, in a city and area only a third the population and size of London in 1960, it still took four days to capture the culprits. The unbelievable time for solving the crime aside, this is a very enjoyable film. Here are some favorite lines. For more, see the Quotes section under this IMDb Web age of the movie. Lt. Col. Hyde, "Enjoy your meal, gentlemen. You know the old saying, 'The rich man eats when you will, a poor man when you can.'" Lt. Col. Hyde, "Oh, one can't bother cooking for oneself."Major Race, "Well, remember rule two, old darling. Never get ahead of the mob. They're liable to shoot you in the ass.Lt. Col. Hyde, "And you said you weren't nasty." Major Race, "Oh, I'm not. It's just the way my mind works sometimes You know, in vicious circles." Lt. Col. Hyde, "Your presence here restores my basic disbelief in the goodness of human nature."

Leofwine_draca THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN is a classy, black and white British caper film about a group of distinguished gentlemen who team up to commit a daring robbery. In that respect it has much in common with the likes of THE Italian JOB, although THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN could have done with a few more laughs to make it that bit more entertaining; there's a wonderful cast in this one, but it can be a slog in paces.The script is a bit uneven at times and the pacing flags here and there, only really coming to life during the excellent heist scenes. They could have shorn 20 minutes or so off the running time to make this a more exciting production. Still, the ensemble cast is enough to keep you watching, with the likes of Jack Hawkins, Nigel Patrick, Richard Attenborough, and Terence Alexander all excelling in their parts and plenty of smaller roles for familiar faces. A shame about that downbeat ending, though.

chaswe-28402 Beautifully written, superbly acted, perfectly directed, this is a sardonic, satirical, tragi-comic homage to those who served in the British army in the traumatic years of the 1940s and 1950s, whose contributions were to count for nothing in the 1960s. It is right up there with The Bofors Gun and Tunes of Glory. With hindsight it is possible to see these films, and perhaps all British films of this era, as symptomatic of Britain's loss of world status after WWII. There is a moment when Jack Hawkins touches the head of a child's rocking-horse, stored away, as if to indicate that the future has slipped from his grasp. As pointed out in another review, the age of what Muhammad Ali called the little sissies, with their MBEs, was at hand. Those MBEs were justifiably resented by those who had earned theirs legitimately, at the rock-face. One of the sissies, who didn't know what an MBE was, thought he was being called up. A relevant suspicion.It is amusing also to see one reviewer complaining that this film is "talky". From the opening scene, when Hawkins emerges from a sewer, wearing his dinner jacket, the tone of the movie is hit with impeccable precision. The cast comprises at least a dozen outstanding actors, very familiar from other British films, some of whom, like Bryan Forbes and Richard Attenborough, went on to become respected directors.It is not a comedy, but it is ironic. This is a mode still enjoyed by those who relish the wit and keen observation of the manners and morals of a bygone age. The modern film-goer, looking for special effects, expensive scenery, impossible stunts, graphic killings, and generally mindless and pointless violence and idiocy, should go elsewhere. In a sense the film is dated, but it remains datelessly gripping, intriguing and exciting.

Bondek (Bondek) When I first watched this it felt slow to get going but after they dupe the Army it really gets going. Repeated viewings have made the entire movie great. From Jack Hawkins to Nigel Patrick the cast shine brilliantly. A Boys Own tale in a way...the plot is simple ex-Army men who have been disgraced for whatever reason go to rob a bank. The movie builds the plot with comic moments and then it all goes ahead only for the plan to go awry in the most unlikliest of fashions. Excellent scenes are the Army scene. The lines with the private saying to the rumour to get to attention: "Get stuffed." to which David Lodge as the CSM comes in and bellows: "GET WHAT!?" Or the end sequence just before they get caught involving 'Bunny' Warren who has little capacity for alcohol it seems. Sadly, this film is largely forgotten because of the obscene BBC comedy that bears the same name. I wish I had it on DVD, this movie is the beeknees.