The Lavender Hill Mob is a 1951 British comedy film from Ealing Studios, written by T. E. B. Clarke, directed by Charles Crichton, starring Alec Guinness and Stanley Holloway and featuring Sid James and Alfie Bass. The title refers to Lavender Hill, a street in Battersea, a district in London SW11, near to Clapham Junction railway station. It was one of the first films to feature Audrey Hepburn, in a minor role.

The British Film Institute ranked The Lavender Hill Mob the 17th greatest British film of all time. The original film was digitally restored and re-released to UK cinemas on 29 July 2011 to celebrate its 60th anniversary. It is one of fifteen films listed in the category "Art" on the Vatican film list.

Plot

Henry "Dutch" Holland lives the life of luxury in Rio de Janeiro, and spends an evening dining out with a British visitor. During their meal, he narrates a story concerning how he changed his life by instigating an intricate gold bullion robbery. One year ago, Holland served as an unambitious London bank clerk, who for twenty years was in charge of gold bullion deliveries. Although dedicated to his job with a reputation for fussing over details, he had begun to devise a scheme to steal a consignment of gold bullion. His plan was missing a way to sell the gold because the black market in Britain would be too risky; he did not yet know how to smuggle it abroad.

One evening at his boarding house in Lavender Hill, he meets with artist Alfred Pendlebury, who has taken up lodgings in the building. He learns that Pendlebury owns a foundry that makes presents and souvenirs that are sold in holiday destinations, one of which is Paris.

Realizing that Pendlebury is the key to his plan's success, Holland explains his scheme to the artist who agrees to help. When the clerk discovers he is due to be transferred to another bank department, the pair put their plan into immediate action, recruiting the aid of petty thieves Lackery Wood and Shorty Fisher. On the day of the robbery, Wood and Fisher hijack the bullion van and switch the gold to one of Pendlebury's works vans. Holland then assumes the role of an unfortunate victim who is hailed as a hero for raising the alarm, after nearly drowning by accident. As his associates melt down the gold bullion and recast it as Eiffel Tower paperweights to be exported abroad, Holland gives false statements and misleading clues to the police, led by Inspector Farrow. The group soon toast to their success, despite Wood and Fisher being unable or unwilling to travel to Paris to collect their share in person, entrusting the other two to provide it.

The day after their last consignment of stolen gold is sent to Paris, Holland and Pendlebury head to France to retrieve them from a souvenir kiosk atop the Eiffel Tower supplied by Pendlebury's firm. They are horrified when they find one of the boxes containing the golden paperweights has been opened by mistake and six have been sold to a group of English schoolgirls. The pair make a wild chase to pursue them back to Britain, manage to track down the schoolgirls, but only get back five of the paperweights. The girl holding the sixth one refuses, intending it as a gift to a policeman she is friends with. Holland and Pendlebury pursue the girl, and watch in horror as the paperweight is brought to an exhibition of police history and methods at Hendon Police College. Holland's worst fears come true when Farrow, having begun to realize the truth, spots the paperweight and orders a chemical test on it.

Left with no choice, Holland snatches it, and he and Pendlebury make their escape in a stolen police car. A confusing pursuit begins across London, as Holland uses the car's radio to feed false, misleading information to the officers pursuing the pair. They find themselves forced to offer a passing police officer a lift, causing them to be discovered. As Pendlebury becomes trapped, Holland escapes with the six golden paperweights, which leave him with a tidy sum to enjoy a new life. Back in Rio, after finishing his tale to his visitor, Holland admits that the money is now all gone. As the pair walk out, it is revealed that Holland is handcuffed to the man and has been arrested for his crime.

Cast

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