golden towers
by Douglas Messerli
T. E. B.Clarke (screenplay), Charles
Crichton (director) The Lavender Hill
Mob / 1951
The Lavender Hill
Mob is one of the best of the British Ealing Studios comedies.
That is, until he meets a new neighbor in his Lavender Hill rooming
house. Pendlebury (Stanley Holloway) is a would-be artist who works at a day
job of designing and crafting tourist trinkets made of lead and copper. On a
visit to Pendlebury’s small plant, Holland immediately perceives that the
creation of these metal trophies is not so very different from the creation of
the gold ingots he oversees. Before long he has confided to his new neighbor
his long-planned scheme, who now together plan to steal the truck, melt down
the gold bars, and recast them into small models of the Eiffel Tower, which
Pendlebury sells at the Tower itself in Paris. In search of further
conspirators, the two loudly speak in public of the need of a new lock for
Pendlebury’s safe, and wait out the night for a would-be robber. Two, Lackery
(Sid James) and Shorty (Alfie Bass) show up and are quickly drawn into the
plot.
The delight of this comedy, however, does not lie so much upon the
details of the heist as it does on its hilarious character-types, such as
Lackery, Shorty, Pendlebury and the two elderly landlords of The Lavender Hill
rooming house, Mrs. Chalk (Marjorie Fielding) and Miss Eversham (Edie Martin).
The heist itself goes off almost flawlessly, except for the arrestment
of Pendlebury, who has “accidentally” walked away with a painting in hand. The
truck is easily hijacked by Lackery and Shorty, Holland tied up, blind-folded,
and dizzily falling into the river as an alibi. Indeed, he is hailed as a hero
instead of a suspect. The ingots are melted down and the “golden towers,”
symbol of the wealth the two partners imagine, are cast and sent on to France,
with specific instructions that the boxes should not be opened or sold.
The pair and their conspirators, who have now dubbed themselves The
Lavender Hill Mob, celebrate, as Holland and Pendlebury head off to Paris to
retrieve their stolen loot. It has a nearly flawless heist—except that a clerk
has opened one of the boxes and sold six of the golden Eiffel Towers to a flock
of English school girls visiting the Tower itself. In horror, the two
middle-aged villains rush after them, racing down the nearly endless circle of
stairs in a marvelous dizzying fall that literally puts them (and the camera)
into a spin. But it is too late.
Yet Holland escapes with his six “golden towers,” just enough to give
him his wonderful year in the utopian world that Brazil here represents.
Despite his capture, accordingly, he has—perhaps for the first time in his
life—thoroughly enjoyed the experience, becoming of figure of great admiration
and largesse. Although prison may be in store for Holland, it can be no worse
than the prison of his own making in which lived for the twenty years before he
made his miraculous break into the “gay, sprightly, land of mirth and social
ease.” Crime has paid, if only temporarily.
Los Angeles, July 8, 2012
Reprinted from World Cinema Review (July2012).
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