THE LAVENDER HILL MOB

New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 668, 24 April 1952, Page 21

THE LAVENDER HILL MOB

(Rank-Ealing) [HE LAVENDER HILL MOB (directed by Charles Crichton). is a diversion altogether different in kind from An American in Paris-but equally entertaining. It has not the Gershwin show’s youthful candour and innocence (unless you can stretch that to include the "innocent passion for loot" which, according to one authority, is in certain circumstances a ruling British characteristic), but it benefits inestimably from the conjunction of two outstanding comic characters. The visible member of the duo is, of course, the protean Mr. Guinness; the other is the scriptwriter T. E. B. Clarke. Both are essentially humorists-and in my view the worth of a good humorist is above rubies, Clarke’s particular talents as a writer appear to lie in the creation of comic situations. His dialogue does not crackle with wit ‘or wisecrack-though he can write deliciously funny linesbut in his ability to contrive an ineffably complicated yet. smoothly reciprocating

climax he has at present no equal in the British studios, His script for The Lavender Hill Mob-the story of a mild little bank-clerk who, after about 25 years of unblemished rectitude, absconds with an entire vanload of bullion -has not the flashing originality of his Passport to Pimlico, but it has a climax which, in its comic complexity, is worthy of Chaplin. Guinness, as_ usual, is completely submerged in _ his role, and Stanley Holloway as his accomplice in crime measures up remarkably well in such exacting company. I was just sorry that these two cheerful criminals weren’t allowed to get away with it. I don’t think anyone’s morals would have been much harmed-it’s doubtful if even the banks themselves could get their hands on a load of bullion these days.