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The Lavender Hill Mob, a review by Jon

The Lavender Hill Mob
5 out of 5


A meek bank clerk who oversees the shipment of bullion joins with an eccentric neighbour to steal gold bars and smuggle them out of the country as miniature Eiffel Towers.

T.E.B. Clarke won a deserved Academy Award for this marvellous screenplay. Still clearly post-war Britain, there are undertones of social and political satire, but it doesn’t detract from a wonderfully funny heist movie. There was a big increase in crime following the war; indeed this was inspired by classic The Blue Lamp with a similar, albeit serious, tone. The police are presented as largely ineffectual (a late scene shows how forward thinking and scientific they are, but are quickly turned into a chaotic mob to the tune of Old MacDonald!), but not unkindly so, which is the enduring skill of Clarke’s films, that he had resolve enough to tear institutions to shreds, but always with a smile. I suppose it says something that the police appear far more professional than they do now!

Of course we no longer reside in “post-war” anything, but the film hasn’t really dated. It’s still an effective heist film with a breezy, hilarious nature that identifies with anyone heading for a mid-life crisis. The premise is infectious. What if you could come up with the perfect crime, exploiting your own daily routine, so you could retire with a fortune? That’s the meticulous plan Alec Guinness has been cooking up for 19 years as fastidious middle-class Henry Holland (or “Dutch” as he asks to be called later on), responsible for transporting gold bullion. He meets jovial Stanley Holloway who makes holiday ornaments and gives Holland the idea of how to shift the gold (disguise it as Eiffel Tower models and ship them to Paris). They quickly ensnare a couple of proper criminals (Sid James and Alfie Bass) and set the plan in motion.

It’s a well done plot, actually authorised by the Bank of England. Clarke asked them how such robbery could take place and they formed a committee to tell him! It bats along and fits such a lot into its short 78 minutes, it feels more substantial yet nothing feels rushed. It even has a framing device. Alec Guinness is telling the story from Rio, where he has been living the high life (a young Audrey Hepburn is there too, the lucky devil!).

Guinness was without a doubt one of the greatest actors of all time and his characterisation of Holland is perfect from note one, right down to mispronounced “r”’s and a wonderful cheeky glee that reveals itself in the briefest of moments. There are so many layers to what would be a very two-dimensional role these days. He is intelligent and passionate (his reading of a crime thriller to his landlady also reveals Clarke’s obvious love for pulp fiction, as he showed in Hue and Cry), yet is happy to be a quiet, subservient, pedantic laughing stock to his colleagues. All part of the plan, yet the tics are so organic, he really is all of those things. Honestly, you could watch this performance time and again. Stanley Holloway is at his best too and the scene where Holland drips the idea into Pendlebury’s mind is superb.

Dependable Charles Crichton directs and as with Hue and Cry, some of the photography is wonderful and he finds all sorts of opportunities to stage some great sequences. The charge down the Eiffel Tower is as brilliant as it is indulgent, as is the farcical car chase.

Great fun and still effective. One of Ealing’s most enduring comedies.

(From A Feeling for Ealing... on March 10th, 2010)

Alice in Wonderland, a review by RossRoy

WHAT THEY SAY

19-year-old Alice returns to the whimsical world she first encountered as a young girl, reuniting with her childhood friends: the White Rabbit, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the Dormouse, the Caterpillar, the Cheshire Cat, and of course, the Mad Hatter. Alice embarks on a fantastical journey to find her true destiny and end the Red Queen's reign of terror.

MY THOUGHTS

No, it's not out on DVD yet. No, I didn't pirate it either. Yes, I did go to the Cinema! Believe it or not.. So, what did I think of Burton's Alice? I'm not so sure. Visually, I found it stunning (except for the 3D - more on that later). I liked the darker palette, the stylized set and all, yet it is all the familiar Alice we're all accustomed to. That should be no surprise for anyone here - I've always said I love Tim Burton's visual style, and Alice delivers in that aspect. Also, I love Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen. She gives her an air of superiority, yet a craziness that I loved. The other actors are good too (well, I'm not too sure about Anne Hathaway's protayal of the White Queen - but the rest of the cast is good enough to compensate). Where I find the movie lacks, is with the actual script. Granted, I haven't seen the original Alice for a while, so I'm not entirely sure what I'm about to say is actually true - but in any case, that's how I felt. As you most probably all know by now, this version takes place about 10 years after the "original" Alice. Well, they didn't have to do it. I'm guessing there are details here and there to make it actually take place 10 years later, yet the fact Alice has all but forgotten it all makes so it's basically the exact same story, told with the same characters just a tad older. I still liked the movie, I was just expecting... more. A different story, more like a reunion movie with Alice who's come back to save the day. Instead, it's Alice comes back to save the day - yet does all the same things she did before, because anyway, she doesn't remember anything. It's really odd. ---- Now the 3D..... ugh! What an absolutely useless piece of crap gimmick! I don't know if it is the fact that Alice was filmed in 2D and the 3D was made after the fact in post production (as opposed to Avatar which was actually filmed in 3D) but I found the 3D totally useless and actually detrimental to the movie. People look like cardboard cutout in most scenes. There's a scene at the beginning of the movie where you have two people talking in front of a big house. When it's a side shot, you see the house is 100 or more feet away from them. When it's a front shot, on top of having them look like cardboard cutout, it look like the house is just a few inches behind them. Also, part of the 3D process involves separating elements into depth levels or panes. Let's say they default to the main actors being at level 0. Well, everything behind them will look ok, it lacks depth, but it is bearable. But everything in front ends up almost flickering being hard to make out actually almost gave me headaches! And the main offense of the 3D on a movie like Alice is that Burton charges the screen with little details all over. But in 3D, I found it very hard to focus on anything other than the "main action". I don't know if they blurred it in post as part of the 3D process or if it's out of focus to begin with, but I hated the effect it gave. I like to look for those little details in Tim Burton's movies, but I could here because of the 3D effect. To think they want to do this with classics.... ugh! No thank! Star Wars in 3D? hahahaha NEVER!!

RATING In 3D: In 2D:

(From RossRoy's Random Viewings on March 28th, 2010)

"Due South" marathon, a review by addicted2dvd

Pizzas And Promises

Another really good episode. This time around I liked the entire storyline. Though I couldn't get over how ugly the outfit that Ray's sister was wearing in this episode. I also think it would have been better if they followed through on the storyline of the pizza delivery kid a little more. Like how he found out that his car was repainted and up for sale again or if he had to face the other kid waiting for him back in jail. Though they really didn't have time for it.

Rating:

(From "Due South" marathon on June 29th, 2009)