The Lavender Hill Mob

Henry Holland is a timid, long-serving bank clerk whose job involves supervising the movement of gold bullion. After years of quiet routine he works out a plan to steal a shipment, and he finds the partner he needs in Albert Pendlebury, an eccentric neighbour who runs a workshop making metal souvenirs. The gold is recast as small Eiffel Tower trinkets and sent abroad as harmless curiosities. The scheme works, until some of the towers reach the wrong hands.

Charles Crichton directed the film from a screenplay by T. E. B. Clarke, with Michael Balcon producing for Ealing Studios. It was Crichton's second feature, following Dead of Night in 1945 among the six films listed for him, and it came long before A Fish Called Wanda. Alec Guinness plays Holland opposite Stanley Holloway as Pendlebury, with Sidney James, Alfie Bass, Marjorie Fielding and Edie Martin among the credited cast of thirty-three.

Released in the summer of 1951 and running seventy-eight minutes, the comedy crime film earned an 8.3 out of 10 from seventy-two critics' reviews. On IMDb it holds 7.5 from around 17,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.2 from just under 300 votes, so audiences rate it somewhat lower than critics while still regarding it favourably.