The Lavender Hill Mob - wikipedia The Lavender Hill Mob `` Lavender Hill Mob '' redirects here. For the Canadian band, see Lavender Hill Mob ( band ). The Lavender Hill Mob British quad poster Directed by Charles Crichton Produced by Michael Balcon Written by T.E.B. Clarke Starring Alec Guinness Stanley Holloway Music by Georges Auric Cinematography Douglas Slocombe Edited by Seth Holt Distributed by GFD ( UK ) Release date 28 June 1951 ( UK ) Running time 81 minutes Country United Kingdom Language English The Lavender Hill Mob is a 1951 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 of South London, in the postcode district SW11, near to Clapham Junction railway station. 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. Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 4 Awards and honours 5 See also 6 References 7 External links Plot Henry Holland ( Alec Guinness ) is dining with a fellow Briton in a posh restaurant in Rio de Janeiro where he is well known. He relates a story explaining his presence in Rio. It seems he was a seemingly unambitious London bank clerk in charge of gold bullion deliveries for over 20 years. He had a reputation for fussing over details and suspecting all cars he observed following the bullion van, but all in all appeared to be a man dedicated to his job and the gold 's security. In fact, he had hatched the `` perfect '' plot to steal a load of bullion and retire. The one thing stopping him had been that selling the gold on the black market in Britain was too risky, and he was at a loss as to how to smuggle it abroad. One evening a new lodger -- artist Alfred Pendlebury ( Stanley Holloway ) -- arrives at Holland 's boarding house in Lavender Hill. Pendlebury owns a foundry that makes presents and souvenirs that are sold in many resorts, including foreign ones. Noticing how similar the foundry is to the place where the gold is made into ingots, Holland decides that the ideal way of smuggling the gold out of the country would be as Eiffel Tower paperweights sold in Paris, and puts this hypothetically to his new friend : `` By Jove, Holland, it 's a good job we 're both honest men. '' `` It is indeed, Pendlebury. '' When Holland suddenly finds that he is about to be transferred to another department at the bank, he and Pendlebury quickly move into action. They recruit two petty crooks, Lackery Wood ( Sidney James ) and Shorty Fisher ( Alfie Bass ), to help them carry out the robbery. The plan is simple but clever, and it succeeds : Wood and Fisher carry out the hijack of the bullion van and switch the gold to Pendlebury 's works van. Holland, who is supposedly assaulted and almost drowned in the robbery, becomes the hero of the hour. The police find themselves running around in circles, unable to track down the `` master criminal '' who is in fact right under their noses giving them false statements and misleading clues. Meanwhile, Holland and his associates melt the gold in Pendlebury 's foundry and export it to France disguised as miniature Eiffel Towers. The plan goes wrong when the woman running the souvenir kiosk in Paris misunderstands her instructions due to a language mixup ; instead of holding back the specially - marked box of Eiffel Towers, she opens it and puts them out for sale. Pendlebury and Holland, who have adopted the names of `` Al '' and `` Dutch '', arrive to retrieve their disguised bullion only to find that six of the towers have been sold to a party of British schoolgirls. A wild chase back to the Channel ferry follows but all sorts of hold - ups, including problems with the customs men, prevent them from getting to the ship and the girls in time. If just one of those towers is found to be gold then the game is up. Pendlebury and Holland therefore track down the schoolgirls and, in exchange for a similar tower and ten shillings, recover most of the loot. One girl however refuses to return hers since she intends to give it to a friend who is a policeman. The girl delivers the souvenir to the officer, who is at an exhibition of police history and methods at Hendon Police College. Also attending is a police inspector who is investigating the robbery. As part of the case he checked up on Pendlebury 's foundry and was told that many souvenirs bought in foreign places are actually made in Britain. A sudden thought occurs to him and he orders the souvenir to be tested. At that moment Pendlebury snatches it and he and Holland make their escape in a police car. A confused pursuit then takes place through London, with Holland using the radio in the police car to give false descriptions of the vehicle in which the crooks are riding. Eventually, though, an officer succeeds in stopping their car and arresting Pendlebury. Holland escapes to Rio de Janeiro with the six gold towers, worth `` £ 25,000, enough to keep me for one year in the style to which I was, ah, unaccustomed. '' But now, he finishes telling his visitor, the money is mostly gone. As they leave the restaurant, Holland is seen to be handcuffed to his countryman. Cast Alec Guinness as Henry `` Dutch '' Holland Stanley Holloway as Alfred `` Al '' Pendlebury Sid James as Lackery Wood Alfie Bass as Shorty Fisher Marjorie Fielding as Mrs. Chalk Edie Martin as Miss Evesham John Salew as Parkin Ronald Adam as Turner Arthur Hambling as Wallis Gibb McLaughlin as Godwin John Gregson as Farrow Clive Morton as Station Sergeant Sydney Tafler as Clayton Marie Burke as Senora Gallardo Audrey Hepburn as Chiquita William Fox as Gregory Michael Trubshawe as British Ambassador Jacques B. Brunius, Paul Demel, Eugene Deckers and Andreas Malandrinos as Customs Officials Cyril Chamberlain as Commander Moultrie Kelsall as Detective Superintendent Christopher Hewett as Inspector Talbot Meredith Edwards as P.C. Williams Patrick Barr as Divisional Detective Inspector David Davies as City Policeman Desmond Llewelyn as Customs Official ( uncredited ) Richard Wattis as opposition MP ( uncredited ) Cast notes Audrey Hepburn makes an early film appearance in a small role as Chiquita near the start of the film. Robert Shaw also made his first film appearance, playing a police laboratory technician towards the end of the film. English actress Patricia Garwood made her first film appearance in this movie at the age of nine. British 1960s children 's television icon Valerie Singleton also had an uncredited part in the film. Production Screenwriter Clarke is said to have come up with the idea of a clerk robbing his own bank while doing research for the film Pool of London ( 1951 ), a crime thriller surrounding a jewel theft. He consulted the Bank of England on the project and it set up a special committee to advise on how best the robbery could take place. Extensive location filming was made in both London and Paris. The scenes show a London still marked by bomb sites from the Second World War. London, England, UK Bank Underground Station Bank of England, Threadneedle Street Bramley Arms Pub, Bramley Road, Notting Hill ( finale : end of the chase ) Cheapside Carlton Road, Ealing ( zebra crossing on way to police exhibition ) Gunnersbury Park ( police exhibition ) Queen Victoria Street, Blackfriars ( scene of bullion robbery ) RAF Northolt, Ruislip ( airport ) Paris, France River Seine Eiffel Tower In the car chase scene at the end of the film, an officer uses a police box to report seeing a police car being driven by a man in a top hat. In fact, the driver is wearing the uniform of the police as originally set up in 1829 by Sir Robert Peel, known as `` Bobbies '' or `` Peelers. '' The scene where Holland and Pendlebury run down the Eiffel Tower steps and become increasingly dizzy and erratic, as does the camera work, presages James Stewart 's condition in Alfred Hitchcock 's Vertigo, made seven years later. A film montage of sensational newspaper headlines marks the crime as taking place in August 1950. Awards and honours The film won the Academy Award for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay. Guinness was nominated for the award of Best Actor in a Leading Role. The film also won the BAFTA Award for Best British Film. See also 1951 in film BFI Top 100 British films British films of 1951 References Notes Jump up ^ The Guardian 15 July 2011 : Cream of the cockney crop Retrieved 19 April 2012 Jump up ^ Mail on Sunday Jump up ^ The Aurum Film Encyclopedia -- The Gangster Film, edited by Phil Hardy, Aurum Press, 1998 ^ Jump up to : Empire -- Special Collectors ' Edition -- The Greatest Crime Movies Ever, published in 2001 Jump up ^ `` Filming locations '' on IMDB. Retrieved December 2011 Bibliography Vermilye, Jerry. The Great British Films. Citadel Press, 1978. ISBN 0 - 8065 - 0661 - X pp. 147 -- 149 External links Wikiquote has quotations related to : The Lavender Hill Mob The Lavender Hill Mob on IMDb The Lavender Hill Mob at the TCM Movie Database The Lavender Hill Mob at AllMovie The Lavender Hill Mob review at Old Movies The films of Charles Crichton For Those in Peril ( 1944 ) Dead of Night ( segment ) ( 1945 ) Painted Boats ( 1945 ) Hue and Cry ( 1947 ) Against the Wind ( 1948 ) Another Shore ( 1948 ) Train of Events ( segment ) ( 1949 ) Dance Hall ( 1950 ) The Lavender Hill Mob ( 1951 ) Hunted ( 1952 ) The Titfield Thunderbolt ( 1953 ) The Love Lottery ( 1954 ) The Divided Heart ( 1954 ) The Man in the Sky ( 1957 ) Law and Disorder ( 1958 ) Floods of Fear ( 1959 ) The Battle of the Sexes ( 1959 ) The Boy Who Stole a Million ( 1960 ) The Third Secret ( 1964 ) He Who Rides a Tiger ( 1965 ) A Fish Called Wanda ( 1988 ) Films produced by Michael Balcon 1920s The Rat ( 1925 ) The Sea Urchin ( 1926 ) The Triumph of the Rat ( 1926 ) The Lodger : A Story of the London Fog ( 1926 ) The Mountain Eagle ( 1926 ) Blighty ( 1927 ) Downhill ( 1927 ) The Rolling Road ( 1927 ) Easy Virtue ( 1927 ) One of the Best ( 1927 ) The Vortex ( 1927 ) A South Sea Bubble ( 1928 ) A Light Woman ( 1928 ) The First Born ( 1928 ) The Wrecker ( 1929 ) The Return of the Rat ( 1929 ) City of Play ( 1929 ) Taxi for Two ( 1929 ) Woman to Woman ( 1929 ) 1930s Jack 's the Boy ( 1932 ) I Was a Spy ( 1933 ) It 's a Boy ( 1933 ) Friday the Thirteenth ( 1933 ) Princess Charming ( 1934 ) Evergreen ( 1934 ) Red Ensign ( 1934 ) Along Came Sally ( 1934 ) The Man Who Knew Too Much ( 1934 ) Car of Dreams ( 1935 ) First a Girl ( 1935 ) Me and Marlborough ( 1935 ) The 39 Steps ( 1935 ) Stormy Weather ( 1935 ) Things Are Looking Up ( 1935 ) The First Offence ( 1936 ) Tudor Rose ( 1936 ) The Man Who Changed His Mind ( 1936 ) Secret Agent ( 1936 ) Where There 's a Will ( 1936 ) Windbag the Sailor ( 1936 ) Doctor Syn ( 1937 ) A Yank at Oxford ( 1938 ) The Gaunt Stranger ( 1938 ) The Four Just Men ( 1939 ) Cheer Boys Cheer ( 1939 ) 1940s Let George Do It ! ( 1940 ) The Proud Valley ( 1940 ) The Ghost of St. Michael 's ( 1941 ) Ships with Wings ( 1941 ) Turned Out Nice Again ( 1941 ) The Big Blockade ( 1942 ) Went the Day Well ? ( 1942 ) The Black Sheep of Whitehall ( 1942 ) My Learned Friend ( 1943 ) The Foreman Went to France ( 1942 ) Undercover ( 1943 ) The Bells Go Down ( 1943 ) San Demetrio London ( 1943 ) Nine Men ( 1943 ) For Those in Peril ( 1944 ) Champagne Charlie ( 1944 ) The Halfway House ( 1944 ) Fiddlers Three ( 1944 ) Dead of Night ( 1945 ) Pink String and Sealing Wax ( 1945 ) They Came to a City ( 1945 ) Johnny Frenchman ( 1945 ) The Captive Heart ( 1946 ) The Overlanders ( 1946 ) Hue and Cry ( 1947 ) It Always Rains on Sunday ( 1947 ) The Loves of Joanna Godden ( 1947 ) The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby ( 1947 ) Frieda ( 1947 ) Against the Wind ( 1948 ) Saraband for Dead Lovers ( 1948 ) Another Shore ( 1948 ) Scott of the Antarctic ( 1948 ) Passport to Pimlico ( 1949 ) Whisky Galore ! ( 1949 ) A Run for Your Money ( 1949 ) Kind Hearts and Coronets ( 1949 ) 1950s and 1960s Cage of Gold ( 1950 ) The Blue Lamp ( 1950 ) The Magnet ( 1950 ) The Lavender Hill Mob ( 1951 ) Pool of London ( 1951 ) The Man in the White Suit ( 1951 ) Mandy ( 1952 ) The Cruel Sea ( 1953 ) The Maggie ( 1954 ) The Night My Number Came Up ( 1955 ) Touch and Go ( 1955 ) The Ladykillers ( 1955 ) The Long Arm ( 1956 ) Barnacle Bill ( 1957 ) The Man in the Sky ( 1957 ) The Shiralee ( 1957 ) Dunkirk ( 1958 ) The Siege of Pinchgut ( 1959 ) The Scapegoat ( 1959 ) The Long and the Short and the Tall ( 1961 ) BAFTA Award for Best British Film 1947 -- 1967 Odd Man Out ( 1947 ) The Fallen Idol ( 1948 ) The Third Man ( 1949 ) The Blue Lamp ( 1950 ) The Lavender Hill Mob ( 1951 ) The Sound Barrier ( 1952 ) Genevieve ( 1953 ) Hobson 's Choice ( 1954 ) Richard III ( 1955 ) Reach for the Sky ( 1956 ) The Bridge on the River Kwai ( 1957 ) Room at the Top ( 1958 ) Sapphire ( 1959 ) Saturday Night and Sunday Morning ( 1960 ) A Taste of Honey ( 1961 ) Lawrence of Arabia ( 1962 ) Tom Jones ( 1963 ) Dr. Strangelove or : How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb ( 1964 ) The Ipcress File ( 1965 ) The Spy Who Came in from the Cold ( 1966 ) A Man for All Seasons ( 1967 ) 1992 -- present The Crying Game ( 1992 ) Shadowlands ( 1993 ) Shallow Grave ( 1994 ) The Madness of King George ( 1995 ) Secrets & Lies ( 1996 ) Nil by Mouth ( 1997 ) Elizabeth ( 1998 ) East Is East ( 1999 ) Billy Elliot ( 2000 ) Gosford Park ( 2001 ) The Warrior ( 2002 ) Touching the Void ( 2003 ) My Summer of Love ( 2004 ) Wallace & Gromit : The Curse of the Were - Rabbit ( 2005 ) The Last King of Scotland ( 2006 ) This Is England ( 2007 ) Man on Wire ( 2008 ) Fish Tank ( 2009 ) The King 's Speech ( 2010 ) Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy ( 2011 ) Skyfall ( 2012 ) Gravity ( 2013 ) The Theory of Everything ( 2014 ) Brooklyn ( 2015 ) I, Daniel Blake ( 2016 ) Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Lavender_Hill_Mob&oldid=806929317 '' Categories : English - language films 1951 films 1950s comedy films 1950s crime films Best British Film BAFTA Award winners British films British black - and - white films British criminal comedy films British heist films Ealing Studios films Film scores by Georges Auric Films about bank robbery Films directed by Charles Crichton Films produced by Michael Balcon Films set in London Films set in Paris Films whose writer won the Best Original Screenplay Academy Award French - language films Portuguese - language films Screenplays by T.E.B. Clarke Hidden categories : EngvarB from September 2013 Use dmy dates from September 2013 Film articles using image size parameter Talk Contents About Wikipedia Wikiquote Català Deutsch Español فارسی Français Bahasa Indonesia Italiano Македонски Nederlands Norsk Polski Português Русский Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska Українська Edit links This page was last edited on 25 October 2017, at 00 : 20. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: who wrote the score for the lavender hill mob
Answer: Georges Auric