Evening star., 1951-11-16

Make a note OF T. E. B. Clarke.
He is the man who had the idea
for The Lavender Hill Mob" and
if it is not the perfect remedy
for every ones melancholia, it is
close to it.
However, Clarke was not only
inspired but also lucky in con-
nection with the new melodra-
matte farce now at the Plaza
theater. His luck lay in finding
Alec Guinness to play the leader
of the most hilarious criminal
mob since crime started to pay.
Even the Richard Widmark. Alan
Ladd and Kirk Douglas admirers
will resign to join Guinness fan
club after seeing THE Lavender
Hill Mob"
The refreshingly witty notion
on which the Plaza'S high-spirited
jest is based is what might happen
if the shy, elderly human mice of
the world decided to fight back.
What actually happens as the
story unfolds is that these are
shown to have a brilliant talent
for crime. They. not the master
mobsters. are the humans best
qualified to make monkeys out
of Scotland Yard and to get
away with a Job that Juan
Peron could envy.
X X
1.-The Lavender Hill Mob" is
character and situation farce at
its best.
Central character is Guinness
man. a mousey little clerk who
supervises the hauling of gold
bullion between the London re-
fineries and the city's great banks.
No man could be more self -effac-
ing than this small chap in his
bowler and steel-rimmed spec
tacles, who lives in an elderly
folks hotel on Lavender Hill.
For 19 years, Mr.. Holland has
been on this gold run with ap-
parently never an idea in his
head but to do his job, draw his
pay and retire to his lonely hotel
room. Incredibly, however, he has
had one other idea, namely. how
to make off with a million
dollar load of gold and live a
hellion's life as long as it lasts.
With a change in jobs looming
before him as he gets Older and
more mousey. he lines up few
old Lavender Hill cronies and they
do pull the job. The very pre-
posterousness of it is what they
are counting on to throw sus-
picion elsewhere. No mobSters
ever had more conspicuous sur
face innocence to safeguard them.
K
1t would be outrageously unfair
to a criminal genius like Mr..
Holland to reveal the details of
his master work. Let it be enough
to say that it is a magnificent
piece of farce acting by Guinness.
His Mr.. Holland is not merely the
most unlikely mobster in the an
na.s of crime. he is also its most
conSpicuously talented, courage
Gus and sure of himself.
In his shy way. he has spent
19 years learning that people are
enormous fools. the smartest of
them merely waiting for a chance
to prove it. 1t is from this
premise that he plays the most
amusing game of cat and mouse
that has been made into a movie
in months.
AS it should be. The Lavender
Hill Mob is pretty much a one
man picture and Guinness is the
man. What he has to reveal of the
astounding interior of the COM
mon man is calculated to keep
movie audiences in a state of
unblurred happiness.
AS usual in English films. of
course, there are some corking
lesser portraits, more of them
than usual in this case. Stanley
Holloway as a gewgaw manufac-
turer, Sidney James and Allie
Bass as a couple of aWed safe
crackers, and Marjorie Fielding
as an elderly reader of frightful
crime fiction are among the best
of theSa