Kal
07-25-2001, 07:59 PM
I have to admit that this is the first time that I have fully-viewed this little classic in the ealing Studios stable, but I do't believe that truelly clouds the statement that I make that this movie is VINTAGE (in the good way). While the picture at times feels dated, it maintains a youth in the main through it's performances and the great chemistry between the gang members. Plus where in other films the so-painfully-obvious fake backgrounds would be a marring on the film quality, here their appearance just adds to the humour without stealing from the image before you. Who cares they've not really running down a spiral staricase on the Eiffel Tower? It's just so damn funny, it doesnt matter!
The basic storyline sees one of the truelly great thesps (Alec Guinness, Rest In Peace dear Sir) camp it slightly as the timid bank clerk Henry Holland who takes care of gold transfer from furnace to bank. It is when he strikes an unlikely friendship with the boarish Stanley Holloway, a tourist trinkets producer, that he hatches the perfect plan to relieve the bank of it's bullion. Needing two accomplices to complete their gang they lure in two career criminals in the form of Alfie Bass and Sid James (god he looks young! and yet so much still the same!). It's all going perfect until incidents in the plan lead to a shift in the gang's course, aiming them straight for jail. Can they pull it off or is their fate already sealed?
One of the key things that sets this apart are the performances; all key performers here are on top form - whether it's the quiet-yet-scheming Guinness, the slightly pompus but caring Holloway, or the comic-undertone presented by Alfie Bass and Sid James (his switch from attack-to-introduction on Guinness was hilarious). This is then boosted further by the relationships with the connection between Guinness and Holloway being believeable and very strong despite the knowledge that they have only met recently, and the ties in the group also follow this line as James and Bass allow them to go to France alone for the gold sale, showing the trust that can arise even amongst thieves. The film cuts in at a perfect time slot of 77 minutes making not over stay welcome, yet it did leave a yearning for it to contine when you get to the slight twist of an ending (you see it coming but it's fantastic when it arrives!).
Finally, as prior mentioned, the picture survives fantastically despite the fact that this film was made half a century ago, with the story still applicable and hilarious in today's society. Once again......VINTAGE!
Did anyone else think Guinness looked like Sellar's Dr Strangelove but without the sunglasses?
*Watch out for a then unknown Audrey Hepburn in the opening scene as a local girl Holland has taken an affectin to*
The basic storyline sees one of the truelly great thesps (Alec Guinness, Rest In Peace dear Sir) camp it slightly as the timid bank clerk Henry Holland who takes care of gold transfer from furnace to bank. It is when he strikes an unlikely friendship with the boarish Stanley Holloway, a tourist trinkets producer, that he hatches the perfect plan to relieve the bank of it's bullion. Needing two accomplices to complete their gang they lure in two career criminals in the form of Alfie Bass and Sid James (god he looks young! and yet so much still the same!). It's all going perfect until incidents in the plan lead to a shift in the gang's course, aiming them straight for jail. Can they pull it off or is their fate already sealed?
One of the key things that sets this apart are the performances; all key performers here are on top form - whether it's the quiet-yet-scheming Guinness, the slightly pompus but caring Holloway, or the comic-undertone presented by Alfie Bass and Sid James (his switch from attack-to-introduction on Guinness was hilarious). This is then boosted further by the relationships with the connection between Guinness and Holloway being believeable and very strong despite the knowledge that they have only met recently, and the ties in the group also follow this line as James and Bass allow them to go to France alone for the gold sale, showing the trust that can arise even amongst thieves. The film cuts in at a perfect time slot of 77 minutes making not over stay welcome, yet it did leave a yearning for it to contine when you get to the slight twist of an ending (you see it coming but it's fantastic when it arrives!).
Finally, as prior mentioned, the picture survives fantastically despite the fact that this film was made half a century ago, with the story still applicable and hilarious in today's society. Once again......VINTAGE!
Did anyone else think Guinness looked like Sellar's Dr Strangelove but without the sunglasses?
*Watch out for a then unknown Audrey Hepburn in the opening scene as a local girl Holland has taken an affectin to*