It turns out that Holland is an extremely patient actor, waiting for his chance to arrange a robbery of the transport. Opportunity knocks in the form of fellow tenant Pendlebury (Stanley Holloway), a souvenir maker and exporter. They enlist professional thieves Lackery (Sidney James) and Shorty (Alfie Bass), and scheme to steal the bullion, smelt it, and ship it out of the country in the form of tourist trinkets. This being a comedy, their plans unravel, but hope persists that their illict plot will come off.

The Lavender Hill Mob met with strong commercial success, and it fared even better with critics. It won Best British Film from the British Academy Awards. It also did exceedingly well at the anglophile Oscars, winning Best Story and Screenplay (T.E.B. Clarke). Guinness was nominated as Best Actor.

The Lavender Hill Mob also has one of Audrey Hepburn's first speaking roles. Two years later before Roman Holiday made her a star, she has a small part in the film's opening scenes. Noted British supporting actor Peter Bull as has a cameo. He also had small roles in The African Queen and Scrooge that year.

Director Charles Crichton continued to make films for years thereafter, often for British television. Battle of the Sexes (1959) is my favorite of those films of his that I have seen. However, he is best remembered for his final movie, A Fish Called Wanda, also a heist comedy.

Now comes the painful part of the review. Admittedly, I am not British, but I did not enjoy The Lavender Hill Mob. I was glad when it ended. The humor was sadly lost on me, as my mind buzzed with the plot's improbabilities:

The gold Eiffel Tower souvenirs are successfully shipped to France. But instead of posting a confederate there, they are unwittingly sold, just moments before the arrival of Holland and Pendlebury. The one tower that is not recovered just happens to be given to a police officer at the station, at the same time that a demonstration is current on how to separate gold from its alloy. And so on, and so forth. Hilarious to one party is preposterous to another, with the gap between as wide as the Atlantic Ocean.