The League of Gentlemen (film)
| The League Of Gentlemen | |
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 DVD cover |
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| Directed by | Basil Dearden |
| Written by | John Boland (novel) Bryan Forbes (screenplay) |
| Starring | Jack Hawkins Nigel Patrick Roger Livesey |
| Distributed by | Allied Film Makers |
| Release date(s) | 1960 |
| Country |  UK |
| Language | English |
The League Of Gentlemen is a 1960 British crime film, directed by Basil Dearden. It was based on the 1958 novel by John Boland, and was adapted by Bryan Forbes (who also starred in it). The film was made through Allied Film Makers in just two months and was distributed by the Rank Organisation, premièring in 1960.
It was one of the first English films to have all the elements of the successful 1950s U.S. heist films, although with a distinctly English tinge. Unlike many heist thrillers, this film is remarkably non-violent, and the robbery itself relies more on planning and thorough preparation than brute force. It was the most successful British film of the year.
A fully restored edition of the movie was released as a Special Edition DVD in the UK in 2006. Extra features on the DVD included a South Bank Show documentary.
Synopsis
It is night-time on an empty street. A manhole cover opens from below, and out climbs Lieutenant-Colonel Norman Hyde (Jack Hawkins) immaculately dressed in a dinner suit. He gets into a Rolls-Royce and sets off home. There he prepares various envelopes each containing a copy of an American crime paperback entitled The Golden Fleece, one-half of a £5 note, and an invitation from "Co-operative Removals Limited" to a lunch at the Café Royal.
These envelopes are posted to various men, former army officers each of whom is in desperate or humiliating circumstances. They all turn up at the Café Royal where, after lunch, Hyde dismisses the waiters and introduces himself (he was careful not to sign the letters). He then hands out the other halves of the £5 notes and asks for their opinion of the book. It tells the story of a robbery committed by a team of men who are experts in various ways. When no-one shows much enthusiasm over it, Hyde expresses surprise given their backgrounds: "You're all crooks, aren't you? Of one kind or another". Touring the table as he pours out the brandy, he reveals why they were obliged to leave the army, their former ranks and specialist skills, which range from simple fighting to bomb-making and quartermastering. He also reveals their present occupations which are far from desirable:
- Major Peter Race (Nigel Patrick), a former transport officer who resigned before the exposure of a black market ring in Hamburg. He makes a poor living through unlicensed gambling and stays over at the YMCA. He prides himself on his good breeding, but has the funny habit of even addressing men as "old darling";
- Major Rupert Rutland-Smith (Terence Alexander), the hen-pecked husband of a wealthy young woman who delights in pulling his strings because he depends on her money. She also enjoys extramarital affairs to which he can only turn a blind eye;
- Captain "Padre" Mycroft (Roger Livesey) who was dismissed for "gross indecency in a public place". He is now a con-man impersonating various religious types such as vicars and priests. He also enjoys lewd books;
- Captain Martin Porthill (Bryan Forbes) who was dishonourably discharged for killing suspected members of the Cypriot EOKA terrorist organisation. He earns money as a piano player and gigolo;
- Captain Stevens (Kieron Moore), a one-time follower of Oswald Mosley he now runs a gym. A homosexual (at a time when such things were still illegal) he needs money to pay off a blackmailer;
- Captain Frank Weaver (Norman Bird), a former member of a bomb disposal squad, he tried to defuse a bomb while drunk. His mismanagement led to the deaths of four of his men and he has been a teetotaller ever since. He runs a pawn shop with his ever-chatting wife and cumbersome father-in-law;
- Lieutenant Edward Lexy (Richard Attenborough), a specialist in communications, he was dismissed for selling information to the Russians while in Berlin and now runs a struggling repair shop for radios and fruit machines.
Hyde then tells them he has no criminal record himself, but has a grievance for being made redundant. He now intends to rob a bank using the collective skills of the team, with equal shares of £100,000 each "or more" (a very large sum in the late 1950s).
He then leaves asking them to seriously consider his proposal. One of them, Race, follows Hyde home. Race is interested in the plan, but he warns Hyde that he might need someone to keep an eye on the others. Hyde agrees but insists that everyone gets an equal share of the loot since "the one sure way to disaster is for someone to get greedy". Over dinner Race finally agrees and with a smile announces that Hyde is "losing a friend, but gaining a second-in-command".
The gang then meets (under the guise of an amateur dramatic society rehearsing Journey's End) to discuss the plan further (and are interrupted by a very camp Oliver Reed) before they all move into Hyde's house, where he imposes a strict military regime under Queen's Regulations, with duties and fines (£100 or £500 deducted from the final haul) for misdemeanours.
The first part of the operation involves a raid on an Army Training Camp in Dorset for arms and supplies — the raid is perpetrated while Hyde, Mycroft, Porthill and Race distract the camp personnel by posing as senior officers conducting an unscheduled food inspection. The team uses Irish accents so that the IRA would be suspected. The gang then sets up a base in a rented warehouse to prepare their vehicles and equipment. In Hyde's basement they train and go through the details of the plan using maps and models. On the evening before the operation, Hyde destroys the plans and sighs; all this has brought him back to the days when he was actually part of military operations.
Using smoke bombs, sub-machine guns and radio jamming equipment, they then carry out an elaborate and dramatic raid on a City of London Bank near St Paul's — "Operation Golden Fleece" — with military precision. The raid is both successful and bloodless, and Hyde and his men escape with the loot.
After the robbery, back at Hyde's house, there is tension as the celebrations are interrupted by the unexpected arrival of an old friend of Hyde's, Brigadier "Bunny" Warren (Robert Coote) who drunkenly recalls the old days. The team members depart one-by-one. Then the telephone rings and Hyde discovers that police and soldiers have surrounded the house. He is told the flaw in his plan: his own car. A passing police officer noted the number plate of his car at the rented warehouse, and a little boy playing outside the bank also noted the number as part of a hobby in collecting car registration numbers(not an unknown). The police also discovered that the number on the van in fact belonged to a private car in Southampton.
Hyde surrenders and is escorted to a Black Maria where he finds the rest of the team "all present and correct."
Cast
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External links
- Reviewed on the Mystery*File blog.
- A discussion of The Post-War British Caper Film on the Mystery*File blog by Tise Vahimagi.
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