Yet another quirky, fun Ealing Comedy with main man Alec Guinness again taking the lead as the dull, downtrodden gold bullion inspector who waits twenty years to come up with a foolproof inside-job heist to foster his dream of living it up in some exotic South American country. His unlikely accomplices are old lags Sid James and Alfie Bass, while his right hand man is antique reproducer Stanley Holloway who unwittingly inspires Guinness's gold-plated idea for concealing the goods.
As ever, it's all very stylish and yet knockabout stuff, from the bizarre way Guinness and Holloway "advertise" their need for their henchmen, the crazy mixed-up car chase through London, their dizzying race down the Eiffel Tower, the visit to the young girls school to attempt to get back the six golden Eiffels, another crazy mixed-up chase at the Police Training School not to mention the delightfully concise and unexpected resolution at the end.
Within these disparate elements there are many memorable details which just stick in the brain like Guinness reading pulp fiction to his avid OAP landlady, a fully tied up and gagged Guinness throwing himself on the ground and into the Thames to make the robbery look real, Holloway's absent-minded pilfering of a street trader's painting ("It was a Landseer last week!"), which jeopardises the operation, Guinness's escape in and out of a London Tube Station to escape the pursuing policemen, Guinness and Holloway's hilarious attempts to board a boat in the face of French red-tape inscrutability and even a blink and you'll miss it cameo by a very young Audrey Hepburn as a grateful chanteuse down Mexico way, all this and more might give you an idea of the structured yet skittish way it's all knitted together, although what a crazy patchwork quilt it is in the end.
Best not to examine the plot strands too much and how they go together, just go with the flow as they say and savour in particular Guinness's admirable submersion in his role as well as director Crichton's breakneck direction style - especially the descent from the Eiffel Tower which will have you reeling.
I rather agree with the sentiment that they should have all, or at least Guinness, gotten away with it, but I suppose the "crime doesn't pay" moral was important for the austere times, although as I said earlier the adroit way old Alec gets his own comeuppance makes for a memorable ending.
Any Ealing Comedy, especially those starring Guinness, is worth watching and this crazy caper is definitely one of them.
As ever, it's all very stylish and yet knockabout stuff, from the bizarre way Guinness and Holloway "advertise" their need for their henchmen, the crazy mixed-up car chase through London, their dizzying race down the Eiffel Tower, the visit to the young girls school to attempt to get back the six golden Eiffels, another crazy mixed-up chase at the Police Training School not to mention the delightfully concise and unexpected resolution at the end.
Within these disparate elements there are many memorable details which just stick in the brain like Guinness reading pulp fiction to his avid OAP landlady, a fully tied up and gagged Guinness throwing himself on the ground and into the Thames to make the robbery look real, Holloway's absent-minded pilfering of a street trader's painting ("It was a Landseer last week!"), which jeopardises the operation, Guinness's escape in and out of a London Tube Station to escape the pursuing policemen, Guinness and Holloway's hilarious attempts to board a boat in the face of French red-tape inscrutability and even a blink and you'll miss it cameo by a very young Audrey Hepburn as a grateful chanteuse down Mexico way, all this and more might give you an idea of the structured yet skittish way it's all knitted together, although what a crazy patchwork quilt it is in the end.
Best not to examine the plot strands too much and how they go together, just go with the flow as they say and savour in particular Guinness's admirable submersion in his role as well as director Crichton's breakneck direction style - especially the descent from the Eiffel Tower which will have you reeling.
I rather agree with the sentiment that they should have all, or at least Guinness, gotten away with it, but I suppose the "crime doesn't pay" moral was important for the austere times, although as I said earlier the adroit way old Alec gets his own comeuppance makes for a memorable ending.
Any Ealing Comedy, especially those starring Guinness, is worth watching and this crazy caper is definitely one of them.