The League of Gentlemen
Directed by Basil Dearden
Written by Bryan Forbes from a novel by John Boland
1960/UK
Allied Film Makers
First viewing/FilmStruck

[box] Stevens: It’s like being in school.

Lexy: I sincerely hope not.[/box]

Jack Hawkins leads an all-star British cast in this solid caper film.

Col. Norman Hyde (Hawkins) has recently been retired from the Army and isn’t happy about it.  He has never been in trouble before but that is about to change.  He believes he has developed a fool-proof plan for a bank robbery.  The plan relies on military precision and he gathers a group of disgraced, but expert, ex-Army officers.

The group gets along famously.  In the way of these things, we follow the planning and execution of the rather ingenious heist.  With Roger Livesy, Richard Attenborough, and Nigel Patrick among the robbers, Robert Coote as an old windbag, and Oliver Reed in a tiny uncredited part as a fey chorus boy in a theater production.

This might not be the most exciting heist film ever made but it is thoroughly enjoyable, mostly thanks to the cast.  You are kept guessing at what will happen next throughout and much fun is had at the expense of the army.  The ending didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.

Jack Hawkins was ill with the cancer that would eventually take his larynx during filming. You certainly can’t see it on screen.

Trailer

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