Daily Archives: January 6, 2017

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3TQC3YCBC4

Trailer

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Seven Thieves
Directed by Henry Hathaway
Written by Sydney Boehm from a novel by Max Catto
1960/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing/Netflix rental

Tagline: They Will Hold You Like a Pointed Gun! “Al Capone” and “Little Caesar” in the most fabulous robbery that ever rocked Monte Carlo!

The great cast promised a better picture than I got.

Everybody in Cannes loves kindly old “Professor” Theo Wilkins (Edward G. Robinson).  But there is more to the Professor than meets the eye.  He pays recently released convict Paul Mason’s (Rod Steiger) ticket from America and tries to get him interested in his elaborate plan to rob the casino at Monte Carlo.  Paul is intially reluctant but gradually becomes convinced, especially when he is given the role as unquestionable leader of the operation.

The Professor has already lined up a number of accomplices.  These include saxophonist Poncho (Eli Wallach) and exotic dancer Melanie (Joan Collins).  After a slow build-up, we follow the planning and execution of the heist.  With Sebastian Cabot as the director of the casino.

The first half of this movie really dragged for me, the pay-off wasn’t all that exciting, and the film has a really odd ending.  The whole thing feels over-written.  It does have the distinction of being the only film in my memory in which Rod Steiger has a romance.

Seven Thieves was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White.

Trailer