> The idea for The Lavender Hill Mob came to writer T.E.B. Clarke while he was working a script about crooks robbing the Bank of England. Clarke contacted the bank for help and they actually set up a committee to come up with the fictional robbery. Associate producer Michael Truman and director Charles Crichton worked with Clarke on the script, changing it so the men who came up with the plan were the stars. With Alec Guinness and Stanley Holloway cast as the leads, it was obvious that it should be a comedy, since both actors were renowned for their comedic talents. According to Crichton, executive producer Michael Balcon didn't like the idea. "Balcon was doubtful about it, but he'd allow people to go their own way. In Tibby's original story the plot had followed the fate of each Eiffel Tower, so a whole lot of new subsidiary characters [had to be] introduced."

> Many locations used during the film still showed damage from World War II, including the Bank of England at Threadneedle Street, the RAF Northolt airport, the Bramley Arms Pub in the Notting Hill section of London, and various locations along the River Seine and the Eiffel Tower in Paris. While Alec Guinness and Stanley Holloway became close friends while making the film, it wasn't all a pleasant experience. As Guinness remembered in his autobiography, they barely avoided catastrophe while rehearsing the scene in which Guinness and Holloway escape from the Eiffel Tower. Crichton instructed Guinness to run down a spiral staircase, with Holloway following. "A very dizzying sight to the ground greeted me. But I completed half a spiral before I noticed that three feet in front of me the steps suddenly ceased - broken off. I sat down promptly where I was and cautiously started to shift myself back to the top, warning Stanley to get out of the way." When Crichton yelled for him to keep going down, Guinness yelled back 'Further down is eternity!' Stanley and I regained the panoramic view of Paris pale and shaking. No one had checked up on the staircase and no one apologized; that wasn't Ealing policy."

> It all paid off when the film was released. T.E.B. Clarke won an Academy Award® for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay, Alec Guinness was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role, and the British Academy of Film and Television named The Lavender Hill Mob as the Best British Film.

. THE STARS

> Alec Guinness was born Alec Guinness de Cuffe on April 2, 1914 in Marylebone, London. He started his career in advertising while studying acting at the Fay Compton Studio of Dramatic Art. When he was 20, he made his acting debut and by 1936 was performing at the prestigious Old Vic Theater. Guinness served in the Navy during World War II, and after he was released from the service, he began his film career. His first role was in David Lean's Great Expectations (1946), and soon he was starring in comedy films that took advantage of his ability to completely lose himself in a character, whether it was playing an old man or even a woman.

> Following his success in The Lavender Hill Mob, Guinness began working in Hollywood films, including The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), for which he won both the Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Best Actor. For modern audiences, Alec Guinness is best known for playing Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars films. He was later knighted by Queen Elizabeth, becoming "Sir Alec" and remained a highly respected actor and author until his death in 2000.

> Stanley Holloway was a boy singer in a choir and later worked as a porter at a fish market before becoming an actor. He became famous for his comedy roles and for performing monologues. Holloway is best remembered by audiences for The Lavender Hill Mob and for playing Audrey Hepburn's father, the garbage man Alfred P. Doolittle in My Fair Lady (1964), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Supporting Actor. He had also played the role on Broadway and was nominated for a Tony Award® in 1957. Holloway was so identified with the role that he even titled his autobiography With a Little Bit of Luck after the song he sang in the play and film. He died in 1982 at the age of 91.

STARS IN THE MAKING

> 21-year-old Audrey Hepburn had been chosen for a larger part in the film, but she was working in the theater and had to turn it down. Instead, she was given a brief role as "Chiquita." It was only a day's work and she had one line, but Alec Guinness recognized her potential immediately, telling his agent, "I don't know if she can act, but a real film star has just wafted on to the set. Someone should get her under contract before we lose her to the Americans."

> While making How to Steal a Million (1966) in Paris with Peter O'Toole, the stars realized that they had both been in The Lavender Hill Mob, since O'Toole, then a young actor, was working as an extra. Ten years after The Lavender Hill Mob, Peter O'Toole had the lead role in Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and Alec Guinness, who had wanted to play Lawrence for years, had the supporting role of Prince Faisal. Look for Robert Shaw in his film debut, playing a police lab tech.