The League of Gentlemen (film)
Encyclopedia
The League of Gentlemen is a 1960 British crime film
Crime film
Crime films are films which focus on the lives of criminals. The stylistic approach to a crime film varies from realistic portrayals of real-life criminal figures, to the far-fetched evil doings of imaginary arch-villains. Criminal acts are almost always glorified in these movies.- Plays and films...

 directed by Basil Dearden
Basil Dearden
Basil Dearden was an English film director.-Life and career:Dearden was born at Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex. He graduated from theatre direction to film, working as an assistant to Basil Dean...

 and starring Jack Hawkins
Jack Hawkins
Colonel John Edward "Jack" Hawkins CBE was an English actor of the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s.-Career:Hawkins was born at Lyndhurst Road, Wood Green, Middlesex, the son of master builder Thomas George Hawkins and his wife, Phoebe née Goodman. The youngest of four children in a close-knit family,...

, Nigel Patrick
Nigel Patrick
Nigel Patrick was an English actor and stage director born into a theatrical family.-Biography:...

 and Richard Attenborough
Richard Attenborough
Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough , CBE is a British actor, director, producer and entrepreneur. As director and producer he won two Academy Awards for the 1982 film Gandhi...

. It was based on the 1958 novel
The League of Gentlemen (novel)
The League of Gentlemen is a pulp-fiction novel by English author John Boland.It was made into a film The League of Gentlemen released in 1960, the most successful British film of that year. The title and concepts of the book may have been an influence on The League of Gentlemen comedy group, and...

 by John Boland
John Boland (author)
Bertram John Boland was a British novelist and science fiction author. He lived in East Sussex, on the edge of Ashdown Forest with his wife, Philippa....

 and adapted by Bryan Forbes
Bryan Forbes
Bryan Forbes, CBE is an English film director, actor and writer.-Career:Bryan Forbes was born John Theobald Clarke on 22 July 1926 in Queen Mary's Hospital, Stratford, West Ham, Essex , and grew up at 43 Cranmer Road, Forest Gate, West Ham, Essex .Forbes trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of...

, who also starred in the film. It was made by Allied Film Makers in two months, and distributed by the Rank Organisation
Rank Organisation
The Rank Organisation was a British entertainment company formed during 1937 and absorbed in 1996 by The Rank Group Plc. It was the largest and most vertically-integrated film company in Britain, owning production, distribution and exhibition facilities....

.

Plot

A manhole opens at night in an empty street and out climbs Lieutenant-Colonel
Lieutenant-Colonel (UK)
Lieutenant colonel is a rank in the British Army and Royal Marines which is also used in many Commonwealth countries. The rank is superior to major, and subordinate to colonel...

 Norman Hyde (Jack Hawkins
Jack Hawkins
Colonel John Edward "Jack" Hawkins CBE was an English actor of the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s.-Career:Hawkins was born at Lyndhurst Road, Wood Green, Middlesex, the son of master builder Thomas George Hawkins and his wife, Phoebe née Goodman. The youngest of four children in a close-knit family,...

) in a dinner suit
Black tie
Black tie is a dress code for evening events and social functions. For a man, the main component is a usually black jacket, known as a dinner jacket or tuxedo...

. He gets into a Rolls-Royce
Rolls-Royce Limited
Rolls-Royce Limited was a renowned British car and, from 1914 on, aero-engine manufacturing company founded by Charles Stewart Rolls and Henry Royce on 15 March 1906 as the result of a partnership formed in 1904....

 and drives home. There, he prepares seven envelopes, each containing an American crime paperback called The Golden Fleece, half a £5 note and an unsigned invitation from “Co-operative Removals Limited” to lunch at the Café Royal
Café Royal
The Café Royal was a restaurant and meeting place on 68 Regent Street in London's Piccadilly.-History:The establishment was originally conceived and set up in 1865 by Daniel Nicholas Thévenon, who was a French wine merchant. He had to flee France due to bankruptcy, arriving in Britain in 1863 with...

.

He posts the envelopes to former army officers, each in desperate or humiliating circumstances. They all turn up. Hyde dismisses the waiters and introduces himself. He hands out the second halves of the £5 notes and asks their opinion of the novel, in which a robbery is committed by experts. They show little enthusiasm and he expresses surprise given their backgrounds and asks: “You’re all crooks, aren’t you? Of one kind or another”. Touring the table, pouring out brandy
Brandy
Brandy is a spirit produced by distilling wine. Brandy generally contains 35%–60% alcohol by volume and is typically taken as an after-dinner drink...

, he reveals why they were obliged to leave the British Army and their unenviable present occupations:
  • Major
    Major
    Major is a rank of commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every military in the world.When used unhyphenated, in conjunction with no other indicator of rank, the term refers to the rank just senior to that of an Army captain and just below the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...

     Peter Race (Nigel Patrick
    Nigel Patrick
    Nigel Patrick was an English actor and stage director born into a theatrical family.-Biography:...

    ), a former transport officer who resigned before his black market ring was uncovered in post-World War II
    World War II
    World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

     Hamburg
    Hamburg
    -History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

    . He earns a poor living in unlicensed gambling and lives at the YMCA
    YMCA
    The Young Men's Christian Association is a worldwide organization of more than 45 million members from 125 national federations affiliated through the World Alliance of YMCAs...

    . He prides himself on his breeding and addresses men as “old darling”;

  • Major Rupert Rutland-Smith (Terence Alexander
    Terence Alexander
    Terence Joseph Alexander was an English film and television actor, best known for his role as Charlie Hungerford in the British TV drama Bergerac.-Early life and career:...

    ) is the hen-pecked husband of a wealthy young woman who delights in pulling his strings because he depends upon her money. She has affairs to which he can only turn a blind eye;

  • Captain “Padre” Mycroft (Roger Livesey
    Roger Livesey
    Roger Livesey was a British stage and film actor. He is most often remembered for the three Powell & Pressburger films in which he starred: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, I Know Where I'm Going! and A Matter of Life and Death...

    ) was a quartermaster
    Quartermaster
    Quartermaster refers to two different military occupations depending on if the assigned unit is land based or naval.In land armies, especially US units, it is a term referring to either an individual soldier or a unit who specializes in distributing supplies and provisions to troops. The senior...

     dismissed for public gross indecency
    Gross indecency
    Gross indecency is a UK and Canadian legal term of art which was used in the definition of the following criminal offences:*Gross indecency between men, contrary to section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 and later contrary to section 13 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956.*Indecency with a...

    . He is now a con-man impersonating vicars and priests; he also enjoys lewd books;

  • Captain Martin Porthill (Bryan Forbes
    Bryan Forbes
    Bryan Forbes, CBE is an English film director, actor and writer.-Career:Bryan Forbes was born John Theobald Clarke on 22 July 1926 in Queen Mary's Hospital, Stratford, West Ham, Essex , and grew up at 43 Cranmer Road, Forest Gate, West Ham, Essex .Forbes trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of...

    ) was dishonourably discharged for killing suspected members of EOKA
    EOKA
    EOKA was an anticolonial, antiimperialist nationalist organisation with the ultimate goal of "The liberation of Cyprus from the British yoke". Although not stated in its initial declaration of existence which was printed and distributed on the 1st of April 1955, EOKA also had a target of achieving...

     and now works as a piano player and is a kept man
    Kept man
    A kept man is a man who is financially supported by a wealthy, usually older, person who is neither the man's spouse nor close relative. Men may be kept by either a woman or by another man. Being "kept" could be seen as a form of male prostitution, especially if the relationship has a sexual...

     to middle-aged women;

  • Captain Stevens (Kieron Moore
    Kieron Moore
    Kieron Moore was an Irish film and television actor whose career was at its peak in the 1950s and 1960s...

    ), one-time fascist follower of Oswald Mosley
    Oswald Mosley
    Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet, of Ancoats, was an English politician, known principally as the founder of the British Union of Fascists...

    , is a homosexual running a gymnasium. He needs money to pay a blackmail
    Blackmail
    In common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...

    er (male homosexual acts being illegal at the time);

  • Captain Frank Weaver (Norman Bird
    Norman Bird
    Norman Bird was a British character actor. Often sporting a moustache and an air of worried resignation, he seemed to specialise in downtrodden roles...

    ), formerly of a bomb disposal
    Bomb disposal
    Bomb disposal is the process by which hazardous explosive devices are rendered safe. Bomb disposal is an all encompassing term to describe the separate, but interrelated functions in the following fields:*Military:...

     squad, tried defusing a bomb while drunk, killing four of his soldiers. He has been a teetotaller ever since and owns a small shop fixing clocks and watches, living with his garrulous wife (Doris Hare
    Doris Hare
    Doris Hare MBE was a Welsh actress, best known for her appearances as "Mum" in the popular sitcom On the Buses alongside Reg Varney and Stephen Lewis....

    ) and aging father-in-law;

  • Lieutenant
    Lieutenant
    A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...

     Edward Lexy (Richard Attenborough
    Richard Attenborough
    Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough , CBE is a British actor, director, producer and entrepreneur. As director and producer he won two Academy Awards for the 1982 film Gandhi...

    ), a communications specialist dismissed for selling information to the Russians while in Berlin
    Berlin
    Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

    . He runs a struggling repair shop for radios and fruit machines, illegally reducing the payout on the latter on behalf of criminals.


Hyde tells them he has no criminal record
Criminal record
A criminal record is a record of a person's criminal history, generally used by potential employers, lenders etc. to assess his or her trustworthiness. The information included in a criminal record varies between countries and even between jurisdictions within a country...

 himself but does have a grievance for being made redundant by the army after a long career. He intends to rob a bank using the team's skills, with equal shares of £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...

100,000 or more for each man. He asks them to consider his proposal.

Major Race follows Hyde home. He is interested, but warns Hyde to keep an eye on the others. Hyde agrees, yet insists each man receive an equal share because, “the one, sure way to disaster is for someone to get greedy”. Race agrees, smiles, and says Hyde is “losing a friend, but gaining a second-in-command”, "I'll settle for that."

The gang meet under the guise of an amateur dramatic society rehearsing Journey’s End to discuss the plan before moving into Hyde’s house and living a military regime of duties and fines, £100 to £500, to be deducted from the haul. Hyde knows that a million pounds in used notes is regularly delivered to a City of London
City of London
The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...

 bank and has details of the delivery. What they need now is equipment to pull off the robbery.

They raid an army training camp in Dorset
Dorset
Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...

 for arms and supplies. Hyde, Mycroft, Porthill and Race distract soldiers by posing as senior officers on an unscheduled food inspection. The others steal weapons while posing as telephone repairmen, speaking in Irish
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 accents to divert suspicion to the IRA.

After that they use a rented warehouse to prepare. Race steals transport including cars and a truck and false number plates
Vehicle registration plate
A vehicle registration plate is a metal or plastic plate attached to a motor vehicle or trailer for official identification purposes. The registration identifier is a numeric or alphanumeric code that uniquely identifies the vehicle within the issuing region's database...

 are made. In Hyde’s basement, the gang train with maps and models, disturbed by the chance passing of a policeman who offers to keep an eye on their premises as he patrols. On the eve of the operation, Hyde destroys the plans and sighs, reminded of his days of military glory. The robbery is bloodless and precise. Using smoke bombs, sub-machine guns and radio jamming
Radio jamming
Radio jamming is the transmission of radio signals that disrupt communications by decreasing the signal to noise ratio. Unintentional jamming occurs when an operator transmits on a busy frequency without first checking whether it is in use, or without being able to hear stations using the frequency...

 equipment, the gang raids the bank, near St Paul’s
St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral, London, is a Church of England cathedral and seat of the Bishop of London. Its dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in AD 604. St Paul's sits at the top of Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London, and is the mother...

. The loot is seized without serious injury and the robbers escape. At Hyde’s house, celebrations are interrupted by the unexpected arrival of Hyde’s old friend, Brigadier
Brigadier
Brigadier is a senior military rank, the meaning of which is somewhat different in different military services. The brigadier rank is generally superior to the rank of colonel, and subordinate to major general....

 “Bunny” Warren (Robert Coote
Robert Coote
Robert Coote was an English actor. He played aristocrats or British military types in many films, and created the role of Colonel Hugh Pickering in the long-running original Broadway production of My Fair Lady.-Biography:Coote was educated at Hurstpierpoint College in Sussex...

), who drunkenly recalls the old days. One by one the members leave carrying money filled suitcases. Then the telephone rings: Hyde is told that police and soldiers surround the house.

Leading the police is Superintendent
Superintendent (police)
Superintendent , often shortened to "super", is a rank in British police services and in most English-speaking Commonwealth nations. In many Commonwealth countries the full version is superintendent of police...

 Wheatlock (Ronald Leigh-Hunt
Ronald Leigh-Hunt
Ronald Leigh-Hunt was a British film and television actor.His father was a stockbroker and he attended the Italia Conti Academy. He began acting whilst serving in the army...

) from whom Hyde learns the flaw in his plan. A small boy outside the bank had been collecting car registration (licence plate) numbers, a common hobby at the time. The police, discovering the number, found it had been noted by the policeman who visited the warehouse, who had also noted the number of Hyde's own car. Thus a link was formed between the robbery and Hyde.

Hyde is escorted to a Black Maria in which the League of Gentlemen are, “all present and correct”, each having been captured as they left the house.

Cast

  • Jack Hawkins
    Jack Hawkins
    Colonel John Edward "Jack" Hawkins CBE was an English actor of the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s.-Career:Hawkins was born at Lyndhurst Road, Wood Green, Middlesex, the son of master builder Thomas George Hawkins and his wife, Phoebe née Goodman. The youngest of four children in a close-knit family,...

     as Lieutenant-Colonel
    Lieutenant-Colonel (UK)
    Lieutenant colonel is a rank in the British Army and Royal Marines which is also used in many Commonwealth countries. The rank is superior to major, and subordinate to colonel...

     Norman Hyde
  • Nigel Patrick
    Nigel Patrick
    Nigel Patrick was an English actor and stage director born into a theatrical family.-Biography:...

     as Major
    Major (UK)
    In the British military, major is a military rank which is used by both the British Army and Royal Marines. The rank insignia for a major is a crown...

     Peter Race
  • Roger Livesey
    Roger Livesey
    Roger Livesey was a British stage and film actor. He is most often remembered for the three Powell & Pressburger films in which he starred: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, I Know Where I'm Going! and A Matter of Life and Death...

     as Captain "Padre
    Padre
    Padre may refer to:* Partnership for Acid Drainage Remediation in Europe PADRE* An IDE for the Perl programming language, see Padre * A Military Chaplain* A member of the San Diego Padres baseball team...

    " Mycroft
  • Richard Attenborough
    Richard Attenborough
    Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough , CBE is a British actor, director, producer and entrepreneur. As director and producer he won two Academy Awards for the 1982 film Gandhi...

     as Lieutenant
    First Lieutenant
    First lieutenant is a military rank and, in some forces, an appointment.The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations , but the majority of cases it is common for it to be sub-divided into a senior and junior rank...

     Edward Lexy
  • Bryan Forbes
    Bryan Forbes
    Bryan Forbes, CBE is an English film director, actor and writer.-Career:Bryan Forbes was born John Theobald Clarke on 22 July 1926 in Queen Mary's Hospital, Stratford, West Ham, Essex , and grew up at 43 Cranmer Road, Forest Gate, West Ham, Essex .Forbes trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of...

     as Captain Martin Porthill
  • Kieron Moore
    Kieron Moore
    Kieron Moore was an Irish film and television actor whose career was at its peak in the 1950s and 1960s...

     as Captain Stevens
  • Terence Alexander
    Terence Alexander
    Terence Joseph Alexander was an English film and television actor, best known for his role as Charlie Hungerford in the British TV drama Bergerac.-Early life and career:...

     as Major Rupert Rutland-Smith
  • Norman Bird
    Norman Bird
    Norman Bird was a British character actor. Often sporting a moustache and an air of worried resignation, he seemed to specialise in downtrodden roles...

     as Captain Frank Weaver
  • Robert Coote
    Robert Coote
    Robert Coote was an English actor. He played aristocrats or British military types in many films, and created the role of Colonel Hugh Pickering in the long-running original Broadway production of My Fair Lady.-Biography:Coote was educated at Hurstpierpoint College in Sussex...

     as Brigadier
    Brigadier
    Brigadier is a senior military rank, the meaning of which is somewhat different in different military services. The brigadier rank is generally superior to the rank of colonel, and subordinate to major general....

     "Bunny" Warren
  • Melissa Stribling
    Melissa Stribling
    Melissa Stribling was a Scottish film and television actress.- Career :Born in Gourock, Scotland, her career began with the film Wide Boy , Stribling is known for playing the role of Mina in the horror film Dracula starring Christopher Lee in the title role...

     as Peggy
  • Nanette Newman
    Nanette Newman
    -Early life:Newman was born in Northampton, England. She was educated at Sternhold College, the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts stage school and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.-Career:...

     as Elizabeth Rutland-Smith
  • Lydia Sherwood
    Lydia Sherwood
    -Selected filmography:* Adventures of Don Quixote * The King of Paris * Little Friend * Spring in the Air * Midnight at Madame Tussaud's * The Four Just Men * When We Are Married...

     as Hilda
  • Doris Hare
    Doris Hare
    Doris Hare MBE was a Welsh actress, best known for her appearances as "Mum" in the popular sitcom On the Buses alongside Reg Varney and Stephen Lewis....

     as Molly Weaver

  • David Lodge
    David Lodge (actor)
    David William Frederick Lodge was a British character actor.Before turning to acting he worked as a circus clown...

     as C.S.M.
    Company Sergeant Major
    A company sergeant major is the senior non-commissioned soldier of a company in the armies of many Commonwealth countries, responsible for standards and discipline. In combat, his prime responsibility is the supply of ammunition to the company...

  • Patrick Wymark
    Patrick Wymark
    Patrick Wymark , was a British, stage, film and television actor.-Early life:Born Patrick Carl Cheeseman in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, England...

     as Wylie
  • Gerald Harper
    Gerald Harper
    Gerald Harper is an actor, best known for his work on television, having played the title roles in Adam Adamant Lives! and Hadleigh ....

     as Captain Saunders
  • Brian Murray as Private
    Private (rank)
    A Private is a soldier of the lowest military rank .In modern military parlance, 'Private' is shortened to 'Pte' in the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries and to 'Pvt.' in the United States.Notably both Sir Fitzroy MacLean and Enoch Powell are examples of, rare, rapid career...

     "Chunky" Grogan
  • Terence Edmond
    Terence Edmond
    Terence Edmond was an English actor, who played PC Ian Sweet in 78 episodes of Z-Cars between 1962 and 1964....

     as Young PC (uncredited)
  • Nigel Green
    Nigel Green
    Nigel Green was a South African-born English character actor. Because of his strapping build and commanding demeanour he would often be found playing military types and men of action in such classic sixties films as Jason and the Argonauts, Zulu, Tobruk and The Ipcress File.-Early life and...

     as Kissing Man (uncredited)
  • Patrick Jordan
    Patrick Jordan
    -Selected filmography:* Companions in Crime * No Smoking * The Battle of the River Plate * Cloak Without Dagger * The Man Upstairs * The Angry Hills * The League of Gentlemen...

     as Sergeant (uncredited)
  • Dinsdale Landen
    Dinsdale Landen
    Dinsdale James Landen was a British actor known mainly for his television appearances.Landen was born at Margate. He made his television debut in 1959 as Pip in an adaptation of Great Expectations and made his film debut in 1960, with a walk-on part in The League of Gentlemen...

     as Young man in gym (uncredited)
  • Ronald Leigh-Hunt
    Ronald Leigh-Hunt
    Ronald Leigh-Hunt was a British film and television actor.His father was a stockbroker and he attended the Italia Conti Academy. He began acting whilst serving in the army...

     as Police Superintendent
    Superintendent (police)
    Superintendent , often shortened to "super", is a rank in British police services and in most English-speaking Commonwealth nations. In many Commonwealth countries the full version is superintendent of police...

     (uncredited)
  • Oliver Reed
    Oliver Reed
    Oliver Reed was an English actor known for his burly screen presence. Reed exemplified his real-life macho image in "tough guy" roles...

     as Chorus Boy (uncredited)
  • Norman Rossington
    Norman Rossington
    Norman Rossington was an English actor best remembered for his roles in The Army Game, the Carry On films and the Beatles film A Hard Day's Night.-Early life:...

     as Staff Sergeant
    Staff Sergeant
    Staff sergeant is a rank of non-commissioned officer used in several countries.The origin of the name is that they were part of the staff of a British army regiment and paid at that level rather than as a member of a battalion or company.-Australia:...

     Hall (uncredited)
  • Bruce Seton
    Bruce Seton
    Major Sir Bruce Lovat Seton of Abercorn, 11th Baronet , better known as Bruce Seton, was a British actor and soldier....

     as AA Patrolman (uncredited)
  • Basil Dearden
    Basil Dearden
    Basil Dearden was an English film director.-Life and career:Dearden was born at Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex. He graduated from theatre direction to film, working as an assistant to Basil Dean...

     as Blackmailer (uncredited)


Production

Allied Film Makers was a short-lived production company founded by Dearden, actors Hawkins, Forbes and Attenborough and producer Michael Relph
Michael Relph
Michael Relph was a British art director and producer. He was the son of actor George Relph....

. Forbes contributed many of the company's scripts. Dearden had previously directed The Blue Lamp
The Blue Lamp
The Blue Lamp is a British crime film released in early 1950 by Ealing Studios, directed by Basil Dearden and produced by Michael Balcon. It stars Jack Warner as police constable George Dixon, Jimmy Hanley and Dirk Bogarde in an early role...

.

The portrait of Hyde's wife (he comments "I regret to say the bitch is still going strong") is a close copy of a portrait of Deborah Kerr
Deborah Kerr
Deborah Kerr, CBE was a Scottish film and television actress from Glasgow. She won the Sarah Siddons Award for her Chicago performance as Laura Reynolds in Tea and Sympathy, a role which she originated on Broadway, a Golden Globe Award for the motion picture The King and I, and was a three-time...

 which was used in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is a 1943 film by the British film making team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger under the production banner of The Archers. It stars Roger Livesey, Deborah Kerr and Anton Walbrook. The title derives from the satirical Colonel Blimp comic strip by David...

 in which Roger Livesey (The Leagues "Padre" Mycroft) also starred.

Forbes points out in his commentary on the DVD that in most films of the time Hyde's wife would be described as dead and not dismissed in such as manner. A scene in the script following the dinner party has Hyde, followed by Race, visiting a teenage girl at school — her photo is also on his desk. It is implied that she is his daughter. A scene which did not make the film has Weaver the teetotaller reaching for the brandy after Hyde has left the dinner. Lexy reminds him he shouldn't but Weaver drinks anyway.

In the original script, Race addressed others as "old dear".

Cary Grant
Cary Grant
Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...

 was offered the part of Hyde but turned it down.

Home Media

The film was included, along with three other Dearden films, as part of the box set Basil Dearden’s London Underground by the Criterion Collection

In 2006, a restored version of the film was released as a special edition
Special edition
The terms special edition, limited edition and variants such as deluxe edition, collector's edition and others, are used as a marketing incentive for various kinds of products, originally published products related to the arts, such as books, prints or recorded music and films, but now including...

 DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 in the UK. The extras include a South Bank Show
The South Bank Show
The South Bank Show was a television arts magazine show, originally made by London Weekend Television , presented by Melvyn Bragg, broadcast on ITV and seen in over 60 countries worldwide — including Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United States...

 documentary on Attenborough and a pdf
Portable Document Format
Portable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....

 version of Forbes' original script. An audio commentary for the film was provided by Forbes and his wife Nanette Newman
Nanette Newman
-Early life:Newman was born in Northampton, England. She was educated at Sternhold College, the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts stage school and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.-Career:...

who features in the film as Major Rutland-Smith's wife.

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.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK