The League of Gentlemen

source: The League of Gentlemen

A well-done, exciting film, especially when they steal the weapons from the barracks where they are going to inspect how good it is to eat there, and then the robbery itself, at the bank, through smoke, with machine guns and gas masks. But the end is devastating and disappointing, I do not agree at all with the solution I suppose that Bryan Forbes, the author of the script, had to find. They're all caught up, because a child who collects numbers and letters written on the car plates is writing down those from the truck and Hyde's personal car. Is it contradictory, Hyde was brilliant in everything, the rest of the operation, he thought absolutely everything in the smallest detail, and he did not think of using another car, a stolen one, to not be found? It's awkward!

This has got to be one of the most under-rated caper movies of all time and long overdue for an update/remake. The performances (even in minor roles), plotting and dialogue (written by Bryan Forbes who also took one of the roles)are a joy. In particular the way in which the audience is made to empathize with the ex-army 'criminals' to the extent of experiencing real regret at their ultimate failure is poignant. I wonder if Lord Attenborough (an actor in the film) would be interested in a production role in a remake?

It is a pleasure to watch a league of fine British actors, unfortunately the movie gives us too much time to enjoy each and every one of them instead of cutting to the heist. Basically the heist is a very simple one so most of the movie is about delaying tactics: getting to know everybody, recruiting the unhappy dozen (or so), rehearse in a preliminary setup... This really is old-school cinema, and the ending forcefully drives this point home in case you were daydreaming with the crew. Does not deserve your time, unless you are required to study some of the great actors in the cast.

What a wonderful short review from Stewart Naunton, above! I thought this was just a sleeper movie that only I appreciated. The gentlemen in question are men who were very good in the War but not very successful or appreciated between wars. What is more appropriate than that they extract a long-deserved payment by plotting and executing this intricate caper? This is a movie with a deep moral message. The robbers are in the right, and it is a real shame that these heroes, for heroes they are, have to get nabbed at the end of the film. By rights they should not only have got away with their caper, they should have taken back their country from the small minds and souls that had commandeered it. "You Never Had It So Good," was Macmillan's slogan in '59, but these ex-officers seem to have missed out on the fun everyone else is having. They have been shabbily treated by their country and you just have to root for them as they recover their talents and daring. The movie makes a good companion piece for Basil Dearden's 1961 film 'Victim', which is thematically dissimilar but very much the same in appearance and feel.

Another example of how to make a movie.It may seem somewhat out of time now but the detail, characterisation,leave one in total admiration. Jack Hawkins,Nigel Patrick et al perform to the highest level in a movie that has the irony of how chaps like this having been used to their fullest are left to their own devices once re entering civy street where their talents are superfluous .The story bounces along with subtle humour and at the same a level of suspense giving a thoroughly professional feel to whole affair. A splendid movie. no doubt a remake would have Tom Cruise,Harrison Ford,The Rock what a prospect !!

A pretty believable bunch of characters come together at the invitation of their old regimental colonel to preform a daring blank raid he once read in a novel. Some pretty good performances by Hawkins, Bird, Kieron Moore, etc. Some pretty memorable scenes too: the inside of the police van at the end. The meeting in the hall with the ballet rehearsals going on upstairs, the grease-coated frying pan in Jack Hawkins's house. The sudden introduction of the affable silly ass character at the end is a stroke of genius. Watch out for Oliver Reed as the camp ballet dancer. He might have been unknown at the time; he might have only had one line: but he was still a STAR!

Release just 12 days apart and on both sides of the Atlantic were a pair of caper films involving a group of war veterans pulling off a big heist. On the American side was Ocean's Eleven the first and best of the Rat Pack film where Frank Sinatra and his ring-a-ding army pals try to rob five casinos in Las Vegas. And on the British side was Jack Hawkins recruiting The League Of Gentlemen for a caper of his own. We never learn the reason why Hawkins is so disgruntled, but I'm sure it was a good one. And unlike Sinatra who recruited friends Hawkins did some meticulous research and came up with seven total strangers all of whom had disgraced the uniform in some manner. With all their resumes in front of him, Hawkins is sure he's found his crew. And they include Nigel Patrick, Roger Livesey, Richard Attenborough, Bryan Forbes, Kieron Moore, Terence Alexander, and Norman Bird. Ocean's Eleven depended on the chemistry of the players and since all there were buddies in good standing with Sinatra, it had a casual kind of feeling even during the scenes of the actual robbery. In The League Of Gentlemen it was a different kind of chemistry as Hawkins forges a unit together. Not without problems because these guys are by definition individualists who did not take kindly to military discipline in the first place. Besides Hawkins who seemed to like the idea of being back in the army so to speak, the best performances were from Nigel Patrick as the most individual of the lot who gives Hawkins some reasonable concern and Roger Livesey. I don't think Livesey's character would have been allowed on the American cinema as the Code was still in place. He plays a disgraced and defrocked chaplain. When we meet all of them in their dwellings as they get the mysterious invitation to join Hawkins at his club, we see they don't exactly have the best domestic situations going. Part of why they were easy to recruit. This one has to rank as one of Jack Hawkins's stellar cinematic efforts. And it holds up very well for today's audience.

Spoilers herein. I don't know when this genre first appeared -- the `team heist' -- but this surely is the film that defined it as a genre. A team of distinct characters. A genius planner. An incredibly elaborate plan. Lots of group dynamics, including humorous episodes. Some twists. As with a few other British genre-definers, this is as nearly perfect as one can get until the ending. And as with many genres, the ending is malleable. The most recent I have seen is the `Oceans' Eleven' remake, where the crooks get away. Attenborough's acting style is never so plain as here. One can see his theatrical approach to film -- it stretches through all his directing through to `Passage to India.' Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 4: Worth watching.

It takes special talent to take as many solid actors as this and churn out what might be the dullest caper movie I've ever seen. Sure, it starts on a promising note, where we meet all the ex-military men, their wives, their lovers, and their impoverished states. But then we sit through 20 minutes of yabbering from Jack Hawkins. Followed by the goofy raid on the military base, which was neither funny nor suspenseful. Overbearing soundtrack drove me nuts. Instead, listen to Hawkins deliver his lines. Could anyone be surprised he would be diagnosed with throat cancer in a few short years?