This is a stylish, cynical, hard yet bittersweet film. Its obviously influenced by the skills brought to Britain from the USA by those writers and directors blacklisted in the 1950s and gained work in the UK bringing a harder edged style of filmmaking that in turn influenced homegrown talent.
Jack Hawkins is a retired army colonel, embittered in retirement and assembles a shady bunch of former officers with a crooked past. They need money and they have army training. The mission is to rob a bank in London and to prepare for it they need to carry out several other jobs.One of them being a raid at an army barracks to steal weapons which they blame on Irish dissidents.
As the film begins we see these rogues in action, some of them living dissatisfied lives or being involved in petty criminal work. The chance of a big score looks like a godsend and they blend well together.
Whereas in the early 1960s we still had films looking back to the war with stiff upper lips and a class structure, round the corner we were going to embark on the kitchen sink dramas heralding social change. The League of Gentleman is almost a bridge between these two styles of filmmaking.
We have the plummy tones of Jack Hawkins as the Colonel, Nigel Patrick as Race calling everyone Darling. To more seedy characters such as Roger Livesey playing a padre with a suitcase full of glamour magazines and once caught arrested for indecency in a public toilet which at that time meant homosexual activities. He is not the only member of the gang who is implied to be gay. Director Basil Dearden made the film the Victim the following year which was upfront about the subject of homosexuality.
Bryan Forbes who wrote and acted in this film is a gigolo, Terence Alexander is a cuckolded husband. Right from the off you see what looks like real people, who served in the war, made mistakes, some several times and struggling in Civvy Street. The hard edge continues during the bank robbery scene where the gang don gas masks and come in heavily armed.
The film has elements of comedy as well, its not just an action thriller. Its very well acted, sharply written and due to the censorship laws of the time where the bad guys could not be seen to be getting away with their crimes. It really is a sucker punch that the Colonel's meticulous planning could not had anticipated that is their undoing.
Jack Hawkins is a retired army colonel, embittered in retirement and assembles a shady bunch of former officers with a crooked past. They need money and they have army training. The mission is to rob a bank in London and to prepare for it they need to carry out several other jobs.One of them being a raid at an army barracks to steal weapons which they blame on Irish dissidents.
As the film begins we see these rogues in action, some of them living dissatisfied lives or being involved in petty criminal work. The chance of a big score looks like a godsend and they blend well together.
Whereas in the early 1960s we still had films looking back to the war with stiff upper lips and a class structure, round the corner we were going to embark on the kitchen sink dramas heralding social change. The League of Gentleman is almost a bridge between these two styles of filmmaking.
We have the plummy tones of Jack Hawkins as the Colonel, Nigel Patrick as Race calling everyone Darling. To more seedy characters such as Roger Livesey playing a padre with a suitcase full of glamour magazines and once caught arrested for indecency in a public toilet which at that time meant homosexual activities. He is not the only member of the gang who is implied to be gay. Director Basil Dearden made the film the Victim the following year which was upfront about the subject of homosexuality.
Bryan Forbes who wrote and acted in this film is a gigolo, Terence Alexander is a cuckolded husband. Right from the off you see what looks like real people, who served in the war, made mistakes, some several times and struggling in Civvy Street. The hard edge continues during the bank robbery scene where the gang don gas masks and come in heavily armed.
The film has elements of comedy as well, its not just an action thriller. Its very well acted, sharply written and due to the censorship laws of the time where the bad guys could not be seen to be getting away with their crimes. It really is a sucker punch that the Colonel's meticulous planning could not had anticipated that is their undoing.