I have always liked this film too. I particularly
enjoy the oening sequence in South America where Henry
("Dutch") is explaining his daring tale as Audrey
Hepburn makes her first film appearance in a very
minor role.

For me Stanley Holloway is memorable for the line
"What me? Steal a Lancier? oh no no no no."
As a man whose business is manufacturing a range of
tacky nick nacks this is laiden with such irony but
whizzes past so fast that one might miss it. Ah the
great days when humour didn't have to be flagged up by
the sound track.

Something that has always puzzled me about the police
chase is when the Welsh officer mounts the running
board of the stolen police car and starts singing "Old
MacDonald". He is busy oinking away and I can't help
wondering if the police were being called those sorts
of names back then too. I don't recall any examples of
such references in early films - it seems to have
appeared as a nick name in the 1960s ie "fascist
pigs". Perhaps it was one of those innocent
coincidences that popular culture of the pre 1960s era
seems to be littered with?!
rob
--- Mike OBrien <mob61uk@...> wrote:


---------------------------------


I think this is the first time I've seen this all the
way through.

Of course it is as fresh today as when first released,
a brilliantly
executed, truly 'classic' British comedy.

What I noticed this time round, though - apart from
the utterly
compelling performance of Alec Guinness - was the
gently subversive
tone throughout. There's a sad darkness to Henry
Holland, a man who
has spent a life of grudging conformity, only
alleviated by a dream
of ultimate escape through crime. The fact that the
ending provides
the sort of suitably moral ending for the times, can't
hide the fact
that it is a half-hearted signing-off, with a nagging
sense that
Holland has actually won. Holland's smile as he tells
his story is
that of a man who has achieved some kind of success,
and is now
happy to face whatever consequences are waiting for
him. It's a
picture of society where the vast majority are locked
into a dull
treadmill of work, and where money buys popularity.

Sequences I love: the dizzy descent down the Eiffel
Tower; and the
farcical police chase with its hilarious surreal
touches.

Wonderful stuff.




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