When finalizing his script for “Lavender Hill Mob,” TEB Clarke may have
had to reassure the British censorship board that the mob wouldn’t get away
with their gold bullion scheme. And it took years for Eldar Ryazanov to obtain approval
to film “Beware the Automobile,” somehow allaying fears at Goskino that it
would inspire people to steal cars. I don’t believe either film ever intended
to suggest that crime pays, but in a world of inequalities, crime capers can
offer a little imaginative release even to the law-abiding citizen, and these
two films do it so gracefully with their endearing, ‘damaged’ protagonists. At first, Holland is every bit the English gentleman abroad, confidently
enjoying the easy life in his tropical white dinner jacket and charmingly
handing out generous gifts of stolen money to anyone passing by his table. And
we first encounter Detochkin in mid-operation, a mysterious figure rising from
the underground with a noirish flash of light catching his eye, sure of hand
and foot as he skilfully unlocks a garage and whisks its car into the night.
But we soon find that both men are painfully awkward, uneasy, ‘not all
there.’ Shy and soft-spoken, with stooped shoulders and bent knees, they are
hardly masculine heroes but more like overgrown boys. Despite decades of dedicated
service, Holland is virtually unrecognized by his superiors, shuffling meekly
through the bank and his lodgings as he dreams of a future beyond 8 pounds a
week. Detochkin (whose name borrows from the word for ‘child’) is a kindly son,
hardworking insurance salesman, and otherwise dutiful citizen, quietly angered
by those who take more than their share, perhaps subconsciously wishing he
could be an officer of the law. In the end, both lose their last chance at a life of freedom through their
own carelessness and folly, but these consequences only seem to deepen the
viewer’s sympathy. After all, who among us does not dream of a fairer lot, or early
retirement in the tropics? Xo
(I have a habit of putting
things together even if they’re not so alike, but if you made it through to
this apologetic note I humbly thank you for your reading this and patiently humouring
my silly rambles :’))
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