The League of Gentlemen

The League of Gentlemen is a 1960 British crime comedy directed by Basil Dearden and starring Jack Hawkins, Nigel Patrick and Richard Attenborough. It was based on the 1958 novel by John Boland and adapted by Bryan Forbes, who also starred in the film. It was made by Allied Film Makers in two months, and distributed by the Rank Organisation. A manhole opens at night in an empty street and out climbs Lieutenant-Colonel Norman Hyde in a dinner suit. He gets into a Rolls-Royce 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. 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”.
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