Considering how banks have been ripping off the populace for decades, it would have been more satisfying to see this band of lovable rogues get away with the loot. A win for the good guys.
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While the UK didn't suffer under the stifling Hays Code of censorship like the US did, in the 50's there was still strong social pressure on how things were depicted in films. Just as in modern films where a conventional hero is never depicted smoking, in the 1950's and even into the 60's, there was an expectation that "Crime shouldn't pay" or at least, crime shouldn't be seen to pay.
The Brits were the masters of the whimsical Caper Comedy in the 25 years after the war. Even in the Ealing comedies of the late 40's and early 50's, I can't think of a single case where crims where allowed to get away with it. So in a terrific film like the Lavender Hill Mob, our heroes Guinness and Holloway are eventually caught.
Actually I regard The league of gentlemen as the last of the whimsical Ealing style capers before the world changed so much that they could never be made again. But I digress from the subject of this thread...
Even as late as 1969, the terrific Italian Job, one of the greatest caper films of all time, couldn't allow the likeable rogues to get away with the gold, so it ended with a cliffhanger... literally.
It was only in 1988 with what is probably the last of the truly great British caper films, A fish called Wanda that the heroes are finally allowed to escape with loot of questionable provenance.
So I guess this post is a long winded way of saying, 'Yes, the film does have a lousy ending, but at the time it was made, an ending where they got away with it just wasn't socially possible'.
I love the ending!
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JimHutton (1934-79) & ElleryQueen
The intrusive drunken house guest at the end (Bunny) should have been the one nabbed for the robbery. You know, the ol' switcheroo.
shareWhy just him? I don't know. I was kind of amused at the way the cops rounded up the crooks, one by one....and then they threw Bunny into the police van for good measure (and to have him investigated). So nicely done!
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JimHutton (1934-79) & ElleryQueen
In those days. the police were still respected and were generally seen as the good guys and had to win.It was to inspire faith and trust with the British pubic,that the police would always get their man and could out match the criminals. That you still had your local "Bobby" who was seen as someone honest trustworthy approachable and almost as a friend and there to help you.
Times were changing even then, the criminals were turning into gangs. Getting more organised and daring,and the police were having to change tactics just to be able to keep up, with the criminal " underworld" that was forming. Within a few years you would have major gangland crime, gangs like the Richardsons/Krays and the use of guns was becoming more widespread.
A few years on from TLOG, you would see the criminals in movies getting the upper hand and beating the police. The police faced with the onslaught had to shed the softly softly image. and react to the violence and the lines becoming blurred between who were the criminals, and who were the police,and how the cops methods would be almost as bad if not worse than those they were trying to catch.