4. The Lavender Hill Mob
This is an earlier gem from A Fish Called Wanda director Charles Crichton. Alec Guinness plays a bank clerk who teams up with Stanley Holloway to rob his own banks supply of gold bullion. Being an Ealing comedy, however, things never work out as planned. The aforementioned remakes of The Ladykillers and Last Holiday had Guinness role filled by Tom Hanks and Queen Latifah respectively. This would seem to suggest that Hollywood producers see Guinness as a blank slate that can be replaced by just about anyone. Its an insult, frankly, to one of the greatest British actors of his or any other generation. Casting aside, what would they call an American version of The Lavender Hill Mob? The Greenwich Village Mob? It just doesnt have the same ring to it.