The Two Perfect Heist Movies According To Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes might just be a review aggregator, but its influence is significant — inordinate, you might say. The website that should give you a rough guide as to what critics think about a film has become the arbiter of whether a film is deemed good or not, or in RT parlance, “fresh” or “rotten.” This binary would be fine if RT wasn’t as influential as it is, but these days the Tomatometer’s reach is wide, and our adherence to its decrees often borders on unflinching. A green splat is enough to put most casual viewers off a film, which is a shame because that means hordes of people are overlooking unfairly-maligned classics like “The Comedy,” or worse, the delights of the seven John Travolta movies to achieve a 0% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are a handful of movies that have garnered a rare 100% rating, many of which are, shall we say questionable at best. But some are actually deserving of such a designation. There might well be more than two perfect sci-fi movies, but if you’re going to give that honor to any films, “The Terminator” and Andrei Tarkovsky’s “Stalker” are surely worthy.

Interestingly enough, two appears to be the magic number when it comes to 100-percenters and grouping films by genre/director/actor. According to Rotten Tomatoes, not only are there two perfect sci-fi movies, but two perfect horror movies, two perfect Alfred Hitchcock films, two perfect Jack Nicholson movies, and two perfect “Toy Story” movies. Which makes it pretty easy to guess how many heist films have managed a similar feat. Yep, 17. No, it’s two.

The best heist movies go beyond the standard tropes of the genre. Aside from having some master criminal assemble a crack team of various specialists and meticulously planning the job, there has to be something else propelling the narrative. After all, heist movies basically come with a ready-made plot, so there’s got to be a little extra to take the caper to the next level.

In Rotten Tomatoes’ ranking of heist movies, the film that manages to do that better than any other is 1974’s “The Taking of Pelham One Two Three,” which currently enjoys a 98% rating on the review aggregator. Why is this film top when number two and three on the list both have a perfect 100% score? Well, because RT is a confusing and troubling thing, but also probably because a new review was added to “The Taking of Pelham One Two Three” and it dropped a few percentage points since the list was compiled.

But I digress. What we really want to know is which two films managed to attain that elusive perfect score. Could it be Michael Mann’s masterpiece “Heat?” Or perhaps his cult classic debut “Thief?” Surely the “Ocean’s Eleven” crew didn’t manage a pristine 100? Nope, it’s none of these. Instead, the two heist films with perfect RT scores come from jolly old England and, alongside the central robbery, provide a solid helping of comedy to complement the heist shenanigans.

So, which heist movies can claim to have garnered perfect Rotten Tomatoes scores? First up is 1951’s “The Lavender Hill Mob,” which is one of the best heist movies you’ve probably never seen. The British classic from the legendary Ealing Studios also happens to be one of only two perfect movies to feature Audrey Hepburn, according to RT — surely one of the highest honors the late starlet ever received in her distinguished career. In truth, Hepburn is only in the film for about 10 seconds. The rest of the film is led by the equally great Alec Guinness, who plays bank clerk Henry Holland. Along with Stanley Holloway’s Albert Pendlebury, Holland concocts a plan to steal the gold bullion at his bank by smuggling the score out as souvenir paperweights modeled on the Eiffel Tower. This being an Ealing Studios film, there’s plenty of dry humor to accompany the illicit scheming.

All of which, it seems, equates to an outstanding critical response. Every single one of the 71 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes for this film is positive. What does “positive” mean? These are the mysterious intricacies of the Tomatometer that make the whole enterprise dubious from the get-go. But it basically means that 71 critics reviewed “The Lavender Hill Mob,” and 71 critics liked it in some form or fashion. Most writers celebrated the humor at the heart of the film, with The New York Times‘ Bosley Crowther complimenting director Charles Crichton on overseeing the whole thing “with a touch of polite and gentle mockery applied to wholehearted farce.” Critics were also enamored with Guinness and Holloway’s performances, with the Chicago Tribune complimenting the “warmly human and idiotic” characters. Overall, then, a roaring success, as us Brits might say.

It seems Guinness and Ealing Studios are the key to cracking the Tomatometer, as the other heist movie with a 100% score is 1955’s “The Ladykillers.” In this beloved British comedy, Guinness plays criminal mastermind Professor Marcus, who assembles a group of criminal cohorts to rob a security van at London’s King’s Cross station. Unfortunately, Professor Marcus and co. are in danger of having their grand plans thwarted by Katie Johnson’s Mrs. Wilberforce, the lady from whom they rent a room in order to plan their heist. In order to pull off the job, the crew must pretend to be a string quartet who need the room to practice, but Mrs. Wilberforce’s enquiring nature makes things difficult at every turn, and as you might expect, comedy ensues.

“The Ladykillers” could have been the end for Alec Guinness, due to an on-set mishap that almost killed the esteemed actor. Thankfully, he survived, though not long enough to witness “The Ladykillers” dominating the Tomatometer. Somehow, I’m sure he’s resting peacefully, regardless.

Why is “The Lavender Hill Mob” listed as “Certified Fresh” while “The Ladykillers” isn’t? According to Rotten Tomatoes, you need “at least five reviews from Top Critics” in order to be given the certified label. How many reviews from Top Critics does “The Ladykillers” have? Six. So, god knows what’s going on there, but chalk it up to the vagaries of RT and let it be a reminder that none of these percentage scores should be taken all that seriously in the first place.