Plot
A group of lodgers staying at the home of Dame Beatrice grow bored with their humdrum lives. When Lilly the maid one day gives into temptation and steals a brand new mink coat from their neighbours to replace Dame Beatrice's worn-out one, they spring into action. As Lilly had a prison record for her time as a young delinquent, they hatch a plan to put back the coat before its owners realise it has gone. Despite several mishaps they manage to return the mink without raising suspicions, thanks to a plan drawn up by the retired Major Rayne.
The four of them get such a buzz from the operation that they decide to set up a more permanent occupation stealing, rather than returning, mink coats and giving the proceeds to charity. Their first attempt to rob a boutique goes partially wrong, but they still manage to get away with one coat. Once they have the mink, they find it more difficult to dispose of. The Major goes to a shady-looking cafe in Limehouse where he has been reliably told he can find a fence but instead finds it is now run by the Salvation Army. All the while they keep their activities from Lilly, who is now dating a policeman.
Eventually Dame Beatrice is able to locate a respectable fence, only to find to her shock it is run by her nephew. He agrees to pay her £550 for it, and she promises to provide many more coats. The money is used to save an orphanage from closure. Her gang then go on a spree, stealing numerous minks from boutiques and storerooms and becoming widely-known due to reports in the newspapers. As their notoriety grows, the chance of being caught increases, and they have some narrow escapes.
When Lilly one day discovers what they are doing, she is horrified and makes them swear they'll stop. However, when a request for money comes from a children's home, they decide to pull of one last job. The Major plans a raid on an illegal gambling party. While Dame Beatrice disguises herself as a gambler, the rest of them dress up as police officers and stage a "raid" of the premises planning to make away with all the fur coats in the cloakroom. Their plan goes awry when a real police raid is launched and they manage to make their escape with difficulty with only a few furs.
Expecting to be arrested at any moment, they are alarmed when an Inspector Pape turns up at their house, especially when he begins talking about furs. They manage to convince him they are a group of harmless eccentrics, and it turns out he had come about a fur stolen from one of the gang rather than about their sprees. Once he is gone, Lilly forces them again to promise they will stop stealing minks. However, once she is gone, Dame Beatrice explains that while they can no longer steal minks, they said nothing about not stealing other things. The final scene shows them dressed as Yeoman Warders of the Tower of London proceeding in the direction of the Crown Jewels.
Read more about this topic: Make Mine Mink
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“The plot was most interesting. It belonged to no particular age, people, or country, and was perhaps the more delightful on that account, as nobody’s previous information could afford the remotest glimmering of what would ever come of it.”
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“There comes a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given him to till.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)