The Ladykillers
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Movie Reviews of The Ladykillers
Movie Review: Heart of Darkness (Comedy Division)
Summary: 5 Stars
"Kind Hearts and Coronets," "The Ladykillers," "Monsieur Verdoux," and "Unfaithfully Yours" form the dark crown of black comedy on film. Only the last is American. Grim hilarity seems to be a particularly British specialty.
Reading through a lengthy series (49 as I write this) of Amazon reviews is often rewarding. In this case the great majority of those who write of this film lavish praise on the cast and plot. A substantial sub-class of reviewers felt it necessary to denounce the recent remake with Tom Hanks. (And quite right they were, too!) One reviewer praised the film and then gave a miserly single star in what must have been sheer error.
A single reviewer despised the film for its slow pace. In a brisk 91 minutes "The Ladykillers" offers the planning of a heist, its execution and the crumbling of all criminal expectations, along with the increasingly ironic deaths of five crooks. As Basil Fawlty might ask, what more does the reviewer want--herds of wildebeest rushing across the plains while Krakatoa explodes in the background?
A few reviewers noted that Alec Guinness was doing a masterly imitation of the great Alistair Sim. On that point, I have always wondered why Ealing didn't just cast Sim in the role in the first place. Sim starred in a deliciously black little comedy called "The Green Man" in which he played a master assassin foiled by a witless door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman. "The Green Man" misses the exalted status of the films listed at the beginning of this piece by the narrowest of margins. Sim was also in "The School for Scoundrels," of course, but that small gem is just a little too cheery for true black comedy.
There are excellent summaries of the plot and insightful commentaries on the actors. I feel no need to repeat either here. I shall, then, take up three points that no-one has mentioned.
Billing in this film is odd. Guinness is clearly intended to be the star. The four other members of the gang are prominently listed. But 75 year-old Katie Johnson, who actually turned out to be the star of the picture and earned the British equivalent of an Oscar to prove it--not to mention the plain fact that she ate Guinness alive in every scene they shared--is listed as one of the supporting players in seventh or eighth spot.
The set design is stupendous. Mrs. Wilberforce's tiny, lopsided house on top of the railway bridge, idiosyncratic plumbing and all, is one of the greatest locations ever put on film. That house becomes as much a character in the movie as Mrs. W, herself, or any of the gang.
The musical score is quite perfect for the film--as good in its small way as the score of "Alexander Nevsky." It begins in unexpected formality with an Elgar-like symphonic introduction. Soon Mrs. Wilberforce appears and she comes with her own theme, almost a leitmotiv: "The Last Rose of Summer" played on a barrel organ. The heist has its theme, too, the Boccherini String Quintet (deedle-deedle-dee-dum-ti-dee-dee). Once heard, it is never to be forgotten. When all is well with the heist, so it is with the Quintet (deedle-deedle-dee-dum-ti-dee-dee). When difficulties arise, the Quintet suffers. At one point, a recording of the Boccherini is removed from a phonograph and intentionally smashed. As the movie swirls toward ultimate darkness, Boccherini disappears and the score generates a new theme: bodies plunging over the railroad bridge (harummm-THUD). Again, once heard, never forgotten. At the end of the film, a new and better day for Mrs. W is hailed by the reappearance of the barrel organ and "The Last Rose of Summer."
"The Ladykillers," admittedly makes demands on its viewers that are seldom to be found in contemporary pictures. It requires, for example, an attention span greater than that of a gnat. And it neglects to provide even a single flatulence joke for the relief of the more anxious members of the audience. Nevertheless it's a great film.
Five (deedle-deedle-dee-dum-ti-dee-dee) stars.
Movie Review: And the Meek Shall Inherit the Earth.
Summary: 5 Stars
In THE LADYKILLERS Alec Guiness stars as the criminal mastermind, Professor Marcus, behind a perfect plot to pull of a great train robbery (well, all the money from a train). Marcus has orchestrated the perfect plot as well as the perfect crew to pull off the heist: Major Claude Courtney (Cecil Parker), Louis Harvey (Herbert Lom), Harry Robinson (Peter Sellers), and One-Round Lawson (Danny Green). The gang is altogether, but they need a place to meet to plan the last minute details. Enter Mrs. Wilberforce (Katie Johnson). Mrs. Wilberforce rents out a room in her house to Professor Marcus believing he and his gang are actually an instrumental ensemble. They fool the elderly woman by playing the same record over and over and over as they hash out the plot of their crime. They pull of the crime perfectly, but an accident during the getaway brings Mrs. Wilberforce into the circle of crime. When she refuses to go along with the plan, the gang draws straws to decide who will bump her off. But five criminals are no match for the honesty and humility of a strong-willed little woman.
Writer William Rose is said to have dreamed up the entire movie literally in a dream in his sleep one night. I can believe that because the film flows together seamlessly, as though born out of an ethereal universe and tinged with the dark comedy of nightmare.
Guinness was at the beginning of the peak of his career (BRIDGE OVER RIVER KWAI was just two years away) and gives a delightful show. His performance as the slimy Professor Marcus is dead-on. The other performances are just as brilliant and it's a special treat to see Guinness and Sellers together in the same dark comedy. However, the true star of the movie is Katie Johnson. Johnson's Mrs. Wilberforce is the true driving charcter in the story and it takes an extremely talented actress to upstage the likes of actors such as Guinness and Sellers. Surprisingly the producers originally rejected director Alexander Mackendrick's choice of Johnson as Mrs. Wilberforce because they felt the woman was to frail to handle the rigours of the filmming schedule. They hired a younger actress instead, but several weeks before filmming she died. It must have been an omen.
The DVD version of this 1955 classic black comedy includes an Alec Guinness biography and the original motion picture trailer.
Movie Review: Lolly Pops
Summary: 5 Stars
I recently purchased The Horse's Mouth (1958) from Amazon as well as "The Alec Guinness Collection" which includes The Ladykillers (1955) plus four others: The Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), The Man in the White Suit (1951), The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), and The Captain's Paradise (1953). Frankly, I was amazed how well each of the six films has held up since I first saw it.For me, the most memorable performance in this film is provided by Katie Johnson as Mrs. Louisa Alexandra Wilberforce who rents a flat to Professor Marcus (Guinness) and his companions. The plot such as it is involves their theft of 60,000 pounds and subsequent efforts to remove it from a locker they have rented to store it temporarily. For about half of this film, brilliantly directed by Alexander Mackendrick (who also directed Guinness in The Man in the White Suit, 1951), Mrs. Wilberforce believes that Marcus and his friends are honest citizens and amateur musicians. When she learns that they are thieves, her first concern is not for her personal safety (which is never in doubt, anyway) but to return "the lolly" to its rightful owners. Complications include her elderly friends who appreciatively swarm around the Marcus group during a hilarious afternoon tea party. One development of special interest to me is the fact that, except for the psychopath Louis Harvey (Lom), the thieves do not want Mrs. Wilberforce harmed in any way and begin to feel protective toward her. This proves to be significant as the plot proceeds gracefully to a conclusion I did not anticipate.
Given the number of deaths which occur in this film, it seems inappropriate to describe it as "charming" and "delightful" but it is nonetheless. For that, I give most of the credit to the performance by Katie Johnson under Mackendrick's direction and with the strong support of Guinness who obviously defers to her prominence in so many important scenes. The supporting cast is first-rate. Yes, that really is a very young Peter Sellers in the role of Harry Robinson who is given relatively little to say and do. Danny Green is excellent as One Round, providing the muscle needed to complete the plan devised by the group's brain, Marcus.
For these and other reasons, this is my favorite among the five films in "The Alec Guinness Collection."
Movie Review: Alec Guiness and his gang are no match for Mrs. Wilberforce
Summary: 5 Stars
"The Ladykillers" is regarded as the last of the great Ealing comedies and another macabre black comedy in the style of "Kind Hearts and Coronets." However, I had picked up the film because it had both Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers and was therefore rather surprised that the one doing all the scene stealing is Katie Johnson as Mrs. Wilberforce, a sweet little old lady who makes it a daily practice to go round to the local constable's station each day to keep them apprised on what is happening in the neighborhood. Guinness plays Professor Marcus, a criminal mastermind who plans on duping Mrs. Wilberforce into being an unwitting member of his gang, who are going to rob a armored car. As a cover, he tells the old lady that they are a string quartet, and they play the same record over and over again while they develop their scheme. When Mrs. Wilberforce repeatedly arrives to offer tea, coffee, or any other comfort that comes to mind, the criminals all stand around uncomfortably holding their instruments and try to make small talk. The gang has all of your standard criminal types. Danny Green is the gentle giant, One-Round (a.k.a. Mr. Lawson), Cecily Parker is the old army chap Claude (a.k.a. Major Courtney), Herbert Lom is the cold-hearted killer Louis (a.k.a. Mr. Harvey), and Sellers is the young rouge Harry (a.k.a. Mr. Robinson). However, the ironic point of this 1955 black comedy is that together they are no match for Mrs. Wilberforce. The heist goes off without a hitch, that is to say until Mrs. Wilberforce plays her unwitting role in the proceedings. What follows is like the old Chinese finger torture, where the more things work for the gang the worst off they get as the little old lady thwarts their plans without even trying. Eventually even Mrs. Wilberforce is able to add up things enough to become a liability. Then the criminals make the biggest mistake of all: they draw lots to see who has to do the old lady in. The idea that Guinness, Sellars, and the rest of the gang could be reduced to minor roles by a little old lady is astounding, but that is the precise irony that makes "The Ladykillers" a classic.
Movie Review: Black comedy at its finest
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the kind of dark, bleak comedy that the British excelled at in the 1950s, and seems to anticipate many of the comic trends found on both sides of the Atlantic in the decades that were to follow. The plot concerns the adventures of a group of thieves who meet in the apartment of Alec Guinness, the gang's mastermind and the tenant of the lady of the title. Although the movie has many wonderful moments, I think my favorites are those in which a wildly grinning Guinness explains to his landlady the various goings on in his flat. The cast is absolutely first rate. Even by Guinness's chameleonic standards, this is one of his more unusual performances. He made himself up to bear a striking resemblance to the great Alastair Sim, wearing some padding to make his frame look more like Sim's, and wearing false teeth and combing his hair to more successfully mimic Sim. It is a quite successful imitation, but I would enjoy knowing a bit more about why Guinness made this decision. Anyone familiar with the Pink Panther films will be delighted to see Peter Sellers and Herbert Lom as members of Guinness's gang. Lom was one of the great heavies in 1950s British film, and his casting in a comedy film was at the time highly unusual. Sellers, of course, was a few years from the film that would first bring him fame, I'm ALRIGHT, JACK, and his role in this film is not a major one. This is very definitely the "early" Peter Seller, carrying a great deal more weight before he lost a great deal because of the illnesses that plagued him throughout most of his life (Sellers suffered from a very serious heart condition the eventually killed him).
This film isn't for everyone. It isn't a film that will illicit laughs so much as smiles. And many will find the entire tone to be very, very dark, perhaps too dark for their liking. Finally, many will not enjoy a comedy in which all the major characters are essentially unlikable cads. But for those of us for whom these are not barriers, this is one of the most unique and enjoyable comedies of the 1950s.