The bizarre and ruthless criminal, going by the name Professor Marcus (Alec Guiness), masterminds a robbery for a gang consisting of conman Major Courtney (Cecil Parker), hit-man Louis (Herbert Lom), spiv Harry (Peter Sellers) and muscle One-Round (Danny Green). The focus of his scheme is an innocent old lady, Mrs. Wilberforce (Katie Johnson), They gain entrance to her house by renting a room and claiming to be a string quintet. The idea is to use her to unknowingly pick up the money theyāve swiped in a violent attack on a van, after theyāve stashed it in a train station. Things go as planned at first, but then take a wild turn, and the gang is pitted against Mrs. Wilberforce, who has no idea sheās in a life and death struggle.
I can heap accolades on The Ladykillers. One of Ealing studio’s finest films and one of the finest in the Post-War British Comedy movement, it contains the best work of director Alexander Mackendrick and Alec Guinessās greatest performance, and that last one is saying something substantial. It also has Peter Sellers and Herbert Lom before they both leaned hard into overacting. It is beautifully filmed (in color, a rarity for Ealing) and perfectly edited. It is one of the greatest comedies ever filmed.
It is clearly an Ealing film, filled with quirky characters andĀ and it is British to its core. But it has a fundamental difference from the studioās other films of the time. It plays with its connection to thrillers and horror (one scene paying homage to The Lodger), with slightly off kilter shots of an off kilter house. When Mrs. Wilberforce isnāt onscreen it feels sinister and if you entered at the wrong moment, you might think you’d walked in on a Noir or Hitchcockās latest. Sure, Ealing movies were filled with thieves and even murderers (in Kind Hearts and Coronets), but in those the heroes and villains were basically good natured. Not here. These are irredeemable criminals, which sets up the heart of the comedyānasty, horrible, fiends verses a wholly innocent little old lady. Everything appears to be on their side of this conflict, but appearances can be deceiving. The darkest comedy the studio ever made, it still manages to be joyful.
When Guiness was given the script, he thought it was a mistake, and that it was meant for the other mainstay and master of the movement, Alastair Sim. When he was assured it was meant for him, he based his performance on Sim, and had his makeup done as a caricature of Sim. I would have loved to see Sim in the part as heād have been wonderful, but that would have deprived us of Guinessās amazing performance and thatās too high a price.
This is a Post-War British Comedy, which means it also examines British society, but The Ladykillers isnāt trying to assure the public that they are different than the fascists theyād spent so much to defeat the way Passport to Pimlico and The Lavender Hill Mob do. Instead it examines the fractured and demoralized state of Britain after the war. Mrs. Wilberforce is the personification of old Britain. She (it) is a bit dotty and often annoying, with no understanding of the harm she can cause and has caused, and she no longer holds the respect of those around her. But she is basically good and worth preserving, to the extent that she can be preserved. She is fading, as is the empire (well, perhaps āfadedā is more accurate). Her finest days are over. The gang represents the corrupt segments of post-war Britain. Major Courtney is the degenerate military class. One-Round is the mindless and violent working class. Harry is delinquent youth. Louis is the influx of crooked foreigners. And the Professor is the self-serving, rotten political class. None of that is needed to enjoy the film, nor was it apparent to me, as an American, when I first watched it many years ago, and Iām not sure if I would have worked it out without reading a statement from the director, but once you know it, it seems obvious, and lends an extra layer of brilliance to a film that was already many layers high.
I first saw The Ladykillers over forty years ago and was taken by its clever dialog and twisted and fleshed-out characters. Time has been good to the film, not aging it a bit. I have aged, however, and can now find even more in this treat. This high point marked the end of Ealing; it was sold the year The Ladykillers was released. You couldnāt go out on a higher note.
The Coen brothers attempted a remake, but failed to understand the basic structure of the film. (My review)
Alexander Mackendrickās other Ealing comedies were Whisky Galore (1949), The Man in the White Suit (1951), and The Maggie (1954). He left England after The Ladykillers for Hollywood, where he made the Noir-ish Sweet Smell of Success.
Guinness also appeared in the Post-War British ComediesĀ Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), A Run for Your Money (1949), Last Holiday (1950), The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), The Man in the White Suit (1951), The Card (1952), Captainās Paradise (1953), To Paris with Love (1955), Barnacle Bill (1957), The Horseās Mouth (1958), and Our Man in Havana (1959).