The Ladykillers

The Ladykillers (1955) is probably the most famous and iconic of Alec Guinness's Ealing Studio Comedies. It may not be the best of the lot - that would be The Lavender Hill Mob in my estimation - but it arguably has the best combination of everything that make Ealing films appealing: a fantasy portrayal of post-war England (which remained unchallenged until the advent of A Hard Day's Night and other "Mod" '60s films), a mixture of dark comedy with cartoonish goofiness, and Alec Guinness at his best. Guinness's demented Professor Marcus is a great cinematic creation, but here he's supported by a large cast of comic talent, not the least the adorable Katie Johnson, perhaps the archetypical dotty old lady.

Mrs. Wilberforce (Katie Johnson) is an eccentric old lady living in downtown London with three parrots. She is approached by Professor Marcus (Alec Guinness), a bizarre-looking gentleman who rents one of her rooms, and starts bringing in his "musician" friends. Of course, it turns out that the Professor's friends are really a group of gangsters - professional crook Major Courtenay (Cecil Parker), the short-tempered Harry dim-witted "One Round" (Danny Green), tough gangster Louis (Herbert Lom) - planning the theft of 60,000 pounds, using the unsuspected Mrs. Wilberforce to deliver the money. The heist goes off without a hitch, until a mistake by One Round reveals their perfidy - and the crooks find themselves unable to kill the old lady.

The Ladykillers isn't a particularly laugh-out-loud funny film, yet it has a wonderfully silly, endearing comedy that it's hard not to be amused. The film seems curiously like a Looney Tunes cartoon in construction, with eccentric but inept bad guys unable to kill a sweet old lady, of the sort who would hang out with Tweety-Bird and Sylvester. The movie does have its share of standalone scenes - the tracking down of a mischevious parrot, an argument between Mrs. Wilberforce and a surly fruit peddler - but most of the comedy comes from the hardened criminals being unable to deal with this dotty old lady. Indeed, the gang unravels as they (accidentally or otherwise) start killing each other off instead of dealing with the real problem. Mrs. Wilberforce is so sweet, eccentric and unknowing that it just seems wrong to kill her.

Alexander Mackendrick does a fine job. The heist scene is played mostly straight and could have been plucked from The Killing, but the rest of the film is pitched at an airy fantasy level, with stark, dream-like colors and costumes, the subsiding house, the chattering parrots, the kindly police and the steamy, nightmarish train station where most of the killings take place. It's a pleasant world to be in for an hour and a half, for sure. William Rose's script is fairly restrained, giving the actors most of the comic impetus, and Tristam Cary's score is a mixture of dramatic violins and jazzy piano.

Alec Guinness was a masterful comic actor as we all know, rarely better than here. Some have compared his portrayal of Marcus to Alistair Sim, but Marcus is a fascinating creation in his own right, an odd-looking character with wild hair and wolf-like dentures whose dementia unravels as the film goes along. Katie Johnson is arguably the real star of the show; making a rare film appearance at 77, she hits all the right notes, making Mrs. Wilberforce funny and endearing without seeming ridiculous. Of the supporting cast, the best is Herbert Lom (Spartacus) as Louis, the straight man gangster who seems completely out of place yet fits perfectly. Cecil Parker and Peter Sellers haven't much to do, but Danny Green is lovely as the dimwitted thug who falls for the old lady.

The Ladykillers is a fun, silly movie that perfectly epitomizes a time, place and style of film. It's pleasant, sweet, never wears out its welcome, and is certainly worth watching again and again.