The Ladykillers
(Anchor Bay Region 1 NTSC DVD)
(1955)
review by Died with Boots On

Written and directed by two American-born Brits, William Rose and Alexander Mackendrick, ‘The Ladykillers’ is honest to God one of the best and most essential pieces of cinema ever made.  Story and screenwriter Mr. William Rose was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, and won the Bafta Award for Best British Screenplay for this movie.  Now, you might be thinking, “Oh, Died With Boots On, but that was in 50’s, surely by today’s standards it can’t be all that and a bag of chips.”  Well you would be wrong.  It has aged incredibly well.  It is a brilliant black comedy in Technicolor!  The only thing that was green-screened were the car rides, but the film crew actually disrupted railway operations for a day when they shot on location at the southern portal of Copenhagen Tunnels to the north of King’s Cross Station.  The cinematography is beautiful and pristine, and even the language and spoken dialogue is laugh-out-loud funny.

Mrs. Wilberforce (Johnson) is a little old grandmotherly lady whose biggest concern in the world is explaining to the superintendent that her friend who reported seeing a flying saucer was just having a nightmare about a play that she had seen about little men from outer space.  Before she leaves the police station, the sergeant returns her forgotten umbrella, and she shuffles stiffly over to the post office.  She asks if anyone came about her note pinned up outside the office, and the woman sadly shakes her head.  A dark silhouette wearing a bowler cap appears outside and casts his shadow upon the note.  Mrs. Wilberforce walks home.  Standing in the middle of the cobblestone circle watching her enter her house is the silhouette.

Knock knock.  Mrs. Wilberforce answers the door for a man who introduces himself as Professor Marcus (Guinness).  He has come about her room for rent.  Mrs. Wilberforce takes him on a tour of her unleveled house, showing him his room and the sitting room.  He tells her that he and his friends are amateur musicians in a string ensemble and are looking for a place to practice, if she wouldn’t mind their company.  Living a very lonely life, she insists that they practice upstairs.  Very pleased with the accommodations, Professor Marcus says he will be back tomorrow for the room.  The next day.  Professor Marcus awaits the arrival of his friends.  Knock knock.  Introduced as Major Courtney (Parker) and Mr. Harvey (Lom), Mr. Robinson (Sellers), and finally Mr. Lawson (Green), the gang carries their violin and cello cases upstairs to the sitting room as they arrive.  Professor Marcus has rearranged the furniture and set out sheet music.  Once they are all collected in the room, he closes the door and locks it, and puts a record on the record player.  Boccherini’s Minuet.  The rat pack then scurries off into the Professor’s bedroom, and plot their big heist.

Their real names, respectively, are Claude, Louis, Harry, and One-Round.  They discuss the swivel pin holding their whole elaborate masterminding together: Mrs. Wilberforce!  She will unknowingly play the most crucial part in their armored car robbery.  With that, there is a small tapping on the sitting room door.  The partners in crime lurch through the doorway into the sitting room, pick up their instruments (Louis habitually holds his violin like a Tommy gun), and take the needle off the record.  “I wonder if perhaps you'd like some tea, Major Courtney?”

Because of the unique British/American background of the screenwriter, and even the director, there is an uncanny American influence on the British humor.  Even the gangsters are equal parts Al Capone and Billy Hill.  What’s most astonishing about the writing is that William Rose claimed to have dreamt the entire movie, recalling the details when he awoke.

Perhaps the greatest thing about this movie is the brilliant acting.  Alec Guinness is fucking terrific!  The part of Professor Marcus was originally written for character actor Alastair Sim, but I couldn’t see anyone but Alec in the part.  He makes the scheming and eccentric, yet witty and charming gentleman with English sensibilities.  Opposite him, Katie Johnson also turns in the performance of a lifetime as the sweet and loveable Mrs. Wilberforce, whose redoubtable stage presence is most commanding in her gentle demeanor.  She plays the part of a lonely, yet genuinely happy old woman very well.  The rest of the cast plays their caricatures very well: Cecil Parker, the somewhat flamboyant and always nervous gangster; Herbert Lom, the mistrusting, one-finger-always-on-the-trigger gangster; Peter Sellers, the little mousy pipsqueak gangster; and Danny Green, the monstrous, dim-witted, lion-hearted gangster.

The actual “ladykilling” in this movie is an interesting psychological dilemma that I wasn’t aware took up the second hour of the film.  ‘The Ladykillers’ is one of cinema’s crowning achievements.  The pacing is perfect for this kind of tongue-in-cheek crime film.  The writing is infallible, and the characters are developed so that you can’t help but love every single one of them.  Incredibly endearing characters in a truly inspired story!