The Ladykillers

Plot synopsis:
Mrs Wilberforce is a sweet and eccentric old widow who lives alone with her raucous parrots in a gradually subsiding lopsided house, built over the entrance to a railway tunnel in Kings Cross, London. With nothing to occupy her time and an active imagination, she is a frequent visitor to the local police station where she reports fanciful suspicions regarding neighbourhood activities. Having led wild-goose chases in the past, she is humoured by the officers there who give her reports no credence whatsoever.
She is approached by an archly sinister character, 'Professor' Marcus, who wants to rent rooms in her house. She is not aware that he has assembled a gang of hardened criminals for a sophisticated security van robbery at London King's Cross railway station: the gentlemanly and easily fooled con-man Major Claude Courtney; the comedic Cockney spiv Harry Robinson; the slow-witted and punch drunk ex-boxer 'One-Round' Lawson; and the murderous, cruel and vicious continental gangster Louis Harvey. As a cover, the "Professor" convinces the naive Mrs. Wilberforce that the group is an amateur string quintet using the rooms for rehearsal space. To maintain the deception, the gang members carry musical instruments and play a recording of Boccherini's Minuet (3rd movement) from String Quintet in E, Op. 11 No. 5 during their planning sessions.
After the heist, "Mrs. W" is deceived into retrieving the disguised money from the railway station herself. This she successfully manages to do but not without serious complications owing to her tendency to righteous meddling. As the gang departs her house with the loot, 'One-Round' accidentally gets his cello case full of banknotes trapped in the front door. As he pulls the case free, banknotes spill forth while Mrs. Wilberforce looks on. Finally, smelling a rat, she informs Marcus that she is going to the police.
Stalling, the gangsters half convince Mrs. W that she will surely be considered an accomplice for holding the lolly. In any case, it is a victimless crime as insurance will cover all the losses and the police will probably not even accept the money back. She wavers but when she rallies the criminals finally decide they must kill her. No one wants to do it so they draw lots using matchsticks. The Major loses but tries to make a run for it with the cash. As the oblivious Mrs. W dozes, the criminals cross, double-cross and manage to kill one another in rapid succession. The Major falls off the roof of the house after being chased by Louis; Harry is killed by One-Round who thinks Harry has killed Mrs. W after having a change of heart; One-Round tries to shoot Louis and Marcus when he overhears a plan to double-cross him but leaves the gun's safety catch on and is himself killed by Louis; Marcus kills Louis by dislodging his ladder under the tunnel behind the house causing Louis to fall into a passing railway wagon. Before falling into the carriage Louis fires a last shot at Marcus which nearly hits him. Finally with no one else left Marcus himself is struck on the head by a railway signal over the tunnel and drops into another wagon. All the other bodies have been dumped into railway wagons passing behind the house and are now far away.
Mrs. Wilberforce is now left alone with the plunder. She goes to the police to return it but they do not believe her story. They humour her, telling her to keep the money. She is puzzled but finally relents and returns home. Along the way, she leaves a banknote of enormous denomination with a startled "starving artist".

Tags: comedy, murder

Review:
But it doubles as a sly, subtle rummage around the psychology of the respectable, old-fashioned middle classes, with Katie Johnson deserving top billing alongside Alec Guinness (she doesn't get it) for her remarkable turn as the lady in question, the redoubtable Mrs Wilberforce.
The screenplay, deservedly Oscar-nominated, has the genius and economy to provide us with all these hints without ever slowing down a tightly-edited and superbly directed narrative.The other characters are a good deal simpler, but Alec Guinness is in impressively seedy form as 'Professor' Marcus and Cecil Parker makes an appealing Major.
It would have worked just as well in black and white, possibly even etter.( I have watched it in black and white on TV by turning the colour controls off!) The location shots, which were done around the back of King's Cross station in London, capture forever something of the old London I used to know as a child.I suppose they best description for this film is a comedy of a bank robbery gone wrong.
The comedy, for me, lies in the difference between what is planned and what is played out, particularly in the difficulties that the gang of criminals have in outsmarting a sweet old lady who acts like a grandmother supervising a group of unruly grandchildren.The problem that the movie has is that the pace is very slow and much of the comedy has faded over the years, but structurally and intellectually it remains a respectable film, even more now in comparison to its disastrous remake.
There is no irony in being overpowered by someone more powerful than yourself from the outset, which I imagine is why the remake also featured Marlon Wayans and a case of irritable bowel syndrome, which I have never seen used in an even remotely amusing way.While the original film may be a bit too slow for modern audiences, it is indeed charming the way 87-year-old Mrs. Wilberforce continually foils their carefully thought out plans, many times inadvertently.
I'm no expert about British comedies or Alec Guinness' early works, but I can certainly tell enough from watching this movie that the Coen Brothers' remake did nothing to impress the British about Hollywood's respect for the classics..
None of the men have previously met each other, but join together for the single heist.Their strategic planning takes place in the upstairs of a Victorian home owned by Mrs. Wilberforce (Katie Johnson), a somewhat eccentric older woman who is under the impression that Professor Marcus and his "friends" are part of a music orchestra and unite daily to rehearse.
Many thanks therefore for providing two hours of classic cinema that showed clearly why Americans should not bother with naff remakes.A classic ensemble of some of the UK's finest acting talent o the time pull of a heist in the centre of London but when their landlady finds out what they are up to, a bizarre sequence of events leads the gang to turn on each other in a brilliant and amusingly written, directed and produced film.Whilst railway nostalgists will be wondering at the vintage footage of steam hauled trains coming out of St Pancras station and goods yard, others will be marvelling at the brilliant characterisations and script that makes this a timeless classic from Ealing studios.And then the Americans decide on an Americanised remake  WHY?!?
Starring Alec Guinness at his finest, this funny, but not slapstick comedy is totally entertaining.For once, I am happy that my parents encouraged me to watch a film from days gone by.
Well it is that intoxicating combination of dry black humour, pathos and perhaps a pleasing inevitability that whatever twist the film takes, you know it should be no other way.I cannot fault the cast, I regretted as a kid that I did not see Katie Johnson again (I know she made many other films, but I have never collided with them), whereas Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers were often featured on a Saturday Matinee.I am, however, pleasantly surprised at how well this film is rated by IMDb!
It is only upon watching it three or four times that the mutual destruction of the criminals makes more and more sense, and the permanent victory of the little old lady caps off the film very satisfactorily indeed.Mrs. Wilberforce, elderly, crotchety (but in a gentle and genteel way), and very moral, is the personification of an earlier Britain - the Victorian/Edwardian period, where right was right and wrong was wrong.
Alec Guinness with his crooked teeth, Peter Sellers' spiv, Herbert Lom's dark psychopath, Cecil Parker's colonel character and Danny Green's dumb heavyweight - with the wonderful nickname of one-round.
Mrs. Wilberforce (Katie Johnson) lodges five elegant men (Alec Guinness, Cecil Parker, Herbert Lom, Peter Sellers and Danny Green) in her home, who intend to rehearse string quintet music.
The first Ealing movie filmed in technicolour, and the final effort of director Alexander Mackendrick ('The Man in the White Suit,' 'Whisky Galore!') before he moved to Hollywood, 'The Ladykillers' is a delightfully black crime caper of murder and betrayal, the darkest comedy since Charles Chaplin turned wife-killer in 'Monsieur Verdoux (1947)' {interestingly, the working title of the latter was "The Ladykiller"}.
In the urban jungle of post-War London, a gang of five criminals  headed by the evil mastermind, Professor Marcus (Alec Guinness)  plan the theft of £60,000, masquerading as a rehearsing string quintet to fool their sweet, proper and slightly senile old landlord (Katie Johnson).
A comedy from another place and another time, that right now seems so long ago and far away, `The Ladykillers,' directed by Alexander Mackendrick, stars Alec Guinness, Cecil Parker, Peter Sellers and Herbert Lom, and stands as a perfect example of how charming, delightful, civilized and yes, `funny,' a film can be when approached with intelligence and respect for the audience.
Alec Guinness plays a low-key, understated fake British professor and amateur criminal kingpin and still manages to be funnier than Tom Hanks' over-the-top, wildly over-acted caricature of a caricature of a "professor" from the Southern US.Guinness's deft comedic touch demonstrates his versatility as an actor - very careful asides by modern cinematic standards (British or American) distinguish his performance and contribute to the classic character of the original version of Ladykillers.
Guinness's use of subtle incongruities in his character's persona do the comedic work, in contrast to the other characters' enjoyably absurd dialogue and the slapstick which winds through the plot.Herbert Lom and the other actors portraying the "musicians" of the gang all pull their oars, delivering professional and hilarious performances (and again, much less over-the-top than the modern, American interpretation of the film).Without spoiling the movie for anyone, I can say that the comedic timing and (for the time and technology) good production values are spot on, and this film's reputation as a classic of dark comedy is wholly deserved.
This is an excellent droll black comedy and featured by a British all-star-cast such as Alec Guinnes , Herbert Lom and Peter Sellers and originally written by Willian Rose ; being produced during the golden decade of Ealing studio .
It deals with an eccentric man named professor Marcus , (Alec Guinness who had said that he based his characterisation on theatre critic) , actually a robber , and his crew called Major Courtney (Cecil Parker) , Mr. Harvey (Herbert Lom) , Mr. Robinson (Peter Sellers , though Richard Attenborough was originally considered for this role) and One-Round (Danny Green, though Tommy Cooper was suggested for the role but stage commitments prevented him from auditioning) pose as a band in order to rob an armored truck , all under the nose of his unsuspecting landlord , a sharp old woman (Katie Johnson) .
Modern adaptation älso titled Ladykillers was directed by Cohen Brothers , Joel and Ethan , in 2004 , being a remake of the 1955 comedy ,this new version of the classic movie results to be as entertaining and amusing as the British film ; the story revolves again around professor who puts together a group of thieves to rob a loot, being starred by Tom Hanks , Irma P Hall , Tzi Ma , Marlon Wayans , Ryan Hurst , Tzi Ma and J.K. Simmons .
As said, in this movie we get a good set of classic characters, we have the coward, the temperamental, the unlucky, the dumb and finally the clever one, and then we get the most sweet little old lady set on this earth, what a good job you did there Katie Johnson.This movie was also the first quality picture Peter Sellers was in, but not the movie where he gets the big leading role.
It's like this movie is remembered most by Sellers performance, and not all the other good stuff we get, and here I especially think about Katie Johnson's and Alec Guinness's characters, but thats just the way Sellers acting works - he always outshines the others.
Without her highly amusing central role as the woman who unwittingly gives the gang shelter, it would be no more than a broad comedy.That's not to say that ALEC GUINNESS, HERBERT LOM, PETER SELLERS and CECIL PARKER aren't superb as the gang members, but Johnson is the story's most necessary ingredient.
The charm of this comedy is its British origin and characters, a little old lady whose coming out debut coincided with the death of Queen Victoria, clashing with a gang of crooks all of whom are quite modern characters circa 1955.One of the crooks Alec Guinness rents a room from Katie Johnson who was 77 at the time this film was made.
The 1955 film directed by Alexander Mackendrick pins Guinness along with Cecil Parker, Herbert Lom, Peter Sellers, and Danny Green as a group of criminals posing as a quintet to attain board that is to become their headquarters while staying under the radar.
Professor Marcus thinks planning around an elderly unsuspecting woman will be an easy task so he rents the room and introduces his cohorts Major Courtney (Cecil Parker), Mr. Harvey (Herbert Lom), Mr. Robinson (Peter Sellers), and Mr. Lawson (Danny Green) to his border Mrs. Wilberforce (Katie Johnson).
The movie is more funny with it's subtle things, such as with its characters, the odd events, it's overall atmosphere and its greatly written and constructed story.A great classic comedy, that never gets old and you never grow tired off.9/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/.
So it was that I found myself enjoying this veritable comedy classic from the greatly missing Ealing Studios which, despite a fairly recent Hollywood makeover, still holds its own against its contemporaries thanks to tight scripting, brilliant performances and a wickedly simple story that can't help but entertain.Just around the corner from Kings Cross station in London lives aging spinster Mrs Wilberforce (Katie Johnson) who is in sore need of company and advertises the rooms in her secluded house to let.
Wonderful black Ealing comedy which like all the best darkly humorous movies I've ever seen is all the better for starting out innocently, even whimsically before gradually descending into deeper territory, while retaining enough good sense to turn back on itself in the final reel.The cinematography and general camera set-ups are imaginative in the first place (bar a few very-much-of-their-time rather garish process shots, which even Hitchcock wasn't above using).
There's superb characterisation all the way down the cast-list, especially Katie Johnston as Mrs Wilberforce and Alec Guinness as the buck-toothed criminal mastermind whose best laid plans fall apart the minute the redoubtable petite-dame gets wind of her boarders' real intentions.The acting across the board is marvellous, from Guinness's creepy kingpin, to Peter Sellers' spivvy Teddy Boy and Herbert Lom's (whose path would of course cross with Sellers' again many times in the future, usually over bungled robberies too) near-psychopathic hit-man, but who baulks at dispatching the troublesome little old lady who threatens to disrupt the gang's escape, while of course the whole thing is set up for Johnston to steal the show which she does, with both hands.In a film of many humorous moments, surely none is more so than Guinness' last-man-standing demise at the railway which has served him so well up till then, but where he now literally gets his signals wrong.It would be easy to think of the Ealing comedies as quaint and quirky, but they often had a macabre undertow too, making them all the more intriguing and long-lasting in the memory.
Sellers shines in a supporting role, Lom is better than usual at his usual, but Guinness carries the film with his portrayal of a criminal mastermind who includes nice little old lady Johnson in his plans as an unwitting accomplice.
And then of course there's sweet little Katie Johnson, as Mrs. Wilberforce, the "Lady."  Watching her make her innocent way past the master criminals and through the proverbial Valley of the Shadow of Death (and in MacKendrick's hands it's really quite a dark shadow) becomes one of the pleasantest, funniest experiences I've ever had from a movie.This is dark comedy at its best; perfectly written, beautifully shot, and best of all performed with spirit.My favorite line (though there are many):One-Round: So all right!
I believe they call those dramedies but this didn't even succeed at that.Professor Marcus (Alec Guinness) and his assembled gang have a plan to steal some loot but it all rests upon the unwitting cooperation of Mrs. Wilberforce (Katie Johnson).
As for ingenuity of plot construction, it rivals The Lavender Hill Mob and runs well ahead of Kind Hearts and Coronets.A "professor" with an unctuously courtly manner and an insane gleam in his eyes (Alec Guinness) takes a room in the home of a thoroughly innocent little old lady (Katie Johnson).
The London before my time but must still be recognisable to many, all bustle and recovering from War.The casting is sublime, from the wonderfully twee but rather plucky 80 year old Katie Johnson as Mrs Wilberforce (just 'Old Lady' in some credits) but also with a list that includes Herbert Lom, Peter Sellers, Cecil Parker, Danny Green and of course, the gang's smooth-talking leader, Alec Guinness, in a role I don't think he's ever played the like of which before, or since!Anyway, this mob (with names as Mr Robinson, Mr Harvey, Mr Robinson, reminds one of Tarantino's 'Reservoir Dogs) want an innocent and discrete little pad from which to execute a large bank robbery from and the dappy old dear seems a too perfect landlady to be true.
The final scenes include an atmospheric Hitchcockian style suspense scene, with the shunt and puff of steam trains below - and a really great twist...A young Frankie Howerd has a quick, but amusing run-in with Mrs Wilberforce as a rather old barrow boy but perhaps what made it special for many my father's age was to feature Jack Warner (the incredibly popular and fondly remembered Dixon of Dock Green star, who was pretty much the face of the British 'Bobby' at this time) as the superintendent-in-charge of the case.Really great films do get remade and Hollywood came knocking a whole half century later, with the Coen bros.
They key to it all is Johnson's spot on classic old English lady performance.******** The Ladykillers (12/8/55) Alexander Mackendrick ~ Katie Johnson, Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers, Herbert Lom. A sweet little bit of Heaven.
The gang includes: Professor Marcus (Alec Guinness), the strange criminal mastermind; Major Courtney (Cecil Parker), more of a confidence man than a robber; Louie Harvey (Herbert Lom), a somewhat menacing hoodlum; One-Round Lawson (Danny Green), a punchy ex-prizefighter; and Harry Robinson (Peter Sellers), a cocky young punk.
I would think it almost impossible to steal a movie from Alec Guinness, but, as good as he is, Katie Johnson does steal this movie.One of the best comedies ever made by one of the best British studios, Ealing.The funniest part for me is watching Ms. Johnson wander quietly around amid the chaos (most of which she creates in her wake).Beautifully shot, great locations, great cast, great script...just great.The humor comes out subtly as the film is carefully constructed in the early goings, but, then watch the fun begin.A 10 out of 10 and a must see..
But who could really kill a sweet, old lady?Cecil Parker, Herbert Lom, Danny Green and Peter Sellers are all brilliant as the rag-tag quartet, led by Guinness the slightly mad genius who architects an apparently perfect crime, except for, as he later laments "nothing could have planned for Mrs Wilburforce".
Guinness's ghoulish turn as the criminal mastermind; the presence as members of his gang of two actors who would in the 1960s and 1970s clash so memorably in the anarchic Pink Panther movies; and the whole idea of murder as light comedy all point to a time well after the film's release in 1955.
Alec Guinness is Professor Marcus who is the leader of a group of crooks.They rent a house from London.Their landlady is a sweet old lady called Louisa Wilberforce (Katie Johnson) who these men are supposed to kill.But it's not as easy as thought.Other actors of the group include Cecil Parker, Herbert Lom, Danny Green and Peter Sellers who all do a great job.Alec Guinness is amazing as always.But the real star of the movie is Katie Johnson who is marvelous as the old lady.The Ladykillers from 1955 is brilliant black comedy in color.It's a masterpiece without a doubt.Watch this movie if you want to see a great movie with great acting..
In creating the character of Mrs. Wilburforce she literally steals the movie from Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers, Herbert Lom, and Cecil Parker.
It is perfect in every way imaginable - script, selection of actors for the roles and performances themselves.Katie Johnson, a classic "little ol' lady", won a British Film academy award for her portrayal of a landlady, who rents an apartment to a criminal mastermind Guinness, who poses as Professor Marcus, a head of an "amateur music quintet", consisting of gangsters, trying to rob a bank.