The Ladykillers

Director: Alexander Mackendrick Alexander Mackendrick

Overview

A superb cast graces this amusing black comedy that stars Alec Guinness portraying a criminal mastermind posing as a music professor. He convinces his sweet, old, idiosyncratic landlady to unwittingly retrieve a trunk filled with stolen money. When his bumbling gang plots to kill her, their plans go ironically awry.

Product Details

Release Date:	08/03/2021
UPC:	0887936862144
Original Release:	1955
Rating:	NR
Source:	Lionsgate
Language:	English
Time:	1:30:00
Sales rank:	6,350

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Katie Johnson	Mrs. Louisa Alexandra Wilberforce
Alec Guinness	Prof. Marcus
Peter Sellers	Harry Robinson
Cecil Parker	Maj. Courteney
Danny Green	One-Round
Edie Martin	Lettice
Jack Melford	Detective
Helen Burls	Hypatia
Ewan Roberts	Constable
Herbert Lom	Louis Harvey
Jack Warner	Police Superintendent
Philip Stainton	Police Sergeant
Frankie Howerd	Barrow Boy
Fred Griffiths	The Junkman,Actor
Kenneth Connor	The Cab Driver
Phoebe Hodgson	4th Guest
Harold Goodwin	Parcels Clerk
Leonard Sharp	Pavement Artist
Stratford Johns	Security Guard
Sam Kydd	Actor
Evelyn Kerry	Actor
Neil Wilson	Actor
Michael Corcoran	Actor
Robert Moore	Actor
John Rudling	Actor
Madge Brindley	Actor
Peter Williams	Actor
George Roderick	Actor
Tristram Cary	Composer
Katie Johnston	Actor
Arthur Dibbs	Actor
George Hilsdon	Actor
Vincent Holman	Actor
Arthur Howell	Actor
Anthony John	Actor
Arthur Mullard	Actor

Technical Credits

William Rose

Alexander Mackendrick	Director
William Rose	Screenwriter
Seth Holt	Producer
Michael Balcon	Producer
Stephen Dalby	Sound Effects
Gordon Stone	Sound Effects
Leo Wilkins	Sound Effects
Sydney Pearson	Special Effects

Editorial Reviews

Forever Ealing, a lovely documentary about Great Britain's famed studio, saves for last in its chronology the best of all Ealing comedies, this bonbon with a very dark, hard center. It is almost impossible to find fault with any aspect of this film, from its opening shot of Mrs. Wilberforce's house at the dead end of a city street overlooking a train yard to the same closing shot. William Rose's script economically sketches the slightly lopsided world of a little old lady seemingly oblivious to anything complex or sophisticated, as Mrs. Wilberforce makes her way through her neighborhood to the police station, where her visits to report strange activities are quite well-known. Rose takes us quickly through the heist, and at the film's halfway point, the story turns on the discovery by Mrs. W. of the money inside the cello case. For all their bravado, however, the gang of robbers who would menace her are nearly as harmless as their intended victim. None of them relish the idea that Mrs. W. cannot live to report them to the police. They would do anything -- even turn on each other -- rather than bump off the only person who can finger them. Alexander Mackendrick's direction is remarkably restrained; the slapstick moments are believably set up and executed with finesse. Nothing feels frantic here, right down to the amazing choreography of bodies falling off the railroad bridge in the last act. Alec Guinness, playing a man who understands all too well how the "human element" is the only variable in any master plan, and Katie Johnson, as a woman who is both sweet and determined, both carry the film; the looks that pass between Prof. Marcus and Mrs. Wilberforce when she realizes the truth about him and his friends are eloquent beyond description. Peter Sellers fans may be disappointed that he's not given more to do here, though it is amusing to watch him and Herbert Lom, future adversarial colleagues in the Pink Panther comedies, working together.