The Ladykillers (1955)

Meet the "Unholy Five"...The Most Befuddled Set of Assorted Thugs That Ever Fouled Up a Million Dollar Bank Robbery!

Directed by: Alexander MacKendrick
Written by: William Rose
Produced by: Seth Holt, Michael Balcon
Starring: Alec Guinness as Professor Marcus, Katie Johnson as Mrs. Wilberforce/Lopside, Cecil Parker as Major Courtney/Claude, Herbert Lom as Mr. Harvey/Louis, Peter Sellers as Mr. Robinson/Harry, and Danny Green as Mr. Lawson/One-Round
Music by: Tristram Cary

This is another Guinness film which fits in the realm of "darkly comedic and slightly disturbing." Guinness once again plays a criminal, however this time a bit more psychotic than in "Lavender Hill." Professor Marcus is a startlingly odd looking man who has a knack for well-planned robberies. This one requires him to lodge with an old, rather befuddled, woman named Mrs. Wilberforce. When his cronies show up, they tell Mrs. Wilberforce (whom they call Lopside behind her back) they are musicians who need somewhere quiet to practice. Everything goes along smoothly until old Lopside figures out what the men are really up to and threatens to go to the police. The men scramble to find one of them willing to kill her and dispose of the body in the convenient cargo trains that pass behind her house every few minutes. With Lopside having no idea what's going on, but struggling with her own fears of being considered a criminal and her attempts to guard the stolen "jolly."

This movie will have you laughing and silently wondering if you SHOULD be laughing. There is a lot of violence done in a humorous manner, although true to Brit form, none of the deaths occur onscreen. Professor Marcus' minions got the most laughs out of me with their distinct methods of screwing things up in one way or another. I appreciate that the film makers let us see the entirety of the Professor's plan before they were snagged by Lopside and things began to go awry. There wasn't just one type of comedy - there were puns, physical comedy, sound effects added to bring laughs, one-liners, you name it.

The two characters I did not like were Professor Marcus and Mrs. Wilberforce - which was kind of frustrating considering they were the two main characters. Mrs. Wilberforce was frustratingly stereotypical but not because she wasn't creatively written. Instead, her character swung back and forth between the easily cowed and confused elderly woman and the brusque no-nonsense old biddy. And usually there was no distinction as to what made her act the way she did. And Guinness as Marcus just creeped me the heck out. No more no less. Creepy man.

I enjoyed some of the other dark comedies in this series much more, especially considering the twist at the end of this one (all the ones in this series have a twist) was enormously frustrating. This original version of the Ladykillers gets three passing coal trains out of a possible five (3/5).