The Ladykillers
Mrs Louisa Wilberforce endures; her house damaged during the blitz so portions of it remain unusable, lacking the funds to institute comprehensive building repairs, situated above the railway line so the noise and steam are constant companions, she remains a good soul, kind and concerned for her neighbours, friendly with the local constabulary and a familiar figure in her skirt and coat of palest lilac and embroidered blouse and tightly furled black umbrella which she has a habit of forgetting.
An advertisement placed for a lodger for the two upstairs rooms still of sound construction despite the unstable chimney stack atop, she is approached at home by the respectable if slightly eccentric Professor Marcus who wishes to rent both rooms, for himself and his friends with whom he forms an amateur string quintet, Major Courtney, Messrs Harvey and Robinson, and the unlikely lumbering cellist Mr Lawson, their daily rehearsals a delightful diversion for the lonely days of a widower.
Perhaps one of the most famous of the legendary Ealing comedies, an ensemble piece as much as the fictitious string quartet who mime along to recordings in order to conceal their true purpose, The Ladykillers was released in 1955, starring Kind Hearts and Coronets’ Alec Guinness as “the Professor” alongside future Pink Panther co-stars and nemeses Peter Sellers and Herbert Lom as the jovial Harry Robinson and shifty Louis Harvey.
With the great Katie Johnson in one of her final roles as “the old lady,” referred to as “Mrs Lopsided” by Danny Green’s lumbering “One-Round” Lawson, muscle of the criminal gang and also the heart, simple but genuinely caring for the woman who interrupts their plotting with endless pots of tea and requests for assistance around the house, it is a genteel film of a series of occasionally accidental deaths which escalate into planned murder.
With £60,000 stolen from nearby King’s Cross to play for, while Mrs Wilberforce is trusting and deferential, she is also of upstanding character and iron will, the innocent who undertook a task for Professor Marcus, collecting a travel case from the station, who finds herself part of the plot but refuses complicity, confiscating the cash and insisting the authorities be told at once, believing the gang to be men of good character who will see the error of their ways and respond accordingly.
Directed by The Man in the White Suit’s Alexander Mackendrick from a BAFTA winning script by William Rose, The Ladykillers has been remade several times including as a feature film by the Coen Brothers starring Tom Hanks and as a magnificent touring stage production led by Michelle Dotrice, but with the exquisite accompaniment of Boccherini and Haydn giving the heist and its consequences charm and class, the original remains the best remembered and regarded.
