The Ladykillers


This article is about the 1955 film. For the remake by the Coen Brothers, see The Ladykillers (2004 film).
For the 1988 TV movie, see Ladykillers (TV movie).
"Ladykillers" redirects here. For the single by Lush, see Lovelife (album).
The Ladykillers

Original film poster
Directed by Alexander Mackendrick
Produced by Seth Holt associate producer
Michael Balcon producer (uncredited)
Written by William Rose
Starring Alec Guinness
Cecil Parker
Herbert Lom
Peter Sellers
Danny Green
Jack Warner
Katie Johnson
Music by Tristram Cary
Cinematography Otto Heller
Editing by Jack Harris
Distributed by Continental Distributing Inc.
Release date(s) 1955
Running time 97 minutes
Country UK
Language English

The Ladykillers is a 1955 British dark comedy film, another edition in a series of post-war Ealing comedies. Directed by Alexander Mackendrick, it stars Alec Guinness, Cecil Parker, Herbert Lom, Peter Sellers, Danny Green, Jack Warner and Katie Johnson.

American William Rose wrote the screenplay, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay and won the BAFTA Award for Best British Screenplay. He claimed to have dreamt the entire film and merely had to remember the details when he awoke.

Contents

Plot

A comically sinister criminal, "Professor" Marcus (Guinness), rents rooms in the gradually subsiding "lopsided" King's Cross house of an innocent and eccentric old lady, Mrs. Louisa Wilberforce (Johnson), a widow who lives alone with her parrots. The Professor has put together a gang for a sophisticated security van robbery at Kings Cross Station in London: the gentlemanly con-man "Major" Courtney (Parker), the Cockney spiv Harry Robinson (Sellers), the slow-witted ex-boxer "One-Round" Lawson (Green), and the vicious continental gangster Louis Harvey (Lom). However, the Professor convinces Mrs. Wilberforce that they are an amateur string quintet using the room 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. 13 No. 5 during their planning sessions.

After the successful heist, which involves putting the cash in a cabin trunk and placing it in the station parcel office, with Mrs. Wilberforce playing an unwitting but crucial role by escorting the loot through the police cordon, the real conflict of the film begins. As the gang leaves her house, One-Round accidentally gets his cello case full of banknotes trapped in the front door as it is closed by Mrs. Wilberforce. As he pulls the case free the banknotes spill out in front of Mrs. Wilberforce. She realises the truth and informs Marcus that she is going to report them to the police.

The gang, it seems, has no choice but to do away with her. No one wants to do the job, so they draw matchsticks. The Major loses, but tries to make a run for it with the cash in hand. In quick succession, the criminals double-cross and kill one another, with the bodies ending up dumped into railway wagons passing behind the house. Throughout all this, the oblivious Mrs. Wilberforce remains asleep.

In the end, the gang members are all dead, and Mrs. Wilberforce is left with the money. The deaths occur in the following order:

  • Major Courtney is killed by Louis Harvey on Mrs. Wilberforce's rooftop.
  • Mr. Robinson is killed by One-Round when One-Round thinks that Mr. Robinson has killed Mrs. Wilberforce.
  • One-Round is killed by Louis when he tries to shoot Professor Marcus and Louis but "stupidly" leaves the safety catch on making him vulnerable in a cloud of smoke from a passing train.
  • Louis is thwarted by Professor Marcus, who loosens the trackside ladder on which Louis is standing, causing him to fall into a railway wagon.
  • Shortly after killing Louis, Professor Marcus, standing on a railway signal gantry, is hit by a signal arm when it falls, and he drops directly into another railway wagon.

Left alone with the money, Mrs. Wilberforce goes to the police. They are familiar with her strange stories and pretend to believe her account, but jokingly tell her to keep the money. Ironically, Professor Marcus had earlier assured her that, because the money was insured, any effort on her part to return it would only confuse things. She is therefore finally persuaded that keep it she must. On the way home she rewards an astonished pavement artist with a £5 note.

Cast

The British comedian Frankie Howerd has a cameo role as an agitated market fruit seller caused when a horse begins to eat his apples, along with Kenneth Connor as a taxi driver. A young Stratford Johns (Charlie Barlow from Z-Cars) plays the driver of the lorry that gets robbed.

Guinness based Professor Marcus on the popular comedian and actor Alastair Sim.[1] Sim's daughter has claimed in interviews that many assume that her father actually played the part.

Awards and nominations

Wins

Nominations

Poll

In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted The Ladykillers the 36th greatest comedy film of all time.

Film locations

Mrs Wilberforce's house, No 57, was a set built at the western end of Frederica Street, directly above the southern portal of Copenhagen Tunnel on the railway line leading out of King's Cross station. However, the views from her house show Argyle Street, a couple of miles away, with the tower of St Pancras Station in the background.

Adaptations

  • A radio adaptation of the film was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 13 January 1996.

References

  1. ^ screenonline.org.uk, part of the British Film Institure (BFI)

External links

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