The Ladykillers (1955)

To see Alec Guinness in The Ladykillers must be like what it will be like for a youngin’ to see Ewan McGregor pull the condom off in Trainspotting, which is to say, impressionable and revealing. I’m anxious to see Star Wars again, actually, having experienced this Ealing Studios black comedy where he is no less as obvious and present as Tom Hanks was in the reprise, but somehow anonymous and not as showy.

Taking requests from Mrs. Wilberforce.

I admired the Tom Hanks performance in the Coen Brothers version, for the way he twanged and tingled his lips around his words about waffles forthwith and whatnot. But here Guinness manages to be as absurd and silly and yet not make the whole enterprise about him (the whole supporting cast in the Coen Brothers version were On!, and not in a particularly good way). Here, everyone falls into certain archetypes, sure – the muscle oaf with transient parental figures, the hard-edged criminal hesitant to Do the Deed, the mastermind who intellectualizes listlessly in the face of a dissolving plan, etc. The real star, of course, is the little old lady, Mrs. Wilberforce (Katie Johnson). Always doting on the young men she lets her room to (they plot a heist under the ruse of a practicing string quartet), she delightfully encourages the boys in their soulful performances of andante passages and pizzicato.

When she finally does find out what’s going on under her nose, she turns into a stern, trusting parent sure that the boys, as lead by Professor Marcus (Guinness), will ultimately do the right thing. As they squabble under her nose once more, they each draw straws in an attempt to bring about their escape from the lock and key of Wilberforce, and attempt to navigate the lull of the cello case filled with their loot. They achieve varying degrees of success.

Peter Sellers, in one of his first big roles as Mr. Robinson (Harry), is fairly restrained but possesses an explosive energy and natural affinity for physical comedy, which he would make great use of from Dr. Strangelove through the diminishing returns of the Pink Panther films.

The Blu-Ray disc for this film is great. The format really shines with older films that have never really looked good because of poor prints and lackluster restoration. A Blu-Ray film restored properly, such as this one, adds layers to the film that were barely recognizable before. Buildings and roads achieve a texture in detail that was only fuzzy, soft incoherence on AMC in the past. The DVD is probably just fine, but if you have the opportunity, you should see this on Blu-Ray. Additionally, the disc is packed with alternative language tracks and subtitles, so if you have anyone attempting to learn a foreign language but hesitant to sit down and see some criminals face off against an old lady in 50′s bone dry English comedy, then perhaps you can entice them with the Norwegian subtitles.