The Ladykillers (1955)

Rarely in their careers did the Coen Brothers (Joel and Ethan) have a misfire. From their first film the low budget, neo noir BLOOD SIMPLE (1984) to their Academy Award winning NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (2007) based on the Cormac McCarthy novel, the Coen Brothers films were unique, mesmerizing, and well crafted. The Coens weren't afraid to remake a classic film either. They set their eyes on Henry Hathaway's western TRUE GRIT (1969) starring John Wayne in his Oscar winning performance as Sheriff Rooster Cogburn. The Coen's TRUE GRIT (2010) with Jeff Bridges as the eye patch wearing Cogburn and co-starring Matt Damon and Hailee Stanfield added some scenes from the novel by Charles Portis that weren't in the original film but stayed fairly faithful to the original movie. The Coen's TRUE GRIT was praised as a modern classic of a previous classic, a far cry from the brothers first attempt at their remake of the British crime caper comedy THE LADYKILLERS (2004), based on Alexander Mackendrick's original THE LADYKILLERS (1955). 

Mackendrick's THE LADYKILLERS was one of the last and best British comedies that emerged from Ealing Studio that also included Charles Crichton's THE LAVENDER HILL MOB (1951). Many of the best Ealing Studio comedies starred Alec Guinness who appears in THE LADYKILLERS.  I have not seen the Coen Brothers version of THE LADYKILLERS (which stars Tom Hanks in the the Guinness role) and will probably watch it during my review of the original THE LADYKILLERS. Mackendrick's THE LADYKILLERS reputation proceeds itself.  Besides Guinness, THE LADYKILLERS also boasts two of my favorite British comedy actors Peter Sellers and Herbert Lom. Both were just starting out in films in the 1950s but would later reunite for the PINK PANTHER films for director Blake Edwards in the 60s and 70s.

I would surmise that the Coen Brothers were probably fans of the original THE LADYKILLERS and its underappreciated director with the strange last name Mackendrick. Alexander Mackendrick was born in the United States but moved to his native Scotland shortly after. Most of Mackendrick's success was at Ealing Studios where he made five films including THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT (1951) with Alec Guinness and his best known Ealing film THE LADYKILLERS. The Coens may have been drawn to remaking THE LADYKILLERS as Mackendrick's comedies had a darker edge to them than the typical British comedies of the era which tended to be more lighthearted. The Coens were no strangers to their own black comedies like THE BIG LEBOWSKI (1998) and BURN AFTER READING (2008). The success of THE LADYKILLERS would capture the attention of Hollywood who would bring Mackendrick back to the United States for his next film SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS (1957) starring Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis.  Mackendrick would discover that success would be a double-edged sword. 

With an original screenplay by William Rose (IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD) and directed by Alexander Mackendrick, THE LADYKILLERS begins by introducing us to Mrs. Louisa Wilberforce (Katie Johnson), a sweet, slightly dotty widow. Mrs. Wilberforce visits the local police to tell the Superintendent (Jack Warner) her neighbor was mistaken about alien beings she thought landed in her garden. The police officers politely dismiss her. Mrs. Wilberforce who lives in a crooked house at the end of a cul-de-sac on top of a train tunnel next to Kings Cross Railroad station has two rooms for rent. She's followed home by a tall, thin menacing figure who turns out to be Professor Marcus (Alec Guinness).  Marcus is looking for two rooms to rent so he and his fellow musicians string quartet can rehearse. 

Only Marcus and his friends aren't really musicians. They're criminals planning an armored wagon robbery delivering $60,000 pounds to the Kings Cross railroad station.  Marcus's oddball crew includes the jittery and disgraced Major Claude Courtney (Cecil Parker), the menacing Louis Harvey (Herbert Lom), the empty headed muscle One-Round (Danny Green), and the overconfident Cockney Harry Robinson (Peter Sellers). As Marcus and the gang plot their robbery, Mrs. Wilberforce unintentionally becomes a nuisance, disturbing their planning with offers of tea or to needing help to catch her mischievous parrot General Gordon.  But Professor Marcus has a use for Mrs. Wilberforce. She will unwittingly help them bring the stolen money back to her house so the men can divide the loot.

Creating a perfect diversion, the armored wagon robbery goes off without a hitch. The money is transferred from smaller cases into a large trunk. Driving a fake taxi, Robinson drops the trunk off at the train station where it's placed in the parcels section. Mrs. Wilberforce arrives by taxi at the train station and picks up the trunk for Professor Marcus. She departs the train station to the gang's relief only to return moments later.  Mrs. Wilberforce forgot her umbrella. The gang follows Mrs. Wilberforce's taxi as it works its way to her home. Mrs. Wilberforce sees the Barrow Boy (Frankie Howerd) abusing a horse for eating apples off his cart. Mrs. Wilberforce forces the Taxi Driver (Kenneth Connor) to stop and comes to the horse's rescue to the horror of Marcus and his conspirators. Mrs. Wilberforce, the Barrow Boy, the Taxi Driver, and the large trunk end up at the police station. After the scuffle is cleared up, two police officers bring Mrs. Wilberforce and the large trunk to her home. Marcus and his thieves show up for their final rehearsal. The money is divided up and each criminal places his share in their musical instrument case. The men bid adieu to Mrs. Wilberforce. Marcus and his men have pulled off the perfect crime until One-Round catches his cello case in Mrs. Wilberforce's door. One-Round tugs at the case, ripping it open, his share of the loot spilling out onto the sidewalk in full view of Mrs. Wilberforce.

Marcus and the gang return to the house to try to explain why One-Round's cello case contains loads of cash and no cello.  But before they can explain, four gray-haired ladies show up for Mrs. Wilberforce's tea party. One of Mrs. Wilberforce's friends Lettice (Edie Martin) has the latest newspaper with headlines about the armored wagon robbery which catches Mrs. Wilberforce's attention. She insists the men stay for tea with her friends.  After the tea party ends, Marcus admits to her they did steal the money but that there's no sense in returning it. Insurance has already covered the loss for all parties. Marcus tells her she'll be arrested with them if she goes to the police. With all the excitement, Mrs. Wilberforce falls asleep. Marcus and the gang decide they must kill Mrs. Wilberforce. But who will do it? Louis cuts up matchsticks. The Major draws the shortest lot.  He invites Mrs. Wilberforce upstairs to strangle her but chickens out and tries to flee with his share of the money out the second floor window. THE LADYKILLERS concludes with Marcus, Claude, One-Round, Louis, and Harry turning on each other in dark fashion leaving Mrs. Wilberforce to confess to the police she has the stolen money. But will the authorities believe her and where are the criminals who stole it?

What makes THE LADYKILLERS a comedy classic is the combination of smart plotting and writing, excellent directing, and perfect casting. Mackendrick and Rose set up the ending of the film in the first scene when the local police politely dismiss Mrs. Wilberforce's explanation of her neighbor believing aliens were in her garden. We don't realize it yet (and Marcus and his gang will never know it) but the authorities will never believe anything that Mrs. Wilberforce will tell them going forward including that she has the stolen sixty thousand pounds in her home. The introduction of each criminal is done simply with each character walking up and framed in the doorway as Marcus introduces them to us and Mrs. Wilberforce. Each criminal is distinct. Marcus with his protruding front teeth (resembling actor Alistair Sim but more on that later). The hulking One-Round. Major Claude and his thick moustache. Harry with his pompadour hair.  And the fedora wearing Louis. Even Mrs. Wilberforce stands out with her rosy cheeks, expressive blue eyes, and pink dresses. 

Color plays a big part in THE LADYKILLERS. In fact, THE LADYKILLERS is the only comedy in the Ealing Studios canon made in color. It might be a black comedy but the film is full of deep, saturated colors. The two rooms that Professor Marcus rents from Mrs. Wilberforce are a garish green and bright red. The green room symbolizes the thieves greed and vice as they plot their robbery of the armored wagon. The red room foreshadows the deaths that will occur as the gang contemplates murdering Mrs. Wilberforce before turning on one another. Mrs. Wilberforce's pink outfit represents purity amongst all these shady criminals dressed in mostly black and gray suits.

Production design plays an important role in THE LADYKILLERS. Mrs. Wilberforce's house is the perfect (if unsound) structure for Professor Wilburn and his cohorts. The pictures don't hang straight. The staircase to the second floor leans one way. The house is crooked like the men who have moved in temporarily. Film historians point out that Mrs. Wilberforce's home represents the end of the British Empire with its Victorian decor. Pictures of 19th century debutantes, bucolic forests, and Mrs. Wilberforce's deceased sea captain husband adorn the first floor and along the staircase. Her home is the last bastion of the once great, powerful British Empire. 

Even with the great Alec Guinness and the first major film role for Peter Sellers, sweet little old Katie Johnson shines in THE LADYKILLERS.  Johnson's Mrs. Wilberforce is literally a force of nature in the film, blissfully unaware of her superpowers besides honesty. As Professor Marcus laments, "It was a great plan, except for the Human Element. So many plans fail to take into account the Human Element. Mrs. Wilberforce will always be with us. A whole army couldn't take her out." Like many great robbery films from John Huston's THE ASPHALT JUNGLE (1951) to Michael Mann's HEAT (1995), the Human Element ruined those robberies as well. But those films didn't have a sweet, innocent old lady blow up their intricate scheme. We are warned at the very start of THE LADYKILLERS that Mrs. Wilberforce will be a thorn in the criminals side when she causes a baby in a pram to cry for no reason. THE LADYKILLERS would be Katie Johnson's crowning achievement.  The 76 year old actress would win a BAFTA (British Academy Award) for her performance as Mrs. Wilberforce, appear in one more film HOW TO MURDER A RICH UNCLE (1957), and pass away that same year at the age of 78, two years after THE LADYKILLERS release.

When Alec Guinness was offered the role of the ringleader Professor Marcus for THE LADYKILLERS, he told director Mackendrick that fellow English actor Alistair Sim (STAGE FRIGHT, A CHRISTMAS CAROL) was born to play the role. Mackendrick informed Guinness that Sim had been offered the part but was unavailable.  The chameleon Guinness (perhaps as a homage) would transform himself into resembling Sim complete with buck teeth and wispy, blondish hair.  It is another of Guinness's finest comedic performances. Professor Marcus is the brains behind the robbery plot. He and his co-conspirators pull of his master plan only to watch it unravel at the hands of the kindly, unassuming Mrs. Wilberforce. Looking over Guinness's filmography, he was the top comedic actor in the 1950s until Ealing Studios quit making comedies at the end of the decade. Guinness would easily slide into drama, becoming David Lean's good luck charm from THE BRIDGE OVER RIVER KWAI (1957) to DR. ZHIVAGO (1965). Mostly working in British television in the 1970s, George Lucas would introduce Alec Guinness to a new generation of fans as Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi in STAR WARS (1977). 

Although Herbert Lom and Peter Sellers would become famous for their roles as the suffering turned psychotic Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus and bumbling Inspector Jacques Cousteau respectively in THE PINK PANTHER films, Lom and Sellers were just starting out in film when they appeared in THE LADYKILLERS. Lom started out playing exotic supporting characters in films like Henry Hathaway's THE BLACK ROSE (1950). Lom was performing as the King of Siam in the London stage production of The King and I and his head was mostly shaven during the filming of THE LADYKILLERS. Lom wears a fedora for most of the film to hide that fact. Lom's Louis is the most cold-hearted, ruthless member of the five. Yet, even Louis and all his menace can't overcome the indomitably kind Mrs. Wilberforce.

For Sellers, THE LADYKILLERS was his first meaningful film having worked primarily on the BBC Radio Show The Goon Show. Sellers shows glimpses of his future expertise in comic pratfalls and mishaps in THE LADYKILLERS especially when he volunteers to catch Mrs. Wilberforce's parrot. His skill at accents make him perfect as the Cockney speaking hood Harry Robinson. Alec Guinness was Sellers idol and working with Guinness on THE LADYKILLERS would rub off on Sellers. Guinness had played eight roles in Robert Hamer's KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS (1949). Sellers would soon play multiple roles himself in both Jack Arnold's THE MOUSE THAT ROARED (1957) and more famously in Stanley Kubrick's DR. STRANGELOVE (1964). 

When I first heard Cecil Parker speak in THE LADYKILLERS, I knew exactly where I had heard Parker before. Parker played the philandering, isolationist loving Mr. Todhunter in Alfred Hitchcock's train thriller THE LADY VANISHES (1938).  He was an unlikable character who got his just desserts at the film's end, waving a white handkerchief  and still getting shot and I couldn't forget him. In THE LADYKILLERS, dressed in a yellow suit and with his white moustache, Parker's Major Claude looks like the prototype for Colonel Mustard from the Clue board game. The Major is some kind of disgraced military officer, fallen on hard times. If it wasn't for Mrs. Wilberforce, the nervous Major would probably have been the Human Element to ruin the perfect crime. Instead, he's the first one to turn on the group and the Major pays the price.

The filmmakers don't give Danny Green's towering, lumbering character One-Round any back story in THE LADYKILLERS but his name tells it all. He must have been a boxer who either knocked his opponent out in the first round or he took a dive versus his heavyweight opponent in the first round per a gambler or mobster's orders. As imposing as Green's One-Round is, he's a kitten around Mrs. Wilberforce. Other credits for Green include Nathan Juran's THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD (1958) and William Castle's remake of  THE OLD DARK HOUSE (1963).

CRAZYFILMGUY made a last second effort and viewed the Coen Brothers remake of THE LADYKILLERS. Although many English movies and television shows have successfully been reworked into American movies and television shows, the Coen Brothers version is not one of those successes. Yes, the Coens made some interesting choices, moving the location of THE LADYKILLERS from London to Mississippi; changing the pleasant English Mrs. Wilberforce into the bible thumping widow Marva Munson (Irma P. Hall); and the heist from an armored wagon holdup near King's Cross to plucking $1.6 million from a riverboat casino. What the Coen Brothers remake proves is that THE LADYKILLERS belongs in England.  It's an English comedy with unique English characters that just doesn't Americanize. The Coens dumb up most of the criminals (easier for American audiences to recognize), throw in heaps of profanity, and make their THE LADYKILLERS the opposite of Mackendrick's sophisticated gem. 

For director Alexander Mackendrick, THE LADYKILLERS would be his calling card to Hollywood where Burt Lancaster would hire him to direct the savage SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS (1957) written by playwright Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman based on Lehman's novel. Today, SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS is considered a masterpiece.  For audiences in the 1950s, the film's blistering take on a gossip columnist who rules New York and the soulless press agent who tries to appease him was too much for audiences. SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS would be a critical and box office failure at the time. Mackendrick would only make a couple more films before he was offered the job as Dean of the Film Department of the California Institute of the Arts where he was beloved by film students from 1969 until his death in 1993.

When you watch a heist film, you often find yourself rooting for the criminals to get away with the crime. In THE LADYKILLERS, I was rooting for Professor Marcus and his odd accomplices. They had pulled off the perfect crime, they weren't going to hurt Mrs. Wilberforce, and they were just waiting for One-Round to say goodbye.  But heist films almost never end happily. THE LADYKILLERS even tosses a red herring when Mrs. Wilberforce slumps in her sitting chair as if she's expired only to awaken from a quick nap. The criminals have multiple opportunities to just flee and take their chances that the police won't believe her story (which turns out to be true).  But poor judgement will cloud their thinking and they decide to kill Mrs. Wilberforce to silence her with unexpected consequences for them all. 

Like some American comedies, some English comedies from the past are lowbrow, reaching to the wider public with stale, familiar stories and going for cheap laughs.  The British Ealing Studios raised the comedy bar with its series of original stories using a troupe of excellent English actors to delight audiences. THE LADYKILLERS was Ealing's crowning achievement in the 1950s, starring its best comedic actor Alec Guinness (surrounded with a hilarious group of supporting players) and its best director Alexander Mackendrick, all shot in glorious, deep color. Even one of America's best pair of directors couldn't improve on THE LADYKILLERS.  Make yourself a cup of tea, settle into your soft recliner and prepare yourself for 91 minutes of dark, comedic glee.