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The Ladykillers Details

1955 DVD Certificate TBC.gif
  • Rated:
  • 70
  • from 8552 members

Alexander Mackendrick's last Ealing comedy and certainly one of the best, William Rose received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Alec Guinness stars in one of his most vivid disguises, in this killingly funny black comedy gem. The villains plot to kill the old lady who discovers their robbery. But the pensioner .. Read more

Starring Alec Guinness, Cecil Parker, Alice Krige, Alice Krige
Director Alexander Mackendrick
Genres Comedy

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The Ladykillers cover art

The Ladykillers

Alexander Mackendrick's last Ealing comedy and certainly one of the best, William Rose received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Alec Guinness stars in one of his most vivid disguises, in this killingly funny black comedy gem. The villains plot to kill the old lady who discovers their robbery. But the pensioner is not as harmless as she seems! A rare colour film from Ealing in the '50s, it was premiered in 1955 at the end of the Ealing Green period.

Starring Alec Guinness, Cecil Parker, Alice Krige, Alice Krige, Herbert Lom, Peter Sellers, Danny Green, Jack Warner, Katie Johnson, Katie Johnston, Frankie Howerd, Kenneth Connor
Director Alexander Mackendrick
Studio OPTIMUM
Run time DVD: 1 hr 27 mins
Blu-ray: 1 hr 34 mins
Certificate DVD Certificate TBC.gif
Genres Comedy
Language English
Released DVD: 02 Sep 2002
Blu-ray: not available
Production year: 1955
Format DVD

  • Critics' reviews (3) of The Ladykillers

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  • 5 stars out of 5

    A supreme blend of the seedy and the sinister, this was Ealing's last post on the comedy front — indeed, the studio was shutting up shop as this film went on release. Directed by a mischievous Alexander Mackendrick, the picture loses its way momentarily in the middle, when the stock scenario of a gang of ruthless thugs being stymied by a dotty innocent (the marvellous Katie Johnson as their landlady) wears a little thin. Nevertheless, this is British comedy at its best, with eccentric characters never for a second seeming out of place in the most everyday locations. Alec Guinness and his minions (among them Herbert Lom and Peter Sellers) are a marvellous collection of misfits, but they lose every scene to the Bafta-winning Johnson.

    • Radio Times
    • Posted 29 Jan 2006
  • 3 stars out of 4

    Witty black comedy, shot in muted colours, which approaches the grotesque without damaging its acerbic humour or sense of fantasy; it is one of the few films where death is both shocking and funny.

    • Halliwell's Film Guide
    • Posted 02 Mar 2006

  • Most helpful member's review of The Ladykillers

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  • 17 out of 17 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 5 stars

    Brilliant comedy

    Sharp and inventive black comedy here, in glorious colour with a backdrop of steam trains. Katie Johnson is totally convincing as Mrs Wilberforce, a slightly macabre little old lady who lives in a weird, lopsided old house built over the railway tunnel leading to King's Cross railway station in London. We first see her walking up the local street among shoppers, frightening a baby, and reporting to the friendly local police station (where Jack Warner is in charge) that her friend's supposed sighting of aliens from outer space was only a dream. Into this odd world comes an even odder and threatening figure: one Professor Marcus (Alec Guinness), who wishes to ask about the two rooms she has advertised to let; he and his friends, he says, have formed a string quintet and want somewhere quiet to practise. When the friends turn up, they are clearly dangerous crooks (Herbert Lom holds his violin case as if it held a machine gun), and we soon learn that they are planning a big theft, in which Mrs Wilberforce will unknowingly play a key role. All goes well for the gang -- although not for some innocent bystanders -- until the time comes for them to depart with their loot. Mrs Wilberforce discovers that they are criminals, and the gang decide that she must die in order to prevent her giving them away. But who will kill her? While each of the gang are happy to kill each other, none of them can bring themselves to kill 'a sweet little old lady'... then there is the problem of the disposal of bodies, and that's where the railway comes in. As ever in Ealing comedies, the last final twists to the tale are both unexpected and hilarious. But was this story too (like the report of aliens) all a dream? An excellent comedy which can be watched again and again.

      • Helen Nicholson from Cardiff, Wales
      • Posted 10 Mar 2005 17:15

  • Most recent members' review of The Ladykillers

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  • 1 out of 1 person found this review helpful

    Rated - 5 stars

    The Ladykillers

    Marvelous and witty. Alec Guinness at his best apart from his part in Star Wars!!!

      • A customer from Durham, England
      • Posted 03 Jun 2005 23:10

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Rating breakdown

8,552 Member ratings
  • 100
1,433
  • 90
1,084
  • 80
1,882
  • 70
1,501
  • 60
1,134
  • 50
619
  • 40
320
  • 30
245
  • 20
222
  • 10
112

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      THE LADYKILLERS, director Alexander Mackendrick's third Ealing farce, is the final comedy produced by the famous studio and one of its most celebrated. Alec Guinness stars as the superbly shifty, toothily threatening Professor Marcus, the leader of a crime ring planning a heist. Marcus rents rooms ...
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      • Alexander Mackendrick's last Ealing comedy and certainly one of the best, William Rose received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Alec Guinness stars in one of his most vivid ...