{"id":635,"date":"2018-11-05T00:08:11","date_gmt":"2018-11-05T00:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=635"},"modified":"2023-01-22T22:30:59","modified_gmt":"2023-01-22T22:30:59","slug":"film-the-ladykillers-1955","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=635","title":{"rendered":"FiLM REViEW: The Ladykillers, 1955"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ladykillers<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Teresa suggested we watch The Ladykillers<\/i> tonight. I wanted to watch a fresh episode of Columbo – I’m working my way through the complete boxed set – but she got her way. And it has to be said, even though I’ve seen it several times, The Ladykillers<\/i> really is superb.<\/p>\n

\"The
Prof. Marcus, deliciously creepy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Alec Guinness is great, as the creepy Prof. Marcus, leading his rag-tag band of ne’erdowells on a ‘stick up caper’. Katie Johnson is equally fab as the dotty old Mrs. Wilberforce, who lets a room to the gang.<\/p>\n

\"The
Mrs Wilberforce always means well.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The plot is great, but I won’t give it away here. Suffice it to say that Prof. Marcus’ team are working together for the first time, and masquerading as a group of enthusiastic amateur musicians. The prof’ plans to make use not just of Mrs Wilberforce’s home – which, like her, is a relic from a bygone era – but her, as the unwitting mule for the lolly.<\/p>\n

But the prof’ hasn’t taken into account the unforeseen consequences of her well-meaning busy-body nature. From her wonky pictures, to General Gordon and her other parakeets, she is a law unto herself.<\/p>\n

\"The
Two worlds collide, over tea and a sing-song.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As the prof’s well laid plans unravel, the nature of their crimes assumes a darker hue, as they begin to plan to be rid of her. But she is a force to be reckoned with.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Prof’s gang: Guinness, Green, Sellers, Parker and Lom.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The ensemble cast is great. Herbert Lom and Peter Sellers meet pre-Clouseau, and, with Cecil Parker and Danny Green, form the gang. There are small but strong supporting supporting roles for such familiar faces as Jack ‘Dixon of Dock Green’ Warner (a cop, what else?), and Kenneth Connor (taxi driver) and Frankie Howard (barrow boy), the latter two perhaps most familiar from the later Carry On films.<\/p>\n

\"The
Mrs Wilberforce’s home, jammed between tenements and the railway.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The setting is also worthy of note. Like her home, Mrs Wilberforce is a relic of a bygone era, a holdover from the Victorian\/Edwardian age, polite, moralistic, and heavily floral, lodged amidst terraced tenements and the industrial grime of a large railway terminus.<\/p>\n

She embodies qualities that range from lightly quaint to deeply irritating, but is stoical, decent, and ultimately very sweet and hugely endearing. Her simple good naturedness is the nexus around which the grubbier workaday business of the contemporary world revolves, giving the whole film, in addition to its darkly comic side, a wistful romanticism.<\/p>\n

A really terrific film.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Grand<\/p>\n

P.S. I did also get to watch Columbo, Grand Deceptions<\/i>, which starts with – joy of joys – slow panning shots of an ACW (American Civil War) diorama. I’ll probably post a review of that at some future point on my mini-military blog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Teresa suggested we watch The Ladykillers tonight. I wanted to watch a fresh episode of Columbo – I’m working my way through the complete boxed set – but she got her way. And it has to be said, even though I’ve seen it several times, The Ladykillers really is superb. Alec Guinness is great, as … <\/p>\n

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