Technically, how difficult can it be for 5 hardened criminals (posed as a string quintet with the whole combo of its instruments) to liquidate a petite old lady like Mrs. Wiberforce (Johnson), who lives alone in her lopsided manse in the vicinity of London's Kings Cross railway station, a perfect locality for planning their well-organized robbery of a security van loaded with cash?
Surely it looks like a cinch, but in Alexander Mackendrick's cracking Ealing black comedy THE LADYKILLERS (later would be remade by the Coen Brothers in 2004), this ill-sorted cohort will eventually be hoisted by their own petard, because Mrs. W is protected by an armor of her ironclad integrity, she is good-natured, hospitable, righteous (even to a fault), albeit slightly loopy and garrulous, but not without a keen judgement of right and wrong. Her new lodger is Professor Marcus (a fake -teeth-sporting Guinness, flawlessly mimicking Alastair Sim with pitch-perfect gesticulations and nuances), the ringleader of the quintet, which also includes the gentlemanlike Major Courtney (Parker), a surly killer Louis Harvey (Lom, likened to a more malevolent- looking Yul Brynner, is a spot-on villain),the gormless muscle “One-round” Lawson (Green) and a mousy sidekick Harry Robinson (a corn-fed Sellers in his major celluloid introduction), so as per the descriptions, it is pretty obvious who is the aptest candidate for that particular dirty deed, after they succeed in their heist but is stuck with Ms. W, who is bent on tackling the issue in the straight and narrow.
Nope, they must do it in a democratic way, ergo, the unfortunate, soft-centered Major takes the shortest stick, and from that moment on, their racket has slumped on a slippery slope until each of them ending up a stiff lying on the passing railway wagons, is it a thinly veiled joke on the impracticality of democracy? Meritocracy could have solved the matter in a heartbeat!
On the strength of William Rose's BAFTA-winning and Oscar-nominated script, the criminals' downfall principally is caused by their internal disintegration, which makes sense that they must deal with each other first, before getting shot of the defenseless Ms. W, yet , serendipity is on her side this time, not only she finds out in the morning all the men have vanishingly disappeared without a trace, but also, thanks to her predisposition of frequently hobnobbing with the police department, her tall tale is habitually dismissed and she even gets to keep the swag!
Character actress Katie Johnson is bestowed a precious leading role in her seventies, which she runs away with copious alacrity and amity while obliviously maundering smack in harm's way, for which she wins a BAFTA! A handsomely made jewel that never goes beyond the pale in juggling with materials both macabre and jocose, and reaches that sought-after equilibrium which points up its filmmakers' all-around comedic facility.
referential entries: Mackendrick's THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT (1951, 7.6/10); Henry Cornelius' GENEVIEVE (1953, 6.9/10).
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