The Ladykillers (1955)

NR12/08/1955Comedy, Crime1h 31m
  • User
    Score

Who was that lady I saw you outwit last night? That was no lady … That was ‘Mum’ Wilberforce, …

Overview

Five oddball criminals planning a bank robbery rent rooms on a cul-de-sac from an octogenarian widow under the pretext that they are classical musicians.

Top Billed Cast

  1. Cast 1

    Alec Guinness

    Professor Marcus

  2. Cast 1

    Cecil Parker

    Claude, alias 'Major Courtney'

  3. Cast 1

    Herbert Lom

    Louis, alias 'Mr. Harvey'

  4. Cast 1

    Peter Sellers

    Harry, alias 'Mr. Robinson'

  5. Cast 1

    Danny Green

    'One-Round', alias 'Mr. Lawson'

  6. Cast 1

    Katie Johnson

    Mrs. Wilberforce

  7. Cast 1

    Jack Warner

    The Superintendent

  8. Cast 1

    Philip Stainton

    The Sergeant

  9. Cast 1

    Frankie Howerd

    The Barrow Boy

I always felt that Herbert Lom had a wonderful face for comedy; and here I think he stands out alongside Cecil Parker - always underrated, but who could be relied upon to deliver a standard of comedy haplessness consistently well on screen. Guinness and Sellers are doing what we know they are good at, so I was less impressed by them in this one. Katie Johnson gets many plaudits as "Mrs Wilberforce", though I wonder how much acting she was actually doing? Any interviews I have seen with her seem to suggest she was pretty much playing herself in this slightly more sinister of the Ealing comedies...