The Ladykillers is a 1955 British film. The Coen Brothers remade the film in 2004.
1955 original
The Ladykillers is one of a series of classic post-war Ealing Studios comedies.
Directed by Alexander Mackendrick, it stars Alec Guinness, Cecil Parker, Herbert Lom, Peter Sellers, Danny Green , Jack Warner and Katie Johnson . American William Rose wrote the screenplay for which he would be nominated for an Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay and would win the Bafta Award for Best British Screenplay.
The plot is simple enough: an especially unpleasant criminal Professor Marcus (Guinness) rents a room in the rundown King's Cross house of a bewilderingly innocent old lady, Mrs. Wilberforce (Johnson), who lives alone with her parrot. From that room the Professor and his gang of curious characters plot a sophisticated armed car robbery, while convincing Mrs. Wilberforce, by playing records, that they are in fact musicians using the room for rehearsal space. After the successful robbery the gang falls apart in a series of double-crosses executed under the cover of passing trains, through which a targeted Mrs. Wilberforce wanders untouched.
Frankie Howerd has a cameo as a fruit seller.
The Alec Guinness role was originally written for Alastair Sim, and in fact Guinness's performance appears to be a very good Alastair Sim impersonation.
A radio adaptation of the film was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on January 13, 1996.
2004 version
The Ladykillers was remade by the Coen Brothers in 2004 with Tom Hanks in the lead role and co-starring J. K. Simmons, Marlon Wayans, Tzi Ma (Rush Hour), Ryan Hurst (Remember The Titans), and Irma P. Hall . The Coens moved the setting from London to Saucier, Mississippi, home of a riverboat casino. Professor Goldthwait Higginson Dorr, PHD (Hanks) rents a room in the house of widow Mrs. Marvelle Munson (Hall). He persuades her to allow him and his gang, posing as a Renaissance musical ensemble, to rehearse in her dirt-walled cellar. From there they secretly tunnel into the counting room of the nearby casino. The movie soundtrack, featuring traditional gospel music such as that composed by Thomas A. Dorsey and Blind Willie Johnson, sets the tone of the film much as American roots music did for the previous Coen work O Brother, Where Art Thou?
The Ladykillers is also the first Coen film in which Ethan and Joel Coen share both producing and directing credit; previously Ethan had always been credited as producer, and Joel as director.
External links
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Last updated: 05-13-2005 07:56:04
