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The Ladykillers (1955)
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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writers:
Release Date:
December 1955 (UK)
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Tagline:
Meet "The Unholy Five"...The Most Befuddled Set of Assorted Thugs That Ever Fouled Up a Million Dollar Bank Robbery!!
Plot:
Five diverse oddball criminal types planning a bank robbery rent rooms on a cul-de-sac from an octogenarian widow under the pretext that they are classical musicians. full summary | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
Widow
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Planning
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Criminal
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Octogenarian
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Bank Robbery
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Awards:
Nominated for Oscar.
Another 2 wins
&
2 nominations
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NewsDesk:
(7 articles)
Zhang Yimou Really is Directing a Remake of The Coen Brothers’ Blood Simple
(From FilmJunk. 25 June 2009, 6:25 AM, PDT)
Retro Cafe: 'The Man in the White Suit'
(From CinemaSpy. 31 May 2009, 9:05 PM, PDT)
(From FilmJunk. 25 June 2009, 6:25 AM, PDT)
Retro Cafe: 'The Man in the White Suit'
(From CinemaSpy. 31 May 2009, 9:05 PM, PDT)
User Comments:
not just the perfect comedy
more (93 total)
Cast
(Complete credited cast)| Alec Guinness | ... | Professor Marcus | |
| Cecil Parker | ... | Claude (a.k.a. 'Major Courtney') | |
| Herbert Lom | ... | Louis (a.k.a. 'Mr. Harvey') | |
| Peter Sellers | ... | Harry (a.k.a. 'Mr. Robinson') | |
| Danny Green | ... | One-Round (a.k.a. 'Mr. Lawson') | |
| Jack Warner | ... | The Superintendent | |
| Katie Johnson | ... | The Old Lady | |
| Philip Stainton | ... | The Sergeant | |
| Frankie Howerd | ... | The Barrow Boy |
Additional Details
Also Known As:
The Lady Killers
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Parents Guide:
Runtime:
91 min
Country:
Language:
Color:
Color (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio:
1.66 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Certification:
Iceland:12 |
Australia:G |
Sweden:11 (1975 re-rating) |
Argentina:13 |
Australia:PG |
Finland:K-16 |
Norway:15 |
Sweden:15 (original rating) |
UK:U
Filming Locations:
Company:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
The Packard motor car used by the thieves as a getaway vehicle belonged to Michael Balcon.
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Goofs:
Continuity: During the parrot chase scene, Mr Lawson is seen to fall over breaking the chair he is stuck in. Immediately after Mr Harvey breaks the gramophone record the same shot is reused and Mr Lawson apparently falls over breaking the same chair for a second time.
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Quotes:
Professor Marcus:
You're most kind, and if I may say so, you have a very curious and charming house. Such, um, pretty windows.
Mrs. Louisa Wilberforce: Oh, thank you,
[pointing to a window]
Mrs. Louisa Wilberforce: And I rather favour positions...
Professor Marcus: [interrupting] I always think the windows are the eyes of a house, and didn't someone say the eyes are the windows of the soul?
Mrs. Louisa Wilberforce: I don't really know. Oh, it's such a charming thought, I do hope someone expressed it!
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Mrs. Louisa Wilberforce: Oh, thank you,
[pointing to a window]
Mrs. Louisa Wilberforce: And I rather favour positions...
Professor Marcus: [interrupting] I always think the windows are the eyes of a house, and didn't someone say the eyes are the windows of the soul?
Mrs. Louisa Wilberforce: I don't really know. Oh, it's such a charming thought, I do hope someone expressed it!
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Movie Connections:
Referenced in Churchill: The Hollywood Years (2004)
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Soundtrack:
Music
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FAQ
Is this based on a book?How many ladies die?
How much sex, violence, and profanity are in this movie?
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more (93 total)
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One of the Ealing studio's finest achievements, this immensely entertaining crime caper looks at first glance to be pure, inconsequential entertainment. But it doubles as a sly, subtle rummage around the psychology of the respectable, old-fashioned middle classes, with Katie Johnson deserving top billing alongside Alec Guinness (she doesn't get it) for her remarkable turn as the lady in question, the redoubtable Mrs Wilberforce.
No less than the not-quite-ruthless-enough gang of criminals who scheme in her house, she lives in her own private universe with its own particular rules and values. Though she begins the film as the stereotype of a maddeningly officious pillar of local society, it gradually emerges that there is a freer as well as shrewder spirit locked in there than meets the eye. The umbrella she is always losing (she herself suggests that she unconsciously _wants_ to lose it), the escapologist parrot, and most poignantly the memory of a 21st birthday party interrupted by the end of the Victorian age, all hint at an inner life that the comic plot could easily have done without. The screenplay, deservedly Oscar-nominated, has the genius and economy to provide us with all these hints without ever slowing down a tightly-edited and superbly directed narrative.
The other characters are a good deal simpler, but Alec Guinness is in impressively seedy form as 'Professor' Marcus and Cecil Parker makes an appealing Major. Peter Sellers and Herbert Lom don't have a great deal to do and don't try to hog the limelight, but there's a nice cameo from Frankie Howerd. Ealing went out on a high.