Ladykillers

UPC: 012236107828

Studio: Lionsgate

MPAA Rating: NR   Contains:[Mild Violence]

Summary: Music professor Alec Guinness rents a London flat from sweet old lady Katie Johnson. He tells her that, from time to time, several other musicians will visit in order to rehearse. In truth, Guinness can't play a note, nor can his visitors: he's a criminal mastermind, holding court over a gang of thieves, including the likes of punkish Peter Sellers, homicidal Herbert Lom and punchdrunk Danny Green. The gang uses Guinness' flat as headquarters as they conceive a daring 60,000 pound robbery. After pulling off the job, the gang stuffs the loot in a railway station locker. To avoid detection, Guinness convinces the ever-trusting Johnson to pick up the money. Through a series of comic complications, Johnson returns home with a police escort, with neither the woman nor the bobbies suspecting that she's carrying a fortune in her suitcase. Mistakenly believing that Johnson has ratted on them, the gang reluctantly plans to eliminate her. The Ladykillers won an Oscar nomination for William Rose's screenplay, and a BFA award for veteran character actress Johnson. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Category: Comedy

Awards: Best British Actress – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Film - Any Source – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Screenplay – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Original Screenplay – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Film Presented – Telluride Film Festival

Features: Introduction by Terry Gilliam
Filmed interviews with Allan Scott, Terence Davies and Ronald Harwood
Audio commentary with ealing expert Phil Kemp
"Forever Ealing" documentary
"Cleaning up The Ladykillers"
Interview with James Mangold
Trailer

Ladykillers

Format: Blu-ray

Release Date: 02/16/2010

Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Pre-1954 Standard

Audio: DHMA null

Runtime: 92 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English,French,Spanish

Subtitles: English,Spanish

Tom Wiener

Forever Ealing, a lovely documentary about Great Britain's famed studio, saves for last in its chronology the best of all Ealing comedies, this bonbon with a very dark, hard center. It is almost impossible to find fault with any aspect of this film, from its opening shot of Mrs. Wilberforce's house at the dead end of a city street overlooking a train yard to the same closing shot. William Rose's script economically sketches the slightly lopsided world of a little old lady seemingly oblivious to anything complex or sophisticated, as Mrs. Wilberforce makes her way through her neighborhood to the police station, where her visits to report strange activities are quite well-known. Rose takes us quickly through the heist, and at the film's halfway point, the story turns on the discovery by Mrs. W. of the money inside the cello case. For all their bravado, however, the gang of robbers who would menace her are nearly as harmless as their intended victim. None of them relish the idea that Mrs. W. cannot live to report them to the police. They would do anything -- even turn on each other -- rather than bump off the only person who can finger them. Alexander Mackendrick's direction is remarkably restrained; the slapstick moments are believably set up and executed with finesse. Nothing feels frantic here, right down to the amazing choreography of bodies falling off the railroad bridge in the last act. Alec Guinness, playing a man who understands all too well how the "human element" is the only variable in any master plan, and Katie Johnson, as a woman who is both sweet and determined, both carry the film; the looks that pass between Prof. Marcus and Mrs. Wilberforce when she realizes the truth about him and his friends are eloquent beyond description. Peter Sellers fans may be disappointed that he's not given more to do here, though it is amusing to watch him and Herbert Lom, future adversarial colleagues in the Pink Panther comedies, working together. ~ Tom Wiener, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Harold Goodwin  Actor 
Jack Melford  Actor 
George Roderick  Actor 
Ewan Roberts  Actor 
Michael Corcoran  Actor 
Helen Burls  Actor 
Robert Moore  Actor 
Edie Martin  Actor 
Lucy Griffiths  Actor 
Leonard Sharp  Actor 
Madge Brindley  Actor 
Stratford Johns  Actor 
John Rudling  Actor 
Sam Kydd  Actor 
Neil Wilson  Actor 
Michael Balcon  Producer 
Tristram Cary  Composer (Music Score) 
Alexander MacKendrick  Director 
William Rose  Screenwriter 
Alec Guinness  Actor 
Cecil Parker  Actor 
Herbert Lom  Actor 
Peter Sellers  Actor 
Katie Johnson  Actor 
Danny Green  Actor 
Jack Warner  Actor 
Frankie Howerd  Actor 
Philip Stainton  Actor 
Fred Griffiths  Actor 
Kenneth Connor  Actor 

Country: UK