Rating: 
Summary: The Best Movie I Have Ever Seen
Review: Guinness and Sellers register great performances, but Katie Johnson delivers a masterprice. The sweet little landlady with her tea parties, her umbrella, and her special relationship with the police, make her one of the most most memorable characters in movie history. Some movies are to rent - this one is to own.
Rating:
Summary: An absolute gem of a film. Tom Hanks et. al. shame on you.
Review: How can anyone in their right mind want to remake this classic? How about remaking Star Wars, Gone with the Wind, or ET. You just don't touch the classic stuff, it's taboo. This is classic British humour at it's finest. An unbelievable cast, with Sellers, Herbert Lom, Katie Johnson, and the truly remarkable Alec Guiness. These motley group of theives and thugs up against one little kind tea-making British lady is hilarious just in premise. Watching it is like stepping back into time, with all those classic British cars, but you are also stepping into a timeless comedic experience.
Rating:
Summary: A comedy classic.
Review: I can't believe only two viewers have submited reviews. English kids are brought up on the Ealing studios' films and this is one of the greatest (along with Kind Hearts and Coronets). Very, very funny even after decades, with Guiness wonderful, Lom a marvel as he is simultaneously sinister and comic, a young Peter Sellers and an underated Danny Green as likeable bumblers. The whole film is a treat but the ending is just brilliant. Watch it !!!
Rating:
Summary: Lolly Pops
Review: I recently purchased The Horse's Mouth (1958) from Amazon as well as "The Alec Guinness Collection" which includes The Ladykillers (1955) plus four others: The Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), The Man in the White Suit (1951), The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), and The Captain's Paradise (1953). Frankly, I was amazed how well each of the six films has held up since I first saw it.For me, the most memorable performance in this film is provided by Katie Johnson as Mrs. Louisa Alexandra Wilberforce who rents a flat to Professor Marcus (Guinness) and his companions. The plot such as it is involves their theft of 60,000 pounds and subsequent efforts to remove it from a locker they have rented to store it temporarily. For about half of this film, brilliantly directed by Alexander Mackendrick (who also directed Guinness in The Man in the White Suit, 1951), Mrs. Wilberforce believes that Marcus and his friends are honest citizens and amateur musicians. When she learns that they are thieves, her first concern is not for her personal safety (which is never in doubt, anyway) but to return "the lolly" to its rightful owners. Complications include her elderly friends who appreciatively swarm around the Marcus group during a hilarious afternoon tea party. One development of special interest to me is the fact that, except for the psychopath Louis Harvey (Lom), the thieves do not want Mrs. Wilberforce harmed in any way and begin to feel protective toward her. This proves to be significant as the plot proceeds gracefully to a conclusion I did not anticipate. Given the number of deaths which occur in this film, it seems inappropriate to describe it as "charming" and "delightful" but it is nonetheless. For that, I give most of the credit to the performance by Katie Johnson under Mackendrick's direction and with the strong support of Guinness who obviously defers to her prominence in so many important scenes. The supporting cast is first-rate. Yes, that really is a very young Peter Sellers in the role of Harry Robinson who is given relatively little to say and do. Danny Green is excellent as One Round, providing the muscle needed to complete the plan devised by the group's brain, Marcus. For these and other reasons, this is my favorite among the five films in "The Alec Guinness Collection."
Rating: 
Summary: Stick With the Original
Review: I will give the Coen brothers this much. If they hadn't made their disappointing remake of this film I would not have sought out the original. Everything the Coens got wrong in their film the makers of this film got right. Alec Guiness is deliciously goofy as Professor Marcus, the leader of the gang of thieves. Mrs. Wilberforce, as played by Katey Johnson, is measuredly sweet and resolute in her sense of right and wrong. Herbert Lom as one of the thugs is comically menacing. Peter Sellers as the teddy-boy is good but just adequate here. It just goes to show you that you can have all the elements of a good story, which the Coen brothers did, and a misreading of them is the difference between classic and the mundane.
Rating:
Summary: Cannot be improved on...
Review: I, (like many film buffs), was surprised that the Coen bros. would entertain the notion that they could even come close to improving on this Ealing Studios classic with that piece of junk that they convinced Tom Hanks to be in. The acting in the original is right on target, as though the actors are from a stage ensemble, knowing exactly what another character is going to do next. The chaos and silly scuffles are even perfect. Cannot be improved on.
Rating:
Summary: The Original Is Still the Best!
Review: If you have any interest in the Golden Age of British comedies, this is the film to purchase. The story is a deliciously wicked comedy involving greedy, dim-witted gangsters renting a room from an unsuspecting and lonely old woman. Alec Guinness is pure genius as the mastermind of a major heist, and Peter Sellers shows a real comedy spark for this early role, however, the old lady ultimately steals the show as far as laughs.
Don't get me wrong. I'm a big fan of Tom Hanks and the Coen brothers, but their remake of this little gem was so horrible, I couldn't even make it all the way through (what's the deal with Hanks' unconvincing accent?). Do yourself a favor and get a copy of the original. You won't be disappointed!
Rating:
Summary: They were not so bright crooks!
Review: In the golden age of the brittish comedy through the last forties and the middle fifties , this little jewel was one of the best proofs to exposse .
Imagine this incredible cast the legendary Alec Guiness with his funny teeth , Herbert Loom and a young raising promise named Peter Sellers .
This death quintet will rent the house of an harmless old lady who will be the crucial axis for a lot of laughable gags but told in the english way and spiced with that black humor dosis all along the film .
This unforgettable work , together with Whisky Gallore , Hobson 's choice, The man in the white suit , Kind hearts and cornets , and The lavender hill mob (notice the presence of Alec Guiness in the last three works) may be well considered the set of the cream of the black humor and fine irony in this unique and creative decade .
Rating:
Summary: And the Meek Shall Inherit the Earth.
Review: In THE LADYKILLERS Alec Guiness stars as the criminal mastermind, Professor Marcus, behind a perfect plot to pull of a great train robbery (well, all the money from a train). Marcus has orchestrated the perfect plot as well as the perfect crew to pull off the heist: Major Claude Courtney (Cecil Parker), Louis Harvey (Herbert Lom), Harry Robinson (Peter Sellers), and One-Round Lawson (Danny Green). The gang is altogether, but they need a place to meet to plan the last minute details. Enter Mrs. Wilberforce (Katie Johnson). Mrs. Wilberforce rents out a room in her house to Professor Marcus believing he and his gang are actually an instrumental ensemble. They fool the elderly woman by playing the same record over and over and over as they hash out the plot of their crime. They pull of the crime perfectly, but an accident during the getaway brings Mrs. Wilberforce into the circle of crime. When she refuses to go along with the plan, the gang draws straws to decide who will bump her off. But five criminals are no match for the honesty and humility of a strong-willed little woman.
Writer William Rose is said to have dreamed up the entire movie literally in a dream in his sleep one night. I can believe that because the film flows together seamlessly, as though born out of an ethereal universe and tinged with the dark comedy of nightmare.
Guinness was at the beginning of the peak of his career (BRIDGE OVER RIVER KWAI was just two years away) and gives a delightful show. His performance as the slimy Professor Marcus is dead-on. The other performances are just as brilliant and it's a special treat to see Guinness and Sellers together in the same dark comedy. However, the true star of the movie is Katie Johnson. Johnson's Mrs. Wilberforce is the true driving charcter in the story and it takes an extremely talented actress to upstage the likes of actors such as Guinness and Sellers. Surprisingly the producers originally rejected director Alexander Mackendrick's choice of Johnson as Mrs. Wilberforce because they felt the woman was to frail to handle the rigours of the filmming schedule. They hired a younger actress instead, but several weeks before filmming she died. It must have been an omen.
The DVD version of this 1955 classic black comedy includes an Alec Guinness biography and the original motion picture trailer.
Rating:
Summary: Pink Sellers and Panther Lom foreshadowed
Review: In the twenty times I've seen this rented movie it had not dawned on me that the Pink Panther roles of Sellers and Lom were being foreshadowed. This movie is just a top-notch Guiness comedy and now I realize how important it was to the surete inspectors of Pink Panther. It is just another great quality that this film brings to the screen.
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