Film Forum

U.K., 1955
Directed by Alexander Mackendrick
Screenplay by William Rose (BAFTA, Best British Screenplay)
With Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers, Herbert Lom, Cecil Parker,
Katie Johnson (BAFTA, Best Actress)
Approx. 97 min. 4K DCP. 

After the swag from their payroll heist goes flying through the parlor, buck-toothed criminal mastermind Alec Guinness and his “string quartet” –– including Herbert Lom (Inspector Dreyfus of the PINK PANTHER comedies) and “Teddy Boy” Peter Sellers (in his first major film role) –– decides it’s time to silence sweet little old landlady Katie Johnson (at 76, winner of BAFTA’s Best Actress Award).

The apogee of the classic post-war “Ealing comedy,” this would also be Guinness’ penultimate film for the studio, where he soared to international acclaim with such hits as KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS (in which he played 9 roles), THE LAVENDER HILL MOB, THE CAPTAIN’S PARADISE, and Mackendrick’s THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT.

A year later, American-Scottish director Mackendrick would make the acerbic SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS, while American screenwriter William Rose –– who got an Oscar® nomination for his LADYKILLERS story, which he reportedly thought up in a dream –– would go on to write THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING, THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING and IT’S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD.

Trailer

Reviews

“A grotesque fantasy of murder... extravagantly funny.”
– Pauline Kael

“A SUPERBLY ELEGANT COMEDY. Even after 65 years, it still kills… Subversive, hilarious and as English as Elgar… A mixture of cynicism with guileless innocence.”
– Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

“The last, most enduring and best known of all the studio’s comedies, in which the sheer blackness of the central concept is barely disguised by the accomplished farce which surrounds it.”
– Time Out