Slideshow
THE LADYKILLERS
U.K., 1955
Directed by Alexander Mackendrick
Screenplay by William Rose
Starring Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers, Cecil Parker, Herbert Lom, Danny Green
Approx. 91 min. DCP 4K Restoration.
After the swag from their payroll robbery goes flying through the parlor, buck-toothed Alec Guinness and his “string quartet” — including a young Peter Sellers — decides it’s time to silence sweet little landlady Katie Johnson. Perhaps the peak of Ealing comedy — and its swan song.
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