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The Ladykillers -

If you love dark comedies, clever writing, and the "most English" of films, The Ladykillers is required viewing. It’s a polite reminder that sometimes, the sweetest people are the deadliest. the 2004 Coen Brothers remake?

, including Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers? More trivia about the Ealing Studios productions? Let me know what interests you most!

The plot is wonderfully absurd: Professor Marcus (played with manic energy by Alec Guinness) puts together a gang of diverse criminals to pull off a bank heist. To do so, they take rooms in a lopsided, dreamy house near King’s Cross station in London, pretending to be an amateur string quintet practicing classical music. The Ladykillers

The only thing standing in their way? Their landlady, the sweet, elderly, and entirely-too-innocent Mrs. Wilberforce (Katie Johnson). The Perfect "Ealing" Chaos

All five hardened criminals end up squeezed into a tiny cupboard, unable to justify their presence. If you love dark comedies, clever writing, and

Tea, Treachery, and Trains: Why "The Ladykillers" (1955) is Still the Perfect Dark Comedy

It is a masterpiece of polite, British mayhem—a film where the creepiest murders are committed in the dark with a cello string, immediately followed by polite conversation over tea and biscuits. , including Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers

A gangster with a cleaning fetish manages to hide a full-sized mop about his person.