Ladykillers (1955)

Film of 2012 #22
No Spoilers

This is the 1955 Ealing comedy starring Alec Guinness and a young Peter Sellars it is the story of a group of criminals that mastermind the theft of £60,000 and get found out by the land lady of the boarding house and they struggle with the morals of killing the old lady to keep her quiet hence the title of the film. This was remade with Tom Hanks and I would actually like to see that film now I have seen the original and see how they compare. This is the only film apart from Star Wars that I have seen Alec Guinness star in and I have to say that I am impressed he wears a set of false teeth which make him look ridiculous and he pulls of the comedic role quite well. 

However I did not laugh very much at this film, I think again it is a film out of time and out of place the comedy is very simple and a bit slapstick but there is also a darker edge when they are drawing straws to see who should bump the old lady off and there is also a level within the film that the characters just do not seem to be very bright at all and I found this frustrating and annoying. There were some good scenes and some interesting ideas and can respect that in the time it came out it could have been hilarious and held up but over 50 years later it has lost something for me. It did however make me want to explore some more of the Ealing comedies to see if it is just comedy that is lost on me or if there are any that can make me laugh, it is really well made and quite enjoyable. 

This is a hard film to rate because my feeling is for 2 stars as I will probably not check it out again but it did touch me in a way that makes me want to explore other films from that era and style so I am going to give it 3 stars. As a recommendation I think you will know in yourself if watching a film from 1955 is something that you can appreciate, it is well made and well performed but to me it misses something in the comedy. Let me know if you disagree with me and think that I am totally wrong in this idea.