The Ladykillers (1955)

I always felt that Herbert Lom had a wonderful face for comedy; and here I think he stands out alongside Cecil Parker - always underrated, but who could be relied upon to deliver a standard of comedy haplessness consistently well on screen. Guinness and Sellers are doing what we know they are good at, so I was less impressed by them in this one. Katie Johnson gets many plaudits as "Mrs Wilberforce", though I wonder how much acting she was actually doing? Any interviews I have seen with her seem to suggest she was pretty much playing herself in this slightly more sinister of the Ealing comedies that sees Guinness and his cohorts pretend to be practicing musicians in her rickety old house whilst secretly planning a daring heist that could net them a massive £60,000. What follows is a classy mix of near-misses and precise comedy timing that actually can have you on the edge of your seat at times; but this is not, in my view, as good as the output from the late 40's - it sacrifices some of it's charm and humour to achieve the more ominous tone prevalent over the last half an hour, and I don't quite love that effect. It is a classic nonetheless that well deserves it's recent 4K restoration that brings the colours to life most vividly.