The Ladykillers (BD)

The origin of “The Ladykillers” (1955) is an interesting and well-known story. It is believed that the writer, William Rose, envisioned the entire movie in a dream. The following morning, Mr. Rose appeared at the Ealing Studios to present his thoughts on a screenplay for a prospective film. The producers got interested in the story with comedy at its core. Soon after, Alexander Mackendrick was signed to direct the movie. After having played eight different characters in another Ealing Studios comedy, “Kind Hearts and Coronets” (1948), Sir Alec Guinness was an automatic choice to play the lead role of Professor Marcus.

The story revolves around Professor Marcus (Alec Guinness) and his gang planning to stage a grand robbery. As a leader, Marcus has a gang consisting of four people – Harry (Peter Sellers), Major (Cecil Parker), One-Round (Danny Green), and Louis (Herbert Lom), who are helping him in his plans. Marcus rents an apartment from a sweet old lady, Mrs. Wilberforce (Katie Johnson), which provides his gang a base to plan their scheme. He tells Mrs. Wilberforce that he along with other musicians will rehearse occasionally. Along the way, the gang members through their noble efficiency succeed in arranging a daring, daylight robbery of £60,000. However, destiny has other plans for them, and they soon find themselves pitted against each other.

“The Ladykillers” was released during the postwar era in the UK. During the 50’s, the British class structure along with the aristocracy was slowly winding down. Our four protagonists are from different classes, and all of them have been abject failures in their lives. Yet they decide to give it a final try to change the course of their fortunes, however, fully aware of the consequences of their actions.

In the opening scene, Mrs. Wilberforce is ascending the stairs on her way to a police station. Before entering the station, she stops for a moment to glance at a baby in a nearby stroller. The baby cries after seeing Mrs. Wilberforce. At that point one gets an impression that the old lady is probably a mean-natured person. However, as the story unfolds, for the first half of the movie, her character is portrayed as a charming, hospitable, and innocent person. Being a traditional English lady, Mrs. Wilberforce remains duly hospitable by providing the gang with occasional tea and comforting them with a warm smile whenever possible. She is unaware of gang’s robbery plan being devised in her home. At this juncture in the story, you feel sorry for Mrs. Wilberforce.

Hiding behind their cooked lies, the gang members are opportunistic and double-faced. However, just when the gang has their way out with the money, things take a U-turn, and Mrs. Wilberforce is now the boss instead of Professor Marcus. She stamps her domestic authority on them just like a nanny in controlling the thugs. The gang has no choice but to listen to her. The spontaneity with which Katie Johnson responds to these situations, indeed, accounts for a terrific performance by her. Her performance is further helped by a script that minimizes the conventional stereotypes attached to an old-lady type. In fact, as it turns out, she simply underplays her character, and the overall performance is more naturalistic.

Alec Guinness’s entry in the movie could not have been more sinister. In the shot, Marcus is seen walking on the sidewalk on this way to Mrs. Wilberforce’s apartment. The director, Mackendrick, follows Marcus with his camera from within the apartment. As Marcus approaches the apartment, the camera zooms out, and then slowly zooms back in, to create a dramatic impression to keep viewers focused. The camera stays in this position, waiting for Marcus to ring a doorbell, and at this point he is only represented as a dark figure behind the glass door. In the entire sequence, Marcus’s face is hidden from the audience, and the shot is played from Mrs. Wilberforce’s perspective, thereby adding a little suspense to the entire segment. As Mrs. Wilberforce opens the door, Marcus brings his hat down with an eccentric face, a certain indication of his multifaceted character. The soundtrack, initially comprised of regular ambient noises rapidly switches to the soundtrack from noir movies, right before the shoot-out. The scene only heightens the presence of something ominous in the offing.

Alec Guinness’s performance is nothing sort of magnificent. Who can pull off a double-faced, black-hearted comical performance with fake teeth? The simplicity and ease with which he delivers some of the lines is simply eloquent and realistic. One moment, he is seen as the planner and leader, with a gangster mentality, and the next moment he is portrayed as a fake musician, hiding from Mrs. Wilberforce. While other gang members are shown to have second thoughts about the entire robbery, Marcus conforms to his criminal tag right up to the climax. There is no confession from his character, and as a result, there is little emotional attachment to his character. Make no mistake that even though this movie is marked as a comedy, it has a very dark tone, mainly due to the menacing omnipresence of Marcus in every shot.

There are a couple of compositional and aesthetic choices that work well for the movie. After the studio identified the house for filming, Mackendrick hired an artist to sketch out an entire plan of Mrs. Wilberforce’s house, showing the arrangement of various things, notably the upstairs room where the gang is hiding. The furniture installation was done as per artist’s plan, and some of it resembles the Baroque era.

For instance, in the shot during which Mrs. Wilberforce offers tea to the gang for the first time, the significance of arranging objects in a particular fashion is demonstrated.  Before her entry in the room, the gang is seen planning details about the robbery. Upon hearing Mrs. Wilberforce knock on the door, they quickly arrange themselves like a professional musical band, although they are totally clueless about music, let alone playing a musical note. Of course, as expected, Marcus is the music director, with rest of his gang members acting as musicians trying to produce sounds to Marcus’s notes. The situation is genuinely humorous, as it only highlights the gang’s stupidity in hiding their criminal intentions under the blanket of music, for which they possess no skills. There is a constant, tense feeling that somehow the gang will be exposed as a result of their shortcoming in composing music. This works well with the overall story, and nothing is forced by the characters to create superfluous laughter.

There is another interpretation that might work, depending on how you look at the story. What if Mrs. Wilberforce dreamt the entire episode with the gang? The police superintendent and his department are fully aware that Mrs. Wilberforce, if not hallucinating, is a habitual, fictional story creator with no merit. Moreover, the police did not search her apartment in spite of her revealing intricate details about the robbery. However you dissect it, “The Ladykillers” is an entertaining dark comedy that still works even fifty-five years later.

Video:
Lionsgate/Studio Canal present the movie in the aspect ratio of 1.33:1, encoded in an AVC format at a healthy bit rate of 28-30 Mpbs. However, there are a couple of things to note about the aspect ratio for this movie. Both IMDB and the previous Anchor Bay’s release list the original theatrical aspect ratio at 1.66:1. Having said this, there is a possibility that the movie was originally shot in a 1.33:1 format and then matted to 1.66:1 for the theatrical release. If this is the case, then the new Studio Canal release correctly presents the movie in its original camera-negative format, and my current video score is based on this fact.

If you are expecting this movie to look like the recent Blu-ray editions of “Gone with the Wind” and “Wizard of Oz,” you will be sorely disappointed. However, if you tone down your expectations, you could be in for a nice surprise. First, let’s talk about the good aspects of this transfer. It appears that Studio Canal has minted a new transfer from the master print. The print has been cleaned up thoroughly, with an extensive restoration process. As a result, there are no dust specks or blemishes or any sort of damage on the print. Nearby objects retain sharpness with appreciable increase in detail. Skin tones are true and lifelike. This 1080p transfer rightly captures the period details of the postwar era in Britain.

Now, the negative attributes about the transfer: This depends on the degree with which you agree with the director, employing certain compositional and thematic choices for this film. First, even though there is inherent sharpness, it is however, inconsistent. The movie was shot with a bulky camera to produce the three-strip Technicolor format. After delving through the extras, it appears that director Mackendrick deliberately shot this movie with a soft-focus to capture the dreamy nature of the movie. Furthermore, most of the movie is shot with diffused light, which means that seldom will you see a bright shot with vibrant colors. Even so, in its limited presence, colors are bright, specifically the occasional reds in Mrs. Wilberforce’s house and on the crates at the railway station. However, colors have been specifically toned down, which reduces their overall vibrancy. Mostly, the main characters are seen to wear grey, brown, and black colors. The grain present gives the movie a film-like texture. This is a definite improvement from the earlier version and probably the best representation of the fifty-five year old movie possible. Considering the quality of the master print, I have to rate the video transfer highly.

Audio:
For this release, we get a lossless DTS-HD Master 2.0 audio track. The movie for the most part is dialogue heavy, the dialogue clear and consistent throughout. Studio Canal did not attempt to remaster the audio to 5.1. The 2.0 lossless rendition works with the original sound design and, therefore, I don’t have any qualms about this audio track. Also included is the option to view the movie with French or Spanish subtitles. Oddly enough, the English subtitles option is missing. I cannot understand why this option was dropped, while we are presented with the other two options.

Extras:
There are a couple of interesting extras on this disc. First, we have an introduction by Terry Gilliam, where he talks about the director and the influence of “The Ladykillers” on the comedy genre.

Next on the disc we have a series of interviews with Alan Scott, Terence Davies, and Ronald Harwood, each as a separate interview segment. Ronald Harwood provides his thoughts on the director, Mackendrick, specifically on his bad communication skills with his crew and that he had a good sense of story for his movies. However, it was from Mackendrick that Ron learnt a technique on how to structure a film or a sequence. Alan Scott discusses the roles of Alec Guinness and the director in the movie. Finally, Terence Davies as a director himself talks about how challenging it was for an American director, Mackendrick, to direct a British movie. He at length talks about how “The Ladykillers” is the best comedy of all time. He ends his interview on his thoughts about Katie Johnson.

Following those items, we have a featurette, “Forever Ealing” (50 minutes, 4x3), in which various actors, directors, producers, and other people, directly or indirectly related to Ealing Studios, converse about the influence of the studio on the British cinema and the professional work culture at the Ealing Studios.

Next we have a short segment, “Cleaning up The Ladykillers,” that compares various scenes from the movie before and after the restoration process. After seeing this, I truly appreciated the effort that went in restoring this classic.

Rounding off the extras, we have a terrific commentary with Ealing expert Phil Kemp. He at length talks about the design details of various sets in the movie. Kemp is fully prepared, and there are no long pauses in the track. As a result you are fully immersed in absorbing all the details provided by Phil.

Also included is the original theatrical trailer in its 1080p glory.

The back cover suggests the inclusion of an interview with director James Mangold, which, however, is absent from the final list of extras.

Final Thoughts:

William Rose’s screenplay is tightly paced and witty, with smart dialogue and rich characterizations, for which Rose was Oscar nominated in the Best Screenplay category in 1956. “The Ladykiller” is quintessential, black, English comedy that succeeds at all levels owing to marvelous performances by Katie Johnson and Alec Guinness, and a spot-on script. The film is meant to be savored like an old wine. I have watched this movie two times in the past week, and I appreciated its beauty even more on my second viewing.

Lionsgate is bringing the Studio Canal Collection to the U.S., with the initial offering comprised of “The Ladykillers,” “Contempt,” and “Ran.” Falling in the same league as Criterion releases, this new series aims to bring acclaimed and influential films to the country. I have my concerns about the aspect ratio on this release, but if you can get past this, “The Ladykillers” on Blu-ray is worth checking out.

Final Ratings
Video = 8/10
Audio = 6/10
Extras = 7/10
Film Value = 9/10