Herbert Lom

Review: Put on your crooked smiles for The Ladykillers

Whether or not The Ladykillers star Alec Guinness was fully aware of how horrifically funny his grotesque false teeth would come across when projected on massive movie screens after this last great Ealing Studios comedy reached theaters in 1955, the illustrious British actor's choice of choppers was nevertheless one for the ages.

DVD/Blu-ray review: The Ladykillers

The last great Ealing Comedy, in a pristine restored print.

On the set of The Ladykillers - in pictures

The much-loved British caper starring Alec Guinness is being reissued, 65 years on, fully restored from the original negative. It was shot at Ealing Studios and around King's Cross in London, where photographers captured the stars relaxing on set.

The Ladykillers review - comic crime caper still kills

Sixty-five years later the classic from Ealing Studios is still subversive, hilarious and distinctly English.

This last of the Ealing comedies is an exceptionally black specimen, with Alec Guinness as the sinister Professor Marcus, a fanged master-crook lodging at the home of sweet old Mrs Wilberforce (Katie Johnson). When his gang - including Peter Sellers's dim teddy boy and Herbert Lom's wannabe American gangster - swipe £60,000 in a raid, they decide the landlady has to go; but they are, of course, in the Ealing equivalent of the Bates motel and stand no chance against the dotty old girl. It's all vastly superior to the Coen brothers' misguided remake.

Lugubrious Alec Guinness leads a nefarious bunch of ne'er-do-wells (among them Peter Sellers and Herbert Lom) posing as musicians as they plan a robbery from their rented room. When their landlady discovers the truth, they decide to bump her off, but Mrs Wilberforce (78-year-old Katie Johnson) proves rather more indomitable than they had imagined. Alexander Mackendrick directs one of the very best Ealing Comedies.