Ladykillers (DVD)

In this gangster comedy to end all gangster comedies, the inimitable Alec Guinness (Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Lavender Hill Mob) is Professor Marcus, ostensibly a musician and academic, who rents a London flat from a sweet old lady (BAFTA-winning Katie Johnson). He tells her that, from time to time, several other musicians will visit in order to rehearse. In truth, the professor can’t play a note, nor can his visitors: he’s a criminal mastermind, holding court over his gang of thieves, including the likes of punkish Harry (the first major film role for Peter Sellers, The Pink Panther), the homicidal Louis (Herbert Lom, A Shot in the Dark), veteran criminal Claude (Cecil Parker, The Man in the White Suit) and punch-drunk One-Round (Danny Green, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad). The gang use Professor Marcus’s flat as headquarters as they conceive a daring 60,000-pound robbery in this killingly funny Ealing Studios classic directed by Alexander Mackendrick (Sweet Smell of Success) from a BAFTA-winning, Oscar-nominated script by William Rose (The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming). Co-Starring Jack Warner (It Always Rains on Sunday, The Quatermass Xperiment).