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More wonderful Ealing comedies: "The Man in the white Suit", "The Ladykillers", "The Lavender Hill Mob"

Posted by Bambi B (A) on February 22, 2008 at 07:08:37

In Reply to: "Kind Hearts and Coronets:" rightfully considered a classic of posted by tinear on February 22, 2008 at 05:53:30:

tinear,

"Kind Hearts and Coronets" is wonderful and I agree that Guiness is wonderful in his 6 or 7 roles as the various heirs that Price has to eliminate to become the Duke. It's wonderfully English how he plots and executes -literally- his plan in such a polite and reasoned way. Price is made charming and his justifications for murder are nicely balanced. Making multiple murders appear reasonable through a kind of upper class justice oblige one might say is the principle skill of Empire.

I'm a big fan of the Ealing comedies and would enthusiastically recommend some others, all with Alec Guiness: "The Man in the white Suit", "The Ladykillers", and "The Lavender Hill Mob"- all fantastic.

"The Man in the White Suit": Alec Guiness is a scientist who develops a fabric that can never wear out- and believes he has done something great for society- but the people in his mill town immediately understand this would soon put everyone they know out of business- and,..

"The Lavender Hill Mob": Guiness is a low level clerk with the Bank of E. who supervises shipments of large amounts of gold bullion. Guiness plots with a neighbour in his boarding house- who knows his way around metal casting- to steal a big pile of gold from his employer. The scene of them interviewing prospective mob members is wonderful. A wonderful look at attempts for job satisfaction!

"The Lady Killers" : This is my favourite of all of these as it dances so well between a kind of comic surrealism and reality. Guiness is the professorial mastermind of a group that plan a heist and have his elderly landlady unknowingly assist them. In this movie, the house itself is a character, there's not one right angle anywhere, and to the movie's credit no one ever metnions it. While planning the heist, the mob pretend to be practicing as a string quartet. When she discovers them, the "mob" has to decide who does her in. Peter Sellars is one of the mob- wearing what would be called a "Teddy boy" jacket, and the landlady, played by Katie Johnson is magnificent- the perfect elderly English woman, who is an agent of chaos whereever she goes. It's amazing to think that Johnson was born in 1875- which seems so remotely in the past- so in 1955 making the movie, she was 80.

Diversion: I'm always struck by a wave of nostalgia when I watch "Ladykillers" as this movie as Johnson reminds me of a landlady in Cambridge in the mid 70's. Mrs. Brown was in her late 70's then, had doilies on everything, rode her ancient bicycle to the shops, and had lived in her house since 1930- renting for 45 years. I had two rooms in that house- unheated- a study and a bedroom, and the cost was a bit less than $20 per week. There was no refrigerator in the house, but had a larder that was a little room at whatever the outdoor air temperature was and there was an outdoor bathroom off the kitchen. It was so cold in the bedroom, I just left the milk for tea out on the dresser and used to pull my clothes in under the bed clothes to get dressed in the morning. That place, though, was not as cold as my previous room I had in college. It was tiny, with a tiny leaded window set in a two foot thick stone wall and built in 1348- the first year of the Black Death! If you've seen "Withnail and I"- another nostalgic movie for me, I lived in a similar way in the 70's in dear old Blighty- only I had a 1952 Morris Minor instead of a Jaguar S-type.

"The Ladykillers" was remade in 2004 with Tom Hanks in the Guiness role, and though I atypically seem to have liked the remake more than the critics, the original with Guiness is miles and miles more satisfying.

Along with "Kind Hearts", there are 4 great comedies that I always find refreshing.

Thanks for evoking these four wonderful old movies.

Cheers,

Bambi B

Edits: 02/22/08

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