The Ladykillers
With Tom Hanks, Irma B. Hall, Marlon Wayans, J.K. Simmons, Tzi Ma, Ryan Hurst, Diane Delano, and George Wallace.
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The will to survive shown by the English during World War II, the blitz in particular, and all the archetypal character traits still associated with that determination–the stiff upper lip, the business-as-usual attitude, the stubborn focus on the minutiae of everyday life–are epitomized in this black comedy’s central character, the imperturbable Mrs. Wilberforce (Katie Johnson, who won a British Academy award for the role). The key comic trait of this widowed fusspot is her ability to survive having a gang of armed robbers set up shop in a couple of her upstairs rooms. The tattered “professor” (Alec Guinness) who rents the rooms claims that he and his four cohorts are there to rehearse a string quintet–they close the door and play records in an attempt to fool her–and even manages to persuade her to pick up a trunk containing the haul from their robbery. (Among his seedy colleagues are Peter Sellers and Herbert Lom, the first pairing of the two, who would later play Inspector Clouseau and Chief Inspector Dreyfus in all but one of the Pink Panther comedies.)
There’s almost no way one could regard this story as “quintessentially American” in the way that the original is quintessentially English, though I suppose one could say that these individuals form a more multicultural collection than the characters in the Mackendrick comedy. But should the Coens get extra points for letting someone ask the General for a piece of Buddhist wisdom and then having him reply, “Float like a leaf on the river of life–and kill the old lady”?
This suggests that the Coens care a lot more about the people they work with than about the characters they create, which has its advantages. The performers have a lot of energy, and their ensemble work is good. And some people like directors who think all of their characters are idiots in one way or another and all of the audience members are hip for recognizing their stupidity.
