If you're going to call this film funny, it might be better to think of the word as meaning strange, rather than amusing. In truth The Ladykillers rarely provokes laugh-out-loud moments, but that doesn't make it a failure in its own terms as I would argue that it sets out to use humour for a different purpose. This film isn't a comedy; it's an absurdity.
Take away the comedic elements that have dated slightly Katie Johnson's story of alien visitors at the beginning seems rather twee now and we're left with a core of dark humour that gives the film a very unsettling tone. In fact, it's the film's status as a black comedy that saves it for a modern audience, as it transforms it from a caper movie it would seem very dated today into something else entirely.
This is obvious from Alec Guinness's make-up and performance. On the one hand all the elements that make up his character are traditionally funny: the false overbite, for example, his permanent smile, and his upper-class obsequiousness towards his landlady should be funny. They're contrasted though with a pallid complexion and thinning hair to emphasise a malnourished, gaunt appearance that looks as if he's recently done a lengthy stretch at Her Majesty's pleasure. So, when we first see him at her door, dramatically lowering his hat to reveal his face, it looks as if the doddering old lady has been visited by something that's just come tottering out of a graveyard.
The rest of the gang contrast off each other the size of the gang is crucial, since when Guinness is taken away we are left with an even number of thieves who can therefore be paired off against each other. As a consequence the humour of the fawning, inept major and the dumb, lovable oaf is offset and undermined by Herbert Lom's snarling gangster and Peter Sellers's amoral wideboy. By placing such disparate elements together on screen the fear of the less pleasant characters is offset, but also the comedy is drained from the funny characters and therefore the humour seems strange and slightly disturbing. This particularly affects the climax: the violence is slapstick, and yet at the same time it somehow isn't. Supposedly comic set-pieces, such as when the criminals are forced to endure a tea-party and sing-song around a piano become absurd and from the moment we're told that the crime is now "a hanging matter" it becomes clear that this film cannot end in the cosy way that you might expect a comedy caper to.
This works because of the quality of the acting, as Katie Johnson's performance as Mrs Wilberforce despite being a comic exaggeration keeps the film grounded in reality enough to offset the five grotesques that plot a robbery under her lopsided roof (even the main location of the film is distorted in a slightly spooky way, and the motif of attempting to straighten the pictures is continued throughout the film to emphasise discomfort at this peculiar place). Meanwhile the five criminal characters are played with conviction that immerses the viewer in their world, creating a series of believable caricatures that further create the atmosphere of the film.
The Ladykillers is a classic film, and uses comedy in a way that's about as sophisticated as anything I've ever seen. Just don't expect to actually laugh.
Take away the comedic elements that have dated slightly Katie Johnson's story of alien visitors at the beginning seems rather twee now and we're left with a core of dark humour that gives the film a very unsettling tone. In fact, it's the film's status as a black comedy that saves it for a modern audience, as it transforms it from a caper movie it would seem very dated today into something else entirely.
This is obvious from Alec Guinness's make-up and performance. On the one hand all the elements that make up his character are traditionally funny: the false overbite, for example, his permanent smile, and his upper-class obsequiousness towards his landlady should be funny. They're contrasted though with a pallid complexion and thinning hair to emphasise a malnourished, gaunt appearance that looks as if he's recently done a lengthy stretch at Her Majesty's pleasure. So, when we first see him at her door, dramatically lowering his hat to reveal his face, it looks as if the doddering old lady has been visited by something that's just come tottering out of a graveyard.
The rest of the gang contrast off each other the size of the gang is crucial, since when Guinness is taken away we are left with an even number of thieves who can therefore be paired off against each other. As a consequence the humour of the fawning, inept major and the dumb, lovable oaf is offset and undermined by Herbert Lom's snarling gangster and Peter Sellers's amoral wideboy. By placing such disparate elements together on screen the fear of the less pleasant characters is offset, but also the comedy is drained from the funny characters and therefore the humour seems strange and slightly disturbing. This particularly affects the climax: the violence is slapstick, and yet at the same time it somehow isn't. Supposedly comic set-pieces, such as when the criminals are forced to endure a tea-party and sing-song around a piano become absurd and from the moment we're told that the crime is now "a hanging matter" it becomes clear that this film cannot end in the cosy way that you might expect a comedy caper to.
This works because of the quality of the acting, as Katie Johnson's performance as Mrs Wilberforce despite being a comic exaggeration keeps the film grounded in reality enough to offset the five grotesques that plot a robbery under her lopsided roof (even the main location of the film is distorted in a slightly spooky way, and the motif of attempting to straighten the pictures is continued throughout the film to emphasise discomfort at this peculiar place). Meanwhile the five criminal characters are played with conviction that immerses the viewer in their world, creating a series of believable caricatures that further create the atmosphere of the film.
The Ladykillers is a classic film, and uses comedy in a way that's about as sophisticated as anything I've ever seen. Just don't expect to actually laugh.