Greetings, Glancers! Today I run a critical eye over my tenth favourite movie of the year 1955, seeking to ignore my bias and provide a fair score based on the 20 criteria I feel are most important in the creation of a film. Today’s movie is The Ladykillers, Alexander Mackendrick’s dark comedy featuring dastardly criminals, and old women who cry ‘wolf’.
Sales: 4. As far as I can tell, it made plenty of money, and given its continued success over sixty years later, it’s likely still making money somewhere.
Critical Consensus: 5. Critically acclaimed at release, and frequently appears high on the majority of Best British Films Ever lists.
Director: 4. Probably Mackendrick’s best film, he directs the cast, the comedy, and the action well.
Performances: 5. Some of the best actors and comedy performers of the era, give some of their best performances.
Characters: 4. A host of interesting characters, from dastardly masterminds, eccentric old ladies, to assorted tough guys.
Cinematography: 3. I could go 4, but it’s not a film known for its cinematography.
Writing: 4. While some of the dialogue is certainly dated, on the whole the dialogue is fast-paced, the jokes flow and land, and the story twists. Nominated for an Oscar, won a Bafta.
Plot: 4. It’s not the most original story, maybe not even if we imagine ourselves as seeing it upon release, but the twists and the characters push things up a notch.
Wardrobe: 4. Classic English, Ealing style.
Editing: 3. Sure.
Make up and Hair: 4. Alec Guiness makes himself look like a Universal Horror monster, while everyone else looks the part.
Effects: 3. N/A.
Art and Set: 4. That curious, garish mixture of dank and dull, broken with sudden splashes of colour which seems uniquely British.
Sound And Music: 4. Music is important to the plot, and both the original score and re-used Classical pieces fit the tone.
Cultural Significance: 4. This score will likely depend on where you live, and when. If you’re outside the UK, I imagine this has had little significance, but it was a hefty hit inside the UK and would influence a slew of films and comedians. It was significant enough that the Coen Brothers decided to remake it 50 years later.
Accomplishment: 4. On the surface, it’s just another screwball crime caper, which were a dime a dozen in this era, but for it to land so well and to last so long, I bump it up to a 4.
Stunts: 4. I’m happy to go 4 here, but it’s low. Most people will likely go 3. But given the time, and the fact that this wasn’t Hollywood, there are a few chase sequences, although the obvious use of dummies (especially in the modern HD world) doesn’t help those.
Originality: 4. As above, it’s not that the story is original, but the execution, the characters, and the twists.
Miscellaneous: 4. While it’s perhaps a cheat to score based on things which have come from the film rather than being part of it, that’s kind of what this category is for – a remake, a stage adaptation, a radio take, and an opera all came from it.
Personal: 4. I think I missed the point in life where you’re ‘supposed’ to see this movie in order for you to truly love it. I get that people are obsessed with it, but it doesn’t hit that way for me. I simply recognize it as one of the best films of its type.
Total Score: 79/100.
Let us know your scores in the comments!
The Spac Hole 