The Ladykillers -

The irony is the core: these dangerous men are not defeated by the police, but by their own squeamishness regarding a harmless old woman and their inability to work together.

If you haven’t seen the original 1955 Ealing Comedy directed by Alexander Mackendrick, you are missing one of the finest blends of farce and noir ever put to film. It is a story so blackly comedic that producer Michael Balcon famously protested, “There are six characters and at the end five of them are dead, and you say it's a comedy?”. Yes, Michael. It is. And it works perfectly. The Setup: A Misfit Gang Meets a Misfit Landlady The Ladykillers

The plot is wonderfully absurd: Professor Marcus (played with manic energy by Alec Guinness) puts together a gang of diverse criminals to pull off a bank heist. To do so, they take rooms in a lopsided, dreamy house near King’s Cross station in London, pretending to be an amateur string quintet practicing classical music. The irony is the core: these dangerous men

If you love dark comedies, clever writing, and the "most English" of films, The Ladykillers is required viewing. It’s a polite reminder that sometimes, the sweetest people are the deadliest. the 2004 Coen Brothers remake? Yes, Michael

All five hardened criminals end up squeezed into a tiny cupboard, unable to justify their presence.

The genius of the film lies in the friction between the criminals' desperate, professional plans and Mrs. Wilberforce’s bustling, domestic normalcy.

A gangster with a cleaning fetish manages to hide a full-sized mop about his person.