Stars:
Alec Guinness,
Sid James,
Stanley Holloway,
Alfie Bass,
Joan Greenwood,
Cecil Parker,
Herbert Lom,
Peter Sellers,
Katie Johnston,
Dennis Price,
Arthur Lowe
Director:
Charles Crichton
Summary: Four classic comedies in one collection: 'Lavender Hill Mob', 'Man In The White Suit', 'Ladykillers' and 'Kind Hearts And Coronets'.
The amazing talents of Sir Alec Guinness are on full display in this four-comedy collection that celebrates the 100th anniversary of Ealing Studios. The classic films included are THE LADYKILLERS, KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS, THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT, and THE LAVENDER HILL MOB.
THE LADYKILLERS, director Alexander Mackendrick's third Ealing farce, is the final comedy produced by the famous studio and one of its most celebrated. Alec Guinness stars as the superbly shifty, toothily threatening Professor Marcus, the leader of a crime ring planning a heist. Marcus rents rooms from a sweet, eccentric old lady, Mrs. Wilberforce (Katie Johnson), in her crooked London house. The professor and his co-conspirators, blowhard Major Courtney (Cecil Parker), creepily suave Louis (Herbert Lom), chubby Harry (Peter Sellers), and muscleman One-Round (Danny Green), pose as an unlikely string quartet using the rooms for rehearsal. Dodging Mrs. Wilberforce's constant interruptions, the hoods hit upon the idea to use her in the daring daylight robbery (filmed in and around London's King's Cross station). When the old girl discovers the truth, Marcus and company cannot persuade her to stay buttoned up about it and thus decide to do her in.
KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS is a deft and dark comedy with Guinness in superb form as he plays eight different members of the D'Ascoyne clan. Louis (Dennis Price), the black sheep of the wealthy family, must murder all the heirs in order to inherit the D'Ascoyne fortune. Watch as the brilliant Guinness disappears into his various eccentric roles.
Based on the play by Roger MacDougall, Alexander Mackendrick's THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT (the director's second film) is a winning comedy about the battles between labor, capitalists, and scientific dreamers. Sidney Stratton (Alec Guinness) works quietly at the textile mill of Michael Corland (Michael Gough) until his mysterious, costly lab experiment is discovered. Fired by Corland, Stratton takes a menial job at Alan Birnley's (Cecil Parker) mill in order to continue his work on the sly. When Daphne (Joan Greenwood), Corland's fiancee and Birnley's daughter, discovers his secret, she threatens to expose Stratton. The desperate scientist reveals to Daphne that he has invented an indestructible cloth that never gets dirty. Close to realizing his vision, Stratton celebrates by having a white suit made of the fabric (because it repels dye). The trouble, however, is just beginning.
In THE LAVENDER HILL MOB, Mr. Holland (Alec Guinness) is a fussy and unnecessarily overprotective bank supervisor. However, unbeknowst to his employers, he is also Dutch, the leader of the titular crime organisation. So, on the day the bullion truck is robbed, Holland is the last person to be suspected. Guinness revels in his scheming character in this Ealing delight.