The Ladykillers ** (2004, Tom Hanks, Marlon Wayans, Irma P. Hall) – Classic Movie Review 1764

Oh, no! In 2004 America’s the Coen Brothers have remade our menacingly funny 1955 British gem of a movie, with Tom Hanks miscast and struggling in an over-calculated character turn as Professor G H Dorr, the creepy boss of a gang of five comic cut-throat crooks who take lodgings with an unsuspecting old lady and pose as a classical music ensemble as a cover to carry out a heist on a casino.

They’ve relocated the movie to the American Deep South, turned the innocent landlady into a canny churchgoer, Marva Munson (Irma P Hall) who far too soon sniffs out the scam, and changed the plot to a casino robbery via a tunnel from her cellar.

Hanks hams it up in Alec Guinness’ old role, revamped as eccentric Southern Professor G.H. Dorr. And gang members Gawain MacSam (Marlon Wayans), Garth Pancake (J K Simmons), The General (Tzi Ma) and Lump (Ryan Hurst) kill all the piece’s charm, by obvious acting, swearing and talking about irritable bowels.

Of course, there are some laughs, Hall is a formidable presence and the writer-producer-director team of Joel and Ethan Coen turn in a smart-looking film. Carter Burwell’s score, Roger Deakins’s cinematography and Dennis Gassner’s production designs are very classy. But that’s not enough and this is a misjudged, often forlorn, quite pointless remake.

Clever though they are, the Coen Brothers show no signs of understanding what makes the original so perfect: the unique mix of gentility, charm and gleefully cynical black comedy. In a nod to the original, Luigi Boccherini’s Minuet from Quintet in E major, Opus 11 No 5, is briefly heard.

Original writer William Rose must be turning over in his grave.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1764

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