贼博士

一个事儿事儿的老太太，一个有强迫症的打劫团伙头头和四个傻大个儿同伙。 聪明人自以为聪明，年轻人自以为年轻，以为一切尽在掌控，却不料一语成畿，怀博菲丝太太才是那个最不应该参与的同伙。这位老太太破坏力可实在太强了啊。

老太太一出场，跑到警局，从警察局长的态度就可以看出这位老太太可是警察局的常客了。大家都习惯了睁一只眼闭一只眼，而老太太却是那种严肃认真的人。爱管闲事的人对于多数人而言都是不愿碰上的，恰巧她又是一位年长者，作为一名绅士你表面上需要尊重她。你的身份可以是盗贼，但你的身体里流淌的还是绅士的血液。这样的角色设定就已经足够有趣，也解释了为什么偏偏是这样的老太太能够制得住这帮盗贼。老太太一板一眼的做派，让五个雅贼愣是像小学鸡一样乖巧懂事，一茬接一茬莫名其妙的内讧内讧之后四个傻大个儿一个个自己内部就把自己解决了，而老太太却分毫未伤。最后打劫团伙头头那段互掐的戏码，也是足够的精彩。能把黑色幽默展现得如此淋漓尽致也只有大英帝国了。我是不能忘记，火车烟雾的妙用了。一夜之间，经过的几趟运煤矿的火车终是承载了太多他本不该承受的生命之重。

再说画面，因为是电影展的大荧幕，整体观感也太好了，那个年代的街景，特有的伦敦雾蒙蒙的天气，灰冷色的街道尽头的小别墅，浮夸的枪击声，充满了年代感。在此之前，接触过得老片数量并不多，原来好的故事，精巧的结构设置，是经久不衰的。无论过去或未来，只要足够的遥远，就能拉扯出无尽的想象和感怀。

Technically, how difficult can it be for 5 hardened criminals (posed as a string quintet with the whole combo of its instruments) to liquidate a petite old lady like Mrs. Wiberforce (Johnson), who lives alone in her lopsided manse in the vicinity of London’s Kings Cross railway station, a perfect locality for planning their well-organized robbery of a security van loaded with cash?

Surely it looks like a cinch, but in Alexander Mackendrick’s cracking Ealing black comedy THE LADYKILLERS (later would be remade by the Coen Brothers in 2004), this ill-sorted cohort will eventually be hoisted by their own petard, because Mrs. W is protected by an armor of her ironclad integrity, she is good-natured, hospitable, righteous (even to a fault), albeit slightly loopy and garrulous, but not without a keen judgement of right and wrong. Her new lodger is Professor Marcus (a fake-teeth-sporting Guinness, flawlessly mimicking Alastair Sim with pitch-perfect gesticulations and nuances), the ringleader of the quintet, which also includes the gentlemanlike Major Courtney (Parker), a surly killer Louis Harvey (Lom, likened to a more malevolent-looking Yul Brynner, is a spot-on villain), the gormless muscle “One-round” Lawson (Green) and a mousy sidekick Harry Robinson (a corn-fed Sellers in his major celluloid introduction), so as per the descriptions, it is pretty obvious who is the aptest candidate for that particular dirty deed, after they succeed in their heist but is stuck with Ms. W, who is bent on tackling the issue in the straight and narrow.

Nope, they must do it in a democratic way, ergo, the unfortunate, soft-centered Major takes the shortest stick, and from that moment on, their racket has slumped on a slippery slope until each of them ending up a stiff lying on the passing railway wagons, is it a thinly veiled joke on the impracticality of democracy? Meritocracy could have solved the matter in a heartbeat!

On the strength of William Rose’s BAFTA-winning and Oscar-nominated script, the criminals’ downfall principally is caused by their internal disintegration, which makes sense that they must deal with each other first, before getting shot of the defenseless Ms. W, yet, serendipity is on her side this time, not only she finds out in the morning all the men have vanishingly disappeared without a trace, but also, thanks to her predisposition of frequently hobnobbing with the police department, her tall tale is habitually dismissed and she even gets to keep the swag!

Character actress Katie Johnson is bestowed a precious leading role in her seventies, which she runs away with copious alacrity and amity while obliviously maundering smack in harm’s way, for which she wins a BAFTA! A handsomely made jewel that never goes beyond the pale in juggling with materials both macabre and jocose, and reaches that sought-after equilibrium which points up its filmmakers’ all-around comedic facility.

referential entries: Mackendrick’s THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT (1951, 7.6/10); Henry Cornelius’ GENEVIEVE (1953, 6.9/10).