The Ladykillers - Plot Summary

Plot Summary

Mrs. Louisa Wilberforce (Katie Johnson) is a sweet and eccentric old widow who lives alone with her raucous parrots in a gradually subsiding "lopsided" house, built over the entrance to a railway tunnel, in King's Cross, London. With nothing to occupy her time and an active imagination, she is a frequent visitor to the local police station, where she reports fanciful suspicions regarding neighborhood activities. Having led wild-goose chases in the past, the officers humour her, but give her reports no credence whatever.

She is approached by an archly sinister character, 'Professor' Marcus (Alec Guinness), who wants to rent rooms in her house. Unbeknown to her, he has assembled a gang of hardened criminals for a sophisticated security van robbery at King's Cross Station: the gentlemanly con-man 'Major' Courtney (Cecil Parker); the Cockney spiv Harry Robinson (Peter Sellers); the slow-witted ex-boxer 'One-Round' Lawson (Danny Green); and the vicious continental gangster Louis Harvey (Herbert Lom). As a cover, the Professor convinces the naive Mrs. Wilberforce that the group are an amateur string quintet using the room for rehearsal space. To maintain the deception, the gang members carry musical instruments and play a recording of Boccherini's Minuet (3rd movement) from String Quintet in E, Op. 11 No. 5 during their planning sessions.

After the heist, "Mrs. W" is deceived into retrieving the disguised "lolly" from the railway station herself. This she successfully manages to do, but not without serious complications owing to her tendency to righteous meddling. Now the real difficulties begin. As the gang departs her house with the loot, 'One-Round' accidentally gets his cello case full of banknotes trapped in the front door. As he pulls the case free, banknotes spill forth while Mrs. Wilberforce looks on. Finally, smelling a rat, she informs Marcus that she is going to the police.

Stalling, the gangsters half convince Mrs. W that she will surely be considered an accomplice. In any case, it is a victimless crime as insurance will cover all the losses and the police will probably not even accept the money back. She wavers, but rallies, and the criminals finally decide they must kill her. No one wants to do it, so they draw lots using matchsticks. The Major loses, but tries to make a run for it with the cash. As the oblivious Mrs. W dozes, the criminals cross, double-cross and manage to kill one another in rapid succession. The Major falls off the roof of the house after being chased by Louis; Harry is killed by One-Round, who thinks Harry has killed Mrs. W after having a change of heart; One-Round tries to shoot Louis and Marcus when he overhears a plan to double-cross him, but leaves the gun's safety catch on and is himself killed by Louis; Marcus kills Louis by dislodging his ladder under the tunnel behind the house, causing Louis to fall into a passing railway wagon. Finally, with no one else left, Marcus himself is struck on the head by a railway semaphore signal over the tunnel, and drops lifeless into another wagon. All the other bodies have been dumped into railway wagons passing behind the house and are now far away.

Mrs. Wilberforce is now left alone with the plunder. She goes to the police to return it, but they do not believe her story. They humour her, telling her to keep the money. She is puzzled, but finally relents and returns home. Along the way, she leaves a banknote of enormous denomination with a startled "starving artist".