The Ladykillers is a 1955 British black comedy crime film directed by Alexander Mackendrick for Ealing Studios.

It stars Alec Guinness, Cecil Parker, Herbert Lom, Peter Sellers, Danny Green, Jack Warner, and Katie Johnson as the old lady, Mrs.

Mrs Wilberforce is a sweet and eccentric old widow who lives alone in a gradually subsiding house, built over the entrance to a railway tunnel in Kings Cross, London.

The gang includes the jittery and gentlemanly con-man Major Courtney, the Cockney spiv Harry Robinson, the punch-drunk ex-boxer 'One-Round' Lawson and the cruel and vicious continental gangster Louis Harvey.

As a cover, Marcus convinces the naive Mrs. Wilberforce that the group is an amateur string quintet using the rooms for rehearsal space.

To maintain the deception, the gang members carry musical instruments and play recordings of Boccherini and Haydn during their planning sessions.

As the gang departs her house with the loot, One-Round accidentally gets his cello case full of banknotes trapped in the front door.

After she learns from a visiting friend that a robbery has taken place nearby, Mrs. Wilberforce finally sees the gang's true colours and informs Marcus that she is going to the police.

Marcus asserts that the heist was a victimless crime as insurance will cover all the losses and the police will probably not even accept the money back.

"[6][7] – Piers Paul ReadWilliam Rose left the production midway, following arguments with director Alexander Mackendrick and associate producer Seth Holt, leaving them to complete the script from his notes.