The Ladykillers
Tom Hanks: n.
- Someone who never mess a movie up.
- Great actor.
- Mythic personality
The Ladykillers is not an exception, when you first learn that Tom Hanks casts in a funny movie, you probably would say: “That’s his first failure, now he starts destroying his career”, however, it’s another chef-d’œuvre that emphasize the legendary actor.
Professor G. H. Dorr (Tom Hanks) is an intellectual issued from Sorbonne, who masters literature, poetry, philosophy, … and speaks with a classical literal speech, however, he is a professional thief who works with experts, and they plan to steal a casino that is located close to a house owned by a pious lady. He suggested to rent a room in a house and to use the root cellar with his friends to play the renaissance music; in fact, they were digging a tunnel to the casino.
A wonderful artistic movie, whose the music and the speech are of high quality, and where the hipocrisy of the Professor and the naivity of the old woman make a funny, yet original contradiction.
My rate: 8/10
Some quotes
- Lady: What have you gotten into. Honey? Why you sweatin’ like that?
- Lump: Uh… Uh..
- Gawain: Uh. Eh. ’cause. ’cause… That boy right there? He plays one bitch barrel full of a sackbut. Ain’t that right. Lump?
- Lump: Uh-huh.
- Gawain: Ain’t nobody play the sackbut like Lump right there. He… Don’t be shy. Lump. Don’t be shy. Lump. That boy. He go… at it like it was some pussy! (Lady slaps him) Oh. Shit!
- Lady: This is a Christian house, boy (another slap). No hippity-hop language in here (another slap). Sometime it’s the only way.
- Gawain: Now listen. You ain’t gonna hit me…
- Lady: (another slap) I’m tryin’ to help you. Boy. (another slap) Better yourself!
- Professor: And so you should. Madam. So you should. Gawain is so far transported by his love of the music of the early Renaissance…
- Lady: Don’t make me no never-mind. He transported!
- Professor: I understand.
(…)
- Gawain: Hey. Hey. Hey…don’t be explainin’ me. Dawg! You can’t read my motherfuckin’ mind. Man! You might got yo’ Ph. D… but I got my GED!
- Yeah. It’s simple and plain. You firin’ me ’cause I’m black.
- MacSam. Everybody on the custodial staff is black. Your replacement is gonna be black. His replacement. No doubt. Will be black!
- Well. The fuckin’ judge is goin’ be black. Muthafucka.
- Professor: You must accept our apologies for not bein’ able to perform. For. As you see. We are shorthanded. Gawain is still at work. And we could no more play with one part tacit than a horse could canter shy one leg. Perhaps I could offer. As a poor but ready substitute. A brief poetic recital. Though I do not pretend to any great oratorical skills. I would be happy to present. With your ladies’ permission. Verse from the unquiet mind of Mr. Edgar Allan Poe.
“Ladies. Thy beauty is to me
Like those Nicean barks of yore.
That gently. O’er a perfumed sea.
The weary. Wayworn wanderer bore
To his own native shore.”
- Ladies: My. My. My.
- Professor: “On desperate seas long wont to roam.
Thy hyacinth hair. Thy classic face.
Thy Naiad airs have brought me home
To the glory that was Greece
And the grandeur that was Rome.”
- Ladies: Glory hallelujah. Amen.
