The Ladykillers was the last of the great Ealing comedies and, almost by default, the dying gasp of a vanishing London; still rationed and rubble-strewn, with steam trains on the tracks and carthorses on the streets.

Shot in 1955 by Alexander Mackendrick, from a script that purportedly came to writer William Rose in a dream, this film charts the misadventures of a gang of thieves who hole up in the home of a guileless widow. Mrs Wilberforce (Katie Johnson) lives in a lopsided house up a King's Cross cul-de-sac, a place that rings to the din of steam whistles and parrot squawks. It becomes the base for a bullion robbery hatched by the oily Professor Marcus (Alec Guinness), who convinces the owner that he and his associates (Peter Sellers and Herbert Lom among them) are actually members of a string quartet. The musicians need a rehearsal space and Mrs Wilberforce is only to happy to oblige, standing on the landing and thrilling to the strains of Boccherini's Minuet (Third Movement) as played on an antique turntable. "You liked that, huh?" mumbles the brutish One Round (Danny Green), who wouldn't know a cello from a hole in the ground.

How does one improve on a film as brisk, pungent and bracing as this? The Coen brothers notoriously tried and failed with their fumbled 2004 remake - a film that seemed to miss (or at least misread) all the elements that made the original so special. "It's an Ealing comedy so there's something very British and genteel about it," Joel Coen sniffed at the time. "That isn't particularly our thing." Genteel? What film was he watching, exactly? The Ladykillers is as black as pitch and as corrosive as battery acid. The crims are picked off one by one; victims of their greed and wickedness while their supposed target bobs - vaguely, innocently - just out of reach.

God, it seems, protects drunks, little children and meddlesome old women with too much time on their hands. So hang on to your handbag and keep the parrot in its cage. Once darkness falls and the goods trains start rolling, this dream of a film can feel suspiciously like a nightmare.

Review: The Ladykillers (Vaudeville Theatre)

A group of crooks set about committing a huge robbery, and murder an innocent old lady in the process. Mean? Yes. Entertaining? Sort of...

The Ladykillers review

The Ladykillers is a masterful piece of filmmaking. And if you haven't guessed it by now, it's defiantly one of my top five favorite films of all time.

William Troughton on Graham Linehan's The Ladykillers

Despite its popularity, actor William Troughton - who plays cockney spiv Harry Robinson (originally played by Peter Sellers) in the show - has never actually seen the original film.

The Ladykillers announces UK tour

Graham Linehan's stage adaptation of The Ladykillers is to tour the UK and Ireland from this September.

Graham Linehan's 'Ladykillers' opens to rave reviews

First there was One Man, Two Guv'nors. Then there was the National Theatre's The Comedy Of Errors. And now, after garnering rave reviews on its opening night, The Ladykillers has joined the ranks of critically acclaimed new comedies on the West End stage.

The Ladykillers - reborn for the stage

Now more than 50 years old, Ealing comedy The Ladykillers is one of Britain's best-loved films. So how will Graham Linehan, writer of The IT Crowd and Father Ted, rework it for the theatre?

Video: Peter Capaldi in Ladykillers stage version

The actor Peter Capaldi is bringing the old Ealing comedy The Ladykillers to the stage.

Speaking on The Andrew Marr Show he spoke about his love of old British cinema which led him to film a new documentary on the subject.

Lugubrious Alec Guinness leads a nefarious bunch of ne'er-do-wells (among them Peter Sellers and Herbert Lom) posing as musicians as they plan a robbery from their rented room. When their landlady discovers the truth, they decide to bump her off, but Mrs Wilberforce (78-year-old Katie Johnson) proves rather more indomitable than they had imagined. Alexander Mackendrick directs one of the very best Ealing Comedies.

Graham Linehan puts Ladykillers on stage

Classic film comedy The Ladykillers is to be brought to the stage in an adaptation by Father Ted and The IT Crowd creator Graham Linehan.