Professor Marcus rents a room from the delicate Mrs. Wilberforce and is soon joined by four sinister friends. Claiming to be a string quartet, they are actually plotting a robbery. After the heist, Mrs. Wilberforce uncovers the truth, therefore she must be eliminated. But who will do the deed?

As the judicious elderly landlady, Katie Johnson holds the unflappable center amid a carnival of grotesques in this wickedly funny chamber of horrors from Ealing Studios. With Alec Guinness leading the eponymous dastardly crew, The Ladykillers is an enduring monument to English eccentricity.