The Ladykillers is unique in their filmography for a few reasons, though. First, it is widely considered their worst film. I don’t like thinking about any of their movies as the “worst” because it makes it sound like a bad movie, and I don’t think they’ve made a bad film. Even with that qualifier, Ladykillers is not my least favorite Coen film. And when we add in the solo efforts, I’m not sure this is even bottom five for me.
Your enjoyment of this, much like any comedy, depends on what you find funny. If you find Tom Hanks really going for it, speaking verbosely as some kind of sinister Colonel Sanders, then this might be for you. Or maybe you like Marlon Wayans and J. K. Simmons telling each other to fuck themselves multiple times. Or maybe you just like dark comedies. If that’s the case, as it was with me, then you might like this. It’s unlikely to be a favorite, but there’s fun to be had with it.
Tom Hanks deserves quite a bit of praise because he is truly going for it. His interactions with Mrs. Munson (Irma P. Hall, carrying the film in her own right solely in her flummoxed reactions to Hanks’s bullshit) are great, and there’s a musicality to all the nonsense he spouts throughout. He even gets one of the great Coen waffle/pancake lines: “We must all have waffles forthwith!” And that’s saying something. It wouldn’t be saying something for any other filmmakers in cinematic history, but it’s something for the Coens.
Wayans and Simmons worked the most for me, however. Simmons alone is great (“Easiest thing in the world!”), especially anytime his beloved Mountain Water…I mean Mountain Girl is brought up. But when he and Wayans start going after each other, it’s hilarious. They devolve to “fuck you”s so fast I can’t help but laugh.
Aside from the wacky characters and dark humor, the movie looks great (Roger Deakins). And the Coens were trying something with the use of gospel music in the film (more on that later). So why is this so hated? Partly, it was despised at the time of its release because it’s a remake. I remember many reviews condemning it for being much less funny than the superior British original. I get this mentality, and god knows I’ve bitched about remakes plenty of times throughout the years. But that didn’t matter to me at the time or now. For one thing, I had never seen the original, and even after I watched it soon after seeing this, I didn’t find it all that amazing. I rarely find old comedies truly funny; I just prefer more modern humor.
Other than the remake aspect, I can understand the humor not working for most people. But the fact that it’s the most hated in their filmography gives it a dubious honor for me personally because this was the first film of theirs I saw in theaters. But it wasn’t the first Coen film I bought a ticket for. As I recalled in my O Brother article, I bought a ticket for that film but snuck into Blow (only to get kicked out). I do like this movie, but I wish I could claim Big Lebowski or something as my first theater experience.
Finally, the Coens seemed to be trying to recapture the magic of the O Brother soundtrack phenomenon with this film. The only special features on the DVD are about the gospel music in the film, and there’s even a mid-credits sequence (a first and only, I believe, for them) featuring a performance at the church. Obviously, nothing about this film took off, so the gospel music fell on deaf ears.
I’m not a big fan of gospel music, myself, but I am a fan of Bob Dylan, and there is a bit of a connection there. First, Mrs. Munson talks about a young Jewish man with a guitar who visited her church years ago. This could possibly be a reference to Dylan, who famously went gospel for three albums (Slow Train Coming, Saved, Shot of Love). That phase, much like this film, was met with disappointment and anger.