On Tuesday, January 24, Noir City's heist festival stops in Great Britain with THE LADYKILLERS (1955) and THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN (1960). The first is, as correctly noted by IMDb, a "comedy, crime" film. Perhaps some Blackboarders can explain why it's included in a noir series.
My recommendation would be to scratch the comedy and open with THE LEAGUE and then follow it with an exemplary heist film noir -- of any country -- PAYROLL (1961).
The first segment introduces the characters and, though it may seem protracted, it allows them later to come alive (or die) in ways that avoid the unraveling that heist films tend to ritually repeat.
Most significantly, the lead females personify the classic duality in drama: a W-h-o-r-e (Françoise Prévost) and a Madonna (Billie Whitelaw). However, Whitelaw is only a middle-class paragon in the first segment; in the second she's an Avenging Angel -- the likes of which may not exist elsewhere in the noir canon.
I don't know of another heist noir that is taken to splendid conclusion by two women.
My favorite line comes from Prévost when, embittered for what she did "as a silly young girl...to get out of Vienna and away from the ruins," she says to her husband (William Lucas -- "a sniveling, spineless coward"), "Out of three occupying armies, I chose you to marry."
The director is Sidney Hayers, the cinematographer is Ernest Steward, and the outstanding music is by Reg Owen.
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