3 posts tagged “mike myers”

One of the D’Ascoyne’s daughters elopes and marries her lover, an Italian musician. D’Ascoyne is an important family, it has standing. She has married beneath her class and is therefore ostracised. The couple are penniless but hopelessly in love. Soon after their son Louis Mazzini (Denis Price) is born, Mazzini the musician keels over and dies. Louis’s mother is left a widower.

Although a proud woman, she is down on her luck; she sends a letter to the family explaining her pitiful circumstances and asks permission to return. The family neither acknowledges her existence nor the name of the child.  She works desperately hard to provide the best schooling for her son. She takes in lodgers. She does menial tasks for her neighbours (sewing, cleaning and mending). Disappointedly, as her family has neither bestowed a title to her son nor provided her with an allowance, she is forced to send Louis into the professions. One of the lodgers helps Louis with an apprenticeship in tailoring.

When Louis’s mother dies the task of reinstating her son's position in ‘the family’ is handed down to Louis. For Louis, this is not about reclaiming his birthright or a title, it is about avenging his mother’s death.

After several enterprising schemes Louis is finally accepted into the D’Ascoyne’s family. His birthright is reclaimed but not without problems. Along the way, he falls in love with Sibella, a childhood friend and neighbour. Sibella is middle-class and a parvenu. She marries someone else to gain status but boredom sets in quickly. Sibella’s attentions turn to Louis as he grows in stature. Although he entertains her flirtations, he knows he cannot be with Sibella. She does not fit in with his plans. However, the sting in the tail is she stands between him and the realisation of his goal. 

This is an all-time great Ealing comedy. The story is inspired. The acting is superb. This is a film written for Alex Guinness, to star in and for us to love. He steals the show. He's the modern day Mike Myers; he plays all the family characters. Its one of those masterpieces that you just hope no one decides to remake. The remake of The Ladykillers was an error of judgement.