A supreme blend of the seedy and the sinister, this was Ealing's last post on the comedy front - indeed, the studio was shutting up shop as this film went on release. Directed by a mischievous Alexander Mackendrick, it has a gang of ruthless thugs being stymied by a dotty innocent (the fabulous Katie Johnson as their landlady). This is British comedy at its best, with eccentric characters never for a second seeming out of place in the most everyday locations. Alec Guinness and his minions (among them Herbert Lom and Peter Sellers) are a marvellous collection of misfits, but they lose every scene to the Bafta-winning Johnson.

Five oddball criminals planning a bank robbery rent rooms on a cul-de-sac from an octogenarian widow under the pretext that they are classical musicians.