Cutting A Caper: The Joy Of The Comedy Crime Gang
This was a commissioned article for the theatre programme of the Oldham Coliseum Theatre Company's production of The Lady k illers (2016). What is it about the machinations of Professor Marcus and his motley crew in The Ladykillers that delights us? Are we drawn in by criminal gangs because it allows us to see them get their just desserts or do we actually like to see the bad guys succeed? W e enjoy watching the gun-toting gangs in films like Bonnie and Clyde , Die Hard and Reservoir Dogs , especially as they’re made up of charismatic and stylish villains; but the moment they shoot an innocent civilian or policeman, they become difficult to root for. So it usually falls to the gang in comedy caper films, where crimes are more far-fetched and bullets are less likely to be fired than quips (or sticks of rock), to lure us in and make us feel complicit in the illicit. The crime caper genre has its roots in the more dramatic heist films of the 1950s, most notably John Huston’s The As...