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“The LadyKillers” and the Beltway Crowd: A Review

By Connie Corcoran Wilson, M.S.

Tom Hanks has a new film out, The Ladykillers, in which he portrays Goldthwaite Higgenson Door, PhD., the leader of a misfit band of criminals intent on pulling off a robbery in Pascagoula, Mississippi. I couldn’t help but notice that some of the gang of miscreants reminded me of a certain Washington, D.C. bunch of Beltway insiders. In his role as the deceitful, duplicitous, but oh-so-cultured leader of the pack, the star would be analogous to our own VP Richard “Dick” (emphasis on “Dick”) Cheney. Quote: “I will take care of the matter as only a highly-educated classicist could.”

There is a character called “Lump” in the film. I’ll let you use your imagination on that one. It shouldn’t be too hard to figure out which of the White House bunch is “Lump.” Lump seems to have a soft heart. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be much else going on in his cranium. Lump is just “there,” recruited because the gang might need some brute strength. Even the Professor says of him, “To look at Lump, you might wonder what he will be able to offer to our enterprise.” (What, indeed?) At one point in the film, Hanks berates Lump, saying, “You stupid boy. You very, very extremely stupid boy.”

The audience kind of likes Lump, though, just as you like a small, stupid puppy. But Lump is definitely not too bright.  However, it is Lump who, at one point, suggests that they bribe Mr. Gudge (Stephen Root, who played Milton in “Office Space”), the casino boss who has just fired the “inside man,” as played by Marlon Wayans, (the least likeable of the Wayans brothers). In other words, Lump occasionally has his “even-a-blind-pig-finds-an-acorn-once-in-a-while” moment(s).

The plot has Professor Goldthwaite and his accomplices renting Mrs. Marva Munson’s rooming house as a base of operations to rob the public blind by tunneling to the nearby Bandit Queen gambling casino to rob the counting room. (Gee! This sounds very familiar….robbing the trusting public for personal gain….but lying to them about what is really going on. Hmmmmmm. Where have I encountered this plot recently?)
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