Kind Hearts and Coronets (1950)

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Fresh and Exciting

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Classic 'Ealing' comedy from 1949. Now I think of comedy as telling jokes, pulling a face etc..however this film is not an example of that at all. My first foray into the films that were shot post war at the old Ealing Studios in London, U.K. that became known as Ealing comedies. It is more a black comedy. Showing humour such as the screenplay itself. The screenplay is about a rich, aristocratic family called D'Ascoyne's. The family has a noble title producing the Lord Chalfont. The family have a black sheep as such caused by one of the members having a relationship and producing a son with an Italian. The said black sheep of the family, a female branch and the son Louis Mazzini (Vincent Price) live in relative London suburbia poverty well away from the trappings of aristocracy. In later life Louis becomes bitter and vows revenge on the family who have disowned him and stand in the way of the dukedom. All eight members! Hence a series of murders occurs as Louis becomes ever closer to being ancestor to the Lord Chalfont title. I didn't realise until watching the film that all those eight members of both genders are brilliantly portrayed by Alec Guiness. A far cry from some of his roles in later life! The film is a delight and the old black and white photography a triumph that adds to the class of the film. On further reading the Director of Photography is Douglas Slocombe who I recognise from Carry On films to Indiana Jones blockbusters. Surprisingly good first foray into the Ealing comedy.

In the hours before his execution for murder, Louis, the 10th Duke of Chalfont, writes his memoirs. In them he details how, though descended from nobility, he grew up poor and had to pull himself up by his bootstraps, career-wise. Then, discovering that only eight members of the D'Ascoyne family stood between him and the dukedom, he systematically started killing them, making the murders look like accidents.Interesting, intriguing crime drama, with a dry, dark humour about it. The whole sequence of events leading up to and including Louis knocking off the claimants to the dukedom makes for compelling viewing. Quirkily funny at times too.More than just a crime drama, the movie also pokes fun at England's class and peerage system. You can well imagine that someone would go to such lengths for a title and the wealth and other benefits it bestows.Solid work by Dennis Price as Louis. Standout performance(s), however, goes to Alec Guiness who plays all eight members of the D'Ascoyne family! Good support from Valerie Hobson and Joan Greenwood.

Dennis Price plays a young man who murders his way through his bloodline to become a duke. The brilliant Alec Guinness, who has given so many great performances outside of Star Wars, superbly plays 8 roles and dies 8 times. It's not like modern comedies at all, but Kind Hearts and Coronets doesn't feel dated. It's not your typical laugh out loud comedy. It's conveyed in a very dry, detached way, but it's very funny in an incredibly dark way. Admittedly, there are times when you don't know whether you're meant to laugh or not but it still has loads of genuinely funny moments. This is a film which actually manages to make murder funny, but what's most impressive about it, aside from the great performances, is the social commentary. The main character is pretty despicable, yet he is sympathetic and the moment where he confronts the last victim and explains his motives is actually very moving as well as blackly comic. This is an excellent mix of drama and humour, and it is easily one of the darkest comedies ever made. The fact that it manages to make such dark material so entertaining and do so in such a clever way solidifies the film's position as one of the definitive Ealing comedies.9/10

Kind Hearts and Coronets is a morality tale and social satire combined into one. Although it is well known for the eight roles played by Alec Guinness, you will discover that some of the roles he plays are rather brief.Louis Mazzini is played coldly and rather understated by Dennis Price. He is the grandson of the Duke of D'Ascoyne whose mother married beneath herself to a singer and was exiled by her rich family and died destitute.Louis is toiling in a shop and ends up losing his job thanks to a D'Ascoyne and wants to get revenge against the pompous family. So he brutally bumps them off one by one and gets nearer to the line of inheritance and at the same time his social and financial status elevates.This film is one of the well known Ealing comedies which has a dark heart. In fact the film opens in prison as Louis is facing the gallows which indicates that he might had not got away with his plans. Even then there are further twists to emerge as Louis complicated love live threatens to derail him.Although Guinness grabs the headlines this is Price's film and he is well supported by a sly, witty and literate script.