Cheap Kind Hearts and Coronets (DVD) (Dennis Price, Alec Guinness) (Robert Hamer) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of Kind Hearts and Coronets

Over the years, there have been a number of films which have treated the subject of murder in a humourous way--but "Kind Hearts and Coronets " set the standard.

Dennis Price is perfectly cast as the "upwardly mobile" young man trying to attain what he considers to be his rightful inheritance through eliminating members of a noble family who are "in the way". This is a difficult role because he is an unscrupulous snob--yet quickly has our sympathy. We are soon cheering for him to eradicate a ( mostly ) unpleasant family.

Alec Guinness, playing the various doomed family members, is absolutely brilliant--even clever make-up and costumes do not disguise the fact that we have a genius at work here.

In fact, I'll take it a step further. I consider Alec Guinness to be the greatest actor in the history of film. His terrific work in "Kind Hearts " was a major sign of the things to come--the man was a "chameleon" who could play virtually any type of role and be totally convincing. Others may pick Brando as the greatest--or Tracy--or Olivier-or more recent stars such as De Niro or Hoffman. All are great--no argument--but for versatility, I'll take Sir Alec. ( As an aside--best film actress of all time ? Miss Katherine Hepburn--no contest. )

Like a number of Ealing comedies, "Kind Hearts" has a very nice "twist" at the end--a great finish to a memorable movie.

The DVD captures the black and white image very well--for a 53-year old film, this is nice.

One negative comment. At one point in the film, a very old children's rhyme is quoted which uses the awful,insulting racial "N" word. It even appears in the trailer for the film, included in the extras. I know that this a very old film--and I am not generally in favour of censorship--but since the line adds nothing to the film, perhaps it could have been deleted ? To hear such an offensive word in an otherwise delightful old comedy is jarring, to say the least.

A droll and hilarious case study in the gentle art of murder
Alec Guiness is justly celebrated for playing eight roles in the classic 1950 Ealing Comedy "Kind Hearts and Coronets," but you do have to remind yourself when you are enjoying this film that there is a reason the actor was not given top billing. Guiness plays a long line of murder victims, all of whom are dispatched in various ways by Louis Mazzini (Dennis Price), a newly minted Duke who, as the film opens, is going to be hung the next morning at 8 o'clock for murder (Price also plays his father, but no one makes a big deal of this effort). We find the Duke spending his final night writing his memoirs, which will explain how he came to this unfortunate end, so as not not to deny the public a full appreciation of his fate; for the same reason he has ordered not only coffee and toast for his final breakfast, but grapes, so that the public will not feel disappointed with the news of his meager taste.

With Louis as our narrator we go back to the beginning of the story, when his Mama (Audrey Fildes) was disowned by the aristocratic D'Ascoyne family after she ran away with an Italian tenor, who promptly died upon the announcement of the birth of a son. Attempts to reconcile by Louis's mother with the family were coldly rejected and she raised the boy in relative poverty, but with a sense of class that would serve him well in the future. It was the dream of his mother that Louis might one day inherit the title, which descends through the women as well as the men; the title was given for service to King Charles II during the Interegnum by the first Duke and the right of the women to inherit was added by services of the Duchess after the Restoration. When his mother denies and is refused burial in the D'Ascoyne family crypt, Louis vows to make her dream come true by bumping off all of his relations that stand between him and his goal, using his mother's copy of the family tree to help make sure he does it right.

Guiness plays eight different D'Ascoyne family members, from an Admiral and a General to a Parson and a dowager suffragette, creating distinct characters even when reduced to only a line or two of dialogue; too bad the opening credits give away the game. However, "Kind Hearts and Coronets" really is Dennis Price's movie polite killer and would be Duke. Price had been born into an upper class family and after this effort two of his next three films would find him playing Lord Byron. Therefore, it is not surprising that he hits the proper mark with the impeccable sense of propriety and reserved indignation he brings to his quest. His effort is ultimately complicated by his affections for both his childhood sweetheart, Sibella (Joan Greenwood), who refused to wait for him to become a Duke and married another, and Edith D'Asoyne (Valerie Hobson), the wife of one of his early victims, who would make a most suitable and deserving Duchess.

This is a film where we root for the "hero" to succeed in his quest although we are well aware that he is a naughty boy who should be punished and have reason to believe Fate is helping Louis along with his efforts because some of the offending D'Asoyne relatives manage to meet their own ends without his assistance. Besides, there is some creativity involved in most of the murders that has to be appreciated as well; if not totally ingenious, at least he does not cheapen his efforts by using the same trick twice. The ending of the film presents a series of ironies that seem totally appropriate give the fact that our hero is a serial killer.

"Kind Hearts and Coronets" begain a string of classic roles for Guiness is Ealing comedies, amply seen the following year when he made both "The Lavender Hill Mob" and "The Man in the White Suit." But this film clearly has the driest wit as well as teh most charm and elegance of them all. It presents a perfect little exercise in the gentle art of murder.

The best black comedy ever filmed
It`s useless to state we are in the presence of the biggest black comedy in all the cinema's story. Every detail is perfect, from the direction, passing through the superb cast, in which Dennis Price gives the best role of his brilliant career. Alec Guiness shows us why he's who he's. A wonderful actor. Not only because in this film gives us eight different roles, but the elegance , the organical flow of its monumental script.
Together with Lavender hill mob, Hobson's choice, the man in the white suit and The lady killers, the english cinema never before had literally had an explossion of talents in multiple aspects.
Ironic, cynical, ravishing, ambitious, with a lot of laughs and surrealistic situations, this movie reminds us the other side of the coin about Richard III, because no matter how many crimes you have to commit for reaching your goal.
A must for everyone who loves the craft's cinema.