KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS (1949)

Country: U.K.

Genre(s): Comedy

Director: Robert Hamer

Cast: Dennis Price / Alec Guinness / Joan Greenwood

Plot

An impoverished member of the noble D’Ascoyne family goes about killing off all of the wealthy relatives who stand in the way of his becoming a Duke.

What I Liked

Dark, devious and snide comedies don’t come more dark, devious or snide than “Kind Hearts and Coronets,” a black comedy if there ever was one.  Its hero, the sociopathic Louis Mazzini would be downright contemptible if it weren’t for the fact that his victims are even more contemptible (and pathetic) in the aloofness and pomposity of their pretentions.  Dennis Price plays Mazzini with a cool arrogance that allows him to convincingly mix with his social betters, but the script gives him a sharp-tongued cleverness that shows us he is their intellectual superior. Thus we heartily root for the young man as he proceeds to bump off these inbred buffoons through a series of “accidents” that exploit their individual hypocrisies.  One doesn’t feel the least bit guilty delighting at his acerbic bragging through narration as he confesses the murders to his written memoirs.

A movie like this, overflowing with contempt and death, wouldn’t work as a comedy were it not for the characters and the performances.  Price is perfect as our proud protagonist, and Joan Greenwood brings a chilling heartlessness to the angelic-looking Sibella, the woman whose rejections spur Mazzini on his murderous quest.  But most impressive is Alec Guinness, who takes on the task of portraying each member of the D’Ascoyne family.  A great deal of credit should go to the makeup and costume department, but Guinness changes his body language and speech so well for each character that he is hardly recognizable from one scene to the next.  In each performance, he hilariously parodies the archaic and decrepit nobility.

What I Didn’t Like

It’s a dark comedy, which will mean it isn’t to everyone’s tastes, but I certainly enjoyed it.  In fact, I’m pretty sure this is a flawless movie.  Which isn’t to say it’s the best movie; but rather that it does exactly what it intends to do without a misstep.

Most Memorable Scene

*spoiler alert!*

My favorite death is the one in which Mazzini takes no part himself, that of Admiral D’Ascoyne, who goes down honorably with his ship after he makes the silliest of maritime blunders and refuses to correct it out of sheer principal.  He stands at attention on deck as he disappears beneath the water thinking his death a monument to honor but all the while dying for nothing other than pointless decorum.

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5