Kind Hearts and Coronets poster & wallpaper
Get movie widget Recommend it Add to Favorites

Dennis Price, Alec Guinness, Valerie Hobson, Joan Greenwood, Miles Malleson ... see more see more... , Arthur Lowe , Clive Morton , John Penrose , Cecil Ramage , John Salew , Peggy Ann Clifford , Lynn Evans , Audrey Fields , Hugh Griffith , Barbara Leake , Richard Wattis , Eric Messiter , Anne Valery

Alec Guinness gets to die eight times, playing a line of successors to a dukedom, in the Ealing black comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets. Louis Mazzini (Dennis Price) is ninth in line to inherit the duke... read more read more...dom from the aristocratic D'Ascoyne family. Louis vows to kill all eight people who stand between him and the duke's title. Aside from two cases of natural causes, Louis works through the list, eliminating rivals (all played by Guinness). Along the way he romances Sibella (Joan Greenwood), a childhood friend who ends up marrying a dullard, and Edith (Valerie Hobson), the beautiful widow of one of his victims with whom he plans to share his title. But just when Louis is ready to assume the D'Ascoyne mantle, a bizarre irony strikes. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Flixster Users

93% liked it

8,359 ratings

Critics

100% liked it

36 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 44 min.

Directed by: Robert Hamer

Release Date: June 21, 1949

Invite friends to see

DVD Release Date: September 10, 2002

Get It:

Stats: 759 reviews

report incorrect info

Photos

Kind Hearts and Coronets Anne Valery and Alec Guinness Kind Hearts and Coronets
Upload a Photo | View All Kind Hearts and Coronets Photos

Your Rating


clear rating

Flixster Reviews (759)

  • mumby1988
    September 12, 2011
    mumby1988
    Since the brand was revived several years ago, Ealing Studios have developed a reputation for quaintness. With the exception of John Landis' underrated Burke and Hare, the majority of the new Ealing's output has been frothy, often retrograde films designed solely for the export m... read morearket. How easily we forget that the self-same studio once produced some of the darkest, edgiest and blackest comedies the world had ever seen. And there is no better example of this than Kind Hearts and Coronets, which takes pride of place with The Red Shoes as one of the finest British films of the 1940s.

    Describing any old film as 'edgy' comes with problems. Changes in social attitudes since the 1940s means that, on one level, filmmakers are now able to show a wider range of subjects to a greater extent than ever before. Under this line of argument, what was once considered edgy, radical or insightful now looks timid and tame. But even if we accept this as a general rule, Kind Hearts and Coronets still stands as a proud and intriguing exception. Like Peeping Tom eleven years later, it has retained its emotional impact even after its aesthetic achievements have been surpassed.

    Kind Hearts and Coronets is a comedy about a serial killer, at a time when the vast majority of films involving murder sought to completely demonise the assailant in question. More than that, it is about a serial killer who vengefully targets the aristocracy, who while waning in power still held a great deal of influence in government and high society. The film is a vitriolic attack on the British class system, thinly disguised as an erudite comedy of manners. To paraphrase Macbeth, it may look like the innocent flower, but it is most definitely the serpent under it, and its venom is ruthless and bitter.

    In a further comparison to Peeping Tom, the film had a rocky ride with the censors when first released. Sir Michael Balcon, then-head of Ealing, sought to distance himself from the film, believing that the public could not handle its ironic treatment of the subject matter. In line with the restrictive Hays Code, the American distributors requested that Robert Hamer added a ten-second epilogue, to show Louis Mazzini getting his comeuppance in a way while the original ending only implied. While Alec Guinness went on to win an Oscar for The Bridge on the River Kwai, neither Dennis Price nor Robert Hamer would ever reach this level of success again. Film critic David Thompson described the latter's fortunes as "the most serious miscarriage of talent in post-war British cinema".

    Many of the classic Ealing comedies used present events to satirise the past and vice versa. Passport to Pimlico satirised both the Berlin airlift and the exile of the Dutch monarchy to Canada, while some commentators have argued that The Ladykillers is a send-up of the post-war Labour government. Kind Hearts and Coronets was made in the year of the Second Parliament Act, which further curbed the power of the House of Lords and with it the aristocracy. The real-life political attack on landed wealth is contrasted with the lethal attacks of Louis Mazzini, with the aristocracy being 'killed off' in both cases.

    Kind Hearts and Coronets has a very poisonous view of the British class system, and in particular of the aristocracy's attempts to justify its position. While marrying out of love may have brought Mazzini's mother poverty, marrying for wealth and "good breeding stock" brings nothing but misery. Whatever diversions the D'Ascoynes may pursue (the navy, photography, the church, hunting) there are a universally inward-looking bunch, with little time for anyone whose interests or backgrounds are not identical to their own.

    Although Mazzini is of noble blood, his training as a draper, shop assistant and bank clerk gives him a middle-class status, something which simultaneously repulses and pleases him because it serves as the perfect cover for his crimes. The closer he comes to his goal of becoming Duke of Chalfont, the more he takes on the characteristics of a D'Ascoyne, shunning his childhood sweetheart Sibella (Joan Greenwood) and refusing to help Lionel in his hour of need. The film brutally depicts the entrenched arrogance of the British elites, something which has persisted longer after the D'Ascoynes of this world have withered away.

    Dennis Price, who had previously found fame in Powell and Pressburger's A Canterbury Tale, is absolutely extraordinary in the lead role. Having been aptly described as "sourly handsome", he presents Louis Mazzini as a man of immense class and sophistication, but who is also capable of being cold, dismissive, callous and sociopathic. Price was always self-deprecating about his acting abilities, describing himself as "second-rate" and "lacking the essential spark." But whatever else happened in his career, this performance is enough to dismiss all such deprecation.

    What makes his performance so interesting is that, for a lot of the time, Price doesn't speak. The prolific use of voiceover gives his performance a silent movie quality - not because his movements are exaggerated, but because his facial expressions and posture play a bigger part in his characterisation. Normally this amount of voiceover could quickly become tedious, but here it works brilliantly, taking us behind Mazzini's mask of dignity. It makes his deadpan expression all the more funny, as the most unspeakable things are uttered without the merest twitch of his lips. It is as though we were inside the mind of a killer, hearing his darkest deeds completely uncensored and without any license on the part of the screenwriter.

    Kind Hearts and Coronets' themes of love and class are also expressed in Mazzini's relationships with women. For most of the film he is taken with Sibella, who marries Lionel but confides in Louis due to their friendship as children, and increasingly out of desperation as just how boring her husband is. Louis strings Sibella along, playing with her heart strings and being glad to kiss her while knowing he can never bring himself to be with her. This is a further example of Louis' corruption as he grows closer to his goal, becoming as cold and as haughty as the people who caused him to swear revenge.

    If Sibella is the proud plaything who is ultimately beneath his stature, Edith (Valerie Hobson) provides the security of wealth and the moral backbone Louis needs. Their initial meeting, while her husband is still alive, indicates that such a marriage would not be any fun: her strong religious conviction forbids drinking, leading her husband to keep gin and whisky in his dark room. Much of the film plays out like a bedroom farce as Louis tries to keep the two women from ever meeting. In the final scene, he has to choose between dull security and loving disgrace, quoting from The Beggar's Opera as he struggles to make up his mind.

    The humour in Kind Hearts and Coronets is as black as can be, with multiple jokes about hanging and all the murders having a comedic quality. These range from the general being blown up as he opens the caviar, to the admiral mistaking port for starboard and sinking his ship, and finally Mazzini's employer dying of shock after inheriting the title. There are dozens of laugh-out-loud moments, such as Mazzini's comments after shooting down Lady Agatha D'Ascoyne: "I shot an arrow through the air; she fell to earth in Berkeley Square." But a lot of the time the film is so edgy and so forthright that you're almost afraid to laugh: the barb is so strong that to laugh is almost too easy a response.

    The film is most popularly remembered for Alec Guinness, who plays all eight members of the D'Ascoyne family. He was originally only offered four roles, but pressed Hamer to cast him in all eight after reading the script. Suffice to say, he's magnificent, with each family member having clearly developed character traits and quirks, and each looking hilariously pompous in all that make-up. The split-screen shooting used to put all eight characters on screen is utterly seamless, and Hamer's direction is totally first-rate.

    Kind Hearts and Coronets is a perfect black comedy, which is as funny as Monty Python and the Holy Grail and as artistically accomplished as the best work of Powell and Pressburger. The performances are all superb, particularly from Guinness and Price, and Robert Hamer's direction gives the film a note-perfect pace so that all the jokes hit the spot. Over 60 years since it took the world by storm, it remains the darkest, edgiest and funniest of the classic Ealing comedies, and will be reducing generations to fits of laughter for years to come.
  • matertenebraum
    February 10, 2011
    matertenebraum
    The best and most loved of the Ealing Comedies is also the darkest. Kind Hearts and Coronets is probably most famous today as "that film in which Alec Guinness plays eight characters." That said, it is Denis Price as Louis Mazzini, the charming, urbane serial killer, who really s... read moreteals the show.

    The film opens in prison, with the Louis Mazzini D'Ascoyne, Ninth Duke of Chalfont awaiting execution for one of the few suspicious deaths in the film he wasn't responsible for. On that, his last night, he is completing his memoirs, which act as a framing device for the rest of the film, as well as allowing for a dry, witty narration from Mazzini himself.

    Kind Hearts and Coronets is everything modern cinema is not. It is not laugh-out-loud comedy, but a biting wit that often leaves you wondering whether you should be laughing at all. The screenwriter takes seeming delight in the precision of the dialogue, with no unnecessary verbiage. This culminates in an astonishing minimalist performance from Price when he finds himself in the dock of the House of Lords, being tried by his peers.

    I suppose you could look at Kind Hearts and Coronets as a form of social commentary. It was made after WWII, after the Beverage reforms, and may reflect a growing restlessness with the stuffiness of the old social order. Certainly, Louis is presented with such sympathy, and his nefarious endeavours told with such gleeful abandon that it is difficult for the audience not to identify with him.

    You could regard it as a form of social commentary but, frankly, why bother? It's just glorious fun and, despite a certain English post-war feel, surprisingly modern and anarchic - there can be few films, even today, which cast a multiple murderer so firmly in the hero role. And there can be few modern films were the dialogue is so witty, for instance, when excusing his flustered state of mind after his first murder by saying "furthermore, I am not naturally callous".

    Of course, everyone talks about Alec Guinness' acting tour de force - playing all eight other members of the D'Ascoyne family; from young Ascoyne D'Ascoyne to the hilariously named Elthelred D'Ascoyne (presumable unready for the fate that awaits him), the Eighth Duke of Chalfont. In reality, few of these characters receive more than a footnote in the film. But this is more than made up for by the splendid cast of other leading British actors - Denis Price, Valerie Hobson and Joan Greenwood being the notables.

    This remains not only my favourite Ealing Comedy, but right up there with Dr Strangelove as one of my favourite comedy films ever made. A wonderful, heart-warming tale of multiple murder.
  • mjgildea
    January 2, 2011
    mjgildea
    A fun and charming black comedy about revenge in the most polite possible way. As fun and as clever as Kind Hearts and Coronets was and for as generally impressive as every other element of the movie was, the real draw was watching Alec Guinness successfully and remarkably tackle... read more eight, count 'em, EIGHT roles. Given the nature of a single actor playing multiple roles, I think I was expecting something more silly (or at least a kind of Dr. Strangelove sort of madness) but this movie definitely surprised me. And seeing as how this was Guinness' breakthrough role, he'd never have to prove himself ever again.
  • bottcorecords1
    May 2, 2010
    bottcorecords1
    From the famous british production company of the 40s and 50s, Ealing films (which produced such films as "The Ladykillers" and "The Lavender Hill Mob"), comes Robert Hamer's "Kind Hearts and Coronets", a film that combines elements of Hitchcock and Peter Sellers. Louis Mazzini ... read more(Dennis Price) is the disenfranchised heir to the Dukedom of D'Ascoyne (his mother was ostracized from the family after marrying an italian opera singer who passes away when Louis was born). After watching his mother struggle all her life in exiled poverty, he vows to get revenge on the family that shunned him. Murdering his estranged family will not only get him his revenge, but also put him in line to inherit the Royal title, and all the wealth and nobility associated with that title. It's too much temptation for the ambitious Louis. One day, while working as a clerk in a clothing shop, one of his royal relations comes into the store and gets him fired. He then concocts a plot to rid the earth of his dreaded family, who are all played by Ealing star Alec Guinness. Dennis Price is quite charming and debonair as cunning and ruthless murderer (it's almost impossible not to root for him) and Guinness is simply amazing in the many disguised roles he undertakes. I also can't under-emphasize how well-written the story is. All in all, it's a flawlessly entertaining dark farce.
  • webalina
    April 23, 2010
    webalina
    A film about a "matter of some delicacy."

    I've never been a big fan of the "Ealing comedies", so when I saw this was made there I wasn't sure I was going to like it. But all the positive press it's gotten over the years made me give it a chance. And I was NOT disappointed. Thi... read mores is a delightful film, made even more so by the fact that it's a black comedy -- the whole premise is based on the idea of a man killing off his family members in order to earn a long-denied royal title of Duke.

    This started off a little slow for me, and I didn't see a lot of humor in it. But it gained momentum as it went along, and by the last 1/2 hour I was laughing out loud, and the surprise ending had me laughing hysterically and literally applauding. Alec Guinness has gotten all the attention over the years, since he plays eight roles in the films. But since each of those roles are little more than cameos, he is not actually the star of the film. Although, I have to admit that seeing him dressed as Aunt Agatha, riding in a hot air balloon, "her" long hair blowing in the breeze, will stick with me forever. No, that honor goes to Dennis Price. He carries on as if killing off his whole family is entirely logical and proper and ANYONE in his position would do the same thing. The contrast of his elegance and formality with the sheer heinousness of his crimes is brilliant.

    I now see what all the fuss was about.
  • flixsterman
    May 6, 2009
    flixsterman
    A film that is remarkable for many reasons, eight of which are Alec Guinness. He played each of his roles with such pizazz that I kept flashing back (or flashing forward, depending on your point of view) to the late, great Peter Sellers. Guinness is beyond brilliant.
  • garyX
    March 18, 2009
    garyX
    Kind Hearts And Coronets is an curious blend of black-hearted comedy and social satire. Dennis Price plays a disowned nobleman who hatches a plan to murder the 12 members of his family who stand between him and a Dukedom which he sees as his stolen birthright. He is fantastic as ... read morethe caddish would-be Duke, portraying surely the most charming serial killer in cinema, as are Alec Guinness as eight(!) of his victims and Joan Greenwood as his similarly amoral female nemesis. Very much a film of its time, its low key and sophisticated approach has the definite style of the likes of Noel Coward. Always witty but rarely laugh out loud funny, it is however often cited as one of the greats of British cinema and Ealing Studio's finest achievement.
  • kenstachnik
    June 3, 2008
    kenstachnik
    I wouldn't call this a comedy, I barley laughed. It's a bone dry character study of a charming serial killer.

    Alec Gunness's performances are what this film is all about,
  • tsigur
    April 25, 2008
    tsigur
    A really funny dark comedy. Alec Guinness pulls an Eddie Murphy, but the fart jokes are replaced by brilliant acting.
  • rubystevens
    December 21, 2007
    rubystevens
    the most charming film about a serial killer ever made! justly celebrated tour de force for alec guiness playing no less than 8 roles but the film is carried by dennis price as the murderous would be duke and joan greenwood as his duplicitous lady love, sibella. revenge is a di... read moresh that people of taste prefer cold.

View All Kind Hearts and Coronets Reviews

Critic Reviews

Dave Kehr
September 3, 2010
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

Robert Hamer's 1949 film is often cited as the definitive black, eccentric British comedy, yet it's several cuts better than practically anything else in the genre. Full Review

Variety Staff
March 26, 2009
Variety Staff, Variety

Translation to a screen comedy has been effected with a mature wit. Full Review

Bosley Crowther
May 20, 2003
Bosley Crowther, New York Times

The sly and adroit Mr. Guinness plays eight Edwardian fuddy-duds with such devastating wit and variety that he naturally dominates the film. Full Review

Roger Ebert
September 27, 2002
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Despite its murders and intrigues, its betrayals and blood feuds, Kind Hearts and Coronets has a dry and detached air. Full Review

Keir Roper-Caldbeck
September 1, 2011
Keir Roper-Caldbeck, The Skinny

Shot through with pitch black humour and biting satire on both the moribund upper class and the grasping venality of the suburban middle class. Full Review

Philip French
August 22, 2011
Philip French, Observer [UK]

Hamer had a particular liking for the late-Victorian/Edwardian world and was a great Francophile. Full Review

Derek Malcolm
August 19, 2011
Derek Malcolm, This is London

Amazingly courageous for its day (1949) in combining bad taste with good comedy. Full Review

Peter Bradshaw
August 18, 2011
Peter Bradshaw, Guardian [UK]

This was Robert Hamer's masterpiece... Full Review

Paul M. Bradshaw
August 18, 2011
Paul M. Bradshaw, Little White Lies

Technically brilliant and savagely funny, serial killing has never looked so much fun. Full Review

Ben Walters
August 17, 2011
Ben Walters, Time Out

At once a witty comedy of manners, a grotesque serial-killer caper and an acerbic satire on the class system. Full Review

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Cast

More Like This

Click a thumb to vote on that suggestion, or add your own suggestions.

  • Hot Lead and Cold Feet
    Hot Lead and Cold Feet (0%)
  • The Dock Brief (Trial and Error)
    The Dock Brief (Trial and Error) (100%)
  • Four Lions
    Four Lions (100%)
  • The Man in the White Suit
    The Man in the White Suit (100%)

More Movies like Kind Hearts and Coronets

Facts

Submit a Fact | View All
    • Edith D'Ascoyne: Kind hearts are more than coronets, and simple faith than Norman blood.
Submit a Fact | View All

Kind Hearts and C... : Watch Free on TV

Kind Hearts and Coronets Trivia

  • In which movie does Alec guiness play over 7 roles?   Answer »
  • How many roles did Alec Guinness play in Kind Hearts and Coronets?  Answer »
  • At the end of Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), Dennis Price's character Louis leaves something rather important behind him in his where?   Answer »
  • In which film does Alec Guinness play eight different roles?  Answer »
More Kind Hearts and Coronets Trivia

Movie Quizzes

Create a Quiz |

All Quizzes

Video Clips

No video clips yet. Want to upload one?

Meet Other Fans

Add Kind Hearts and Coronets to favorites

Recent News

No recent headlines. Got one?

Recent Lists

Make a List |

View All Lists

Most Popular Skin

rubystevens Skin by rubystevens
5 Profiles
Add to Profile

More Skins