Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)

"I made an oath that I would revenge the wrongs her family had done her. It was no more than a piece of youthful bravado, but it was one of those acorns from which great oaks are destined to grow. Even then I went so far as to examine the family tree and prune it to just the living members. But what could I do to hurt them? What could I take from them, except, perhaps, their lives."


Louis Mazzini, the tenth Duke of Chalfont, sits in the cell of the condemned and awaits the executioner's rope. As he does so he reads his memoirs. It is the story of his family, the D'Ascoynes, of how they shunned his mother for marrying for love, of how they denied his existence and of how they died. A story of how he loved two beautiful women, one honest and pure, one lustful and dangerous, and of how he was betrayed and sent to the gallows for the one crime he did not commit.

This wonderful Ealing Comedy by director Robert Hamer stars Dennis Price as Louis Manzzini and, briefly, his own father and Alec Guinness as almost everyone else. Sadly, due to his excessive drinking, Hamer didn't manage many credits as a director but those he did - The Long Memory, Dead of Night and School for Scoundrels - are some of the hidden gems of British cinema. Dennis Price, whose real family past relates more to the people he murders in the movie than the part he plays, gives what is without a doubt his best on-screen performance. The son of a brigadier-general, he was expected to go into the army or church but instead chose acting appearing on stage with both John Gielgud and Noel Coward. Alec Guinness takes on 8 roles playing the whole of the D'Ascoyne family, 9 if you include the portrait of one of their ancestors that he also sat for. It's an incredible feat that includes dashing young men, an Admiral, a vicar and even a suffragette. The technicalities of doing such a thing, years before split-screen or obviously any sort of CGI, were many and he pulls it off beautifully. In the church scene where all the family are gathered they had to make a special platform for the camera and used blackened glass to position each of the family members. After each part was shot the film was wound back, the glass moved, Guinness made-up as the next character and the next piece filmed. It took 2 days to make the 3 minuet scene and a cameraman slept on set over night to be sure nothing was moved.

The two female leads, those that aren't Guinness that is, are played by Valerie Hobson and Joan Greenwood. Both beautiful, charming and talented actresses.

Due to the production codes of the time an alternative ending was filmed for the American release. I wont tell you any more about it as I don't want to spoil the end of the movie for you but more information can be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kind_Hearts_and_Coronets#American_version

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041546/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1