Kind Hearts and Coronets
Release date June 1949
Country : UK
Running time : 106 mins
Genre : Comedy
Starring Dennis Price, Alec Guinness
Screenplay by Robert Hamer based on the novel by Roy Horniman
Directed by Robert Hamer


   
Louis Mazzini decides to get his revenge on the D'Ascoyne family for publicly shunning his mother by systematically killing all family members who stand between him and a Dukedom.

The sharpest and best of the Ealing comedies, rather dark when the others in that series were light but brilliant because this is the best black comedy ever made. The art of murder was never more hilariously displayed on film than by Dennis Price. Alec Guinness' multiple turns as various members of the D'Ascoyne family is a remarkable acting feat, it never feels like a stunt either, each character is deftly drawn.

 

In addition to the eight roles he plays Alec Guinness also sat for a painting of one of the family ancestors which hangs in the Duke's castle.