Kind Hearts And Coronets Blu-ray Review

• 27th Aug 2011

Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) Often considered to be the best of the Ealing comedies, if not one of the best comedies ever made, this early comedy from the studio has just been given a limited release. When returning to this film it is easy to see why this Ealing comedy enjoys the status in the canon of Ealing comedies – a film that has not dated at all, even more so than that other Ealing classic that has also recently been given a limited release: The Lavender Hill Mob (1951). There is nothing in this film that reeks of ham or seems flimsy today, especially when compared to many other British films of the period (but then on second thoughts such films as Brighton Rock were made the previous year). Nor is it simply the black comedy that works so well that makes it so durable, or Alec Guinness’ multi-performance, playing eight characters of the doomed D’Ascoyne family, but rather the film as a whole. This tale has not faded with age one jot; a synopsis of the film will not do justice to the plot. The story is about a gentleman called Louis Mazzini, the grandson of the former Duke of Chalfont whose mother was cut out of the family inheritance for marrying an Italian opera singer for love. After the death of his father as a baby his mother is left penniless Louis Mazzini vows to avenge his mother and succeed as the next Duke of Chalfont by killing off all the members of the D’Ascoyne family who stand in his way to the Dukedom and his rightful place in society. The story begins in prison as Mazzini writing his memoirs awaits being hung for the crimes of killing six members of the D’Ascoyne family. Producer Michael Balcon, initially reluctant to make the film hired Robert Hamer, a talented director in the Ealing stable since he wrote one of the episodes in Ealing’s only horror film, Dead of Night (1945) he went on to make a succession of other Ealing classics. However, no one predicated that Hamer would come up with a film of this quality. The literary source for Kind Hearts and Coronets was a book called ‘Israel Rank’ written by Roy Horniman, a little known Edwardian follower of Oscar Wilde and Wilde’s influences are apparent throughout the film. As a result Hamer thought this novel was the perfect source material for a film. The script was finally written by Hamer and John Dighton, having rejected initial drafts provided by those doyens of English literature, Evelyn Waugh and Nancy Mitford. Hamer correctly decided to retain the film in Edwardian England, but expunged the Nietzschean ramblings of the Mazzini character of Horniman’s novel and instead kept it truer to the spirit of a Wildean farce. But it is more than mere verbal wit the audience is entreated to, but also a good deal of visual wit too such as the murder of the suffragette Lady Agatha D’Ascoyne (also played by Guinness) as she pamphlets a crowd from a hot air balloon. Louis Mazzini brings her down by firing an arrow at the balloon. The performances throughout are exemplary: Dennis Price made a career repeatedly playing caddish rakes with his cool manners, Joan Greenwood as the purring and ambitious Sibella. But it is Alec Guinness who is the most memorable in only his third role and his first Ealing film, playing eight members of the D’Ascoyne family in the kind of role that pre-empts the many comic faces of Peter Sellers. The most remarkable thing about this film is that it is hardly noticeable that Guinness plays all eight roles and in one scene the whole family is shot together in church in a short scene that took two days to film. Sadly Robert Hamer’s career never achieved the status or quality of Kind Hearts and Coronets going on to make such minor classics as Father Brown (1954) and School for Scoundrels (1960) whereas Guinness, Michael Balcon and Ealing Studios flourished, especially in the genre of comedy. For anyone who has not seen Kind Hearts and Coronets I would urge to do so – you will not be disappointed. Chris Hick