In this golden age of home viewing, the Criterion Collection still provides some of the best editions of the best movies ever released, usually with a rich selection of extras and often including audio commentaries (a feature they pioneered, and perhaps the greatest gift ever to film students and cinephiles alike). This column features one Criterion release per week, based entirely on where my interests lead me.
If you asked me five times what my favorite film comedy is, I’d probably give five different answers since I don’t do the “favorites” thing so well. But almost certainly at least one film from Ealing studios would make the list, and quite probably Robert Hamer’s Kind Hearts and Coronets in specific would be in there, because it has a bit of every kind of humor, including clever wit, dark satire, slapstick, and a twist ending drawing on the blackest of dramatic ironies. It’s also comfortingly reliable in delivering its pleasures, from the assured acting of a first-rate cast to the able technical work of a veteran Ealing crew.
As the story begins, Louis D’Ascoyne Mazzini (Dennis Price) is in prison awaiting his execution for murder (at the hands of hangman Miles Malleson, whose presence always makes a film better). To pass the time during his confinement, Mazzini has been writing his memoirs, which we see re-enacted in flashback with voiceover narration. His troubles began before his birth, as his mother, daughter of the Duke of Chalfont, eloped with an Italian opera singer and was in consequence disowned by her family. She dotes on her only son, raising him on tales of past family glories and great aspirations, but her requests for help are rebuffed and he is forced to settle for “a job, not a career”—working as a draper’s assistant. After his mother’s untimely death, his request to be interred in the family vault is refused, and from there on out Mazzini’s only thoughts are of revenge.
Well, he also has some thoughts about his childhood friend Sibella (Joan Greenwood), but she has eyes for another, so he continues to ply the drapery trade while tracking the deaths of every D’Ascoyne who lies between him and what he considers to be his rightful inheritance. When the deaths don’t proceed quickly enough for his taste, he helps them along in a variety of colorful and improbable ways.
If you know anything about this film, it’s probably that Alec Guinness plays eight different roles as members of the D’Ascoyne family who Mazzini sends to their reward. That’s no spoiler—it’s announced in the opening credits, and knowing what’s coming up just makes it more fun, sort of like hearing the reprise of a song from the first act in the second act and smiling because you recognize it. Plus, there’s very little effort to disguise Guinness, so you don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to spot him as the various characters. Normally, multiple murders would not be considered an appropriate topic for comedy, but Price’s narration and the somewhat stagey acting keeps the action at arm’s length, while the preposterous and cartoon-like nature of the murders, underlined by Ernest Irving’s score, keep you from taking any of it very seriously.
The screenplay of Kind Hearts and Coronets, credited to Hamer and John Dighton, was based on the Roy Horniman novel Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal. The switch in the protagonist’s ethnicity (from half-Jewish to half-Italian) and the omission of some of his more dastardly deeds was motivated by a wish to avoid anti-Semitic stereotypes as well as the need to keep the story light. Michael Balcon, then head of Ealing studios, was unconvinced that it was possible to make a comedy about eight murders, but clearly Hamer, Dighton, and the cast proved him wrong.
Kind Hearts and Coronets was well-received upon initial release and was nominated for Best British Film by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. It remains well-regarded today and placed sixth in the British Film Institute’s 1999 ranking of the Top 100 British Films. If you’ve never seen an Ealing comedy before, this is a good one to start with, and no matter how many times I rewatch it, I’m always glad I did. | Sarah Boslaugh
Spine #: 325
Technical details: 106 min.; B&W; screen ratio 1.33:1; English.
Edition reviewed: DVD (2 discs)
Extras: documentary on the history of Ealing Studios; 1977 talk show appearance by Alec Guinness; gallery of production and publicity photographs; the alternative ending created for the American release; the theatrical trailer; booklet with an essay by film critic Philip Kemp.
Fun Fact: Peter Sellers was originally only slated to play four members of the D’Ascoyne family; it was his own suggestion that he play all eight.
Parting Thought: The American version of Kind Hearts and Coronets employed an alternate ending to meet the demands of the Production Code that crimes (in cinema) must always be punished. How was it that the citizens of the United Kingdom were able to experience the ambiguity of this film’s ending without becoming wanton criminals themselves?
