Kind Hearts & Coronets

In this classic and pitch black Ealing comedy, the genius that was Alec Guinness plays an impressive eight roles (!) including an aristocratic suffragette. I say!

Shot in 1949, Guinness plays the unsuspecting members of the aristocratic D’Ascoyne family who are all about to meet a sticky end thanks to scheming and embittered outcast cousin Louis Mazzini (Dennis Price). By birthright, Mazzini should be an aristocrat seeing how his mother was a D’Ascoyne, but since she decided to run off with an opera singer, the rest of the blue-blooded clan ostracized her and left her. Even her dying wish to be buried in the family crypt is refused – something that prompts Mazzini to swear revenge and commit murder most foul. As the numbers of the D’Ascoyne clan diminishes and he climbs up the social ranks, it’s not only his conscience that’s torn but also the love for now-married – and equally wicked – Sibella (Joan Greenwood) and Edith D’Ascoyne (Valerie Hobson), the holier than thou wife of one of his victims.

The cast are bona fide, with Dennis Price delivering a performance well balanced between pathos and spitefulness, and as for Guinness… well, you’re in for a treat of course. Kind Hearts & Coronets was one of Dennis Price’s signature roles and one he will always be remembered for. In fact, he is remembered with a memorial plaque inside St. Paul’s Church, Covent Garden. On the plaque is engraved ‘Kind Hearts are more then Coronets’.

This gem is not to be missed and not only is it available on DVD and Bluray, but is currently also shown in selected theatres across the country – digitally restored and with the wonderful cinematography by Douglas Slocombe.
The Extras on the disc releases include audio commentary, John Landis intro, Dennis Price: Those British Faces, BBC 3 Radio Essay, Behind The Scenes and more.