Kind Hearts And Coronets

KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS (Blu-ray)
Optimum Home Entertainment

Release date: September 5th, 2011
Certificate (UK): U
Running time: 83 minutes

Year of production: 1949

Director: Robert Hamer
Writers: Robert Hamer, John Dighton
Composer: Wolfgang A. Mozart

Cast: Dennis Price, Alec Guinness, Valerie Hobson, Joan Greenwood

During the 1940’s and 50’s, the British film industry gave us some of the best films that continue to be enjoyed and discovered even today.

The Ladykillers (1955), The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), Black Narcissus (1947), Brief Encounter (1945) and The Red Shoes (1948) are just a few examples, but Kind Hearts And Coronets is a film that time and time again outranks them in polls conducted by Empire, the BBC and the BFI and it’s not hard to see why.

Based on the novel Israel Rank by Roy Horniman, it’s the story of Louis Mazzini (Dennis Price) who sets out take revenge on the family who denied him his birthright.

Weaving elements of black comedy into its clever script, Kind Hearts And Coronets succeeds where most films made during time simply failed and this partly down to it’s excellent cast, mostly comprised of Alec Guinness, Alec Guinness, Alec Guinness, Alec Guinness, Alec Guinness, Alec Guinness, Alec Guinness and Alec Guinness.

In other words, he has a total of 8 roles as members of the D’Ascoyne that Mazzini holds a serious grudge against!

His prime goal is to kill enough of them so that he can become the tenth Duke of Chalfont and he promptly proceeds to bump them off one by one after weaselling his way into their lives. Mazzini isn’t short on ideas either, he drowns, blows up and poisons them and there’s even a death by air balloon disaster.

For all his ingenuity though, he fails to oversee one complication. A woman.

Sibella (Joan Greenwood), whom he’s been carrying on with while striking up a romance with Edith D’Ascoyne (Valerie Hobson), the widow of one of his victims, manages to implicate him in the one murder he didn’t actually commit and from there his downfall is immanent.

As Mazzini sits in his comfortable cell, writing his memoirs and finishing off his final meal, there is still hope, but only if he had hindsight to know it.

For its dark humour, spirited performance by Dennis Price and the multitasking of Alec Guinness, Kind Hearts and Coronets will always remain one of the best loved British classics. This HD conversation looks pristine and there are enough special features on there to make it a worthy purchase to add to your collection.

Patrick Samuel

The founder of Static Mass Emporium and one of its Editors in Chief is an emerging artist with a philosophy degree, working primarily with pastels and graphite pencils, but he also enjoys experimenting with water colours, acrylics, glass and oil paints.

Being on the autistic spectrum with Asperger’s Syndrome, he is stimulated by bold, contrasting colours, intricate details, multiple textures, and varying shades of light and dark. Patrick's work extends to sound and video, and when not drawing or painting, he can be found working on projects he shares online with his followers.

Patrick returned to drawing and painting after a prolonged break in December 2016 as part of his daily art therapy, and is now making the transition to being a full-time artist. As a spokesperson for autism awareness, he also gives talks and presentations on the benefits of creative therapy.

Static Mass is where he lives his passion for film and writing about it. A fan of film classics, documentaries and science fiction, Patrick prefers films with an impeccable way of storytelling that reflect on the human condition.

Patrick Samuel ¦ Asperger Artist

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