Kind Hearts and Coronets

Perhaps the most celebrated of the Ealing Comedies, Robert Hamer's Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) is the blackest of black humor. Alec Guinness's octople role catapulted him to stardom, and Ealing became synonymous with quirky British humor until Monty Python came along. Its scathing rebuke of the British class system anticipates vicious films like The Ruling Class and Barry Lyndon. Kind Hearts delivers the same message with a deceptively classy tone: restraint is the order of the day, no matter how cruel and dark the humor underneath.

Louis Mazzini (Dennis Price) is a distant relative of the wealthy D'Ascoyne family (Alec Guinness). When he learns that his late mother was disinherited by the family for marrying beneath her station, Louis embarks on a one-man crusade to wipe out his relatives. He kills the D'Ascoynes one by one, until he assumes the family title. He also finds himself caught in a love triangle with his lifelong sweetheart (Joan Greenwood) and the pretty widow (Valerie Hobson) of one of his victims, and is charged with a crime he didn't commit.

Though not the best Ealing-Guinness collaboration (my vote goes to The Lavender Hill Mob), Kind Hearts and Coronets is arguably the most interesting. While the British class system is a target for easy satire, Kind Hearts does it in a marvellously clever fashion. Despite his station, Louis is a born aristocrat, his sense of entitlement and airs of superiority part of the package. The more men he kills, the more accepted he becomes by his peers: murder is the only form of social mobility available to him. Compared to the relatively ineffectual victims, he's a complete cad, and his vengeance is wholly disproportionate to the crime.

The story is steeped in venomous irony. The D'Ascoynes, supposedly the last word in aristocratic decadence, are a fairly well-rounded bunch, ranging from snobbish (the Duke, Young Ascoyne) to ineffectual (the mealy-mouthed Priest) to likeable (the Banker, photographer Henry), contrasting with the despicable Louis. Louis loses the love his life, only to see her come back when he falls in love again. The ending compounds irony upon irony: Louis falsely convicted, then pardoned, only to leave the damning evidence of his memoirs behind...

Robert Hamer does an excellent job with this tricky material. The film isn't visually distinguished, but Hamer and writer John Dighton keep things wonderfully restrained, relying on dry wit and an ingeniously-constructed story to entertain the audience - no bawdiness or slapstick here. It's immensely to the film's credit that it conveys such bleak satire without resorting to overt silliness. The only Ealing that comes close, in its message and depth of story, is The Man in the White Suit.

Alec Guinness's turn as the D'Ascoyne family is marvellous: each character has just enough screen time to make an impression, and Guinness does an incredible job of creating eight distinct, memorable personages. But the real star is Dennis Price (Tunes of Glory), who is both chilling and funny. He isn't quite sympathetic but he makes Louis a compelling character regardless. Valerie Hobson (Great Expectations) and Joan Greenwood (Tom Jones) are fine in rather weak roles; the love triangle is the film's weakest aspect, though it ties in well with the bleak ending.

Kind Hearts and Coronets is a wonderful movie. Its satire wasn't particularly original even at the time, but the admirably restrained yet dark humor makes it truly unique.