Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)

Directed by

Robert Hamer

Genre

crime film

Country

United Kingdom

Runtime

1h 41m

Rated

NR

Rating

7.6 of 10 from 612 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A man whose mother was cut off from her wealthy family plots to become a duke by murdering everyone ahead of him in the line of succession. He uses charm and deception to get away with each death.

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What happens

Kind Hearts and Coronets is a 1949 British crime black comedy film directed by Robert Hamer. It features Dennis Price, Joan Greenwood, Valerie Hobson and Alec Guinness; Guinness plays eight characters. The plot is loosely based on the novel Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal (1907) by Roy Horniman. It concerns Louis D'Ascoyne Mazzini, the son of a woman disowned by her aristocratic family for marrying out of her social class. After her death, a vengeful Louis decides to take the family's dukedom by murdering the eight people ahead of him in the line of succession to the title. Michael Balcon, the head of Ealing Studios and the producer of Kind Hearts and Coronets, appointed Hamer as director. Filming took place from September 1948 at Leeds Castle and other locations in Kent, and at Ealing Studios. Themes of class and sexual repression run through the film, particularly love between classes. Kind Hearts and Coronets was released on 14 June 1949 in the United Kingdom, and was well received by critics. It has continued to receive favourable reviews over the years and, in 1999, it was number six in the British Film Institute's ranking of the Top 100 British films. In 2005, it was included in Time's list of the top 100 films since 1923. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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