Kind Hearts and Coronets Details

Arguably the finest of the Ealing comedies, this superb comédie noire from director Robert Hamer has a deliciously witty script that slips smoothly between dastardly deaths in the guise of a self-satisfied memoir. However, the picture is elevated to greatness by the quality of its playing. Obviously, Alec Guinness, who essays the eight doomed D'Ascoynes, merits every superlative lavished on a performance of astounding versatility and virtuosity. But let's not forget Dennis Price as the ceaselessly inventive killer, and Joan Greenwood and Valerie Hobson as the vamp and the vestal in his life, who are singularly brilliant.

Witty, genteel black comedy well set in the stately Edwardian era and quite deserving of its reputation for wit and style; yet the effect is curiously muffled and several opportunities are missed.