Kind Hearts and Coronets
Kind Hearts and Coronets is a 1949 British black comedy film. It features Dennis Price, Joan Greenwood, Valerie Hobson and Alec Guinness; Guinness plays nine 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, Louis decides to take revenge on the family, and to take the dukedom by murdering the eight people ahead of him in succession to the title.
Plot
In Edwardian England, Louis D'Ascoyne Mazzini, 10th Duke of Chalfont, is in prison, awaiting his hanging for murder the following morning. As he writes his memoirs, the events of his life are shown in flashback.
More details
author | John Dighton |
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contentLocation | England |
director | Robert Hamer |
editor | Peter Tanner |
genre | comedy drama social |
keywords | anglican anglican communion balloon boating accident bow and arrow burial vault captain goes down with the ship caviar childhood friends co-respondent darkroom disown edwardian edwardian england edwardian period family vault flashback force going down with his ship hang house of lords hunting accident italian opera learn marriage proposal married matabeleland mistress morning murder only child opera singer port private bank scotland yard st james\'s suffragette suicide note tit-bits tried by his peers vault wait widowed mother |
musicBy | Ernest Irving |
producer | Michael Balcon Michael Relph |
productionCompany | Ealing Studios |
publisher | General Film Distributors |
recordedAt | Pinewood Studios |
theme | black comedy |