Kind Hearts and Coronets
| Kind Hearts and Coronets | |
|---|---|
 Original movie poster for Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) |
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| Directed by | Robert Hamer |
| Produced by | Michael Balcon Michael Relph |
| Written by | Screenplay: Robert Hamer John Dighton Novel: Roy Horniman |
| Starring | Dennis Price Valerie Hobson Joan Greenwood Alec Guinness |
| Music by | Ernest Irving |
| Cinematography | Douglas Slocombe |
| Distributed by | General Film Distributors |
| Release date(s) | 21 June 1949 (London) |
| Running time | 106 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Kind Hearts and Coronets is a 1949 British black comedy feature film. The plot is loosely based on the 1907 novel Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal by Roy Horniman,[1] with the screenplay written by Robert Hamer and John Dighton and the film directed by Hamer. The film's title derives from Tennyson's 1842 poem Lady Clara Vere de Vere: "Kind hearts are more than coronets, And simple faith than Norman blood."[2]
The film stars Dennis Price (Louis Mazzini), Alec Guinness (the D'Ascoyne family), Joan Greenwood (Sibella) and Valerie Hobson (Edith).
Kind Hearts and Coronets is listed in Time magazine's top 100,[3] and in the BFI Top 100 British films.[4]
In 2011, the film was digitally restored and re-released in selected British cinemas.[5]
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[edit] Plot
Louis Mazzini (Dennis Price), the Duke of Chalfont, is in prison awaiting execution, and decides to write his memoirs. Shown in flashback, Louis is born in Edwardian England, the son of a woman from an aristocratic family (the D'Ascoynes) and an Italian opera singer. Shunned by her family for marrying a commoner, Louis' parents apparently live a poor but simple life. When Louis' father dies of a heart attack on seeing him as an infant for the first time, his mother is forced into a life of drudgery. Louis also recalls as a child playing with a girl called Sibella and his eventual rival, Lionel.
When Louis is in his twenties, his mother dies from injuries sustained in an accident. After the D'Ascoynes refuse to allow Louis' mother to be buried in the family vault, he becomes obsessed with avenging this wrong and eventually claiming the D'Ascoyne dukedom of Chalfont. Although there are initially eleven relatives between Louis and the Dukedom, Louis notes, "Sometimes the death column brought good news...sometimes the births column brought bad. The advent of twin sons to the Duke was a terrible blow. Fortunately, an epidemic of diphtheria restored the status quo almost immediately and even brought me a bonus in the shape of the Duchess". After being rebuked by an now adult Sibella and witnessing her marriage to Lionel (John Penrose), Louis has a chance encounter with one of the heirs, Ascoyne D'Ascoyne (Alec Guiness, in the first of eight roles as the D'Ascoynes). This results in Louis' dismissal from his job in trade, and he then decides to eliminate the entire D'Ascoyne family.
After drowning Ascoyne D'Ascoyne and his mistress, Louis writes a sympathy letter to Ascoyne's father, Lord Ascoyne D'Ascoyne, who employs him at the family banking firm. Louis next decides to murder Henry D'Ascoyne, but is also charmed by Henry's wife, Edith D'Ascoyne (Valerie Hobson). After killing Henry in an explosion and subsequently poisoning Reverend Lord Henry D'Ascoyne, Louis decides to become engaged to Edith, concluding that "Sibella's face would have looked rather out of place under a coronet." After an argument and a scuffle with a now-bankrupt Lionel, Louis then murders Lady Agatha D'Ascoyne (balloon pierced by an arrow and killed by the subsequent fall), General Lord Rufus D'Ascoyne (explosion) and Ethelred D'Ascoyne (shot) in swift succession. Admiral Lord Horatio D'Ascoyne and Louis' employer Lord Ascoyne D'Ascoyne are spared as they die prematurely: the first in a naval accident and the second of a stroke upon learning that he has succeeded Ethelred D'Ascoyne as the ninth Duke of Chalfont.
Louis becomes the tenth Duke, but his victory is short-lived. When Lionel commits suicide, Louis is wrongly blamed for his death. Louis is tried by his peers in the House of Lords, and is convicted of murdering the one person he in fact did not kill. Both Edith (who marries Louis in prison) and Sibella appear as witnesses at the trial, with Sibella blatantly lying and incriminating Louis.
Found guilty and soon to be hanged, Louis is visited by Sibella, who subtly offers a chance at acquittal based on an understanding that Edith will be disposed of and Sibella can then marry him and become Duchess. Louis indicates agreement, and moments before his planned execution a suicide note is conveniently produced indicating that Lionel had committed suicide. Upon his release, Louis is confronted by both Edith and Sibella. A hesitant Louis quotes from The Beggar's Opera: "How happy could I be with either, Were t'other dear charmer away!" When a representative of Tit-Bits magazine interrupts Louis' reflections and asks for the publication rights to his memoirs, Louis suddenly realizes he has left his incriminating manuscript in the prison cell.
[edit] American version
To satisfy the Hays Office Production Code, the film was censored for the American market.[6] Ten seconds of footage was added to the ending, showing Louis' memoirs being discovered before he can retrieve them. The dialogue between Louis and Sibella was altered to downplay their adultery; derogatory lines about the Parson were deleted; and in the nursery rhyme "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe", sailor replaced the word nigger. The American version is six minutes shorter than the British original.
[edit] Cast
- Dennis Price (Louis Mazzini and his father)
- Alec Guinness (the D'Ascoyne family: Ascoyne D'Ascoyne; Henry D'Ascoyne (photographer); Reverend Lord Henry D'Ascoyne; Lady Agatha D'Ascoyne; Admiral Lord Horatio D'Ascoyne; General Lord Rufus D'Ascoyne; Lord Ascoyne D'Ascoyne and Ethelred D'Ascoyne, eighth Duke of Chalfont)
- Valerie Hobson as Edith
- Joan Greenwood as Sibella
- Audrey Fildes as Mama
- Miles Malleson as the Hangman
- Clive Morton as the Prison Governor
- John Penrose as Lionel
- Cecil Ramage as Crown Counsel
- Hugh Griffith as the Lord High Steward
- John Salew as Mr. Perkins
- Peggy Ann Clifford as Maud Redpole
- Arthur Lowe as the Tit-Bits magazine representative
[edit] Production
Guinness was originally only offered four D'Ascoyne parts, recollecting: "I read [the screenplay] on a beach in France, collapsed with laughter on the first page, and didn't even bother to get to the end of the script. I went straight back to the hotel and sent a telegram saying, ‘Why four parts? Why not eight!?'"[7]
The location used for Chalfont, the family home of the d'Ascoynes, is Leeds Castle in Kent, England.[8]
[edit] Novel
Reviewer Simon Heffer notes the plot of the original Roy Horniman novel was darker (e.g., the murder of a child) and differed in several respects. A major difference was that the main character was the half-Jewish (as opposed to half-Italian) Israel Rank, and Heffer noted that "...his ruthless using of people (notably women) and his greedy pursuit of position all seem to conform to the stereotype that the anti-semite has of the Jew."[1]
[edit] Radio adaptations
The film has been adapted for radio, including a version produced on BBC Radio 4 featuring Robert Powell and Timothy Bateson (first broadcast in 1990),[9] and another for BBC7 featuring Michael Kitchen as Mazzini and Harry Enfield as the D'Ascoyne family.
[edit] Digital restoration
The Criterion Collection released a two-disc set that featured both versions of the film.[10] UK distributor Optimum Releasing released a digitally restored version for both DVD and Blu-ray on 5 September 2011.[11]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b Simon Heffer (2008-12). "Israel Rank Reviewed". UK: Faber. http://www.faber.co.uk/article/2008/12/simon-heffer-on-israel-rank.
- ^ "The early poems", Tennyson, Online Literature, http://www.online-literature.com/tennyson/the-early-poems/37/.
- ^ Time, 12 February 2005, http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1953094_1953145_1953720,00.html.
- ^ BFI, UK, http://www.bfi.org.uk/features/bfi100/1-10.html.
- ^ Words from the wise, Empire online, http://www.empireonline.com/empireblogs/words-from-the-wise/post/p1112.
- ^ Slide, Anthony (1998). Banned in the USA: British Films in the United States and Their Censorship, 1933–1966. IB Tauris. p. 90. ISBN 1-86064-254-3. http://books.google.com/books?id=zOp2WxH5yscC&pg=PA90&lpg=PA90&dq=%22Kind+Hearts+and+Coronets%22+%2B+alternate+ending&ct=result#PPA90,M1. Retrieved 2008-10-02.
- ^ Raoul Hernandez (February 24, 2006). "Kind Hearts and Coronets". The Austin Chronicle. http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/review?oid=oid%3A342902.
- ^ "Kind Hearts and Coronets". Movie locations. http://www.movie-locations.com/movies/k/kindhearts.html.
- ^ Programmes, UK: BBC, http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007jnpv.
- ^ Kind Hearts & Coronets, Criterion, http://www.criterion.com/films/357-kind-hearts-and-coronets.
- ^ "Kind Hearts and Coronets DVD and Blu-ray releases". My Reviewer. http://www.myreviewer.com/Digitally_restored_classics_including_Kind_Hearts_and_Coronets_on_DVD_and_Blu-ray_this_Summer/a143043.
[edit] Bibliography
- Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal, Faber Finds, 1907.
- Vermilye, Jerry (1978), The Great British Films, Citadel Press, pp. 131–33, ISBN 0-8065-0661-X.
[edit] External links
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Kind Hearts and Coronets |
- Kind Hearts and Coronets at the Internet Movie Database
- Kind Hearts and Coronets at AllRovi
- Kemp, Philip, Collection (essay), Criterion, http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/414.
- Dennison, Matthew (9 July 2009), Kind Hearts and Coronets: 60th anniversary of a classic, UK: The Telegraph, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/5788804/Kind-Hearts-and-Coronets-60th-anniversary-of-a-classic.html.
- "Literature on Kind Hearts and Coronets", Film, Virtual History, http://film.virtual-history.com/film.php?filmid=10000.
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