Kind Hearts and Coronets
Overview
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
black comedy
Black comedy
A black comedy, or dark comedy, is a comic work that employs black humor or gallows humor. The definition of black humor is problematic; it has been argued that it corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor; and that, as humor has been defined since Freud as a comedic act that anesthetizes...
feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
. The plot is loosely based on the 1907 novel Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal by Roy Horniman
Roy Horniman
Roy Horniman was a British writer.He was the owner of The Ladies Review for some years and was a member of the British Committee of The Indian National Congress. As well as acting he became tenant and manager of the Criterion Theatre and wrote many plays as well as adaptations of his own and...
, with the screenplay written by Robert Hamer
Robert Hamer
Robert James Hamer was a British film director and screenwriter. He was the son of the actor Gerald Hamer ....
and John Dighton
John Dighton
John Dighton was a successful British playwright and screenwriter.Dighton wrote for the stage until 1936, when he made the transition to films...
and the film directed by Hamer. The film's title derives from Tennyson
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, FRS was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most popular poets in the English language....
's 1842 poem Lady Clara Vere de Vere
Lady Clara Vere de Vere
Lady Clara Vere de Vere is an English poem written by Alfred Lord Tennyson, part of the collection The Lady of Shalott, and Other Poems, published in 1842. The poem is about a lady in a family of aristocrats, and has numerous noble references, such as to earls or coats of arms...
: "Kind hearts are more than coronet
Coronet
A coronet is a small crown consisting of ornaments fixed on a metal ring. Unlike a crown, a coronet never has arches.The word stems from the Old French coronete, a diminutive of coronne , itself from the Latin corona .Traditionally, such headgear is – as indicated by the German equivalent...
s, And simple faith than Norman
Normans
The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...
blood."
The film stars Dennis Price
Dennis Price
Dennis Price was an English actor, remembered for his suave screen roles, particularly Louis Mazzini in Kind Hearts and Coronets, and for his portrayal of the omniscient valet Jeeves in 1960s television adaptations of P. G...
(Louis Mazzini), Alec Guinness
Alec Guinness
Sir Alec Guinness, CH, CBE was an English actor. He was featured in several of the Ealing Comedies, including Kind Hearts and Coronets in which he played eight different characters. He later won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Colonel Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai...
(the D'Ascoyne family), Joan Greenwood
Joan Greenwood
Joan Greenwood was an English actress. Born in Chelsea, she studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Her husky voice, coupled with her slow, precise elocution, was her trademark...
(Sibella) and Valerie Hobson
Valerie Hobson
Valerie Hobson was a British actress who appeared in a number of British films during the 1940s and 1950s...
(Edith).
Kind Hearts and Coronets is listed in Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine's top 100, and in the BFI Top 100 British films
BFI Top 100 British films
In 1999 the British Film Institute surveyed 1000 people from the world of British film and television to produce the BFI 100 list of the greatest British films of the 20th century. Voters were asked to choose up to 100 films that were 'culturally British'...
.
In 2011, the film was digitally restored
Film preservation
thumb|300px|Stacked containers filled with reels of [[film stock]]The film preservation, or film restoration, movement is an ongoing project among film historians, archivists, museums, cinematheques, and non-profit organizations to rescue decaying film stock and preserve the images which they contain...
and re-released in selected British cinemas.
Louis Mazzini (Dennis Price
Dennis Price
Dennis Price was an English actor, remembered for his suave screen roles, particularly Louis Mazzini in Kind Hearts and Coronets, and for his portrayal of the omniscient valet Jeeves in 1960s television adaptations of P. G...
), the Duke
Duke
A duke or duchess is a member of the nobility, historically of highest rank below the monarch, and historically controlling a duchy...
of Chalfont, is in prison awaiting execution, and decides to write his memoirs.
Quotations
[Lady Agatha D'Ascoyne has been killed while sailing a hot-air balloon over London.]s:The_Arrow_and_the_Song|I shot an arrow in the air; she fell to earth in Berkeley Square.
While I never admired Edith as much as when I was with Sibella, I never longed for Sibella as much as when I was with Edith.
The Reverend Lord Henry was not one of those newfangled parsons who carry the principles of their vocation uncomfortably into private life.
It is so difficult to make a neat job of killing people with whom one is not on friendly terms.