Kind Hearts and Coronets is a 1949 British black comedy film produced by Ealing Studios. A radio version of the script, starring Michael Kitchen and Harry Enfield, has been broadcast on BBC7, most recently in October 2007.
The script was directed by Robert Hamer, written by John Dighton and Hamer, and very loosely based on a book, Israel Rank, by Roy Horniman. The title is a quotation from Tennyson's 1842 poem Lady Clara Vere de Vere, which proclaims that "Kind hearts are more than coronets, And simple faith than Norman blood."
The film stars Dennis Price as a potential heir to a dukedom, but eight members of the D'Ascoyne family stand in his way. All eight (including one woman) are played by Alec Guinness. Guinness is also depicted in a painting of a family ancestor. There are also notable performances from Valerie Hobson and Joan Greenwood as a femme fatale.
The film is generally regarded as the one of the best made by Ealing Studios and appears on the Time magazine top 100 list as well as on the BFI Top 100 British films list. In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted Kind Hearts and Coronets the 25th greatest comedy film of all time. In 2004 the same magazine named it the 7th greatest British film of all time.
Louis Mazzini's mother belongs to the aristocratic family D'Ascoyne, but she ran away with an opera singer. Therefore, she and Louis were rejected by the D'Ascoynes. Once adult, Louis decides to avenges his mother and him, by becoming the next Duke of the family. Murdering every potential successor is clearly the safest way to achieve his goal... Written by Yepok
Louis Mazzini's mother's frequent tales of how her titled D'Ascoyne family shunned her after she eloped with an Italian commoner causes a simmering resentment in him. On being spurned because of his lowly status by his lifetime (if devious and fickle) sweetheart Sibella he decides to permanently remove all the D'Ascoynes standing between him and the Dukedom. Becoming romantically involved with one of the widows he has created, he finds Sibella's jealousy could seriously threaten his grand design. Written by jwp@aber.ac.uk
