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Kind Hearts and Coronets Overview:

Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) was a Comedy - Crime Film directed by Robert Hamer and produced by Michael Balcon and Michael Relph.

Kind Hearts and Coronets BlogHub Articles:

Ealing Comedy #5: Kind Hearts and Coronets (Robert Hamer, 1949)

By Virginie Pronovost on May 23, 2023 From The Wonderful World of Cinema

Remember that Ealing comedies blog series I started a while ago (and then completely abandoned)? Well, surprise! I’m back! I hope your life’s been well since the last instalment of this series, my review of Whisky Galore!  What we have on the menu this time is the masterpiece Kind He... Read full article

As Oito Vítimas / Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)

By Lê on Aug 3, 2018 From Critica Retro

As Oito Vítimas / Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) Um ator interpretando mais de um personagem na mesma peça é algo comum no teatro. Também é comum no cinema, desde a era muda. Obviamente, com o tempo tudo pôde ficar mais interessante, e em vez de apenas dois papéis, um ator podia inte... Read full article

Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)

By Beatrice on May 16, 2015 From Flickers in Time

Kind Hearts and Coronets Directed by Robert Hamer Written by Robert Hamer and James Dighton from a novel by Roy Horniman 1949/UK Ealing Studios Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant #231 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die As the film opens, the Duke of D’Ascoyne (Dennis Price) is calmly awa... Read full article

Top 250 Tuesday #180 – Kind Hearts And Coronets (1949)

By Michael on Jun 3, 2014 From Durnmoose Movie Musings

Continuing to wend my way through the Sight and Sound Top 250 Greatest Movies of All Time. This week, it’s #180 on the list,  Robert Hamer‘s Kind Hearts and Coronets. For a longer introduction to this series and a look at the full list, just click here. And if you want a heads-up on wha... Read full article

Top 250 Tuesday #180 – Kind Hearts And Coronets (1949)

By Michael on Jun 3, 2014 From Durnmoose Movie Musings

Continuing to wend my way through the Sight and Sound Top 250 Greatest Movies of All Time. This week, it’s #180 on the list,  Robert Hamer‘s Kind Hearts and Coronets. For a longer introduction to this series and a look at the full list, just click here. And if you want a heads-up on wha... Read full article

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Kind Hearts and Coronets Quotes:

Sibella: [sobs] Oh Louis! I don't want to marry Lionel!
Louis Mazzini: Why not?
Sibella: He's so dull.
Louis Mazzini: I must admit he exhibits the most extraordinary capacity for middle age that I've ever encountered in a young man of twenty-four.
Louis Mazzini: It is so difficult to make a neat trump of killing people with whom one is not on friendly terms.
Louis Mazzini: I made an oath that I would revenge the wrongs her family had done her. It was no more than a piece of youthful bravado, but it was one of those acorns from which great oaks are destined to grow. Even then I went so far as to examine the family tree and prune it to just the living members. But what could I do to hurt them? What could I take from them, except, perhaps, their lives.
Louis Mazzini: I want to talk to you for a minute. If you make a noise, I shall blow your head off at once. By the time anyone has heard the shot I shall be running back toward the castle shouting for help. I shall say that you stepped on the trap and your gun went off as you fell. So be quiet.
[Lights Cigarette]
Louis Mazzini: When I've finished I shall kill you. You will the the sixth D'Ascoyne that I've killed. You want to know why? In return for what the D'Acoyne's did to my mother. Because she married for love instead of for rank or money or land. They condemed her to a life of poverty and slavery, in a world for which they had not equipped her to deal. You yourself refused to grant her dying wish, which was to be buried here, at Chalfont. When I saw her poor little coffin saw underground, saw her exiled in death as she had been in life, I swore to have revenge on your intolerable pride. That revenge I am just about to complete.
[to a poacher caught in a mantrap]
The Duke: Hoskins is now going to thrash you; then he'll let you go. Let this be a lesson to you not to poach on my land.
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Kind Hearts and Coronets Facts
Agatha's death in the film caused some consternation for Alec Guinness. The scene in question - a hot air ballooning accident filmed in a field next door to Pinewood Studios - prompted him to ask the producers if he was well insured. They told him that he was, to the tune of £10,000, but Guinness didn't think that was enough. He then declared that the balloon could not be raised any more than 15 feet unless they raised the insurance to £50,000. Ealing Studios was renowned for being very penny-pinching and it naturally refused Guinness' demand, pointing out that he would be accompanied in the balloon by a well-qualified Belgian balloonist hidden in the basket with him. Guinness was undeterred in his refusal to perform the stunt, so the scene in the finished film is not him but the Belgian balloonist wearing Agatha's dress and wig. Guinness had the last laugh, however, when a high wind pulled the balloon off course. The Belgian balloonist was found 50 miles away, having had to pitch into a river.
In 2000, Mike Nichols was planning a remake with Robin Williams in the Alec Guinness roles and Will Smith in the role played by Dennis Price. It never came to fruition.
Novelists Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh were hired independently to work on various drafts of the script, though apparently none of their contributions survived in the film as shot.
Contrary to popular rumor, Dennis Price's character actually only killed six of the eight Alec Guinness characters. The second "victim," the bank manager, dies of a stroke or heart attack; Price had grown fond of him, and even says at one point he was glad he didn't have to kill him. Another Guinness character, Admiral Horatio D'Ascoyne, goes down with his ship when the vessel collides with another, and is only seen saluting as the water rises over his head. This collision is possibly a reference to the real-life disaster which involved the battleships HMS Victoria and HMS Camperdown in 1893.
The title refers to the following lines from Alfred Lord Tennyson's 1842 poem "Lady Clara Vere de Vere": "Kind hearts are more than coronets, And simple faith than Norman blood."
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