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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:

Louis Mazzini: The next morning I went out shooting with Ethelred - or rather, to watch Ethelred shooting; for my principles will not allow me to take a direct part in blood sports.
Louis Mazzini: I couldn't help feeling that even Sibella's capacity for lying was going to be taxed to the utmost. Time had brought me revenge on Lionel, and as the Italian proverb says, revenge is a dish which people of taste prefer to eat cold.
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.
[first lines]
Warder in Jail: Good evening, Mr. Elliot.
The Hangman: Good evening.
The Banker: A tragic loss serves to put lesser matters in their proper perspective.
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Kind Hearts and Coronets Facts
An alternate ending was required for the US, where distributors balked at the film's ambiguous ending (The US Production Code at the time stipulated that crime could not be seen to pay). These extra ten seconds were not kept by Ealing but were unearthed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where they had been quietly filed away in a film storage facility.
Although Ealing boss Michael Balcon later professed that this was his favorite of the Ealing films he produced, at the time of production he was less favorably inclined towards it, to the extent that he refused director Robert Hamer the chance to follow it up with his long-cherished project set in the West Indies. Hamer ultimately only directed one more film for Ealing, His Excellency.
Initially Alec Guinness was only offered four of the roles; it was Guinness himself who insisted on playing all eight.
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.
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.
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