KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS
2:30
Tuesday, July 1
New Restoration
(1949, Robert Hamer) Poor relation Dennis Price, ninth in line to the Dukedom of Chalfont, coolly narrates from prison his ascent to the peerage via serial murder, bumping off one D’Ascoyne after another, from an arrogant playboy, to a bullet-headed general, to a stiff-upperlipped Admiral, to a dotty reverend, to a formidable dowager — all, plus three more, played by Alec Guinness. Inspiration for the 2014 Tony Award winning musical, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder. Approx. 106 min. DCP.
Reviews
“Established Guinness as a great comic film actor whose semblance of calm was belied by a body in ceaseless motion, whether as a doddering old reverend delighted to show off his “exceptionally endowed” church or as a bald former Boer War general proudly barking out battle stories from a restaurant table.”
– Aaron Cutler, The L Magazine
“Brilliantly cynical...Ealing’s blackest comedy.”
– Time Out
“Robert Hamer's 1949 film is often cited as the definitive black, eccentric British comedy, yet it's several cuts better than practically anything else in the genre.”
– Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
“The sly and adroit Mr. Guinness plays eight Edwardian fuddy-duds with such devastating wit and variety that he naturally dominates the film.”
– Bosley Crowther, New York Times