Kind Hearts and Coronets

A black comedy, with beautiful writing — the screenplay, co-written by Robert Hamer, its director, is a joy— and flawlessly silly film-making.

Drownings, explosions, and poisonings, their ethical status barely mentioned, let alone chastised, roll by like carriages in the park. The comedy is as black as widow's weeds. Artfulness is all.

A high comedy that is enlivened with cynicism, loaded with dramatic irony and shot through with a suspicion of social satire.

Amazingly courageous for its day (1949) in combining bad taste with good comedy.

Kind Hearts gently undermines the notions of nobility and inherited privilege.

Its Edwardian setting is all elegance, but nonchalance is the key to its genius.

No detail has been left to chance. Each word is carefully weighed, there is not one word too many, each scene is meticulously prepared, and none could possibly have been structured or executed better.

The ideal film would, of course, have... the most talented director in the canvas chair a superbly-written screen-play and the best possible cast. This British comedy has come so close to this mark that it is difficult to see how it could be improved.

The narration is splendidly wry and full of details, revealing dastardly intentions and acerbic observations.

Dennis Price is a polite society murderer, and the sensational Alec Guinness is all eight of the aristocratic targets on his list.