Rating: 
Summary: Perfect black humor with an urbane sardonic twist
Review: A fautless movie, which gives unalloyed delight at repeated viewings. A perfect cast with minor characters almost as memorable as Guinness, Price, Green wood and Hobson. Miles Malleson's bumbling hangman is a special joy. Guiness's famous eight roles are a delight, especially the Rev'd Lord Henry D'Ascoyne, who has the funniest line in the whole movie: "I always say that the corbels have all the exhuberance of Chaucer, without - happily - any of his attendant vulgarities." Price as the urbane scheming murderer gives a dazzling performance that - sadly - he could never top in a long, distinguished but never star-rated career. Joan Greenwood is the sexiest of suburban sirens, and Valerie Hobson is breathtakingly beautiful and hilariously priggish. For my money the greatest of the Ealing comedies.
Rating:
Summary: "I say, is that a Thornton-Picard?"
Review: A great film. Full of wicked humour and terrific acting by Guinness
Rating:
Summary: One of the funniest movies ever made
Review: A hysterical story, in an understated British way, of Louis D'Ascoyne Mazzini, son of a ducal daughter who married beneath her (an Italian opera singer). As both he and his mother have been shunned by the D'Ascoynes at every turn, he forms the idea, after her death, of killing the eight D'Ascoynes (all played by Alec Guinness) who stand between him and the dukedom. The cool way he goes about this process of elimination brings the great delight to the movie.
Alec Guinness's eight roles (including a woman) are greatly amusing; he also plays an ancestor seen only in a portrait! Dennis Price also plays multiple roles--he plays Louis and also his father, who drops dead on first sight of his newborn face. Joan Greenwood, who plays the somewhat villianous Sibella, is also delightful. Look also for a delightful small performance by Miles Malleson as Mr. Elliott, the hangman, who in the opening scene, looks in at Mazzini in the condemned cell, and focuses intently on his neck! If you enjoy the straightfaced British sense of humor, you'll love this one.
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Summary: A droll and hilarious case study in the gentle art of murder
Review: Alec Guiness is justly celebrated for playing eight roles in the classic 1950 Ealing Comedy "Kind Hearts and Coronets," but you do have to remind yourself when you are enjoying this film that there is a reason the actor was not given top billing. Guiness plays a long line of murder victims, all of whom are dispatched in various ways by Louis Mazzini (Dennis Price), a newly minted Duke who, as the film opens, is going to be hung the next morning at 8 o'clock for murder (Price also plays his father, but no one makes a big deal of this effort). We find the Duke spending his final night writing his memoirs, which will explain how he came to this unfortunate end, so as not not to deny the public a full appreciation of his fate; for the same reason he has ordered not only coffee and toast for his final breakfast, but grapes, so that the public will not feel disappointed with the news of his meager taste. With Louis as our narrator we go back to the beginning of the story, when his Mama (Audrey Fildes) was disowned by the aristocratic D'Ascoyne family after she ran away with an Italian tenor, who promptly died upon the announcement of the birth of a son. Attempts to reconcile by Louis's mother with the family were coldly rejected and she raised the boy in relative poverty, but with a sense of class that would serve him well in the future. It was the dream of his mother that Louis might one day inherit the title, which descends through the women as well as the men; the title was given for service to King Charles II during the Interegnum by the first Duke and the right of the women to inherit was added by services of the Duchess after the Restoration. When his mother denies and is refused burial in the D'Ascoyne family crypt, Louis vows to make her dream come true by bumping off all of his relations that stand between him and his goal, using his mother's copy of the family tree to help make sure he does it right. Guiness plays eight different D'Ascoyne family members, from an Admiral and a General to a Parson and a dowager suffragette, creating distinct characters even when reduced to only a line or two of dialogue; too bad the opening credits give away the game. However, "Kind Hearts and Coronets" really is Dennis Price's movie polite killer and would be Duke. Price had been born into an upper class family and after this effort two of his next three films would find him playing Lord Byron. Therefore, it is not surprising that he hits the proper mark with the impeccable sense of propriety and reserved indignation he brings to his quest. His effort is ultimately complicated by his affections for both his childhood sweetheart, Sibella (Joan Greenwood), who refused to wait for him to become a Duke and married another, and Edith D'Asoyne (Valerie Hobson), the wife of one of his early victims, who would make a most suitable and deserving Duchess. This is a film where we root for the "hero" to succeed in his quest although we are well aware that he is a naughty boy who should be punished and have reason to believe Fate is helping Louis along with his efforts because some of the offending D'Asoyne relatives manage to meet their own ends without his assistance. Besides, there is some creativity involved in most of the murders that has to be appreciated as well; if not totally ingenious, at least he does not cheapen his efforts by using the same trick twice. The ending of the film presents a series of ironies that seem totally appropriate give the fact that our hero is a serial killer. "Kind Hearts and Coronets" begain a string of classic roles for Guiness is Ealing comedies, amply seen the following year when he made both "The Lavender Hill Mob" and "The Man in the White Suit." But this film clearly has the driest wit as well as teh most charm and elegance of them all. It presents a perfect little exercise in the gentle art of murder.
Rating: 
Summary: Nice film.
Review: An interesting example of the Ealing films of the 1940-50's. Of course, it's most well known for Alec Guinness playing all eight ill-fated members of the same family. I can't understand what makes it so overwhelmingly popular now, as it wasn't widely available on videotape even a few years ago. Still, pleased to see it's gaining in appreciation with every passing day.
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Summary: THE BEST BRITISH FILM EVER MADE
Review: Comedies don't get any better than this. And there's nothing black about it. It's probably the most luminous film about revenge ever made. Alec Guinness is miraculous in his multi-faced role/s--see it and you'll understand what I'm talking about. Despite the cynicism that laces this film, it possesses a certain beauty that few British movies (or films from any country, for that matter) have. It's finnesse! This film treads on such dangerous territory that it could have been a disaster, if not for its impecable acting, writing, and visual qualities. The only other period piece from England that has stayed with me and satisfied me as much as this black-and-white gem is The Queen of Spades (1948), which has virtually vanished from the market although I hope that it too will eventually arrive on DVD. If you like to laugh, Kind Hearts is a treasure chest of surprises, shocks, and thrills that leave you completely...well, satisfied, as I said before. Few movies are as involving and thoroughly enjoyable from beginning to end as this one. The term "must-see" has seldom been more appropriate. Really, do yourself a favor and enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: One of my favorite films ever
Review: Few films have ever tried to make the viewer like a serial killer.
This is not the sort of film that makes you fall out of your chair laughing, it is a dark comedy that is full of wit and sophistication.
This movie had a British ending and an American ending to get past our censors. If you have only seen the American ending on TV you will notice that the British one on the DVD is subtly different. I do remember on TV hearing the racist jingle but this was removed from the DVD. When I was a lad people had more of a problem with the immoral ending than the N-word while today the opposite is true.
Rating:
Summary: A "must see" for fans of Sir Alec Guinness!
Review: Guinness does a great job juggling so many different characters in the same film. Another good movie of his from around the same period is The Lavendar Hill Mob.
Rating:
Summary: Dazzling talent
Review: Guinness is in top form playing all seven family members (male and female!) who must be assassinated before the cunning protagonist can assume a title. This is a little jewel of a film, often overlooked these days. I think it even better than "The Lavender Hill Mob." Joan Greenwood is wonderfully distinct as always. This black comedy is full of wild wit, as when one of Guiness' incarnations is shot down while throwing suffragette leaflets from a hot air balloon: "I fired an arrow in the air, she fell to earth in Barclay Square!" Superb fun.
Rating:
Summary: Black Comedy Heaven
Review: I consider this one of the finest, most enjoyable films of all time, and probably the second best comedy of all time (only the great Dr. Strangelove can top it, I submit). This film simply defines black comedy -- that most delicious form of the genre -- and when considering the time of its creation, in the glum early cold war paranoiac late '40s, it must be considered a miracle of cinema. Told in the deadest of deadpan styles, with marvelous performances by Dennis Price and the immortal Alec Guiness (in 8 roles!), it continually horrifies while amusing, as all black comedy must. Time hasn't dimmed its luster one jot. If you haven't seen this gem, run -- don't walk -- to own it and enjoy it over and over again.
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