Rating: 
Summary: THE comic masterpiece.
Review: This film belongs in my top ten list, and is my favourite comedy. Dennis Price is very much the center of this film as an angry and avenging "gentleman" with aspirations to kill his way to a Dukedom. Yet with such lines as "revenge is a dish best served cold", or "I shot an arrow in the air - she fell to earth in Berkeley Square!", we cannot help but laugh at his deadpan matter-of-factness in his flash-back narration. His motivations are based on the neglect of his mother by her family for marrying "beneath" her, and by the initial rejection of his proposal of marriage by the delicious Joan Greenwood as the somewat amoral Sibella. Alec Guiness plays the various victims with a brilliant feeling for each, and yet we can also see them as intentional caricature - particularly the Vicar. The plot then takes some unexpected twists and turns before a wonderful "oh-no!" ending. Finally, the script-writing is superb! Rarely is the English Language so well served in ANY film. Fortunately, they kept the original ambiguous ending, rather than the US release, where it was mandated that the film remove any doubts about his being brough to justice.
The film is black and white, and not DVD subtitled, but it is closed-captioned. In any case, for the US audience, the British accents (particularly Price's) are generally easy to follow. The DVD resolution, contrast and video noise levels are quite good. Sound is par for a 1950 release.
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious British Dark Comedy
Review: This film is a deliciously hilarious account of a descendant to a titled family who devises a murdereous scheme to gain his rightful, in his mind, place in the family. This film may have more resonance if you were British and those things mean anything to you. Star Dennis Price is hilariously deadpan as he relates in voice-over his efforts to obtain said goal. Alec Guiness, assaying seven roles, is effective in playing the intended victims of Price. Guiness imbues each of these characters (including a female suffragette) with an identity separate from the others that it is quite possible that you don't know it's the same actor in all these roles. This is not just a great British comedy, it's great comedy,period.
Rating:
Summary: Elegant
Review: This film is considered one of the top British films of the last century. As for Americans, some love this film and some don't - some say it moves too slowly, and some think it predictable. For me, this is one of those I can watch over and over again without tiring. Visually, the work is a classic example of the beauty of black and white film. Image after image is memorable. The script is hilariously understated British humor. The story, simple and well-acted, not only by the incomparable Alec Guinness (as each one of his relatives) but also by every other member of the superb cast. Wish they still made them like this!
Rating:
Summary: Utterly delightful black comedy
Review: This film is most famous as the one in which Alec Guinness plays eight roles, but I have always been somewhat uncomfortable with the film being characterized in that way, because it makes it sound as if the main attraction of the film is a gimmick. In fact, this is a first rate comedy in many ways. This was one in a series of great comedies produced by the Ealing Studios in the 1940s and 1950s. The film stars Dennis Price as the narrator, Louis Mazzini. He recounts his efforts to wreck revenge on the members of his mother's titled family who had disowned her when she married an Italian opera singer. His particular form of revenge consists of murder, and the film consists of his various efforts in this direction. Guinness, who in the course of his career managed to die in an astounding number of films, in this one manages to die eight times. He is excellent in each and every incarnation of a member of the D'Ascoyne family. Valerie Hobson is as elegant as always in playing the widow of one his victims with whom he later becomes romantically involved. Hobson was a great light of British cinema in the forties and early fifties, but gave up acting to marry politician John Profumo, who would be the principal public figure to fall in the Christine Keeler scandal. The film also features one of my all time favorite actresses, Joan Greenwood, who may have possessed the most delicious voice of any female in the history of film. Mention must also be made of Miles Malleson, who has a small but memorable role as the hangman. The makers of the film manage a perfect concoction of highbrow wit that still managed to border on the absurd. For instance, at one point Mr. Mazzini informs a victim that he will first kill him and then run screaming for help, and then we manage to see him doing precisely that, running from the woods crying for assistance. There are many marvelous lines, many of them almost throwaways. As a fan of Samuel Johnson, I was delighted when Mazzini tells someone, "Dr. Johnson was right, as he always was . . . " In particular, I love the understated humor throughout the film. If this were a TV show instead of a film, I am certain that they would have dispensed of the laugh track. Before someone complains about the DVD not offering a widescreen option, I should point out that the original was a 35MM print in 1.37:1 ratio. In other words, this will of necessity be a full screen DVD, and there will never be a widescreen.
Rating:
Summary: The best comedy ever made
Review: This film is outstanding. Exhilarating, superb with an overpowered cast. Dennis Price in the best role of his life and Sir Alec Guiness showing once more why he is in the top list of england actors,altogether with Laurence Olivier,Michael Redgrave,Leslie Howard, Gielguld, Burton,O Toole, Albert Finney, Trevor Howard,Dennis Price,Dick Bogarde, John Mills,Michael Caine amog others.
England experienced a sudden creative explossion of talent in that decade like no other country in the world. And the golden age of the english comedy places in this decade like no one else.
Remember the lavender hill mob,the lady killers, the Hobson choice, the man in the white suit. Unbelievable,do not you.
The fact that Sir Alec Guiness has played eight roles in that movie is just a little detail.
When you think it deeper,you will notice that this is an irreverent film . The plot is so well made,the sense of ambition reminds us the laughable side of the sinister Richard III and his epic efforts to reach the top.
All this puzzle flows with such organical coherence that leaves you stunned. The edition, the amazing plot, the creative situations will not let you indifferent.
If not for that movie, I would consider Dr.Strangelove like the most enjoyable black comedy ever filmed, but this film heads the five supremes comedies ever filmed. Kind hearts, Dr. Strangelove, The lavender hill mob, the lady killers and the gold rush can be in this group.May be you do not agree but in this particular selection. Three of this five are from the fifties decade and enriched with the presence of Alec Guiness, somehow the godfather of Peter Sellers, partner with Alec in Lady killers.
Rating:
Summary: A sublime masterpiece.
Review: This film is perfect. The humor, dry, understated but unwavering; the acting, positively first-rate by all parties. Dennis Price & Joan Greenwood have never been better. To see Alec Guiness 8 times in one film is a heavenly blessing. Like first-rate Oscar Wilde.
Rating:
Summary: You're a lucky man Lionel, take my word for it...
Review: This is one of the best films of all times. Alec Guiness gives the performance of a life time as the D'Ascoyne family, while Dennis Price edges closer and closer to the Duckdom of Chelfont. No one in this movie is beyond reproach, even the supposed virtuous characters. In this immoral world we find the D'Ascoyne's and their assorted hangers on. Dennis Price is the black sheep of the family who is unrecognized because his mother married an Italian opera singer. As he goes through the elegent business of bumping off the members of his family he also is forced to choose between Edith and the ever engaging, though ultimately wicked, Sybella. What a treat awaits anyone who watches this film.
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious
Review: This is one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. Dennis Price is delightfully amoral, and Alec Guiness is also excellent. Watch out especially for his turn as a bumbling priest, as Price pretends to be the bishop. Immensely entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: Great movie...a classic
Review: This is one of the funniest, most amazing movies ever made. Its subtle humor has you laughing at the weirdest times. A dark humor classic!
Rating:
Summary: As witty and entertaining as any film I've seen
Review: This movie is written with such intelligence and wit, it's amazing that it also manages to be touching and human as well. The finesse with which the film balances darkness and laughter is a wonder to behold. I'd recommend this to any fan of intelligent comedy.
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