Kind Hearts and Coronets

Duncan Gray

Comedy-of-manners as utterly brutal satire, like a box wrapped in lace ribbon with a scorpion inside. The main character is a sociopath, but also the creation of a rigid, humiliating class system, and thus his target is a family of aristocrats so inbred that they could all be played by Alec Guinness. Accidentally, its unflinching take on English nativism makes it horrifyingly ideal on the eve of a possible Brexit.

Roscoe

A great nasty pleasure. Everyone goes on about Alec Guinness, but he's largely set dressing in this one -- the movie really belongs to Dennis Price and the sublime and damnably sexy Joan Greenwood.

João Rocha

Everything is genious... the plot, the performances, the directing. The best one from Ealing Studios. Alec Guinness like always

mjgildea

A hell of a lot of fun. Politely rotten enjoyably dark with Alec Guinness playing eight different roles. Well worth the watch!

Richmond Hill

... a dish served cold. One of the surest, most delicately realised black comedies with rapier cruelty and wit dressed-up in a most polite veneer. Dennis Price's finest hour and a half.

Jonathan Smith

A darkly fanciful comedy that gallantly glows with wit and charm throughout. Two outstanding performances make the film a truly memorable occasion. Alec Guinness famously plays eight different characters facing all facing a sticky end, while Deenis Price channels Wilde and Poe as a conniving, noble lead. Dryly hilarious and cleverly designed make Kind Hearts an English comedy classic.

Steve G.

Alec Guinness might take most of the plaudits for his extraordinary multi-tasking performance(s) but Dennis Price's cold and admirably heartless performance is one of the unsung acting displays of its time. Wonderfully cynical and refreshingly harsh even to this day.

Sinziana Medvetchi

A fast-paced what-goes-round-keeps-coming-round tale seasoned with delightful dark British humor arising from one gentleman's precipitate ascendance to the somewhat fleeting heights of social success.