KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS: Blu-ray (Ealing, 1949) Kino Lorber
Ealing Studios –
for nearly 120 years, the ‘little’ British studio that could – and did.
It survived a mass exodus of talent during two World Wars, and, in the process,
established itself as the home for unbridled ambitious creatives, endeavoring
to make some of the finest movies ever in the history of world cinema. Apart
from being the oldest studio in the world, established in 1902, Ealing – under superior
management – made its reputation on quality; the Cartier of British cinema,
resurrected from seeming oblivion in 2000 under its own name to resume its
place as a viable and thriving production house, creating ‘home-grown’ product
as well as renting out its facilities. Ealing owed its birth to Will Barker,
a true
renaissance man who elevated film-making in Britain from low budget novelty
into a statured and storied art form en par with Hollywood’s penchant for lavishly-appointed
entertainments, rife in quality and style. But the studio’s international
reputation is arguably the result of a series of irreverent comedies and dramas
created after the Second World War, under the aegis of film producer extraordinaire,
Michael Balcon. Among his many
accomplishments, Balcon was responsible for giving a then, virtually unknown
Alfred Hitchcock his first opportunity to direct. From 1938 to 1955, Balcon
reigned supreme. Ealing’s golden period – begun in earnest then, has owed him
an immeasurable debt ever since. Of these accomplishments, director, Robert Hamer’s
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) remains an irrefutable cornerstone; its
reputation as an unsentimental, though deft and razor-sharp dark comedy, takes
dead aim at Edwardian mores and manners and treats mass murder with as crisp and
cheeky noblesse oblige.
Essentially, Kind
Hearts and Coronets is the story of a man who, denied his birth right into
a world of wealthy and privilege, systematically plots to do away with various
members of the aristocracy so he can become the only viable heir to a rich
family’s fortunes. Apart from affording actor Dennis Price the opportunity to
play the sublimely cruel and calculating Louis D'Ascoyne Mazzini, 10th Duke of
Chalfont – a role in which he balances on a tightrope between unapologetic evil
personified and a modicum of empathy for having suffered needlessly the shame
of his menial career and life, Kind Hearts and Coronets is as notable
for the performances of Alec Guinness, who dons the garb of no less than nine denizens
from the D’Ascoyne dynasty, each rather cleverly bumped off by Mazzini. The
screenplay by Robert Hamer and John Dighton is very loosely structured on Roy
Norniman’s 1907 novel, Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal, and
begins in earnest with the unflinchingly emotionless Mazzini, casually dining
by candlelight in his prison cell, awaiting to be hanged for the crime of
murder at dawn. Before this final cruel twist of fate, Mazzini has decided to
commit his notorious history to paper so the events of his life may, perhaps,
be documented in a more fashionable light. Indeed, Mazzini is not guilty of the
crime for which he has been wrongfully convicted. Nor, however, is he an
innocent man.
We regress in
flashback to a time before his birth; Mazzini’s mother (Audrey Fildes), the
youngest daughter of the 7th Duke of Chalfont, desperately in love with a
penniless Italian tenor (also played by Price in age-appropriate makeup). In
short order, we witness the untimely passing of Mazzini’s father, shocked into
an unanticipated heart attack by his birth, and then, in only a few more
scenes, bear witness to the adult Mazzini, informed by mama of his rightful inheritance.
Alas, the estranged D'Ascoyne family do
not share this view. Indeed, they deny all claims Mazzini is one of their own. In
youth (as played by Jeremy Spenser), Mazzini’s only friends are Sibella (Carol
White) and her brother, Graham (Cavan Malone). Now, as an adult, Sibella (Joan
Greenwood) informs Mazzini, who is madly in love with her, that she intends to
marry his boyhood friend, Lionel Holland (John Penrose) instead, for social
stature and money rather than love. Having left school, Mazzini learns his
mother’s letter to her kinsman, the banker, Lord Ascoyne D'Ascoyne (Alec Guinness)
has been categorically rejected. Begrudgingly accepting a position as an
assistant in a draper's shop, Mazzini’s heart is turned to stone after his
mother dies; the family still refusing her a proper burial inside their vault
at Chalfont Castle.
This final rebuff
spurs Mazzini to pursue his rather ruthless course of revenge. Not long
thereafter, Mazzini encounters Ascoyne D'Ascoyne with his mistress (Anne
Valery) inside the shop, badly mistreated by this dandified scion, presumably
for eavesdropping on their private conversation, and immediately thereafter dismissed
from his position for standing up for himself. With every last penny he has
saved up, Mazzini dresses the part of a gentleman and follows Ascoyne and his paramour
on their weekend holiday to the country; once again, presenting himself in
cordial fashion, only to be denied even a brief audience. Observing the couple
stepping into a punt, and also taking notice of a warning for all punts to be
moored during certain hours of the day while a nearby dam is in operation,
Mazzini instead dives into the water and loosens the tether on Ascoyne’s vessel.
Caught in the undertow, the punt goes over the edge of the dam, drowning
Ascoyne and his lover. Rather insidiously,
Mazzini writes a compelling letter of condolence to his victim's father, Lord
Ascoyne D'Ascoyne (Alec Guinness again). Touched by his words of sympathy, Lord
D’Ascoyne summons Mazzini to his offices, acknowledges his birthright, and,
hires him as a lowly banker’s clerk. The boy does well, in fact, and is afforded
a promotion. With his new gotten gains, Louis takes a fashionable bachelor flat
in St. James for clandestine rendezvous with Sibella – now, Lionel’s wife.
And although he
ought to have been satisfied with this lot, Mazzini instead plots to avenge
himself on Henry D'Ascoyne (Alec Guinness, also) who is a keen amateur
photographer. Ingratiating himself to Henry and his somewhat priggish wife,
Edith (Valarie Hobson), Mazzini wickedly substitutes petrol for paraffin inside
Henry’s darkroom, resulting in a fatal fire. Setting aside his initial
impressions of Edith as a snob, Mazzini now pursues the grieving widow for his
duchess. Next, Mazzini goes after the family’s most reluctant heir, Reverend
Lord Henry D'Ascoyne (yep, Guinness too) whom he poisons with tainted port while
posing as the Anglican Bishop of Matabeleland. Afterward, from the window of
his flat, Mazzini employs a bow and arrow to puncture the hot-air balloon from
which the family’s silly and stern suffragette sister, Lady Agatha D'Ascoyne
(Guinness in drag) has been dropping leaflets all over London. With precision
befitting a diabolical spy, Mazzini plants a bomb in General Lord Rufus
D'Ascoyne (Guinness) jar of caviar; then, arranges for a collision at sea to
fatally wound the vessel Admiral Lord Horatio D'Ascoyne (Guinness, still) is
navigating. As a true gentleman, the Admiral insists on going down with his
ship.
As Edith has, by
now, agreed to Mazzini’s proposal of marriage, the ‘happy’ couple notify
Ethelred (Guinness, at last), the widowed 8th Duke in this line of succession. Ethelred
invites the couple for a few blissful days at Chalfont Castle. Too bad he also informs
Mazzini of his plans to remarry in order to produce ‘an heir’ to the family’s
fortunes. Ensuring a hunting ‘accident’ claims Ethelred before he can carry out
this plan, Mazzini is relieved when, after brutally revealing all to Lord
Ascoyne D'Ascoyne – whom he also plotted to murder – the weary old gent instead
dies from shock, thus sparing Mazzini the affront of having to kill the only member
of the D’Ascoyne clan who ever showed him even a modicum of kindness. With no
one left in the line of succession, Mazzini accepts the appointment. The
inheritance is his. Regrettably, his victory – disastrously won – is
nevertheless, very short-lived, as a Scotland Yard detective, Burgoyne (Eric
Messiter) places Mazzini under arrest for a murder he did not commit. It
seems Lionel, having come to Mazzini to avoid the scandal of bankruptcy, and
coolly been denounced by Mazzini, chiefly out of his own lingering jealousy,
was later found dead of an apparent suicide. Knowing he is innocent of this crime, Mazzini
weds Edith during the trial, presumably, confident he will be exonerated of all
charges.
Instead, Sibella
falsely testifies that her husband was seeking a divorce and names Mazzini,
with whom she has continued an affair all along, as co-respondent. The pall of this scandal is enough to sway
the court. Mazzini is convicted of murder and sentenced to swing from the hangman’s
gallows. In prison, Mazzini is visited
by Sibella, who implies Lionel left a suicide note behind that could exonerate him.
Sibella now proposes to free Mazzini so he can stage Edith’s death, ostensibly from
a broken heart. Thus, the two would then be free to marry one another. This prospect
intrigues Mazzini. Thus, moments before his public execution, word arrives of Lionel’s
suicide note. Mazzini is exonerated, finding Edith and Sibella waiting for him
in separate carriages just beyond the prison walls. While he contemplates his
future, Mazzini is approached by a reporter (Arthur Lowe) eager to document his
story for Tit-Bits magazine. Mazzini is also informed that the publisher would be
very interested in publishing his memoirs, Suddenly stricken by the realization
he has left his truest confession – the memoir written in his own hand while in
prison, confessing to everything – back in his cell for the police to discover,
Mazzini realizes it is only a matter of time before this cruel kismet reclaims
his tenuous freedom.
Kind Hearts and
Coronets is a compelling, bleak and thoroughly bizarre entertainment, superbly
realized through its expert structure and believable performances. Despite its
virtues, Michael Balcon was initially resistant to make the picture, fearing
reprisals for any attempt to find ‘humor’ in murder most foul. Reportedly,
after agreeing to green-light the picture, Balcon pulled his director aside,
offering him a bit of advice: “You are trying to sell that most unsaleable
commodity to the British – irony. Good luck to you.” Indeed, Balcon was not
the only one entering the project with some trepidation. Alec Guinness, having
been initially offered the chance to play four roles, burst into ironic laughter,
glibly suggesting to the writers, “Four?!? Why not eight?” He would
eventually play nine; Guinness’ subtle and distinct nuances, cleverly augmented
by appropriate costuming and make-up. There is a single shot in the movie where
Guinness actually appears as six of the nine characters seated together in
church pews, the effect achieved by re-exposing, and, masking various portions
of the camera negative – one strip at a time; cinematographer, Douglas Slocombe
actually staying over at the studio overnight to ensure no one accidentally
disturbed his camera.
The movie
differs considerably from Horniman’s novel, very much a self-conscious attempt
at rekindling the cynicism of Oscar Wilde, on which it is based; chiefly in
altering the central character’s heritage from Jewish to Italian, thus blunting
the novel’s rather ubiquitous anti-Semitic overtones. The movie also makes no
reference to the murder of a child – one of the victims in the novel. Robert
Hamer’s direction on various locations, including Leeds Castle in Kent, and, of
course at Ealing Studios, blends classist themes with a roiling sexual
repression into a nightmarish fable, where subverted truths are nevertheless allowed
to rise to the surface. Indeed, Alfred
Lord Tennyson’s Lady Clara Vere de Vere - the poem from whence this movie’s
title derives, is itself a sad-eyed indictment of the English caste and its
affront to true love. Even with these concessions, the ending of the picture had
to be altered for its American release, to satisfy the stringency of their
Production Code. In the British version, Mazzini departs the prison realizing
he has left the evidence behind to convict him of unspeakable atrocities that
no one, as yet, even knows anything about. In the American edit, we are shown
the police, having arrived to clean out Mazzini’s cell, now discovered his
confessional memoirs, thus ensuring justice will eventually be served for his
more heinous transgressions.
When it arrived
in cinemas in June, 1949, Kind Hearts and Coronets was warmly received
in the UK, but altered further for its US release the following year; the
aforementioned ‘new ending’ to appease the censors, plus, several lines
of dialogue omitted to tone down the adulterous affair between Mazzini and
Sibella. Also, several lines of dialogue deemed derogatory to the church were
excised, as well as the word ‘sailor’ dubbed over ‘nigger’ in the
nursery rhyme ‘Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.’ In all, the US cut ran six-minutes
shorter, and was, with these alternations, a solid hit on both sides of the Atlantic,
with very high praise heaped upon Alec Guinness for his magical morphing into
nine distinct personalities. Although nominated for a British Best Picture, Kind
Hearts and Coronets lost the coveted top spot to Carol Reed’s The Third
Man – a most forgivable loss. Viewed today, Kind Hearts and Coronets
survives as a true gem in British cinema, or, as noted thespian, bon vivant and
raconteur, Peter Ustinov put it, “the most perfect achievement…a film of
exquisite construction and literary quality.”
Were that we
could trumpet as much about Kino Lorber’s states’ side Blu-ray release. In June
of this year, Studiocanal trumpeted a claim that it had made a meticulous restoration
of Kind Hearts and Coronets from original 35mm nitrate negatives,
scanned in at 4K resolution to ensure optimal quality. Alas, the image we get
on this disc belies all of that hype in advertising, often appearing tired,
slightly faded and with slight contrast boosting to render its mid-register
tonality almost entirely absent. Worse, the B&W image appears to have had untoward
DNR applied, as well as artificially sharpening. While there are no egregious
examples of edge enhancement – a few fleeting halos and the occasional moiré
pattern – the image skates just on this side of appearing digitally harsh and
not very film-like, with a virtual absence of fine grain. While this transfer
is ‘watchable’, it never attains a level of perfection anticipated from a 4K
remaster derived from an original camera negative. Finally, minute scratches
and other age-related anomalies persist. There is even a white vertical line
running through the main title. The DTS mono audio sounds strident – the high
register, grating on the ear at higher decibel levels. Extras are limited to an
audio commentary by Kat Ellinger, a dated intro from director, John Landis, a
half-hour Thames’ documentary on Dennis Price, the alternate ‘American’ ending,
and an interview with Doug Slocombe. When Criterion released its DVD of Kind
Hearts and Coronets several years ago, it contained a formidable
documentary on the rich and vibrant history of Ealing Studios. This is absent
here. Bottom line: Kind Hearts and Coronets is a superb piece of British
cinema. This Blu does not entirely pay it the homage or respect it deserves.
Judge and buy accordingly.
FILM RATING (out
of 5 – 5 being the best)
4
VIDEO/AUDIO
3
EXTRAS
3
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