Kind Hearts and Coronets

This exquisite and brilliantly dark comic showcase tells the tale of Louis D'Ascoyne Mazzini, a hard-done-by aristocrat who sets out to exact the most spectacular series of acts of vengeance on those he blames for the plights of his childhood. Alec Guinness plays eight characters outstandingly, including the vicar, and both Valerie Hobson and Joan Greenwood complete this excellent casting. The film is loosely based on the novel Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal by Roy Horniman, featuring themes of class and sexual repression that run through its narrative, particularly in the complex love triangle between Louis, his longtime love Sibella, and Edith, the widow of one of his victims.