Kind Hearts and Coronets

 

Vintage Ealing Studio comedy released on 4K UHD from Studiocanal on 22nd April

In a series of re-releases and new prints upon the Vintage Classics label from Studiocanal, the company has taken the legendary series of post-World War 2 films from the Ealing Studios archive.

These films are long-established in the canon of British public consciousness and yet they remain vintage in every sense of the word - regal from a bygone era, original in their gestation and witty still despite the advancement of culture and society. This film appears as a satire upon the British fascination of nobility and the pursuit of social mobility.

After spending an hour and a half in the mere presence of Dennis Price's serial killing cousin, one will feel quite jolly and wish for the days when people would harken back to the days full of lavish production design and featuring the well-equipped acting of an ensemble who went from film to film delivering exquisite performances. 

While Price is the figurehead of the film and upon repeated viewings, his role is one of quiet restraint that is befitting a sociopath who is more in need of social ambition he feels is owed rather than earned. Yet this film remains most memorable as a showcase for the ever growing reputation of Alec Guinness. This is after his double bill of appearing in David Lean's Charles Dickens' adaptations most notably as Fagin in Oliver Twist. In this he portrays the D'Ascoyne family - those who Price as Louis - wants to dispose of so his lineage to the Duke of Chalfont can be obtained.

Guinness embues so much character into each of the family, it led to his scaling the heights of British film with The Lavender Hill Mob and The Ladykillers to follow before Hollywood and his Award winning role as Captain Nicholson in Lean's The Bridge over the River Kwai.

What is most striking though along with the performances is the erudite script that while based upon a novel is witty and astute in its understanding of social class, aspiration and norms in the post-war era. Credit also to Robert Hamer for marshalling proceedings with such precision and care.

If film fans have not heard nor seen this film, they should seek it out and enjoy the darkly black comedy that became familiar from the Ealing Studios, in a post-war world which should have been full of optimism, there remained those grains of doubt and pessimism that maybe good times may never return and you have to set out and make your own path in life perhaps to better yourselves.

The film is released on UHD on 22nd April, it features an introduction by fan John Landis, an audio commentary by film critic Peter Bradshaw, director Terence Davies and Matthew Guinness, an alternate US ending, gallery and trailers.

Kind Hearts and Coronets is released on UHD from 22nd April