The black comedy is a delicate genre that often toes the line between hilarity and offense, usually landing squarely on one side or the other. It’s a shame that more filmmakers don’t follow the precedent set by the Brits in Kind Hearts and Coronets.
Sir Alec Guinness plays all eight members of the coronet–bedecked D’Ascoyne family, earning the ire of Louis Mazzini, the son of a disowned heiress. When his dying mother’s final wish of being buried in the family plot is denied, poverty–stricken Louis vows to take revenge on his family and reclaim his place in the line of dukedom. Killing his way to the top of the family tree, Mazzini inherits the title along with a fortune from his new wife, the widow of one of his victims. Complicating matters is Mazzini’s childhood love and mistress, who won’t be left out of the fortune with the damning evidence she has against Louis.
Price delivers every bitter barb as though it were a play in chess, eviscerating the aristocratic customs of his detested family whilst detailing his murderous schemes with elegance and grace. His macabre commentary sounds as though it could accompany a staid episode of masterpiece theater.
Guinness plays off the absurdity of his transformations, creating portrayals that hearken back to the stage in their grandiosity. In fact, the entire film could easily fit into the part of a proper British chamber piece, were it not for all the murder.
Americans may never learn to be as polite as the British, but as far as dark comedy is concerned, it’s beneficial to get over the Anglophobia.
