What makes it different from others?

Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

A Masterpiece!

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

I first saw this film thirty years ago and loved it then, and saw it again last night and my opinion of it has changed in the interim. I realize the main character isn't supposed to be likable, but the idea that he somehow "deserves" a noble title ahead of anyone else in the family has modern-day echoes of certain members of the younger generation who feel entitled to unearned privileges, a concept I didn't find objectionable until I hit middle age. This creeping sense of uneasiness worsened during the scene where the main character meets the parson, a kindly but doddering old man surely not deserving of Mazzini's hatred. I suppose this concept might have its modern-day equivalent in films like Saw, but even then the victims somehow deserve their bloody fates. The film is redeemed of course by Guinness's incomparable performances, proving that he was every bit a chameleon as Peter Sellars.

In Edwardian England, Louis D'Ascoyne Mazzini, 10th Duke of Chalfont awaits his hanging the following morning. As he writes his memoirs, the events of his life are shown in flashback.His mother, the youngest daughter of the 7th Duke of Chalfont, eloped with an Italian opera singer named Mazzini and was disowned by her family for marrying beneath her station. Even so, the Mazzinis were poor, but happy, until Mazzini died upon seeing Louis, his newborn son, for the first time.In the aftermath, Louis' widowed mother raises him on the history of her family and told him how, unlike other aristocratic titles, the dukedom of Chalfont, can descend through female heirs. Louis' only childhood friends are Sibella and her brother, a local doctor's children.

...from the studio who brought you THE LADYKILLERS. KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS is an even more inventive piece in which a man obsessed with his family history decides to kill off rival members of his extended family in order to claim the inheritance for himself. This is a crisply-shot period piece that benefits hugely from a blacker-than-black performance from Dennis Price as the ice cold murderer working his way through a large list.Despite the grim subject matter, KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS is never less than funny, and there's plenty of original material here too. It's best remembered today for featuring numerous performances from Alec Guinness playing no less than eight members of the same family (females too). Guinness is clearly having a ball and the resultant film is a lot of fun to watch, although tame by modern standards. Watch out for a few familiar faces lower in the cast list: a delightfully dry Miles Malleson, plus Hugh Griffiths; Valerie Hobson (BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN) is the love interest.

This is one of the finest if not the finest British comedy of all time, only thoughtful and ironic not slapstick and in-your-face - as black as I like black comedy to get. The Ladykillers from the same team later provided more in the way of slapstick. I've just read the comments from some of the haters on here and found them most illuminating – however kind words are more than criticisms in my case.A poor distant relation in a large rich family determines to get rid of all in the way of his succession to the family fortune by foul means. This involves the murder of eight Alec Guinness's which is taken to with gusto, and with some success. It was the urbane Dennis Price's finest performance, the one for which he'll be remembered, and coquettish Joan Greenwood played her heart out too. As for Guinness, his various performances have gone down in film history, although most of the collection were merely walk on parts. The plot and dialogue was incessantly erudite, witty and thought-provoking, the entire film sparkles with ingenuity. The attention to detail was total, and the elegant photography of it all by Douglas Slocombe was too. The American end version was interesting but unnecessary as the ultimate retribution was clear and clearly impending. The nword used was unnecessary but normal as part of the then popular children's rhyme and simply reflects back to us a time when white people could use that word unthinkingly; nowadays lovely premeditated obscenity and profanity is the accepted norm for all. The scheming Greenwood suggesting the possibility of the two dependent miracles to the scheming Price in the interview room are the money shots for me, it's the mesmerising logical culmination of the intelligent script.Imho it's almost perfect in every department and really beyond all criticism as completely in a league of its own as a unique work of Art.