Back in February, I saw the movie How to Make a Killing, a decent enough black comedy about a young man who, after his mother was effectively disowned by his wealthy grandfather, decided to kill his way to the family fortune. It was fine, but not what I really wanted from the movie. A bit later, I was watching a YouTube video on the top ten movies on the British Film Institute’s Top 100 list, and there was a movie titled Kind Hearts and Coronets, and the plot as described sounded an awful lot like How to Make a Killing. I will point out that Kind Hearts and Coronets is on my Fill-In Filmography poster, so I would have perhaps sat down to watch it eventually, but what was up with the similar plots?
It turns out How to Make a Killing is something of a remake. Regardless, How to Make a Killing is currently on HBO Max and Kind Hearts and Coronets is on Tubi.
While sitting in prison, awaiting execution for murder, Louis Mazzini (Dennis Price), the tenth Duke of Chalfont, is writing out his life story. His mother (Audrey Fildes), the youngest daughter of the eighth Duke, was disowned for marrying an Italian opera singer, Louis’s father (also played by Price in a fake mustache), but circumstances left Louis penniless and eventually an orphan, his only friends being the Hallward siblings. As an adult, Louis is in love with Sibella Hallward (Joan Greenwood), but she is intent on marrying a man with money.
Louis takes a job in a clothing store, but a chance encounter with his cousin Ascoyne D’Ascoyne (Alec Guiness) gets Louis fired, but that was all part of his plan. He is in line for the Dukedom, but he has a number of relatives in his path that he will need to eliminate along the way, and Young Ascoyne just made himself target #1. The opening tells us that Louis will gain the title he wants, and he may get the woman he wants to, though he is uncertain if that is his childhood friend Sibella or his one cousin’s widow, the kind and forgiving Edith (Valerie Hobson). Oh, and all the relatives Louis wants dead are played by Guiness. Which murder is Louis set to be executed for anyway?
I really wanted to like this one. There’s just one problem: having seen How to Make a Killing, I already knew many of the better jokes. To be clear, Kind Hearts and Coronets does a much better job. The tone is darker, but also there’s no pretending Louis is anything like a good guy who has a conscience. That tone makes a difference. The various relatives Louis targets are, at worst, arrogant and don’t know who he is. Most seem harmless enough. There’s no attempt at social commentary suggesting that corrupting power of great wealth on display here. That leads to a better movie, and then ending is different, but most of it seemed too familiar to make the comedy work as well as it should for me. I still liked the movie, just not as much as I wanted to.
The real treasure here, actually, is Guiness, playing eight different characters, each with a distinct personality and look. Yeah, a couple don’t get the chance to go much, but they’re still rather distinct. Most of them seem oblivious or harmless, but all of them are at least a little amusing. Do they deserve to die? Eh, not really, but that’s besides the point. In the end, Louis may get what he deserves. It just depends on what you think he deserves.
Grade: A-
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