A condemned nobleman sits in his jail cell, mere hours away from his appointment with a noose. The epitome of good grace, he’s seems to have accepted his fate as calmly as any man could, although he is innocent of the murder for which he has been convicted. With so little time left, he has to hurry if he is to properly jot down the tale of his rise to the nobility and all of the people he really did kill before finding himself in this somewhat ironic predicament.

Kind Hearts and Coronets is not just a black comedy; it is the black comedy by which the entire genre should be judged. It is the story of a bitter, deceitful, murderous, narcissistic sociopath whom you’ll happily root for as he purposefully kills all of the useless relatives standing between him and the noble birthright he believes was denied him by their class snobbery.

As played by Dennis Price, Louis Mazzini is so upfront and charming about his crimes and his reasons for committing them that it’s only in retrospect you realize there might be something wrong with him. It’s easy to imagine yourself in his place, doing exactly the same thing. The only reason he isn’t considered one of the greatest villains in film history is because writer/director Robert Hamer so expertly presents him as its hero, it’s impossible to think of him as anything else.

By far the best movie to come out of Britain’s estimable Ealing Studios, Kind Hearts and Coronets is one of those timeless, black-and-white films whose sensibility is so unique and perfect, it feels as if it could have been made yesterday. I think I’ve seen it at least 20 times since I first discovered it, and I’ve been shocked and surprised by its brilliance on every viewing. —Allan Mott

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