ABCs at the Movies: The Doubles Round!

[Ellemeno]

Before there was Tyler Perry, there was Eddie Murphy doing multiple parts in one movie.  And before Eddie Murphy, there was Peter Sellers.  But before Peter Sellers, there was...

Alec Guiness



From The A.V. Club:  If the Ealing Studios classic Kind Hearts And Coronets isn't the blackest of black comedies, then it may well be the driest: It's loaded with devastating slights dropped into the most formal of British sentences. It's the story of a commoner who murders his way to the dukedom, all while comporting himself in such a gentlemanly fashion that it feels like he's merely ushering his rivals gently to their fate. This cognitive dissonance comes into play when he goes out bird-hunting with his next victim, but refuses to carry a shotgun, claiming that "my principles will not allow me to take a direct part in blood sports." The screenplay bristles with such sharp little ironies, but Kind Hearts remains memorable less for its caustic dialogue than for the cold-blooded matter-of-factness in which it's delivered.

While carrying out a diabolical revenge scheme, Dennis Price keeps a gentleman's countenance at all times, and his darker thoughts are mostly relegated to the voiceover narration. Though connected by blood to the aristocratic D'Ascoyne family, Price's mother was exiled from her birthright after marrying a peasant for love. After her death, Price vows to avenge her by ascending to the dukedom. In order to make this happen, he first has to get through the eight D'Ascoynes ahead of him on the family tree, so he quietly facilitates their deaths, using such means as poisoning, an explosive jar of caviar, and an arrow through a hot-air balloon. All the D'Ascoynes are played by Ealing's prize star Alec Guinness, including Lady Agatha, a rather broad-shouldered women's-rights activist.

As Philip Kemp's liner notes reveal, Kind Hearts And Coronets couldn't be further from Ealing's tradition of folksy, light-hearted comedies, and for that reason, it was treated coolly by the studio and American censors, who forced the filmmakers to tack on a thuddingly literal ending. Even still, the film proves just how little the production code could do to keep sinful content from the screen so long as it played by the rules; its scenes of sinister deviance and eroticism follow the letter of the code while ignoring its intent. For that and other reasons, it served as the model for all black comedies that followed.
http://www.avclub.com/content/node/46282

[MaineWriter]

==comment==

Won Oscars for best director and best writing. Nominated for best picture, but didn't win.

[Ellemeno]

Hey Gil, I'm glad things are going as well as they can be. 

When I broke my arm, my stepmother sent me a small case of sardines in cans, and told me to eat a can every day, bones included, that it would help my arm heal.  I did it, and my arm healed well. 

[oilgun]

Who can resist those wacky yokels.  Finding a decent image however, is not easy.




--ASIDE--

Thanks Ellemeno, I'll try the sardine diet!  Just recently I found a brand that I can actually stomach, most of them make me literally gag.

[Fran]

[MaineWriter]

==comment==

Won the Oscar for Best Music

[Ellemeno]

Directed by Elia Kazan



From IMDb:  Pinky, a light skinned black woman, returns to her grandmother's house in the South after graduating from a Northern nursing school. Pinky tells her grandmother that she has been "passing" for white while at school in the North. In addition, Pinky has fallen in love with a young white doctor, Dr. Thomas Adams, who knows nothing about her black heritage. Pinky says that she will return to the North, but Granny Johnson convinces her to stay and treat an ailing white woman, Miss Em. Meanwhile, Dr. Canady, a black physician from another part of the state, visits Pinky and asks her to train some African American students, but she declines. Pinky nurses Miss Em but is resentful because she seems to feel that she is doing the same thing her grandmother did. Pinky and Miss Em slowly develop a mutual respect for one another. Mrs. Em leaves Pinky her property when she dies, but relatives of the deceased woman contest the new will in court. To raise money for the court fees, Pinky washes clothes by hand with her grandmother. The court rules in Pinky's favor and she keeps the land. Tom wants her to resume her life as a white woman and to marry him, but she refuses. Pinky decides to use the house and land for Miss Em's Clinic and Nursery School.

[Fran]

"The Queen of Spades  is a masterpiece that ranks right up there with the finest films of the period."

-- Martin Scorsese

[oilgun]

This must be the movie that was remade as The Deep End. From IMDb:
After discovering the dead body of Bea Harper's lover, Bea's mother Lucia hides the body under the assumption that it was her daughter who killed the man. Martin Donnelly comes to blackmail Lucia on behalf of his partner Nagel and falls in love with Lucia instead. Nagel wants the money and Donnelly kills Nagel to protect Lucia, and then kills himself to end the impossible relationship with the married Lucia.

[MaineWriter]

==comment==

Starring John Wayne and directed by John Ford who was born right here in Portland, ME.