Brit classic gets proper treatment

In the long careers of screen legend Alec Guinness and Ealing Studios, one could proclaim with little debate that Robert Hamer's "Kind Hearts and Coronets" was one of the crowning achievements of the British film industry. Pitch black in its approach and entertaining on all levels, I can think of no other movie that has made the art of murder so humorous. \nA mischievously sophisticated Dennis Price stars as the young Louis Mazzini, a man whose royal inheritance is unjustly denied to him due to his mother's marriage outside of aristocracy. At her death, Mazzini schemes to murder all those above him in the family tree and ascend to Dukedom within the D'Ascoyne household. There are eight names to cross out with the black X and all eight characters are played by Alec Guinness.\nThat's right, I said all eight are played by Guinness. Still green and having only made two films prior to "Kind Hearts" (David Lean's Charles Dickens duo of "Great Expectations" and "Oliver Twist"), this is Guinness in his most enjoyable yet demanding performance. Playing both male and female, young and old, from banker to reverend to Admiral, each role Guinness inhabits he makes his own. \nPrice's heavy narration fills up the film, keeping us entertained through sheer wit and tar-black sarcasm. You cannot help but laugh at how he makes murder resemble the build-up of a magician's act. The wording keeps our attention until finally pulling off the trick. Whether it is a bomb inside a caviar can or an archer's arrow ripping through a hot air balloon, laughter comes from the shock and awe of the act itself. \nHaving seen a DVD release before without the special features, Criterion's two-disc edition outshines the aforementioned disappointment. Aside from typical extras such as trailers and photo galleries, disc one contains the American ending of the film -- an embarrassing solution to the original ending which didn't meet with ratings/content standards of the era. Disc two is a goldmine, housing two 70-minute pieces: a documentary of Ealing Studios' history and an interview with Guinness from 1977. The documentary is an encyclopedic treasure while the interview finds Guinness post-"Star Wars" reflecting on his many triumphs and the early years when no one thought he'd make it. Boy were they wrong.\n"Kind Hearts" is the first of hopefully other many additions from the Guinness/Ealing library to Criterion's own. Classics such as "The Lavender Hill Mob" and "The Man in the White Suit" are sitting on shelves unrestored and without extras. They could use a proper treatment.