I’m kicking myself now for not having come home earlier last night - Kind Hearts and Coronets and The Lavender Hill Mob were on TCM last night and I wasn’t able to catch them both.
For those of you who only know Sir Alec Guinness as Obi Wan, you’re in for a treat in these (and other Ealing Studio) productions from the late 1940s and early 1950s. The films are very tightly made and are entertaining as hell. At times subtle, at other times almost slapstick, those two, plus The Man in the White Suit and The Ladykillers, make me wish that Hollywood could make films as original.
They aren’t on TV very often, so catch them if you can or pick them up online.
Caught the last half of The Ladykillers and was very impressed. Guiness’ slow decent into depravity and madness once things start to unravel is both humorous and disturbing.
When there were rumours of an American remake of Kind Hearts with Will Smith as the embittered “black sheep” and Robin Williams as the entire D’Ascoyne family, I cringed in anticipation.
We have that and added to it the magnificent movie The Horse’s Mouth. These films get watched a lot in the Brown household.
I watched some of The Lavender Hill Mob last night. That scene where Guinness is cautiously divulging his scheme to Holloway is just scintillating. Look at Alec Guinness’s face change from worried to persuasive to gleefully conniving in the space of three minutes. What a genius.
“By George, Holland, it’s a good thing we’re honest men.”