Classic British Cinema
Over the weekend I watched the the Sky team review in their Classic Films series and acclaim Kind Hearts and Coronets
and then on Film 4 The Long Good Friday: both are – in their different ways – classics of British cinema.
Kind Hearts and Coronets is an Ealing Comedy though Ian Jarvis, Mel Norman and Stephen Armstrong – and new critic Christina Newland – made reference to Ealing’s subversive nature in this film the awful D’Acsoignes, murdered one by one by Luigi Mazzini (Dennis Price) with each d’Ascoigne, including the suffragette, masterfully played by Alec Guinness.
It is at heart a comedy and a very funny too and – released in 1949 – caught the mood and atmosphere of the time.
So does The Long Good Friday (1980) which predates property development in the Dockland.
Bob Hoskins is terrifying as the London villain and would-be property developer Harold Shand who unwittingly becomes targeted by the IRA.
The fast moving plot is not always easy to follow. IRA Men are murdered in a remote Northern Irish house who have accepted delivery of cash from Colin, Harold Shand’s henchman, but who killed them and the driver? Not clear.
It may be a bit dated 46 years on, with use of unpleasant racist language, and it’s very violent but a graphic depiction of post-Kray London villainy. Helen Mirren established herself as an actress of renown in playing Victoria, the posh girlfriend of Harold, and you can see Sean Bean and Gillian Taylforth in small rôles.
