Amazon.com video review:
Alec Guinness, best known for the serious dramatic roles and
authoritative presence of his later films, made his mark early as a
versatile character actor and a gifted comic performer. These talents
are shown to their best in this bewitchingly black-hearted 1949 comedy
of a poor cousin murdering his way up the inheritance ladder of a
titled, old-money family. Guinness, in only his third film, becomes
practically the entire family tree, starring in no less than eight
hilarious roles. Handsome Dennis Price is the scheming relative, the
progeny of an unfortunate marriage that turned his mother into a
family pariah. Determined to earn the title he believes is rightfully
his, he ingratiates himself back into the family and plots his
ascension through a succession of Guinness-created social dinosaurs,
joyfully killing off his kin in a series of inventive
assassinations. It's class warfare in action, and Price is winning the
war. The delectable Joan Greenwood costars as the married object of
Price's affections, whose own venomous nature becomes apparent when
Price falls for Valerie Hobson, the cultured widow of one of his
victims. Robert Hamer directs with a light touch and dry wit, marrying
the understated Ealing Studios comic style with the dark, satirical
edge of John Dighton's sharp screenplay. The wiliest of all Ealing
comedies, right down to its splendidly sardonic conclusion. --Sean
Axmaker
