Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Good movie but grossly overrated

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

The premise is contrived to begin with: a British professor vacationing in Paris happens to meet a French count who looks and sounds just like him. They converse in a bar, and the professor admits having a dull and empty life while the count has had a very full life. The count tricks the professor into staying at a hotel room, and in the morning, the count disappears, leaving the professor to be mistaken for the count. The professor tries to convince the count's family and associates that he is not really the count, but nobody believes him, and he is forced to play the count's role, dealing with his family, the glass foundry the count owns, and the count's friends and mistresses. The professor's behavior and attitudes differ than that of the real count, but only one of the mistresses puts two and two together.Akin to Monty Python, the movie is played straight, and the performers all play their parts well. The movie would undoubtedly have come crashing down if it weren't for that. The movie is in fact based on a novel by Daphne DuMarier, whose plot is quite more complicated.

***SPOILERS*** Off the wall but at the same time interesting story about this French/English teacher John Barratt, Alec Guinness, on a vacation in French-just checking out the sites-runs into his double Franch nobleman Jacques De Gue, also played by Guinness, who seems to take a shine to him. Not that George looks just like him but that he want's him to impersonate him while-from what I can see-going on a two month hunting and fishing vacation as well as trying to locate and photograph "Big Foot" in the great Canadian North-West.Getting John drunk and leaving him alone in a hotel room he got for him Jacques checks out and leave the poor and confused John even more confused to face life as Jacques De Gue on his own. Driven to his château in the French countryside by his loyal chauffeur as well as shoeshine boy Gaston, Geoffrey Keen, as hard as John tries to convince his new found family that he isn't Jacques they refuse to believe him even having the family doctor Aloin, Noel Howlett, declare him to be suffering from schizophrenia! Finally accepting his fate as being a rich French nobleman with all the money and fixing that goes along with it John soon finds out that his mom the Countess, Bette Davis, is a morphine junkie and his wife Francoise, Irene Worth, is suspicious that he whats to have her knocked off in order to get his hands on her money. On top of all that his or better yet his wife's glass factory is on the verge of bankruptcy which he doesn't help by him promising the workers there a hefty raise in their next contract.***SPOILERS*** All this confusion soon comes together when Francoise is thrown to her death out of her two story bedroom window at the château with John herd but not seen arguing with her before her death just moments before it happened by his sister Blanche,Palela Brown,who overheard the conversation. It now becomes apparent that the missing Jacques was behind his wife's murder and used the totally out of touch Jack who was nowhere near the murder scene and had proof of having driven with Gaston down to the town of Villars to go sightseeing at the time of the murder! The ending is a bit crazy with, this by now is getting so confusing, Jacques now coming out of the shadows trying to reclaim his identity from John who's, by having a taste of the good life, now not at all willing to give it up. P.S The only way were able to destinies between the two John & Jacques at the final moment of the movie is a bandage or dressing covering the right hand of one of them that if you blinked or fell asleep by then you'll miss it!

Alec Guinness is in top form here, playing dual roles: one a jaded, aimless teacher on holiday in Paris from GB (Barratt), the other an oily, manipulative French count (De Gue). His performance in both roles is understated; one can imagine that in preparation for this film he read du Maurier's book and easily slipped into character, as he did for so many of his other films. One can feel his delight at meeting his exact double in a Parisian bar, and he laughs and gets loaded in what must be the first time in years. He wakes up the next morning in a hotel room, where he is mistaken for his guest.At first he's annoyed and protests vehemently, even when driven all the way out to his twin's country château. Everyone thinks he's gone over the edge. Given a few days he makes a game of the whole thing, wondering how long he can fool everyone before he's found out. In a few weeks he has grown accustomed to his new life, develops a fondness for his "wife" and "child", and brings a social conscience to the family by insisting that a failing company remain open, so that dozens of people can keep their jobs. It's a life-changing transformation not just for the family but for Barratt, who realizes he has finally found what he's looking for.De Gue's dark motives are revealed later when he needs an alibi, and Barratt realizes he has been a patsy.This movie is kind of stiff and formal, but on the other hand the actors are playing people who probably act like that all the time. Bette Davis, in a weird cameo role, injects a dose of much-needed bitchiness as De Gue's mother, the drug-addicted matriarch of the family. Robert Osborne on TCM said that Davis hated working with Guinness, well big surprise there, was there anyone that she loved working with?

As part of a birthday celebration of the late Sir Alec, TCM placed this seldom shown character study in between two hilarious Guinness farces, "Hotel Paradiso" and "All at Sea." In combination with "The Malta Story," "Scapegoat" allowed Guiness to indulge both his more serious dramatic inclinations as well as play another double role, something for which he was a master. His "Kind Hearts and Coronets" is the tour de force of this genre of multiple identities.This adaptation of Du Maurier's novel has also the advantage of five strong female leads, three of them, Bette Davis, Irene Worth and Pamela Brown, known in their own right for their dramatic achievement. Actually, all of the supporting roles are excellently cast, even to the faithful manservant, Gaston, and especially the count's precocious and very articulate daughter. Bette Davis, as the matriarch, sets the tone for neurotic tyranny in this family; but it is a role that could have been less of a caricature if Dame Wendy Hiller had played it instead (See Dame Wendy in "Murder on the Orient Express" for the epitome of "noblesse oblige.") In the role of the wife, Irene Worth gains some of our sympathy as the high-strung and beautiful, sensitive but persecuted spouse unable to give the count a male heir. Her mobile and expressive face is a perfect foil to Guiness's stoic reserve. As the count's sister, Pamela Brown's natural reticence and grave air, her huge luminous eyes and rich voice (which can be savored in an earlier role in "I Know Where I'm going") made her a likely choice in the role of a sibling, however, the differences she shares with her brother are not resolved nor explained, neither is her motivation for being so antagonistic toward him. In other words, through the eliptical, somewhat ambiguous dialogue, there is a history or subtext of sibling rivalry of which we must remain ignorant. (Perhaps the novel delineated this more clearly.)Despite the strong and balanced cast, I found the ending a surprise and a slight disappointment. For me it failed to resolve Guiness's relationship with the other females save one, his lover. Therefore, despite the putative attempt to plumb his character, it remained an identity problem hardly more than skin deep. Still, all in all, it is a fascinating attempt and a rare chance to see Guinness in a noncombative drama with strong females, somewhat like a diamond set among a ruby, emerald and pearl.Of four stars, definitely a strong three*** for the excellent cast.