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Dennis Price is ninth in line to the Dukedom and tries to eliminate the other eight so as to inherit. All of these others are played by Alec Guinness. Suave Dennis Price is always a delight to watch, but the film hasn't lasted well, and Guinness's caricatures are not all convincing.
One of the heirs who must be eliminated is the rather intimidating Lady Agatha. In the film she goes up in a balloon as a publicity stunt for the suffragette cause. But the scene is strangely static and we only see her go up a few feet. In his autobiography, "Blessings in Disguise" Alec Guinness tells this story:
Ealing Studios, although I am eternally grateful to Michael Balcon for the comedies he put in my way, frequently tried to kill me --- or so it seemed to me during moments of paranoia. Of course I knew they weren't really trying to kill me; it struck me only that they were rather casual about my safety.
During "Kind Hearts and Coronets" I was required to make a balloon ascent dressed as Lady Agatha D'Ascoigne, in Edwardian clothes. It was to take place on an afternoon from a field near Pinewood Studios. The weather was sunny, with a warm westerly breeze, and I was enchanted at the idea of going up in a balloon. The only anxiety I had was about insurance, which I guessed would be inadequate to support my wife and young son should there be an accident. Accordingly I spoke to the producers about it. "You're well covered", they said, and when I asked for how much, I think they told me £10,000. I decided it wasn't nearly enough and informed them I wouldn't go up more than fifteen feet in the air unless they raised the insurance to £50,000.
They were very huffy and said, "You will have Belgium's greatest balloonist concealed in the basket with you, so you can't possibly come to any harm." They refused to increase the insurance, so when we came to do the shot I insisted on being let down shortly after we had risen from the ground. Contempt was written on all faces. Belgium's greatest balloonist was dressed and bewigged as Lady Agatha, and sailed away. And away. At speed. And then out of sight. The wind took over and the poor man was found some fifty miles away, floundering in a long skirt in the Thames Estuary where he had been forced to ditch. Smugly at home I sat down to a hot dinner.
HF August 2001
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