Dennis Price could make a selfish man sound like the only reasonable person present. We value his precise, unshowy comedy most in Kind Hearts and Coronets, where his refusal to warn us off Louis Mazzini makes the laughter uncomfortable.
Fi1m perspective
Dennis Price lets Louis Mazzini explain his murderous ambitions in Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) with the composure of a man who expects no objection. There is no helpful change of tone to tell us when to stop taking him seriously. We laughed at the calm narration, then felt grubby because we had begun to accept his reasoning. Price makes that lapse possible by treating each sentence as sensible, orderly business. He never lets Louis's resentment look like a wish to improve anybody else's lot.
His screen career began with A Canterbury Tale (1944), followed by supporting and villain roles at Gainsborough in the mid-1940s. Kind Hearts and Coronets brought him leading status and a part that made full use of his elegant delivery. As romantic leads declined in the early 1950s, he turned increasingly to character parts in comedies. Bertram Tracepurcel in I'm All Right Jack (1959) belongs to that later phase. Refined manners concealing selfish motives were a recurring feature of his work.
Robert Hamer and fellow screenwriter John Dighton give him dialogue that allows Louis to sound intelligent without making him right. Price respects the wording: the pleasure lies in how little his gentlemanly vocabulary needs to change to accommodate murder. Joan Greenwood's Sibella challenges his self-assurance, while Valerie Hobson's cooler Edith D'Ascoyne helps vary the scenes around him. Both women deserve more space to explain themselves, and a few passages give us another demonstration of Louis's composure when we would welcome a change. These are small reservations about a comedy whose cruelty is made more disturbing by Price's restraint.
Television gave him the capable valet Jeeves opposite Ian Carmichael's Wooster in The World of Wooster (1965–67). Later horror work included Hector Snipe in Theatre of Blood (1973). For us, Louis remains the part that makes our view of Price clearest, because the film gives his explanations time to draw us in. Louis wants admission to the class he resents, and Price never asks us to mistake that for generosity. Start with Kind Hearts and Coronets, and be wary of finding him reasonable.
Biography
Dennis Price (23 June 1915 – 6 October 1973) was an English actor. He made his stage debut in 1937 and appeared in his first film, A Canterbury Tale, in 1944. He was the son of a brigadier-general and was educated at Oxford University.
Price is best known for playing Louis Mazzini and his father in the Ealing comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949). He also portrayed Jeeves in the BBC television series The World of Wooster (1965–67). His other film credits include Victim (1961), Murder Most Foul (1964), Theatre of Blood (1973) and Twins of Evil (1971).
