Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)

Most film posters were designed in house by studio artists and designers. However, throughout the 40s and 50s Ealing Studios broke the mould by adopting an ambitious and inventive approach to poster design. Headed by S. John Woods, a formidable graphic designer in his own right, the Ealing advertising department invited contemporary artists and designers to create posters for their films.

Time Magazine called Kind Hearts and Coronets an 'impudent, witty British comedy', and seventy years later this epithet still stands. This film remains Ealing's most celebrated comedy, and its irreverent and wry black humour is timeless. Alec Guiness plays the part of eight different victims of Dennis Price's serial killer. In the late 1940s, having a killer as hero of the piece was a touch too overwhelming for American audiences, and on its Stateside release, the censors added footage to leave no ambiguity as to whether Price's crimes would go unpunished.