In Kind Hearts and Coronets, a disowned daughter's son sets out to kill the eight relatives ahead of him in line and becomes a duke

Kind Hearts and Coronets is a 1949 British film from Ealing Studios, directed by Robert Hamer and loosely based on Roy Horniman's 1907 novel Israel Rank. Louis Mazzini's mother, a daughter of the 7th Duke of Chalfont, eloped with an Italian opera singer, and her family cut her off. When she dies, the family refuses to let her be buried in the family vault. Louis decides to take the dukedom by killing the eight relatives who stand between him and the title. Alec Guinness plays all eight members of the D'Ascoyne family. One by one they die, and Louis becomes the 10th Duke of Chalfont. He is then tried and convicted for the one death he did not cause, that of Lionel, a husband who killed himself. Lionel's suicide note is found just before Louis's hanging, and he is released. He has left his memoirs, a full confession, in his cell. For its American release the film was cut under the Hays Code, with a new ending and toned-down dialogue. Horniman's novel is now in the public domain.