A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder - Tracing a Musical's Roots

A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder is a Broadway musical with a book and lyrics by Robert L. Freedman and music and lyrics by Steven Lutvak. It’s lighthearted, funny, witty and charming. These are unusual adjectives to describe a show about a young man, who upon discovering he’s in line to inherit an Earldom, murders the all family members in his way to reach his goal. When I first heard of the musical during its Old Globe Theater run in 2013, I assumed it was based on the 1949 British movie Kind Hearts and Coronets, one of my favorite movies. This Robert Hamer/Ealing Studios classic stars Dennis Price, Valerie Hobson, Joan Greenwood and Alec Guinness as the entire D’Asgoyne family. The British Film Institute listed Kind Hearts and Coronets as the sixth greatest British film of all time. Freedman has described his reaction when he first saw the movie on late night TV. “I watched six or eight minutes of the movie and then I bolted upright in bed and said, ‘My God, it’s a musical!’” [1]. If he is such a fan, why is there no mention of the movie in the credits or advertising of the musical? Why didn't they use the movie’s title which is instantly recognizable by most film buffs? What gives?

The novel on which the musical
and the movie are based.

In 2003, Freedman and Lutvak obtained the rights to develop a show based on the movie from Canal Plus. As the show was readied for production, Canal Plus pulled out. Since the movie is actually based on an obscure 1907 novel entitled Israel Rank, the Autobiography of a Criminal by Roy Horniman, Freedman and Lutvak simply contended that their musical is based on the novel and not the movie. Canal Plus disagreed, particularly since the musical planned to use one actor to play the entire family just as Guinness had done in the movie. As the musical was about to premiere at the La Jolla Playhouse in La Jolla, California, the show was hit with a lawsuit. While the case moved through court, the authors removed as much of the movie as possible from the musical. In the end, the lawsuit was thrown out of court. A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder premiered at the Hartford Stage, Hartford, Connecticut, in October 2012, opened at the Old Globe in San Diego, California in the spring of 2013, then opened on Broadway at the Walter Kerr Theatre in November 17, 2013. In 2014, it won four Tony awards including Best Musical.

A few weeks ago, I saw the musical and was surprised by how much it still resembles the film despite the authors’ claim that it’s based on the novel. Is that because the movie is also very similar to the novel? To answer this question, I read the book. What follows is a comparison of the three versions: Israel Rank (IR), Kind Hearts (KH), and Gentleman’s Guide (GG).

SPOILER ALERT!

The Story.
Edwardian England. As the story opens, a young man convicted of murder is writing his memoirs as waits in prison to be hung the next day. He relates how he learned that his mother was heir to a rich and famous noble family. But she was disinherited when she married a man whom the family considered unworthy. With his mother’s death, the young man embarked on a mission to kill the intervening family members to obtain the title himself. As he killed off each family member, his life was complicated by the love of multiple women. As he obtained his goal, he was jailed for murder. Through ironic intervention of the women, he is released at the last minute.

Our “Hero”
The main character is Israel Rank, who is half-Jewish [IR], Louis Mazzini, who is half-Italian [KH], and Monty Navarro, who is half-Castilian [GG]. The controversial novel has long been considered anti-Semitic. Israel often refers to his “Hebrew Blood” to justify some of his shadier personality traits. It is easy to see why Robert Hammer, the Director/Screenwriter of Kind Hearts and Coronets, only a few years after the horrors of Nazi Germany, decided to make Louis’ father Italian rather than Jewish. The Gentleman’s Guide team (both Jewish, by the way) thought making Monty half-Castilian was funnier [2].

Dennis Price is Louis and Joan Greenwood is Sibella
in Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)

The Women
Since their childhood in the schoolroom, Israel/Louis/Monty has been in love with Sibella [IR, KH, GG], a beautiful, superficial, self-centered minx. Though Sibella loves Israel/Louis/Monty, she marries Lionel Holland. While plotting one of the murders, Israel/Louis/Monty falls in love with the victim’s sister [IR, GG] / widow [KH], Edith [IR, KH]/Phoebe [GG], a serious, snobbish do-gooder. He eventually marries Edith/Phoebe but this doesn’t stop him from his trysts with Sibella. As Israel put it, “Miss Gascoyne with her Utopian dreams about the life of usefulness we were to lead required the natural antidote, and, strangely enough, the first whiff of the perfume Sibella used, wafted to me across the room as she rose to greet me, banished all sensation of ever having been bored by Edith, for I never admired her so much as when I was in the company of Sibella. In the same way I never longed for Sibella to such an extent as when I was with Edith.” [3] (This line is echo'ed by Monty in the scene from the musical at the bottom of this post.)  Thank goodness the movie and musical kept Sibella’s character intact! It would not be the same story without her. I’m okay with the renamed Phoebe because she is a much livelier character than the prim and proper, somewhat boring Edith.

In the novel, Israel falls in love with a third woman, the Earl’s young governess, Esther. Esther is not in either the movie or musical where her story would undoubtedly have hurt the comedy.

The Rival
Lionel Holland [IR, KH, GG] is Israel/Louis/Monty’s rival for Sibella’s affection. He’s extremely important early in the novel. Israel is so upset by Sibella’s interest in Lionel that Israel trips him while he’s out running, giving him a concussion. Lionel is pivotal to the ending of the movie (see below). In the musical, Sibella marries Lionel but we never see him.

The Motive
The movie has the clearest and noblest motive. Louis swears by this mother’s grave that he will have revenge on the family that disowned her. In the musical, Monty is also avenging his mother’s mistreatment but only after he is apparently snubbed by Ascoyne D’Ascoyne, Sr. In the novel, revenge plays no part. Israel Rank simply resents his lowly upbringing, wants to live fabulously, doesn’t want to work for it, and sees the Earldom as his best shot. The novel doesn’t bother to set up the moral justification that the movie and musical depend on and goes to a much darker place as a result.

The Family
The surname of the family is Gascoyne [IR] / D'Ascoyne [KH] / D’Ysquith [GG]. The first two sound like they are “just going” while the musical’s family “dies quick”. The family castle changes names as well: Hammerton [IR], Chalfont [KH], and Highhurst [GG]. Israel/Louis/Monty first sees this castle as a tourist.

Alec Guinness played eight members of the D'Ascoyne family
in Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)

The Murders
The acts of murder in the novel are cold-blooded, grim, and ruthless. Israel plans carefully and carries them out with precision. The murders in the movie are more darkly comic. Louis is actively involved but not hands-on like Israel. The musical murders are quite comical with just barely a puff of involvement on Monty’s part (literally, in one case.) The murders in the movie and the musical have a certain similarity as well. D’Ascoyne Junior and his mistress die at a summer resort by falling over a waterfall in the movie while D’Ysquith Junior and his mistress die at a winter resort by falling through the ice in the musical. Israel simply poisons them in the novel. Henry dies while pursuing his photography hobby in the movie while he dies pursuing his beekeeping hobby in the musical. In the novel, Israel chokes him to death after he is beaten by a rival. Fortunately, his employer, Ascoyne Gascoyne, Sr. [IR]/ Ascoyne D’Ascoyne, Sr. [KH] / Asquith D’Ysquith, Sr. [GG] dies of natural causes in all three versions. In the novel, Israel doesn’t kill any women but his does kill a child. Here are some of the other murders:

The Reverend – smokes a poisoned cigar [IR], drinks poisoned port [KH], and falls from the church tower [GG]. The Reverend in the musical is a doddering old man with buck teeth – just like Alec Guiness played him in the movie. He describes the architecture of his church as “early perpendicular” in both the movie and the musical. That Reverend and that line do not come from the novel.

Lady Agatha [KH] – Louis shoots her balloon out of the air with a bow and arrow / Lady Hyacinth [GG] - Monty sends her all over the world in hopes that a local disaster will kill her off but he finally has to saw a gangplank to finish the job.

The Duke [KH]/The Earl [IR,GG] – drinks claret poisoned by Israel [IR], is shot by Louis while stuck in a man-trap [KH], and is poisoned by Miss Shingle [GG].

The General [KH] succumbs to a bomb in his caviar / The Major [GG] has a weightlifting accident.

Lady Salome Pumphrey [GG] - Shoots herself during a performance of Hedda Gabler with a gun Monty supplies.

The Young Viscount [IR] – Israel exposes the boy to a handkerchief infected with Scarlet Fever. If the reader had any empathy for Israel Rank, it’s gone at this point of the novel.

The Ending. >>>>Again, MAJOR SPOILERS!!!<<<<<

Israel Rank [IR] completely bungles the murder of the Earl. “The jury, evidently taking into consideration the fact that I was the next heir, that I had arsenic in my possession, that there was every motive, and that I was the only person who could have done it, returned a verdict of ‘Wilful murder’ against me. “ [3] He is tried by the House of Lords, found guilty, and sentenced to hang. He is saved when Esther the governess confesses to killing the Earl before she kills herself. “Then I recollected my manuscript on the table. No one had seen it but myself, but if it were noticed it would be awkward. It was a terrible moment. I expected the Governor as I picked it up to say ‘Anything written in the prison becomes the property of the Crown,’ but I was allowed to walk off with it.” Israel Rank, Earl Gascoyne, returns to Hammerton with his wife Edith who has guessed the truth and now has a shuddering aversion for him.

"My Memoirs..."

Louis Mazzini [KH] gets away with all his murders and becomes the Duke of Chalfont. He is arrested for the murder of Lionel Holland. As he writes his memoirs in prison, he is amused by the irony of being convicted of the only murder he didn’t commit. Sibella, now single, visits him in prison and suggests that if he will leave Edith and be with her instead, Lionel’s suicide note just might be found. The note is found and Louis is released. As the prison gates close behind him, he is confronted with both women waiting for him. "How happy could I be with either, Were t'other dear charmer away!", he quotes. Before he can make a decision, a publisher asks if he can publish his memoirs. In one of the greatest endings of all cinema, we see the memoirs with all their incriminating detail left behind in the prison cell.

Monty Navarro [GG] is falsely arrested for poisoning the Earl of Highhurst. If he didn’t do it, who did? As he waits in prison, he meets Chancey, another disowned D’Ysquith. Sibella shows up with a letter written by Phoebe confessing the crime. Phoebe shows up with a similar letter written by Sibella. The authorities, unable to arrest both women for the same crime, release Monty. When asked about publishing his memoirs, Louis is frantic – until a helpful guard returns it to him. It turns out Miss Shingle poisoned the Earl. So Monty gets away with murder and becomes the Earl of Highhurst. However, Chancey appears at the very end of the show with “poison in my pocket.”

In Conclusion...
My conclusion is that the dark humor of both the movie and the musical are a far cry from the really disturbing ugliness and immorality of the novel. Even though everyone knows he did it, Israel Rank gets away with the murders thanks to the suicide of an innocent. The movie is a black comedy while the musical is a farce. But the musical clearly owes much of its tone, many of its characterizations, and the creativity of the murders to the movie. I’m glad that judge threw out the lawsuit or the musical may never have seen the boards. However, no one who studies all three versions would ever come to the conclusion that the musical was developed solely on the novel with no input from the movie.



1. Gordon Cox, Road to the Tonys: A Decade of Turning Skeptics into Believers in ‘Gentleman’s Guide’ . Variety May 29, 2014.

2. Curt Schleier, How 'A Gentleman's Guide' Got to Broadway. The Jewish Daily Forward, Dec. 26, 2013.

3. Roy Horniman, Israel Rank, the Autobiography of a Criminal. 1907.

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