The Coronets

BBC - Modern Times: The Last Dukes (2015)
HDTV | 1280x720 | .MP4/AVC @ 3024 Kbps | 58mn 59s | Audio: English AAC 160 kbps, 2 channels | Subs: English | 1.31 GiB
Genre: Documentary

Dukedoms are created by the monarch for reasons ranging from a grateful nation rewarding a major war leader to a king acknowledging his illegitimate son. The last dukedom to be created was by Queen Victoria. As they gradually become extinct, what will become of those that remain? Do they still have power and wealth? What is it to be a duke in the 21st century? Answers come from a surprising variety of extraordinary characters - the Duke of Marlborough and his aunt, born Lady Rosemary Spencer-Churchill, who remembers being brought up in Blenheim Palace with 36 indoor servants, and the Duke of Atholl, who until 2012 was a rural South African sign-maker called Bruce Murray - on succeeding to the dukedom he now heads the only private army in Europe - the Atholl Highlanders. The Duke of Montrose is a Scottish hill farmer and a politician, one of the few dukes who still sit in the House of Lords. The Duchess of Rutland made dozens of people redundant when she took over Belvoir Castle, but is determined to make it an efficient business. The Duke and Duchess of St Albans don't have a stately pile, but do have their coronets and coronation robes.

One of the best-loved films from the idiosyncratic British film studio Ealing Pictures gets an update from the equally idiosyncratic filmmaking team of Joel and Ethan Coen in this offbeat comedy. Marva Munson (Irma P. Hall) is a spry, elderly woman who attends church regularly, doesn't care for loud noises or harsh language, and is looking for a tenant for the spare room in her house. Enter Goldthwait Higginson Dorr (Tom Hanks), a silver-tongued college professor who moves in and gains Munson's permission to use the basement for rehearsals with his "medieval music ensemble." What Munson doesn't know is that Dorr's latest project is not academic, but criminal. Dorr is masterminding the robbery of a riverboat casino, and the fellow musicians in his ensemble are actually the crew he's assembled to pull off the job: foul-mouthed "inside man" Gawain (Marlon Wayans), clumsy demolitions expert Pancake (J.K. Simmons), quiet strong-arm man Lump (Ryan Hurst), and logistical expert The General (Tzi Ma).