Happy Ever After (1954)

When a beloved benefactor (A.E. Matthews) of a small Irish village passes away, the town welcomes his nephew (David Niven) who inherited the estate. However, unlike his uncle, the money hungry nephew presses the townspeople for loans owed, rents unpaid and abandons institutions that his uncle underwrote. So, they decide to kill him. Directed by Mario Zampi, this amusing comedy with dark undertones might lay the Irish whimsy (even though it was filmed entirely in England) on a bit thick but it's so good natured in its deviltry that it's best to let it soak in. Niven seems to be having a wonderful time playing the heartless rogue and Yvonne De Carlo matches him as the glamorous, gold digging widow who returns to the village after her husband's death. The comedic finale where the village conspires to do Niven in by various methods (decapitation, scaring him to death, blowing him up) is deftly handled and full of chuckles. Directed by Mario Zampi. With Barry Fitzgerald, Noelle Middleton, Robert Urquhart, Michael Shepley and George Cole. Released in the U.S. under the title TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT.