Everything about The Ruling Class totally explained
The Ruling Class is a
1972 film adaptation of
Peter Barnes'
satirical stage play which tells the story of a
paranoid schizophrenic British nobleman (played by
Peter O'Toole) who inherits a peerage. The co-stars include
Alastair Sim as his uncle, an addled (but not insane) bishop,
William Mervyn as Sir Charles,
Coral Browne as his wife,
Harry Andrews as the 13th Earl of Gurney,
Carolyn Seymour as Grace,
James Villiers as his dim-witted, foppish cousin and
Arthur Lowe as Tucker the butler. It was produced by
Jules Buck and directed by
Peter Medak. Peter O'Toole described the movie as "a comedy with tragic relief".
Synopsis
Jack Gurney, the 14th Earl of Gurney, at first he thinks he's
God and shocks his family and friends with his talk of returning to the world to bring it love and charity, not to mention his penchant for breaking out into song and dance routines and sleeping upright on a cross. When faced with unpalatable facts (such as his identity as the 14th Earl), Jack puts them in his "
galvanized pressure cooker" and they disappear. His unscrupulous uncle, Sir Charles, marries him to his own mistress, Grace, in hopes of producing an heir and putting his nephew in an institution; the plan fails when Grace actually falls in love with Gurney.
Gurney gains another ally in Sir Charles' wife (
Coral Browne), who hates her husband and befriends Gurney just to spite him. She also begins sleeping with Gurney's
psychiatrist, Dr. Herder, to persuade him to cure Gurney quickly.
Herder attempts to cure him through intensive
psychotherapy, but this is to no avail, as Gurney so thoroughly believes that he's the 'God of Love' that, ironically, he dismisses any suggestion to the contrary as the rambling of
lunatics. The night his wife goes into
labour with their child, Herder makes one last effort at therapy; he introduces Gurney to a patient who also believes himself to be
Christ, or, as the patient puts it, "The Electric Messiah" (
Nigel Green), who subjects an unwitting Gurney to
electroshock therapy. The plan is to use the electroshock to (literally) jolt Gurney out of his delusions, showing him that the two men couldn't
both be God, and so he must be operating under
hallucinations. The plan works, and, as Grace delivers a healthy baby boy, Gurney returns to his senses and reclaims his true identity proclaiming "I'm Jack, I'm Jack".
Sir Charles, still intent on stealing the lordship, sends for a court psychiatrist to evaluate Gurney, confident that his nephew would be sent to an asylum for life. He is once again thwarted, however, when the psychiatrist discovers that Gurney was a fellow
Old Etonian, bonds with him, and declares him
sane.
Gurney soon relapses into
mental illness, however, this time believing himself to be
Jack the Ripper. Now a violent
psychopath with a
puritanical hatred of women, Gurney
murders Sir Charles' wife in a fit of enraged revulsion when the aging woman tries to seduce him. He frames the
Communist family
butler, Tucker, for the murder, and assumes his place in the
House of Lords with a fiery speech in favour of
capital and
corporal punishment. Ironically, the speech is wildly applauded, and the lords have no idea that it's the ranting of a madman, in contrast to society's reaction when Gurney believed he was Christ. That night, he murders Grace for expressing her love for him.
The story's ending is ambiguous; it's left open to interpretation whether Gurney gets caught, or escapes detection to kill again.
Production, release and reaction
The screenplay was adapted by Peter Barnes from his play with few major changes. It cost around $1.4 million, with O'Toole working for free (he was instead paid a great deal for the big budget
Man of La Mancha, released by the same studio later the same year). It was filmed at a sprawling estate in
Harlaxton with the interiors reconstructed on sound stages.
It was the official British entry at the
Cannes Film Festival in 1972, but divided critics.
The New York Times described it as "fantastic fun" and
Variety called it "brilliantly caustic", but the
Los Angeles Times called it "
snail-slow, shrill and gesticulating" and
Newsweek said it was a "sledgehammer
satire". Despite mixed critical reaction to the film, O'Toole's performance was universally praised and garnered numerous pretigious awards and prizes, including an
Academy Award nomination for
Best Actor. Reportedly, when
United Artists, its North American distributor, told producer Jules Buck that it would be cutting the film extensively for US release, Buck punched the company's
London representative and bought the film back.
Avco Embassy then bought distribution rights and cut its 154-minute running time by six minutes.
In 1974, following an earlier-than-normal TV screening of the film on
BBC TV, which broke a gentlemen's agreement allowing a 'window' of theatrical distribution before any TV screening, the
UK's Cinematograph Exhibitors' Association (the theatrical distributors' association) recommended its members black all future movies produced by Jules Buck.
An unsuccessful stage version of the movie opened in
Philadelphia in 1997 with some plot changes, for example Jesus was changed to the
Dalai Lama.
Awards and nominations
Further Information
Get more info on 'The Ruling Class'.
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