Comedy

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The Ruling Class

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United Kingdom

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Peter O'Toole

Alastair Sim

Arthur Lowe

Harry Andrews

Coral Browne

Michael Bryant

Nigel Green

William Mervyn

Carolyn Seymour

James Villiers

Kay Walsh

Patsy Byrne

Graham Crowden

Hugh Burden

James Grout

James Hazeldine

Joan Cooper

Hugh Owens

Henry Woolf

Griffith Davies

Oliver MacGreevy

Neil Kennedy

Cyril Appleton

Leslie Schofield

Declan Mulholland

Ronald Adam

Julian D'Albie

Llewellyn Rees

Kenneth Benda

Ernest Blyth

Terence Conoley

George Hilsdon

Margaret Lacey

Mike Reynell

Robert Rietti

Guy Standeven

John Tatham

Fred Wood

Peter Medak

Peter Barnes

Jules Buck

Jack Hawkins

David Korda

Ken Hodges

Ray Lovejoy

Maude Spector

Peter Murton

Ruth Myers

Eric Allwright

Ramon Gow

Susie Hill

Charles E. Parker

Tim Hampton

Bert Batt

Bill Westley

John Cameron

Robin Gregory

CinemaSerf

The isn't actually a very good film, I felt - but it is does feature an extraordinary performance from Peter O'Toole as the "Earl of Gurney", about to take his seat in the house of Lords after his father has an untimely accident involving a noose and a tutu. His family are horrified at the prospect. Why? Well, that's because the new peer happens to believe he is Jesus. He spends much of his day contemplating or sleeping erect on his cruciform ornament in the great hall whilst the remainder of his rather eccentric family, and their boozy butter "Tucker" (Arthur Lowe) go about their business. They decide the only way to deal with him is to marry him off, beget an heir, then parcel him off to the asylum so they can resume their ordinary lives... What's probably most notable about this very theatrical black comedy is that it deals with just about everything from religion to vivisection, blasphemy (for many) to insinuendo (that's insidious innuendo in case you didn't know) and almost certainly would not be made now, 50 years on - being about as politically incorrect as it conceivable to be. British cinema always seems to take rather dim view of the church when it comes to comedy, and here Alastair Sim nobly continues with that tradition; Lowe is super as the butler - who's inherited £30,00 from the deceased so is in clover (when he is sober) and the two performances from William Mervyn and Coral Browne as his principal protagonists are amusing as their dastardly scheme takes shape. Sadly, though, it's all way too intense a pace to sustain, and despite the Oscar-nominated efforts of the star, the story begins to run out of steam quite quickly and the joke to wear a bit thin. There is nothing at all subtle about the humour and after a while I just stopped laughing. It is a beautifully shot film, the former Astor residence of Cliveden providing the setting for the ancestral family home, and the score from John Cameron mixes the original with just about everything from sea shanty fo high opera to ably support this preposterous swipe at the class system. It is too long, indeed it is far too long, but at times it shows creative British film making at it's most innovative and amusing and fans of O'Toole will probably appreciate (as would he, I suspect) the wedding scenes near the end... Fun, but over-stretched.

Criterion Trailer 132: The Ruling Class

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The Ruling Class

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Cast

Peter O'Toole

Alastair Sim

Arthur Lowe

Harry Andrews

Coral Browne

Michael Bryant

Nigel Green

William Mervyn

Carolyn Seymour

James Villiers

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