The Ruling Class (film)
The Ruling Class | |
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Directed by | Peter Medak |
Written by | Peter Barnes |
Based on | The Ruling Class by Peter Barnes |
Produced by | |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Ken Hodges |
Edited by | Ray Lovejoy |
Music by | John Cameron |
Distributed by |
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Release date |
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Running time | 154 minutes |
Language | English |
Budget | $1.4 million |
The Ruling Class is a 1972 British
The film has been described as a "commercial failure ... [that] has since become a cult classic";[2] Peter O'Toole described it as "a comedy with tragic relief".[3]
Plot
Following the death from accidental asphyxiation of Ralph Gurney, 13th
Herder attempts to cure him through intensive
Sir Charles sends for a court-appointed psychiatrist to evaluate Jack, confident that his nephew will be sent to an asylum for life. He is once again thwarted when the psychiatrist discovers that Jack was a fellow Old Etonian, bonds with him and declares him sane.
Jack murders Lady Claire in a fit of rage when the aging woman tries to seduce him. He frames the
Cast
- Peter O'Toole – Jack Gurney, 14th Earl of Gurney
- Coral Browne – Lady Claire
- William Mervyn – Sir Charles
- James Villiers – Dinsdale, Sir Charles and Lady Claire's son
- Arthur Lowe – Tucker
- Alastair Sim – Bishop Lampton
- Carolyn Seymour – Grace
- Michael Bryant – Dr. Herder
- Graham Crowden – Dr. Truscott
- Harry Andrews – Ralph Gurney, 13th Earl of Gurney
- Hugh Owens – The toastmaster
- Hugh Burden – Matthew Peake
- Oliver McGreevy– Inmates
- Kay Walsh – Mrs. Piggott-Jones
- Patsy Byrne – Mrs. Treadwell
- Nigel Green – McKyle
- Cyril Appleton, Leslie Schofield – McKyle's assistants
- Joan Cooper – Nurse Brice
- Declan Mulholland – A poacher
- James Grout – Inspector Brockett
- James Hazeldine – Fraser
- Ronald Adam, Julian D'Albie, Llewellyn Rees – Lords
- Kenneth Benda – Lord Chancellor
Production
O'Toole held the rights to Barnes's play; Peter Medak approached O'Toole repeatedly about exercising those rights. According to Medak, the project got started one night that he and O'Toole were returning from the theatre, which "meant stopping at every pub between Soho and Hampstead, and it didn't matter if it was after closing hour because he would knock on the door and just say 'Peter's here,' and every door opened for him". Later on, at O'Toole's apartment, the deeply inebriated actor phoned his manager and said, "I'm with the crazy Hungarian and I know I'm drunk but I give you 24 hours to set this movie up." The next day, Medak received a call from United Artists and a deal was put together to shoot The Ruling Class.[2]
Peter Barnes adapted the screenplay from his 1968 original, with few major changes. Filmed at the sprawling estate of Harlaxton Manor, with the interiors reconstructed on sound stages, the production cost $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).[citation needed]
The Ruling Class was the official British entry at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival.
Reception
The film 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". Jay Cocks called the screenplay a "snarling, overwrought and somewhat parochial satire on aristocracy and privileged morality"; he called the film "wretchedly photographed...as if it were shot under floodlights". In contrast Cocks praised the performances by Lowe, Mervyn, Browne, Alastair Sim and James Villiers, but reserved most of his praise for O'Toole, saying his performance is of "such intensity that it may trouble sleep as surely as it will haunt memory. All actors can play insanity; few play it well. O'Toole begins where other actors stop, with the unfocused gaze, the abrupt bursts of frenzied high spirits and precipitous depressions. Funny, disturbing, finally devastating, O'Toole finds his way into the workings of madness, revealing the anger and consuming anguish at the source."[4] John Simon described The Ruling Class as a "delightful satire".[5]
Despite mixed critical reaction to the film, O'Toole's performance was universally praised and garnered numerous prestigious awards and prizes, including an
The film was banned by the South African Publications Control Board.
In a review nearly 30 years after The Ruling Class was first released,
Awards and nominations
- 1972 National Board of Review of Motion Pictures - Won NBR Award (Best Actor) - Peter O'Toole
- 1972 Cannes Film Festival - Nominated for the Palme d'Or[7]
- 1973 Academy Awards - Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor - Peter O'Toole
- Golden Globefor Best English Language Foreign Film
Subsequent history
In 1974, following an earlier-than-normal TV screening of the film on BBC Television that 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 blacklist all future movies produced by Jules Buck.[8]
Embassy Pictures re-released the film in May 1983.[9]
References
- ^ Variety film review; 19 April 1972, page 18.
- ^ a b Tatara, Paul. "The Ruling Class". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 22 May 2011.
- ^ a b "The Independent on Sunday (London), 23rd July 2001". 23 July 2001. Archived from the original on 7 January 2008. Retrieved 23 September 2007.
- ^ Cocks, Jay (18 September 1972). "Cinema: Cartoons from Punch". Time. Archived from the original on 14 September 2012. Retrieved 22 May 2011.
- ^ Simon, John (2005). John Simon on Film: Criticism 1982-2001. Applause Books. p. 313.
- ^ Christie, Ian (29 October 2001). "The Ruling Class". The Criterion Collection. Retrieved 22 May 2011.
- ^ "Festival de Cannes: The Ruling Class". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 14 April 2009.
- ^ "British Film Institute 'Key Events' list for 1974" (PDF). Retrieved 23 September 2007.[dead link]
- Klemesrud, Judy (8 May 1983). "Cinema: Cartoons from Punch". Arts and Leisure. The New York Times. Retrieved 22 May 2011.
External links
- The Ruling Class at IMDb
- The Ruling Class at Rotten Tomatoes
- The Ruling Class at AllMovie
- A Grade One, Galilee Miracle from yoism.org, with a film clip in which the O'Toole character claims that he is Jesus Christ and presents a "miracle"
- The Ruling Class an essay by Criterion Collection