The Ruling Class (1972) by Peter Medak

[cranefly]

Peter O’Toole has a field day playing Jack Gurney, the schizophrenic son of the Earl of Gurney. When the Earl dies suddenly during a silly sex game, Jack inherits all. He shows up at the estate dressed as and believing he is Jesus, much to the alarm of the Gurney family. The rest of the movie consists of their attempts to wrest the estate from him.

This was another 366weirdmovies entry. While it certainly has its weird moments, I felt the storyline and character motivations were far too familiar to qualify it as truly weird. Lady Cranefly was of the same opinion. A bit long in the tooth and heavy-handed, but still, Peter O-Toole is a joy to watch, especially when he’s playing an eccentric character.

The DVD had no subtitles, and the British accents made for some rough going for me.

There’s a bit of a swordfight, by the way, but nothing to tweet home about.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

It was revolutionary in it's day. I think most of Doom have seen this.

Ballet skirt? What was he doing in a ballet skirt?

[El Dingo]

This is one of my favorite films and cemented Peter O'Toole as my favorite actor. It's a hard film to discuss because every scene is a social commentary that branches to other discussions, from mental illness to religion to class to happiness to morality to evil etc.

Everyone should be required to watch this movie and discuss it for weeks afterward.

[cranefly]

Apparently the version I saw is not the one that originally came out in theaters in the US in 1972. Ebert discusses it in his review here:
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-ruling-class-1972

In a nutshell, the US version was cut by 15-20 minutes, and while some might be outraged by such butchering, Ebert -- who saw both versions -- leans towards believing the cuts were beneficial. In essence, when he later saw the wholly intact film, it seemed less effective.

Anyway, I did find it well worth watching.

By the way, in the credits for location shoots, I saw a thank you to the University of Evansville, Indiana. I couldn't believe that any part of it was shot in the US. After some web searches, I finally solved the mystery. Here's what movie-locations.com says about it.

The fantastical exterior of ‘Gurney Manor’ is Harlaxton Manor, an extravagant neo-Elizabethan extravaganza a couple of miles west of Grantham, Lincolnshire. Now home to Harlaxton College, part of the University of Evansville, Indiana, it’s not generally open to the public, though it is possible to book group tours and there are occasional open days.

The manor is probably more familiar now from the lurid 1999 remake of The Haunting.