The Ruling Class

Peter Medak’s gloriously irreverent The Ruling Class (1972) makes for perfect Easter viewing. An outlandish satire of all things British, it’s nasty, often baffling, frequently surreal and constantly over-the-top – but more to the point, it’s riotously funny throughout. What it lacks in subtlety, it makes up for in sheer hilarity: this may well be the funniest movie of all time. All that, and it features one of Peter O’Toole’s best performances.

The 13th Earl of Gurney (Harry Andrews) dies in a freak accident, and his greedy relatives scheme to divide up his estate. Unfortunately, the Earl named his son Jack (Peter O’Toole) his sole heir – and Jack is a paranoid schizophrenic who thinks he’s Jesus Christ. Jack’s peace and love message pisses off his relatives, charming only his butler Tucker (Arthur Lowe) and Grace (Carolyn Seymour), Uncle Charles’ (William Mervyn) mistress. Charles and sluttish Aunt Claire (Coral Brown) scheme to deprive Jack of his inheritance, while the sadistic Doctor Herder (Michael Bryant) continues his experiments. Jack is eventually “cured,” but transforms from the kind-hearted “JC” to a reincarnated Jack the Ripper – just in time for his investiture in the House of Lords!

The Ruling Class is so over-the-top that it makes Monty Python look like a Noel Coward drawing room comedy. Giving the middle finger to just about everything Establishment – class, religion, patriotism, medicine, even socialism – it trades originality for sheer hilarity. Its social satire is pretty straightforward: Jack’s cheerful “insanity” seems far preferable to the back-biting, greedy and promiscuous aristocrats scheming against him; his Jack the Ripper avoids detection by singing rowing songs and ranting about law and order. The final scene makes the starkest point, showing the House of Lords as decaying skeletons – a sight both disturbing and hilarious.

The movie moves seamlessly through different comic styles: witty dialogue (“How do you know you’re God?” “When I was praying, I found I was talking to myself!”), silliness (Tucker’s drunken antics) and sheer bizarreness (Jack being brutalized by a top-hatted gorilla) work hand-in-hand. The movie even incorporates scenes from other genres, from musical numbers to gothic horror to a swashbuckling walking-stick duel. The overall effect is a comic phantasmagoria that defies description. The movie gets away with nastiness because it’s so funny, in so many ways.

Medak’s direction is handsome but pretty straight-forward: Ken Hodges gets some nice cinematography, and there’s elaborate and creative art direction by Peter Murton. Peter Barnes, adapting his own play for the screen, keeps his biting wit and ebullient satire intact. John Cameron’s score makes an odd mixture of tunes, from patriotic hymns and ragtime to opera and Hollywood standards, perfectly in keeping with the film’s off-the-wall nature.

Peter O’Toole is simply remarkable. He makes Jack ridiculously wacky early on, while retaining an endearing, straightforward charm. Just the sight of Jack in his Christ get-up is funny enough, but O’Toole doesn’t rest on his laurels, investing his part with incredible manic energy. He completely changes tacks for the second half, playing the murderous Jack completely, chillingly straight. If it weren’t for Lawrence of Arabia, this would be his best performance by far, and even then it’s pretty damn close.

The supporting cast is mostly good. The best are Alastair Sim’s (Royal Flash) befuddled Bishop, Arthur Lowe’s (If…) Bolshevik butler and Carolyn Seymour’s (Zorro the Gay Blade) lovely Grace. Harry Andrews’s (Charge of the Light Brigade) big scene goes on a bit too long, but Nigel Green (Khartoum) has an indescribably hilarious cameo as the “Electric Christ,” a raving lunatic who makes Jack look well-adjusted. Kay Walsh (Oliver Twist) and Patsy Byrne (Blackadder II) also put in appearances.

I won’t recommend The Ruling Class to everyone: some will be baffled or put off by its utter strangeness, and many will be offended. As quite the irreverent sort myself, however, I find its bizarre blend of genres and comedic styles indescribably enjoyable. This may well be my favorite comedy of all time, and one I’m happy to revisit when the occasion warrants.