The Ruling Class – 1972 | 154 mins | Comedy | Colour

Plot Synopsis

Peter Medak‘s irreverent black comedy The Ruling Class is based on playwright Peter Barnes’ caustic hit play and scripted by the author. This controversial tragicomedy managed to condemn and satirise just about every section of the British aristocracy – from the public school system to the House of Lords, and from the Church to homosexuality. This send-up of the British upper classes is overlong, self-indulgent and ultimately flawed but for all its failings is frequently wildly funny. It also boasts some truly inspirational performances, including Peter O’Toole, who received an Oscar nomination for his energetic tour de force, Alastair Sim as a dotty bishop and Arthur Lowe as a insolent drunken left-wing butler.

Following the darkly amusing death of the 13th Earl of Gurney (Harry Andrews), who hung himself whilst attempting an evening ritual of auto-erotic asphyxiation, the House of Gurney has a family problem – namely the title and estate passes to Jack, the paranoid schizophrenic 14th Earl of Gurney (Peter O’ Toole). The Earl has voluntarily spent seven years in a mental clinic and believes he is the second coming of Jesus Christ and when restored to `normalcy’ turns into Jack the Ripper. Unfortunately, the young earl is also the sole heir to the family fortune, so his scheming uncle, Sir Charles (William Mervyn), goes to great lengths to trick him into siring a new heir with his gold-digger mistress Grace Shelley (Carolyn Seymour). Then they can institutionalise him and gain access to the money through the child. But following the birth of his child the Earl of Gurney appears to have grasped some form of normality, if still eccentric, and prefers to be recognised by his Christian name ‘Jack’.