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Following the death from accidental asphyxiation of Ralph Gurney, 13th Earl of Gurney, Jack Gurney (O’Toole) becomes the 14th Earl of Gurney. Jack is a paranoid schizophrenic who thinks he is Jesus Christ, and shocks his family and friends with his talk of returning to his inheritance the world to bring it love and charity, not to mention his penchant for breaking out into song and dance routines and sleeping upright on a cross.
Nearly 25 years ago – approximately the midway point between today and the film’s original release - Ian Christie anticipated The Ruling Class’s elevation to cult classic in a 2001 essay that opened thus: “The Ruling Class may not be recognized as a neglected masterpiece—at least, not yet.” Noting that “both play and film appeared between the great Profumo-Keeler society sex scandal of 1963 … and the mysterious disappearance of Lord Lucan in 1973 … life, and indeed death, seemed to imitate art, even in its most caricatured form.”
The play could only have appeared in 1968, the pivotal moment the 60s dream began to curdle into violence, and anarchy seemed a palpable threat to the establishment, ready to push back with
all its might. “Allegory, fantasy, and phantasmagoria” are brought to the screen while “reinventing the great studio tradition of British ‘40s cinema, which produced such films as Lean’s Dickens adaptations and Powell and Pressburger’s melodramas.”
Christie concluded, “This will never be a film for purists, but its ripeness and excess, its alert self-parody and breadth of cultural reference, mark it out as one to be cherished—and also appreciated, as an avatar of the renewed interest in high-voltage performance that runs through much distinctive cinema of the
'80s and '90s, from Russell and Gilliam to Greenaway and Jarman. Above all, it’s a great, disturbing black comedy, and deservedly now a cult classic.” [Criterion, 2001]
Starring Peter O'Toole, Alastair Sim & Arthur Lowe [Running time 2 hours 34 minutes + brief interval]
📽️ Doors open 5.30, for drinks, nibbles & classic cocktails.
📽️ Films start 6.30 with a brief introduction from the curators.
📽️ Entry is free with a yearly ticket, although we suggest a small donation of £5 per person to help keep the lights on. Yearly tickets can be purchased on the door (£7.50 adult / £6.00 concessions).
📽️ If you buy tickets and are subsequently unable to attend, please let us know as soon as possible so that we can give your seat(s) to someone else.
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