King of Hearts (1966) on Netflix
In 1918, retreating Germans rig a French town's clock to explode at midnight. Signaller Charles Plumpick is sent to disarm it, and asylum inmates take him for the King of Hearts.
- Netflix4.1/5
- IMDb7.3/104,713 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes89%
Trailer
Plot summary
In the last weeks of World War I, the residents of a small French village flee as the German occupiers withdraw, leaving only the inmates of the local asylum. The Germans have wired the town clock to a bomb set for midnight, when a mechanical knight is to strike the bell and set off the blast. The warning that reaches the Allies is garbled, and mentions only a knight striking at midnight. Signaller Charles Plumpick, a pigeon handler with no knowledge of explosives, is sent to disarm the charge and puzzle out the phrase. He arrives with two pigeons in a cage, dodges German soldiers, and takes shelter in the asylum, changing into pajamas and falling in with inmates who call themselves the Duke of Clubs and Monsignor Daisy.
Cast
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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about King of Hearts (1966)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- King of Hearts was not especially successful in France in 1966, with only 141,035 admissions, but became a cult film when Randy Finley and Specialty Films bought its US distribution rights in Seattle in 1973, pairing it with Marv Newland's Bambi Meets Godzilla and John Magnuson's Thank You Mask Man; it later ran five years at Cambridge's Central Square Cinemas.
- A 1978 Broadway musical adaptation of King of Hearts opened at New York City's Minskoff Theatre on 22 October, amid a three-month newspaper strike that may have impeded its advance publicity, and closed after only 48 performances.
