The Ruling Class (1972) on Netflix
After Ralph Gurney, the 13th Earl of Gurney, dies, his son Jack inherits the title and the estate. Jack believes he is Jesus Christ, and his family wants the inheritance for itself.
- Netflix3.2/5
- IMDb7.2/107,383 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes83%
Trailer
Plot summary
Jack Gurney becomes the 14th Earl of Gurney after his father Ralph dies in an accident. Jack has been away for seven years with no contact with his extended family; he believes he spent that time at a monastery, but he was a voluntary patient in a psychiatric hospital, admitted at his father's request. Jack is a paranoid schizophrenic who believes he is Jesus Christ, leading a movement for eternal love, and he comes to the estate preaching that all men are equal, breaking into song and dance and sleeping upright on a cross. His uncle, Sir Charles, and the family fear what the new Earl will do to the peerage and to the historic Gurney name.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Ruling Class (1972)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Peter O'Toole owned the rights to Peter Barnes's play and kept director Peter Medak waiting; after a night of pub-crawling from Soho to Hampstead, the drunk O'Toole gave his manager 24 hours to set the film up, and the next day Medak got a call from United Artists with a deal.
- When United Artists told producer Jules Buck it would cut the film extensively for its US release, Buck punched the company's London representative and bought the film back; Avco Embassy then took the distribution rights and cut six minutes from the 154-minute running time.
- The film was shot at the estate of Harlaxton Manor with interiors reconstructed on sound stages and cost $1.4 million; Peter O'Toole worked for free, having instead been paid a great deal for the big-budget Man of La Mancha, released by the same studio that same year.
- After an earlier-than-normal BBC Television screening broke a gentlemen's agreement that gave cinemas a window before any TV showing, the UK's Cinematograph Exhibitors' Association recommended its members blacklist all future films produced by Jules Buck.
