Movie Music Archives #016: “The Ruling Class”
Plot outline: Peter O’Toole is Jack, a man who is cured of his belief that he is God, only to turn into Jack the Ripper. The movie, an indictment of Britain’s class system, peers behind the closed doors of English aristocracy and deals with everything from sadistic sarcasm to insanity to black comedy… as well as a touch of the Hollywood musical.
This lengthy and willfully incoherent slab of weirdness features O’Toole doing a handful of vaudeville-type numbers, the highlight of which is “The Varsity Drag”. At times both whimsical and terrfying, due to what I think is a spot-on representation of the the depravity of aristocracy, these songs are effective punctuation throughout the film. This vinyl rip of the LP, unfortunately, is not track-listed; it is only two tracks, a Side A and a Side B.
Glenn Erickson of DVD Talk sez:
“‘The Ruling Class’ sneaked onto the scene as one of those off-the-wall things that hipsters said you had to see, even if they couldn’t explain it. (My two friends and I at a Westwood screening seemed to be the only people in the audience not smoking dope.) A combination of sophomoric sub-Monty Python jokes and bizarre Lewis Carroll-like speeches, this is basically a drawing-room comedy on acid.
It’s a black comedy, where people you don’t understand kill themselves and each other, where all the characters seem to be broad caricatures to be lampooned. It does its best to be offensive, with all manner of slights to the Church (not necessarily Christianity). The only thing like it is the more successful (and far less classifiable) ‘O Lucky Man’ from the same year. ‘The Ruling Class’ almost plays as an upscale Lindsay Anderson wanna-be, an idea underscored by the use of several favorites from the Anderson club (Lowe, Graham Crowden). Mixing variety hall comedy, Hollywood songs and semi- choreographed dance numbers, what’s obviously desired is a double assault on the senses and the funny bone.
There are laughs. Peter O’Toole’s manic delivery sells his gibberish lines in much the desperate but effective manner of ‘What’s New Pussycat?’. He’s very likeable as the lost-lamb Jesus, and terrifying as the bloodless-faced Jack of the final reel.”
March 25th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
DVD Ripper Aaron…
Weird! What motivated you to write this.Wow nice article. This post sounds familiar. I don’t know about you folks, but that tickled me…
April 26th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
Online Poker…
Online Poker Top Online Casinos…
April 29th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
Online Poker Sites…
Online Poker Sites
Casino Games
Play Poker
Online Gambling
Keno
Free Slots
Top Online Casinos…
May 1st, 2008 at 11:21 am
Blackberry Ringtones…
College Ringtones
Crank Ringtone
Crazy frog Ringtone
Create Ringtones
Cricket Ringtones
Ctu Ringtone
Dave matthews band Ringtones
Disney Ringtones
Download free Ringtones
Download Ringtones
Elvis Ringtones
Final fantasy…
May 1st, 2008 at 6:50 pm
School Ringtones…
Ctu Ringtone
Dave matthews band Ringtones
Disney Ringtones
…
May 2nd, 2008 at 2:23 am
Mp3 Ringtone…
Hot Ringtones�
Idol Ringtones�
Iphone Ringtones
…
May 2nd, 2008 at 9:55 am
Create Ringtones…
Mp3 Ringtone
Music Ringtones
Nascar Ringtones
…
May 2nd, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Verizon Ringtones…
Real Ringtones
Ringtone
Ringtone converter
…
May 3rd, 2008 at 12:47 am
Real Ringtones…
Ringtone software
Samsung Ringtones
School Ringtones
…
May 3rd, 2008 at 8:26 am
Ghost Ringtone…
Turkey Ringtones
Us cellular Ringtones
Verizon Ringtones
…
May 3rd, 2008 at 3:48 pm
American idol Ringtones…
Akon Ringtones
Alltel Ringtones
American idol Ringtones
…
July 5th, 2008 at 8:36 am
Elvis Ringtones…
A woman at a party walked up to a man and told him, ”If you were my husband I would poison your drink.” The man replied, ”If you were my wife I would drink it.”:)…
July 28th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
collagen…
herbs containing natural collagen…
August 19th, 2008 at 12:15 am
poker flash game…
Before poker texas sicheres online spielen 7 card stud poker tournament software el juego de casino…