The Ruling Class

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Ask your average film buff about the most vicious celluloid portrayal of the British ruling class and they’re likely to steer you in the direction of Lindsay Anderson’s ’If…’.

Nowadays Anderson’s film, made in 1968, is a staple of the re-runs on Film Four, it’s social satire blunted by over-familiarity and some rather romantic illusions about the revolutionary potential of young Etonians. Of course it’s a landmark film. Malcolm McDowell’s performance is riveting, and Anderson is at his best. But time and familiarity have dulled its impact.

The same can’t be said for Peter Medak’s wonderful film ‘The Ruling Class’, made a few years later in 1972 and featuring a superb cast including Peter O’Toole, Alaistair Sim and Arthur Lowe. Like ‘If…’ it’s very much a product of its time, but in truth it’s such an unclassifiable oddity that even its kitsch 70s aura somehow adds to its appeal.

The film tells the story of Jack, the 14th Earl of Gurney (played with evident relish by O’Toole), charting his journey from harmless eccentric to pathological champion of ‘Victorian values’. It tells the tale with humour, some utterly off-the-wall song and dance routines, and a razor-sharp acuity which allows Medak to expose the avaricious mendacity of our degenerate upper classes even while we’re laughing at their excesses. The final scene in the House of Lords, in particular, is utterly unforgettable.

Oh yes, and Arthur Lowe does a wonderful turn as a butler who just happens to be a secret disciple of Karl Marx…   

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