One of the biggest cult films of the 60s and 70s* is now back for a brief theatrical run on it's way to Blu Ray and Streaming courtesy of a new 4K Restoration by the Cohen Media Group to commemorate its 50th Anniversary. The restoration looks fine, if not extraordinary (it may look better on Blu-Ray since most theaters will be showing it via 2K DCP). Reviewing the film for the first time is a bit tricky in light of its formidable cult history. At the time, it's success was often chalked up to as a counter-culture commentary on the insanity of the Vietnam War. By the 80s and 90s, KING got tabbed as 'of its time' and 'dated' (a term I despise). In 2018? With distance, one can look at it as the timeless fable it always was at its core. A British soldier Plumpick (Alan Bates) is sent to a small German occupied village in WWI on a spy mission. Unbeknownst to the Allied forces, the village has already been evacuated and the Germans have also left (leaving a nasty surprise behind). In a bizarre turn of events, the village's only inhabitants are the patients at an insane asylum. The patients soon dub Plumpick their de facto ruler - 'The King of Hearts'. Not content with just a 'King', the patients dress up and become characters of their own - everything from Dukes and Duchesses, to Prostitutes and Madams. A particularly winsome lass, Coquelicot (Genevieve Bujold) is presented as a possible Queen to the 'King'. There is much frivolity and preciousness on hand, much of it entertaining, and much of it cloying (and all of it will be found offensive to many people offended at its portrayal of the mentally ill). De Broca's direction and the script by Daniel Boulanger and Maurice Bessy moves in fits and starts. How enjoyable one finds it will depend on one's tolerance for such whimsy. The performances are energetic and its no wonder Bujold (in her yellow tutu) soon became an international name. The film's message that the insanity of war would be no different with the actual 'insane' in charge (if not better off!) is facile, of course, but, one can see how it would have had resonance during a time of war, protest, assassinations and such. It's like Renoir's RULES OF THE GAME as played by mad fools. But, rather than just saying it's 'dated' and 'of its time' (just as facile, in my book), its better to just look at KING OF HEARTS as fairy-tale for all times. * After not doing much business in its initial run, KING OF HEARTS had a legendary 4 to 5 year run (depending on the source) at the now defunct Central Square Cinemas in Boston. During that period it spread to midnight shows, college campuses and revival houses across the country. It remained in regular revival house distribution into the 80s.

Sometimes a movie can hit you a certain way, and then when you go back to recapture what you remember, it's gone like some dream. This was one of the more extreme examples for me, a delightful farce when I saw it in high school that became a lead balloon for me as a middle-aged adult.In the last full month of World War I, German troops prepare to evacuate a French town, but not before laying explosives to blow it up the next time the church clock strikes midnight. The townspeople learn of this and flee, so when Scottish soldier Pvt. Charles Plumpick (Alan Bates) shows up to reconnoiter, he finds only escapees from the local insane asylum, a merry band who make Plumpick their king. But he knows about the explosives, and tries to get them to leave."What characters!" Plumpick exclaims. "I can't let you die!"I think that was the brief director Philippe de Broca gave his cast, to play up their various mild forms of insanity for all they could as they don the outfits of the townspeople who fled. It is what passes for comedy in this undernourished farce.Geneviève Bujold plays a woman named Poppy who flounces and curtsies after finding a tutu, while Michel Serrault becomes a mincing hairdresser when he comes upon a fancy wig. Adolfo Celi plays Bates' Scottish commander, which means we get to watch the normally menacing Italian actor in a kilt doing a jig. The supporting performances are entirely too broad. There are also chess-playing monkeys and an elephant waving a white flag, which draws a Benny-Hill-type reaction from investigating soldiers. It's that kind of film.Bates meanwhile is entirely too subdued in the lead role, probably because it requires him to play unconscious entirely too often. He falls for Poppy and accepts the crown, but he's otherwise frustratingly passive and given to acting as oddly as anyone else.The point of the film, as other reviewers note, is the insanity of war and who are the real mad people anyway. It's an entirely too obvious point dragged across the screen like a plowshare. Plumpick's commander keeps calling him "Pumpernickel" to show how dense he is, and assigns him the job of dismantling the explosives because he's a "specialist," not bothering to learn it's the wrong kind. But we see the Germans wantonly killing civilians and laying explosives to demolish the town, making Plumpick's mission a humanitarian one.The insanity aspect is weakly handled, too. I understand this is a farce and not a clinical study of people in altered mental states, but de Broca doesn't have any ideas what to do with the madness aspect other than have his inmates toss a rugby ball around a street or carry colorful umbrellas from scene to scene."You pay customers?""Yes, that's why business is good."I kept wondering why I liked this film so much back when. Maybe because it presents a kind of funhouse mirror to society I found appealing then. "King Of Hearts" does have visual charms, a pleasingly Mancini-lite musical score, and a final pair of scenes that are surprisingly eloquent in delivering a satisfying ending. But it was hard to appreciate them as much when I found the rest of the film a chore to sit through. Were my expectations too high? Maybe, but it wasn't helped by the weak story, lame humor, and forgettable characters.

I originally saw this film the year it was released in the USA. I laughed like crazy the first time, though I knew the film was much deeper. When I returned for a second time I bit my tongue and concentrated on the real message, a very powerful one, indeed. It remains my favorite film. Have I seen better films? Sure, but this one touched my heart. It was the right film at the right time at the right place.In the beginning, it's a real treat to see the communications specialist wandering into the recently abandoned French town carrying a cage of pigeons. This is Pvt. Plumpick, played by the late, great Alan Bates. Well, he finds the town isn't exactly abandoned and gets chased into the town's insane asylum, hiding with the patients. When he gives his name as King of Hearts (the previous name was the Duke of Clubs)the delusional patients are overjoyed to see the king return. The Germans who chased him are spooked by the crazy people and leave. Plumpick leaves the asylum and proceeds to check out the town. He sends a two part (two pigeon) message, but one bird doesn't make it through. Then he gets knocked out by a falling pole. When he awakes the town is busy with people, but as he wanders around he sees some very odd things. His messages are equally odd and confuse the already confused British general. What they do manage to deduce is that there probably is some kind of bomb set to go off at midnight. Finally Plumpick finds out it's the asylum patients who have come into the city and assumed roles. Of course, they are thrilled to find the King and the fun really begins. Some comments focus on the patients not being really insane, but in those days, unless the family was very rich, anyone in the family who was "off" usually got packed off to an asylum to avoid stigmatizing the family. Plus most families expected their children to work and those "off" kids were of little use to them. Also,lots of people believed insanity might be a transmittable disease. We know better these days.The inmates have their time in the city in their various roles. They are still delusional and mostly act like children with new toys. Look for Michel Seurralt as the hairdresser, who will play Albin/Zaza in the La Cage aux Folles films. When I watch the film now -- I've watched it so many times I've lost count -- I like to focus on specific characters, and have grown to love everyone in the town.Things move along and, of course, this dreamland can't last forever. But if you think the wonderful part about the patients running the town was theater of the absurd, just wait, the best of that is yet to come. And I can't imagine any other way the film could have ended. A very powerful conclusion adorned by the insanity of theater of the absurd. Ionesco has nothing on De Broca! Just a beautiful film that occupies a permanent space in my heart and mind.

In 1967, my young husband and I blundered on this movie as part of a double feature. We were waiting to see the beginning of another movie that we had watched from the middle, having arrived late, as was customary at that time. As this masterpiece, unheralded to us, unfolded, we turned to each other in wonder. Later, we learned of its highly deserved cult status. I was unaware that the 60's were to be a golden age of cinema; one needs distance to appreciate this. Le Roi de Coeur is elegant, beautiful, visually charming, humorous, and finely acted. And in the service of a serious theme, as well. Most highly recommended, and far above current movie productions of any type.