Aristocrat Ralph Gurney, the 13th Earl of Gurney, dies from accidental auto-asphyxiation while dressed in a tutu. His mentally-disturbed son Jack (Peter O'Toole) takes over most of the estate despite his delusions of being Jesus Christ. His uncle Sir Charles and wife Lady Claire are infuriated. Charles and Claire pair up his mistress Grace with Jack. Their plan is to marry them off and send him to an institution. It goes off course as Grace falls for Jack as Dr. Herder tries to cure him.This stage play is filmed without much imagination. It all falls on O'Toole to give this movie life. It's rather flat without him. It tries to skewer the British aristocrats but they are rather easy targets. It's a black comedy with limited laughs. Alastair Sim has a supporting role. This movie needs more O'Toole and limit the scenes without him.

This movie is sometimes brilliant, sometimes silly, sometimes surreal, sometimes tragic, sometimes wickedly satirical, and always schizophrenic (which is the whole point). It's also the only film in which Jesus Christ does the Varsity Drag. Peter O'Toole plays the paranoid schizophrenic heir to an English earldom, and as his relatives try to either cure him or commit him, what we think is being played for laughs slowly becomes something far darker.O'Toole's performance is brilliant, bringing out this man's almost unbearable pain as he tries to hold his mind together by escaping into whatever fantasy world he can manage. Unfortunately, escaping into a world where he is God and everyone loves each other does not work for society, so his family has to snap him out of that so he can become acceptable. At its core, the film is about what kind of insanity (and what kind of god) is acceptable in upper-class British society, and it makes its points on that score very well. But unfortunately, it's far too long; there are so many supporting characters with their own subplots that it gets bogged down in many places. But if you can last through the slow parts, you'll be rewarded with some unforgettable scenes before the end. Seven stars.

Gross, frequently tasteless satire, much as if Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove" were transplanted to England's House of Lords and then played at the wrong speed. After the Earl of Gurney accidentally kills himself during one of his fetish games, the 14th Earl--son Jack--is groomed to accept the crown. Once mad Jack--who believes himself to be Christ--undergoes a mental transformation on the night of his son's birth and self-metamorphoses into Jack the Ripper, the plot (thin to begin with) becomes a dartboard for the one-liners (some of which are very funny and are a compensation). Peter Barnes adapted his play for the screen, the kind of material upper-crust audiences like to label 'savage'; he was reciprocated with a game cast and a fine director in Peter Medak, yet these nutty fantasies are merely clotheslines for Barnes to hang his maddening soliloquies on. Peter O'Toole (with cartoony strawberry-blond hair) has some terrific moments early on, particularly in the musical send-ups, but later begins to bellow and rarely stops. The film is too full of targets, and too nasty overall, for its extreme length...it doesn't even look good. ** from ****

They almost never show this on TV. Sad. It is a remarkable film and Peter O'Toole is simply brilliant as Jack.The fight scene between the two "gods" is wonderful. Almost makes me wish they made a sequel about the life of the electromagnetic god who has to recharge via an open light socket. Great fun and then downright chilling at the end. The butler is one of the better characters, as is old Alastair Sim as the Bishop. "Why was he wearing a ballet skirt?" Poor old dear. As good as Brando was in The Godfather, I still think O'Toole should have trumped him for Best Actor that year. I mean, Brando played a great character, but O'Toole ACTED in this, acted up, down, right, left, and sideways. He is not the same character at the end ... oh, no.