British Film: The Ruling Class (1972) starring Peter O'Toole

 Of course there is nothing  funny at all about schizophrenia, but the awkwardness of a group of rich people faced with schizophrenia in the main heir to the house of Gurney might be.  And against the backdrop of trying to maintain the proprieties and traditions of British nobility, it can be.  The fact that Jack (Peter O'Toole) suffers the delusion that he is Jesus, the son of God, leads to some amusing dialogue.  He wears his hair long in the fashion of Jesus, he has installed a giant cross platform in the main hall of the house and goes up there to nap. 

His uncle and aunt and his adult son, who also live at the ancestral home, plot more or less openly to have Jack committed once they can get him to produce a male heir. 

The members of the household of the 14th Earl of Gurney are an adulterous bunch, the German psychiatrist, Herder, in the nearby insane asylum/ mental hospital is having an affair with the aunt.  The uncle offers up his mistress, Grace, as Jack's wife.  Jack and Grace are duly married in the Church of England with all the festivity one would expect. 

Meanwhile the manservant Tucker, a closet "Bolshie" who drinks too much,  is making snide remarks about the upper classes and seems to be Jack's only real friend.  

In time a male heir is born, also named Jack.  Now the uncle can spring his trap.  He calls over the psychiatric examiner to determine in his judgment whether Jack is insane or not.   However Jack has suddenly and seemingly "recovered" from his delusions that he is Jesus, owing to a staged confrontation with another mental patient who also thinks of himself as God.  This is effected with the help of the asylum director Herder who brings this lunatic along with two dark suited men to restrain him during a thunderstorm.  It seems to work.

 The next day, Jack is shorn of his Jesus locks, the beard, and is apparently recovered.  He now calls himself "Jack" which is his given name and seems ready and willing to assume his new duties as the 14th Earl of Gurney.   

It gradually becomes clear that Jack is not "recovered" at all.  Unfortunately Jack has merely traded one delusional identity as Jesus for another, that of "Jack the Ripper".

  As the Earl he is accepted along with his now harsh views of criminal justice and the best way to quell civil disorder.  Whereas Jesus was the Prince of Peace and the God of Love,  Jack is none of this.    However as a stodgy conservative in the House of Lords he fits right in.  His young wife is truly in love with him, his aunt is in love with him, and that's too bad, because he's Jack the Ripper and he murders them both.  End of story.

Clearly this is not the kind of film you would take a date to, expecting to score the late innings.  It is funny and even brilliant in parts, but the frequent swings between stark realism and whimsy (and even song and dance) is liable to cause the viewer to suffer from plot whiplash.   Are we watching a story of a madman or are we going mad ourselves?  Meanwhile the fox during the fox hunt pauses to relieve itself against a tree.

Harlaxton Manor, which is now owned by the University of Evansville.