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King of Hearts (1966 film)
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Wikipedia article
'King of Hearts' (original French title: 'Le Roi de cur') is a 1966 French/Italian international co-production comedy-drama film directed by Philippe de Broca and starring Alan Bates and Genevive Bujold.
The film is set in a small town in France near the end of World War I. As the Imperial German Army retreats, they booby trap the whole town to explode. The locals flee and, left to their own devices, a gaggle of cheerful lunatics escape the asylum and take over the town — thoroughly confusing the lone Scottish soldier who has been dispatched to defuse the bomb.
Plot
Signaller Charles Plumpick (Bates) is a kilt-wearing French-born Scottish soldier caring for war pigeons, who is sent by his commanding officer to disarm a bomb placed in the town square by the retreating Germans.
After the townspeople learn about the booby trap, its inhabitantsincluding those who run the insane asylumabandon it. The asylum gates are left open, and the inmates leave the asylum and take on the roles of the townspeople. Plumpick has no reason to think they are not who they appear to beother than the colorful and playful way in which they're living their lives, so at odds with the fearful and war-ravaged times. The lunatics crown Plumpick the King of Hearts with surreal pageantry as he frantically tries to find the bomb before it goes off.
Theatrical releases
When it was released in France in 1966, 'King of Hearts' was not especially successful critically or at the box office, with only 141,035 admissions.[http://www.jpbox-office.com/fichfilm.php?id=9188&affich=france J.P.'s Box Office]
However, it achieved bona fide cult-film status, when United States distribution rights were picked up by Randy Finley and Specialty Films in Seattle in 1973. It was paired with Marv Newland's 'Bambi Meets Godzilla' and John Magnuson's 'Thank You Mask Man' and marketed under the heading 'The King of Hearts and His Loyal Short Subjects'.[https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19750127&id=t9wjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=DCkEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3554,3460779&hl=en (Jan 27, 1975) 'The Milwaukee Journal'] retrieved May 4, 2015[http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=7275 "Randy Finley"] historylink.org, retrieved May 4, 2015 During the mid 1970s, it was presented in repertory movie theaters as well as non-theatrical college and university film series across the United States, eventually running for five years at the now defunct film house, the Central Square Cinemas (2 screens) in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/956-king-of-hearts Criterion] retrieved May 5, 2015
Main cast
* Jacques Balutin as Le Sergent Mac Fish
* Alan Bates as Le Soldat Charles Plumpick
* Daniel Boulanger as Le Colonel Von Krack
* Pierre Brasseur as Le Gnral Granium
* Jean-Claude Brialy as Le Duc de Trfle
* Genevive Bujold as Coquelicot
* Pier Paolo Capponi as Un Officier Anglais
* Adolfo Celi as Le Colonel Mac Bibenbrook
* Franoise Christophe as La Duchesse
* Daniel Prvost as Le Gnral Vallemat
* as Brunehaut
* Marc Dudicourt as Lieutenant Hamburger
* Julien Guiomar as Monseigneur Marguerite
* Palau as Alberic
* Micheline Presle as Madame Eglantine
* Michel Serrault as Monsieur Marcel
Stage adaptation
In 1978, 'King of Hearts' was adapted as a Broadway musical of the same name, with a book by Joseph Stein, lyrics by Jacob Brackman, music by Peter Link, orchestrations by Bill Brohn, set design by Santo Loquasto, and direction and choreography by Ron Field. The cast featured Don Scardino as the lead character, who was reworked as an American soldier named Johnny Perkins. Pamela Blair, Bob Gunton, and Millicent Martin played supporting roles. Opening at New York City's Minskoff Theatre on October 22, amid the three-month 1978 New York City newspaper strike that may have impeded its advance publicity, the show closed after 48 performances.[https://search.proquest.com/docview/757606681 Kelly, Kevin. "A broken 'Hearts': Director looks at what went wrong." 'The Boston Globe, December 24, 1978.]
References
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