Academy Awards, USA 1973
| Nominee Oscar | Best Actor in a Leading Role Peter O'Toole |
AVCO Embassy Pictures
Directed by Peter Medak
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(DVD, Criterion Collection)
Peter O'Toole, a certified paranoid schizophrenic who believes himself to be Jesus Christ, inherits a position of nobility. He lives with his uncle and his uncle's wife in a large country mansion. They married him off to young Carolyn Seymour, his uncle's mistress, hoping to produce an heir and lock up O'Toole in an institution. Instead, they fall in love and try to get him cured. It apparently works when O'Toole is pitted against another man who also thinks he is Jesus Christ, in a memorable showdown involving electric shocks. However, he only adopts another personality, this time Jack the Ripper. He proceeds to murder his uncle's wife when she tries to seduce him. He ends up giving fiery speeches in the House of Lords, whom he sees as rotting, living corpses. It ends with one of the best screams in cinema history. Uneven, to be sure, but completely disarming satire of British aristocracy. Peter O'Toole gives a bravura performance.
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