“The Ruling Class” (1972)
A savage caustic satire, a passion project of O’Toole’s, who’d bought the rights to Peter Barnes‘ stage play, and held on to them until Hungarian-born helmer Peter Medak persuaded him he was the man for the job, “The Ruling Class” was not a success on release (although O’Toole won an Oscar nomination). And it’s not a surprise, particularly, given that the plot involves O’Toole as Jack Gurney, an aristocrat elevated to a title after his father dies through auto-erotic asphyxiation, and who believes at first he is God (complete with hippie-ish ginger locks and beard), and then, after electroshock therapy, Jack The Ripper, ending the film by murdering his wife when she tells him she loves him. The film itself has its flaws; it’s overlong at 150 minutes, and never really escapes its stage origins, with Medak still clearly finding his feet as a director (the cinematography, by Ken Hodges, is particularly weak). But it’s also a good deal of cynical, dark fun (with a terrific supporting cast, in particular “Dad’s Army” star Arthur Lowe as the Gurneys’ Communist butler). And most of all, there’s a performance—or more accurately, several performances—from O’Toole that comes close to being his career best. He’s sweet-natured, yet a little narcissistic when in holy mode, and positively blood-chilling once he gets his personality shift, and deftly navigates the tricky tone throughout. A U.S. re-release a decade later, and a Criterion edition (with a terrific commentary from O’Toole, Medak and Barnes) have helped restore the film’s reputation, but it’s still underseen; hopefully O’Toole’s announcement of his retirement will encourage more people to check it out.
“My Favorite Year” (1982)
“I’m not an actor, I’m a movie star.” So goes the cry of Alan Swann, O’Toole’s character in this broad-ish studio comedy, and while that’s not an accusation you could ever really level at O’Toole, he found a new lease on life in the early 1980s with a string of comedies. And while he’s also terrific as a crazed, manipulative film director in 1980’s “The Stunt Man,” “My Favorite Year” provides his most definitive comic turn of that era. In Richard Benjamin‘s film, the actor plays a fading matinee idol (clearly modeled after Errol Flynn), the star of swashbuckling pictures who’s been roped into being a guest on a Sid Caesar-type show in the early years of television. A young comedy writer (Mark Linn-Baker) is tasked with babysitting the star who, in an echo of O’Toole’s own well-documented love for the bottle, is a raging drunk, prone to womanizing and bar brawls. The script (inspired by producer Mel Brooks‘ own experiences with Flynn while working on the “Your Show of Shows“) is a little conventional, giving each of the two leads a neat arc, in addition to a somewhat unnecessary sub-plot about a corrupt union boss. But it’s sweet and genuine, and O’Toole is a marvel, delivering the kind of slurred, uproarious drunken turn that was making Dudley Moore a star at the same time, but really making it sing with the experience of a man who’s spent much of his adult life getting his buzz on. But there’s real pathos there too (O’Toole had suffered health problems in the 1970s, having his pancreas and part of his stomach removed, and nearly dying from a blood disorder), particularly in his fears of being found out as a phony—something that anyone who’s found success in any endeavor can identify with.
