The Ruling Class 1972

Following the accidental death of Ralph Gurney, the 13th Earl of Gurney, Jack Gurney ascends as the 14th Earl of Gurney. Jack is a paranoid schizophrenic who truly believes he is Jesus Christ and dreams of returning to the world to spread love and charity. He punctuates his beliefs with spontaneous song, dance, and even sleeping upright on a cross, a sight that unsettles his family and friends. When confronted with the uncomfortable fact of his aristocratic identity, he retreats into a personal ritual, tucking troublesome truths away in his galvanized pressure cooker until they vanish from view.

His unscrupulous uncle, Sir Charles Gurney, conceives a plan to secure an heir and keep Jack contained by marrying him to his mistress, Grace Shelley. The arrangement hinges on Grace’s ability to persuade Jack to a conventional life, but the plot backfires when Grace herself falls in love with Jack. Meanwhile, Lady Claire Gurney, who loathes her husband, befriends Jack to undermine his confinement and even shifts her loyalties toward his well-being by cozying up to him. She also begins a dangerous alliance with Dr. Herder to push for a rapid cure.

Dr. Herder attempts to treat Jack with intensive psychotherapy, but Jack’s conviction that he is the God of Love remains unshakable. Any suggestion that contradicts his conviction is dismissed as madness, leaving Herder facing a stubborn, implacable patient. In a bid to shake Jack loose from his delusions, Herder introduces him to McKyle, a fellow patient who also believes himself to be Christ — the self-styled “High Voltage Messiah.” The two men form an unsettling bond as McKyle subjects Jack to electroshock therapy, a procedure that seems to yield a grim result.

The High Voltage Messiah

The therapy coincides with a dramatic turning point: Grace delivers a healthy baby boy, and Jack loudly proclaims, > I’m Jack, I’m Jack. The family interprets this as a sign that Jack has regained his senses, but the truth is far more terrifying—Jack now believes himself to be Jack the Ripper.

Sir Charles then seeks a court-appointed psychiatrist to assess Jack, confident that sanity can be restored and that Jack will be sent to an asylum if needed. The psychiatrist, however, finds common ground with Jack because they share the same Old Etonian background, and declares him sane, effectively validating Jack’s rule in the family and the political sphere. This turn of events raises the stakes, as Jack’s power begins to tilt toward public life as a potential monarch of sorts.

The family’s precarious balance is shattered when Jack murders Lady Claire during a moment of seduction gone wrong. He orchestrates the crime to frame Tucker, the Communist family butler, Tucker, tightening the net of suspicion around others. Sir Charles’s prospects deteriorate as he suffers a debilitating stroke, and Dr. Herder experiences a nervous breakdown upon realizing the full scope of Jack’s actions. The mood in Parliament shifts as Jack takes his seat in the House of Lords and delivers a so-called fiery defense of capital and corporal punishment. From his perspective, his colleagues’ cheers mask a disturbing rot, as they appear as rotting corpses to him when he envisions them during the speech.

Onward, Christian Soldiers

That night, Jack completes the chilling arc by murdering Grace, answering the paradox of love with violence. The final scene leaves an unsettling echo: the baby’s terrified coo—“> I’m Jack, I’m Jack”—suggests that the Heir apparent may well inherit Jack’s madness, consigning the Gurney name to a tragic, recurring cycle.

In this dense, morally intricate drama, the characters cycle through loyalties, deceptions, and shifting alliances, each move underscored by Jack’s fragile grip on reality and the family’s desperate attempts to control a catastrophe that seems always one step ahead. The film uses dark humor and stark, surreal moments to probe themes of power, madness, faith, and the fragility of social masks, presenting a story where appearances hide deeper, darker truths and where the line between sainthood and madness blurs in a room full of people trying to keep the truth at bay.