Movies - King of Hearts

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	Movies - King of Hearts

King of Hearts (original French title: Le Roi de Cœur) is a French film set in a small town in France near the end of World War I. As 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 British soldier who has been dispatched to defuse the bomb.

Plot summary

This 1966 film, directed by Philippe de Broca, stars Alan Bates as Charles Plumpick, a kilt-wearing Scottish soldier who is sent by his commanding officer to disarm the bomb.

When Plumpick enters the town, he unknowingly leaves the door to the insane asylum open while being chased by the Germans. When the Germans have left the town, all of the inmates leave the asylum and playfully take over the town. The adorable lunatics coronate Plumpick King of Hearts with surreal pageantry as he frantically tries to find the bomb before it goes off.

The film ends with the question of who is more insane, those in the asylum or the soldiers on the battlefield.

King of Hearts in popular culture

When it was released in France in 1966, King of Hearts was not especially successful critically or at the box office. However when released in the U.S. a year later, it achieved bona fide cult film status, eventually running for five years at the Central Square Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts and other repertoire movie theaters.

Cast includes

Pierre Brasseur
Jean-Claude Brialy
Geneviève Bujold
Adolfo Celi
Françoise Christophe
Julien Guiomar
Micheline Presle
Michel Serrault
Alan Bates
Palau
Jacques Balutin
Pier Paolo Capponi
Madeleine Clervanne
Marc Dudicourt
Daniel Boulanger
- uncredited

External links and references

http://www.foreignfilms.com/film.asp?film_id=6146

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for King of Hearts (1966 film) ]

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