Chip Kaufmann’s Pick:

The Ruling Class (1972)

The recent death of Peter O’Toole presents an interesting problem. Which of his eight Oscar nominations or several other fine performances that weren’t nominated should I choose for my DVD pick? Lawrence of Arabia is everywhere, Becket and The Lion in Winter are well known and My Favorite Year is good but slight.

I finally decided on The Ruling Class as that was reportedly O’Toole’s favorite among all his performances. It’s easy to see why as it’s an incredible showcase for an actor. After all, how often do you get to play Jesus Christ and Jack the Ripper in the same movie?

The film is based on a stage play by Peter Barnes who describes it as “a dark farce”, an understatement if ever there was one. An English aristocrat believes that he’s God (“whenever I prayed, I found that I was talking to myself”). Members of his family want him committed but not before he produces an heir. Once he does, he undergoes a radical treatment and is declared sane. Only now he thinks he’s Jack the Ripper so he fits right in with English aristocracy.

This description only scratches the surface of this hilarious, remarkable, and totally outrageous movie. The performances from O’Toole and a wealth of English character actors cannot be bettered and you haven’t lived until you see Nigel Green’s High Voltage Messiah.

As savage an indictment of the English upper classes as you’ll ever encounter, it’s also a musical of sorts with characters stopping to burst into song. If you enjoy theater, if you’re an Anglophile, or love Peter O’Toole, then you must see The Ruling Class. Once seen it cannot be forgotten.

Michelle Keenan’s Pick:

Rebecca (1940)

As regular readers know, I’ve been on a bit of Alfred Hitchcock kick this year. With the passing of Joan Fontaine recently, I thought it was an opportune time to make Rebecca my January DVD pick of the month. Rebecca marked Hitchcock’s American directorial debut and made Joan Fontaine a star.

Based on the novel by Daphne du Maurier Rebecca is a psychological thriller of a rather gothic tale. Joan Fontaine plays a [never named] naïve young woman who is traveling as a companion to a loud, tacky American socialite. When she meets the dashing but mysterious widower Maxim Winter (Laurence Olivier) in Monte Carlo, she falls hopelessly in love and marries him two weeks later.

De Winter then brings his young bride to his English country estate, Manderley. There our heroine meets the Manderley’s oh so creepy housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson). Mrs. Danvers adored the first Mrs. de Winter, the titular Rebecca, and scrutinizes the new missus at every turn.

Facing bitter consternation from the Danvers and cruel and sudden outbursts of anger from her husband, the second Mrs. de Winter begins to question her relationship with Maxim. To preserve her own sanity and any possible chance at salvaging her marriage, she must learn more about the life and death of Rebecca.

Shot in black and white with terrific lighting and atmosphere Rebecca is dated, but stands the test of time. The cast is wonderful, including George Sanders playing a lecherous caller with his signature sleazy charm.

Rebecca was nominated for 11 Academy Awards, taking home two, including one for Best Picture. Fontaine was nominated for an Oscar for this break out performance, but did not win. She did however take home the gold statuette the very next year for her performance in Hitchcock’s Suspicion with Cary Grant.

As a side note, I watched Rebecca with a companion who thought it was going to be a bore; I didn’t tell him it was a Hitchcock film. He eventually figured that out for himself. At the end he said, “They just don’t make ‘em like this anymore.”