King Of Hearts (1966)

One of the lesser luminaries of the French New Wave, Philippe de Broca scored a cult hit with this atmospheric black comedy set at the end of the First World War.

The retreating Germans have booby-trapped a small French country town for the advancing Allies which will blow up the entire area.

All the inhabitants have evacuated – well, all except the occupants of the local lunatic asylum, who have proceeded to take over the town, bedecked in bizarre costumes fashioned from whatever they were able to acquire.

Eglantine (Micheline Presle) has taken over the bordello; the Duke (Jean-Claude Brialy) and the Duchess (Françoise Christophe) are the nobility; Julien Guiomar dons ecclesiastic robes to preside over the cathedral, and Pierre Brasseur becomes the general controlling imaginary troops.

Alan Bates is superb as clueless Private Charles Plumpick, the kilted Scottish ornithologist who is mistakenly volunteered as an ordinance expert by his blundering colonel (Adolfo Celi) and dispatched to locate the bomb the Germans have left behind, dismantle it and so prevent the destruction of the town.

The satirical swipes at monarchy, patriotism and war are played down in favour of whimsical, if occasionally anarchic, comedy, as the asylum patient townsfolk urge the Scot to become their King.

They muster a royal procession which includes a white camel (from the local zoo) and a lovely consort, Coquelicot (Geneviève Bujold), for their King.

Meanwhile, back at their respective fronts, the British and the Germans are waiting for the town to blow up.

Plumpick, trying to rouse the insane villagers from their fun and games to the fact they’re about to be blown up at any moment, delivers de Broca’s warning of imminent atomic doom to all of us.

The French cast is exceptional, with Pierre Brasseur, Jean-Claude Brialy and Michel Serrault the stand-out performers.

Private Charles Plumpick
Alan Bates
General Geranium
Pierre Brasseur
The Duke aka Le Duc de Trèfle
Jean-Claude Brialy
Coquelicot
Geneviève Bujold
Col Alexander MacBibenbrook
Adolfo Celi
Madame Eva (Eglantine)
Micheline Presle
Duchess
Françoise Christophe
Bishop Daisy aka Monseigneur Marguerite
Julien Guiomar
Crazy barber
Michel Serrault
Lt Hamburger
Marc Dudicourt
Colonel Helmut von Krack
Daniel Boulanger

Director
Philippe de Broca