Price: $41.95 as of 11/21/2009 21:00 EST
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
Brand: BATES,ALAN
EAN: 9780792849391
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Letterboxed, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
ISBN: 0792849396
Label: MGM (Video & DVD)
Languages: FrenchOriginal LanguageDolby Digital 2.0 MonoEnglishSubtitledSpanishSubtitledFrenchSubtitled
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
MPN: 027616860415
Number Of Items: 1
Picture Format: Letterbox
Publisher: MGM (Video & DVD)
Region Code: 1
Release Date: April 10, 2001
Running Time: 102 minutes
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Theatrical Release Date: June 19, 1967
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
A Scottish soldier is sent to disarm a bomb in a French village that has been evacuated except for the inmates of an insane asylum. He doesn't realize that all his new friends are mentally unstable until he is crowned King.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: NR
Release Date: 7-SEP-2004
Media Type: DVD
Amazon.com:
This film was a touchstone of the late 1960s, when it was seen as an antiwar allegory for a world in which madness seemed to reign. Of course, that would probably be true whenever this movie was shown, wouldn't it? Directed by Philippe de Broca and set during World War I, King of Hearts stars Alan Bates as a Scottish soldier separated from his unit in France. He wanders into a small French village that has been abandoned by its residents in the face of oncoming combat. Instead, the town is populated by the residents of a nearby insane asylum, whose keepers have fled--a fact that escapes the innocent soldier, who assumes these are the regular folks. A film that celebrates the innocence and wisdom of the insane, even as it questions who the real madmen are. --Marshall Fine
Average Rating: 
Rating: -
I received the DVD within a few days. I waited to reply until I played it to make sure everything was fine. It was. I would do business with them again.
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I always love this movie and I thank you for having it. Thank you again.
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Without a doubt one of the best movies I have ever seen. I saw it years ago in the 1970's and never forgot it. Highly recommend it to all.
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I practically found it necessary to get my hands on a copy of this film after acquaintances kept referring to it whenever a discussion of all-time "guilty cinematic pleasures" arose. For much of the film's first half, I confess I was impressed by little else than the kaleidoscopic, richly-saturated colors and non-stop energy in virtually every scene. In describing the film to a newbie, comparisons seem only natural, and yet the film is sufficiently unique to resist them. Think of "Strangelove" as directed by Fellini in glorious technicolor with lots of help from the Monty Python crew. It's still only a start. The closest parallel is Lewis Caroll: "But I don't want to go among mad people," said Alice. "Oh, you can't help that," said the cat. "We're all mad here."
The strength of this film is that it creates a world as autonomous, as sui generis, as unrelated to anything but itself as "Alice in Wonderland"--far too removed from any familiar historical reality to qualify as what we normally think of as "satire." And yet we know that at some level this gala spectacle with all of its manic narcissism and theatrical self-indulgence is connected with the serious business of war, and perhaps the most tragic and devastating world war of them all--a war with machines capable of destroying millions but without the medicine to alleviate the pain of a mere few.
The only letdown comes when, following the ceremonious mutual destruction of two armies, one of the "lunatics" asks, "Don't you think this acting is a bit over the top?" By this time we've accepted such outrageous and bizarre behavior as our norm, and being told that it's sane when compared to a world at war is not a little didactic and gratuitous. More satisfying is a lunatic's final pronouncement that murder and mayhem are best seen "through a window"--or, as the film enables us to discover, on a movie screen and in the company of fellow spectators capable of joining us in a theater of the imagination--or, if you prefer the story's metaphor, an asylum with like-minded lunatics.
The present DVD copy retains all of the color of some of the better technicolor prints of the '50s (many '60s and '70s films show their age due to fading or iridescent chromatics); the images are quite sharp; the monophonic soundtrack is sufficiently resonant and festive. The aspect ratio is somewhat of a disappointment: 3 of the ratios are distorted or poorly fitted to a 16:9 screen; the "right" one uses only half of the total screen space. It's a neat little film, but much of its success goes beyond plot, offering in its place an alternative cinematic world for the spectator to find a place in. It's due for a resized, remastered Blu Ray edition--if it could be so fortunate as to find present-day applicants for the asylum.
Rating:  -
"October 1918" is the date for this story. German soldiers are planting explosives to destroy the advancing British soldiers when they occupy a French city. The townspeople hurriedly evacuate the town. The British are warned, they will not march into town. Instead Private Plumpick [some pun?] will be sent in to scout the town and defuse the bombs - by himself! [Believable?] Discovered by the Germans, he flees into a building for refuge and safety; it is the local insane asylum. The result of the German withdrawal is the inmates can wander freely into the deserted town and select new clothes from the abandoned homes. [This slow-paced action doesn't seem too funny to me.] Comedy is in part cultural, and attitudes change. Perhaps the humor is in suggesting the clothes make the man or woman? Or what looks like normal people are really insane underneath?
This film is certainly unusual for its time. Is it an example of "French Farce"? Were any animals hurt in making this film? [One scene shows armored cars; did they exist at that time?] The film runs on, some scenes are comic and remind me of the clowns in a circus. Will a fireworks display have unintended consequences? Will opposing soldiers fire at each other at unbelievably close range? Will the freed lunatics return to their asylum? Where are the alienists? "Oh dear, who is it now?"
I can't believe this film was successful among viewers. Did they overspend on the costumes and underspend on the story?
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