It's World War I, and a Scottish Private named Plumpick (Alan Bates) is ordered to infiltrate a French village and stop a bomb that the Germans have planted from going off. Upon arriving, Plumpick discovers the entire village deserted, except for the patients of the local insane asylum, who have been left behind. The patients soon escape the asylum, play dress-up with the various clothes they find lying around the village, and take it over. Not only this, but they crown Plumpick their king! With the German army still in the vicinity nearby, Plumpick must find the bomb, diffuse it, and save his "subjects" from certain death....

An all-time foreign film classic, "Le Roi De Coeur," aka "King Of Hearts," is a marvelous movie, full of sweetness, charm, and both clever comedy & fine drama that also comments very well on the stupidity of war. Alan Bates, who sadly passed away recently, is simply wonderful as Private Plumpick, as is the lovely Genevieve Bujold as the young patient named Poppy that Plumpick falls for, and Adolfo Celi is quite funny as Plumpick's stuffy superior officer. The rest of the film's big ensemble cast, whether playing the asylum patients or various soldiers, are all excellent, too.

The only thing that stops "King Of Hearts" from being perfect is that it *could* very well be argued that the insane asylum patients in this movie aren't...well, *insane* enough. They may speak strangely to one another or to Private Plumpick, but, for the most part, they act & behave quite coherently. But other than that, "King Of Hearts" is a very charming foreign film, and one of the very best films of the late, great Alan Bates. Definitely seek this one out.

If you really really like the single joke in the film (i.e., a soldier stumbles into an insane asylum and is proclaimed their king),then you'll no doubt think this film is brilliant. My problem is that I kept waiting for MORE. But, the only thing I got was a rather bland film apart from his dealings with the inmates. In fact, the film really looked much like the Richard Lester film How I Won the War (1967)--another spoof of war that just didn't seem very funny to me either. I think the same material could have been handled much better with perhaps a more Monty Python approach (as was first brought up by muscoe from California) or perhaps by giving it the Peter Sellers touch--anything to make it more than a single joke film.

I just thought it was tiresome and wonder if maybe those who made the movie were perhaps using drugs that made them THINK it was so [email protected]&%!# funny--after all, it was made in the 1960s.

It's 1918 in the last days of the war and the Germans are in full retreat. The British are advancing on Marville, France but the Germans have boobytrapped the town and the bridge. Topographer Private Charles Plumpick (Alan Bates) is volunteered into an impossible mission to infiltrate the town and disarm the explosives. He is chased by the Germans into an asylum where the inmates believe him to be the King of Hearts. Coquelicot (Geneviève Bujold) takes him as her fiancee. He tries to lead them out of the town but they are unwilling to follow.

This is a dark war satire. I don't really understand why the Germans would abandon the town. The three British soldiers are too silly. It's a balancing act and the movie has to figure out the level at which it operates. Once Hitler is introduced, he has to be the villain. He can't be a side character or end up as a cameo. It would be great to have Hitler be the German soldier staying behind to set off the explosives. The fact of losing the town to crazy people could set him off on his historical path. As for Alan Bates, he's a fine veteran actor but the role is begging for a younger, more inexperienced kid. He's in his 30s and the private should be an innocent teenager. The final shootout is stupid although I get the point. I wonder if Hitler could elevate this.