The 1991 comedy King Ralph opens with earliest incarnation of the Universal Studios logo before transitioning to each of three later iterations. This is apparently intended to convey the rich legacy of this studio as it celebrates its 75th anniversary. Myself, I thought this was the first joke in the movie, as the following picture will employ largely sitcom-level humor to tell its tale of a Las Vegas performer who becomes the King of England after an incompetent photographer electrocutes the entire royal family. Having that setup of the history of Universal logos is kind of like that “Ascent of Man” cartoon if it ended with modern man taking a pie to the face.
The first scene in the movie proper is that electrocution. While conceptually funny, the execution is too cartoony for my tastes, with everybody’s faces covered in soot and hair standing on end. There’s even a “SPROING!” cartoon sound effect. This is not a promising start. I imagine some yokel watching this and going, “Lookit, ma! All them childrens done been electromocuted to death! HEE HAW HEE HAW HEE HAW!”
Fortunately, with that out of the way, we quickly get to John Goodman, the aforementioned Vegas performer. It seems his grandmother had a dalliance with the King back in the day, making him the next line in for throne. And if you’re going, “B-b-b-but, no illegitimate heir can be crowned!”, then you are way too preoccupied with the monarchy and this is not the movie for you. Perhaps you would be better served by that magazine which focuses on extremely distant, though legitimate, contenders for the throne: Barely Regal.
We first see him on stage at a piano, playing to a handful of deeply disinterested people in the audience. He is nearly drowned out by the sounds of the casino right outside the exit. He puts in so little effort that he has a small TV to the side and he keeps accidentally commenting on the game as part of his singing. It’s a nice touch.
Alas, the manager of the club has had enough and fires Goodman. Turns out his act will be replaced by Mitzi the Psychic Chimp. I was a bit disappointed when the action soon leaves Vegas, because I really wanted to see what the psychic chimp act entailed.
Richard Griffiths has been dispatched from England to bring back Goodman. I have been a huge fan of his since I first saw him in his best role, Uncle Monty in Withnail & I. There are some small but funny moments in Vegas, where he is clearly a fish out of water. He has quite a trial ahead of him as he tries to explain how this isn’t just another job. Goodman: “How long do you think you’ll need me? I’ve never held a job for more than six months.”
Needless to say, Goodman is then the fish out of water when he arrives in England. Given a choice of suit fabrics, he accidentally goes with what he does not realize are selections for upholstery. As an aide succinctly puts it, “The English people generally don’t like their monarchs to look like a sofa.” Goodman also says he has some ideas for the decoration of the royal bedroom and that same aide wryly notes, “I’ll put the entire velour industry on standby.”
That assistant is played by Peter O’Toole with his usual high standard of acting. I love actors who never phone it in, regardless of the material. Another legendary actor here is John Hurt, as one of the Stuarts. He hopes to disgrace Goodman, have him dethroned and return the Stuart line to leadership of the UK.
Hurt’s plan involves Camille Coduri, who I remember best as the mother of Billie Piper in the David Tennant years of Doctor Who. Here, she plays a…well, an almost-stripper (it makes sense in the movie) Goodman becomes infatuated with. Hurt figures a tabloid scandal over a budding romance between a commoner and king will put Goodman out of the picture.
Needless to say, he underestimates Goodman’s king, whose down-to-earth, easy-going nature compensates for his lack of education and social niceties. It is in these moments where the movie really shines, though there is a serious cringe moment when he greets an African king with a high-five and says, “Hey brother, slip me some skin.”
Many of the movie’s best moments are little bits I highly suspect Goodman improvised. Also, I like how Goodman always seems comfortable in his own skin. Really, this is his show and he excels in a picture like this.
Goodman does all kinds of little things here that are in keeping with his character and make him enjoyable to watch. After becoming a king, he can’t wait to go to Burger King. He wears the royal crown while in a bubble bath. There are many nice moments between he and Coduri that feel very natural. Finding himself in a private dinner with her, and the minimal number of required servants, he says, “Well, I guess it’s just the seven of us.”
Alas, there are some missteps in this film and I mostly found them to be when it chooses to play the comedy too broadly. At a fancy dinner, Goodman accidentally knocks over what seems to be about a hundred wine glasses over in one long chain. It’s the kind of thing that could be funny, but it feels too forced.
Then there’s Goodman’s lamentable performance of “Good Golly Miss Molly” at a royal ball. I’m not sure which aspect of this scene I found most confusing: his harpsichord that almost immediately starts sounding like a piano or violins that sound like an electric guitar. Nope…wait…it’s which of the stringed instruments or horns sounds like a drum kit.
Lastly, there’s whatever is going on with Joely Richardson as a Finnish princess. She has a curiously deep voice, the reason for which is never revealed. I kept thinking there was a joke I was missing. Is she supposed to be a trans person? I don’t get it.
It should be said the humor in King Ralph operates largely at the sitcom level, albeit a smarter-than-average one. All that matters to me is made me laugh, and far more often than I expected. And isn’t the real measure of whether a comedy succeeds is whether it makes you laugh?
Dir: David S. Ward
Starring John Goodman, Peter O’Toole, John Hurt
Watched on blu-ray