Incredibly loosely based on the novel Headlong by Emlyn Williams, King Ralph supposes what would happen if the entire royal family of England was electrocuted and an heir needed to be found, which ends up being Ralph Hampton Gainsworth Jones (John Goodman), a Vegas lounge singer who must be groomed by Sir Cedric Charles Willingham (Peter O'Toole).
Directed and written by David S. Ward, who wrote stuff like The Sting and Sleepless In Seattle and directed other perhaps not so prestige stuff as Major League and Down Periscope, it also has John Hurt as Lord Percival Graves, another upper crust snob who wants the House of Stuart take over for the House of Wyndham after all the controversy of an American king, much less one dating a commoner.
Bill Murray was going to do this -- makes sense with the lounge singer character -- and so was John Candy, who picked Nothing But Trouble instead. As for Goodman, he even said in an interview, "I don't think anybody's ready to pay good money to see me get the girl in the movie. I know I wouldn't go see something like that."
The movie is better than he thinks it is.
Directed and written by David S. Ward, who wrote stuff like The Sting and Sleepless In Seattle and directed other perhaps not so prestige stuff as Major League and Down Periscope, it also has John Hurt as Lord Percival Graves, another upper crust snob who wants the House of Stuart take over for the House of Wyndham after all the controversy of an American king, much less one dating a commoner.
Bill Murray was going to do this -- makes sense with the lounge singer character -- and so was John Candy, who picked Nothing But Trouble instead. As for Goodman, he even said in an interview, "I don't think anybody's ready to pay good money to see me get the girl in the movie. I know I wouldn't go see something like that."
The movie is better than he thinks it is.