King of Hearts (1966)

Set in the tumultuous twilight of World War I, our protagonist, Private Charles Plumpick, is thrust into an ill-fitting hero's mantle. An unsuspecting ornithologist by trade, he is mistaken for an explosives expert and dispatched into the quaint French town of Marville. His mission is critical: to defuse a ticking time bomb planted by the German Army, threatening to obliterate a hidden cache of weapons. However, Charles's arrival in Marville is met with a vibrant spectacle of eccentricity and chaos. He soon finds himself trapped not amidst the ordinary townsfolk, but within the whimsical world of the local insane asylum's inmates. Their reality has been abandoned, replaced with a vibrant masquerade ball where they play the parts of the town's fleeing villagers. In this peculiar tableau, Charles is not the soldier he was. The inmates, caught in their charming madness, hail him as the "King of Hearts". With his newfound, albeit reluctant, royal status, Charles feels a pressing duty to guide his unconventional subjects to safety. Yet, they are fear-stricken at the thought of leaving their haven, choosing instead to frolic in the town's cobblestone streets in their colourful costumes. As the clock ticks down, Charles must navigate this surreal landscape, torn between the urgency of his mission and the endearing madness that holds Marville in its grip. Will the King of Hearts succeed in leading his whimsical court to safety, or will the imminent explosion become the menacing finale of their playful masquerade? The fate of Marville hangs in the balance, waiting to be written in the last pages of war.

King of Hearts is a comedy movie featuring Alan Bates.

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