Page "The Ruling Class" Paragraph 7

O ' Toole held the rights to Barnes's play ; Medak approached O ' Toole repeatedly about exercising those rights.

According to Medak, the project got started one night that he and O ' Toole were returning from the theatre, which " meant stopping at every pub between Soho and Hampstead, and it didn't matter if it was after closing hour because he would knock on the door and just say ' Peter's here ,' and every door opened for him "; Later on, at O ' Toole's apartment, the deeply inebriated actor phoned his manager and said, " I'm with the crazy Hungarian and I know I'm drunk but I give you 24 hours to set this movie up.

" The next day, Medak received a call from United Artists and a deal was put together to shoot The Ruling Class.