| “ | What the hell? That's everything! | „ |
| ~ Ralph, being advised on behaviors he should avoid in public. |
Ralph Jones is the titular main protagonist of the 1991 American comedy film King Ralph.
He was played by John Goodman, who also portrayed James P. Sullivan, Pacha, Hound, and Walter Sobchak.
History[]
In a freak accident all the members of the House of Wyndham were killed except for two men. The first was Sir Cedric Willingham and the second was the American Ralph Jones. Both were descendents of Wyndham men who had gotten commoners pregnant. In the case of Ralph it was his grandfather who is the second duke of warren and met Ralph’s grandmother Constance who is waitress in the hotel where the duke is staying and got pregnant when visiting the US. Since Ralph’s father and grandmother are dead, Ralph is the sole heir to throne of England. Willingham refused to allow himself to be named King, and even though he was horrified over Ralph getting the position he allowed Ralph to be named the next King.
By then both Constance and his father were dead, and his mother was in prison for robbery. Ralph was living in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he was working as a lounge singer in a Las Vegas casino. Fired by the casino just as Duncan Phipps located him Duncan revealed his royal origins, and presented him with his grandfather's ring. They left for London, where Ralph was taken to Buckingham Palace and introduced to Willingham, who proceeded to teach Jones how to be a proper English monarch.
Going to a strip club the second night in town, Ralph meets Miranda Greene, a salesgirl who took a job as a stripper as she needed the money. Ralph makes a deal that if he can prove that he is the King she would have to go out with him at least once. She accepts and a short time later learns Ralph was telling the truth when she sees him on television.
Willingham met with met with Prime Minister Jeffery Hale and Lord Percival Graves - a prominent member of the House of Lords. Against Ralph from the start because of his common American background, Graves outlined his objections to Jones becoming the King. At that meeting he suggested that Parliament declare the Wyndham line to be at an end, and declare the House of Stuart to be the royal line once again. Since that is his line, Graves would be next in line for the throne. Hale decides that Ralph has the right to the throne since he has royal blood and that the country would have to live with him. Graves says that he supposes so, and begins scheming over how he can embarrass Jones out of the position.
Graves soon learns that Ralph is infatuated with one Miranda Greene - a salesgirl who took a job as a stripper to help make ends meet. He goes to Miranda with an offer to get photographs of the two in a compromising position in exchange for a large amount of money. At first she accepts, but soon she and Jones fall in love. She returns the money, but is unaware that Graves already has photographs.
Meanwhile the British government begins arranging for Princess Anna of Finland and Ralph to get to know each other better, in the hopes that it will lead them getting married and producing an heir to the throne. Even though Ralph and Anna are not In love and both of them are forced into a loveless marriage just to get drilling rights to save England’s economy. Ralph realizes how important it is to the future of the country and agrees to end his relationship with Miranda and pursue a relationship with Princess Anna. Ralph was about to call Miranda to end the relationship, however Miranda had already decided to end the relationship, hoping to keep Jones from being hurt.
The Finnish royals soon arrived, and there's a state dinner in which Jones knocks over all the glasses at the table when he sends the chicken he was serving flying. Willingham tries to cheer him up, saying it's bad luck that could've happened to anyone. Graves then uses the photographs to wreck any chance of a marriage by between Jones and Princess Anna of Finland. He does this by spreading the photographs around at a royal ball that the Finnish royalty were attending as guests. In the fallout, a Finnish company chooses a Japanese company over a British company for an important contract that would've created thousands of jobs in an economically depressed area. Pressure mounts for Jones to resign.
Meanwhile palace staff investigates and finds that royal page Gordon Halliwell was working with Graves to make sure that Miranda was invited to the ball. He was the one who reported on Jones to Graves when Jones secretly left the palace. Scotland Yard takes over and finds checks made out to the photographer and negatives at Graves' house. Also Jones learns during this time that Willingham was also a Wyndham and had a slightly better claim to the throne than he did. Jones decides to address Parliament the following day. Ralph found out their was another heir before him, it was Cedric,. The king had an affair with Cedric grandmother who is a parlor maid in the palace. But he turned down the position because he didn’t feel worthy,
Jones being named the Third Duke of Warren.
During his address to Parliament, Ralph accepts responsibility for his shortcomings and the harm they have done to the United Kingdom. He spoke to African king who visited him here and Africa is going to build their first car in England and the factory is in Miranda family neighborhood. This factory guaranteed jobs for Miranda’s family to get out of debt,He announces that he intended to give up the throne. Before leaving though, he presents the evidence of what Graves has done - hurting Jones and the United Kingdom in the hopes of the Stuarts being named a royal line and himself named King. Jones has Graves arrested for violating the Treason Act of 1702 which among other things forbade interference in the proper succession of a monarch. Graves is led out of the chamber to boos and catcalls while young British punks watching the proceedings on television proceed to make obscene gestures towards the images of Graves. Jones says that he did not bring that up to defend his own behavior, and that while he severely embarrassed England it was unintentional, but Graves did what he did deliberately.
Jones then hands over the throne to Willingham, who takes the throne as Cedric I. One of the young punks who had been upset over that his fellow punk was crying over the earlier funerals was in tears now himself, saying he was going to miss Ralph. Ralph is soon named Ralph Hampton Gainsworth Jones, the Third Duke of Warren by Cedric I. Ralph and Miranda resume their relationship and eventually marry, having a son whom they name Ralph, who eventually becomes Ralph II. Ralph II is going to be the heir to throne of England. (If Cedric died before he turned 18 his father would have had to step in as regent).
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