Product Details

• Actors: Greta Scacchi, Charles Dance, Joss Ackland, Sarah Miles, Geraldine Chaplin
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Nelson Entertainment
• VHS Release Date: August 30, 1990
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6301123018
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #132,135 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

"The year is 1940. War is raging in England, but that doesn't faze the wealthy colonists in Kenya. In a world of wife swapping, drugs and chocolate covered lobsters, murder seemed so uncivilized." Movie is approximately 108 minutes in length. Stars Greta Scacchi, Charles Dance, Joss Ackland, Sarah Miles, Geraldine Chaplin, Ray McAnally, murray head, John Hurt, Trevor Howard

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

57 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Social Rot, African Style, November 29, 2004

By 

Douglas Doepke (Claremont, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: White Mischief [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Seldom has social rot been more beautifully photographed than here. It's 1940. Bombs are raining down on London, soldiers are dying across Europe, Hitler is on the rise, yet not a drop of alcohol is being spilled by the rich and idle colonialists of British east Africa. Time is spent drinking and gossiping, drinking and swapping mates, drinking and dancing, and drinking and cross-dressing. It's all really rather empty and boring, sort of a sub-Saharan "La Dolce Vita", summed up in the death-mask visage of the sumptuous Greta Scacchi. Once jealousy takes hold, it's fun to watch the emotions build and shake loose behind these perfectly mannered mannikins. Based on an actual murder case, the movie is salvaged from cliche by the elegantly understated style of the film-makers, who know how to both seduce and make a subtle point. Two scenes stay with me. A black man-servant sets up targets for practicing colonialists and narrowly escapes being shot in the process. The episode passes quickly, but it's evident the elitist whites take no notice of what almost happened -- a whole little world captured in one fleeting event. The other is the deathless and x-rated line -- "Oh my God! Not another f...king beautiful day." -- uttered by the super-jaded Sarah Miles as she surveys yet one more splendorous sunrise from the veranda of one of the film's many lush mansions. For contrast, there is John Hurt's scruffy and enigmatic "Gilbert", reputedly the richest man in Kenya, and a fascinating study in laconic reserve. What exactly is going on behind that wide-eyed stare and silent tongue -- envy? disgust? It's probably best that we never know. Anyway, this is an all-around first rate production that qualifies for permanent cult status and promises to remain with you long after the final scene has faded from view.

70 of 73 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Decadence, depravity, and cold-blooded murder., August 13, 2004

By 

Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: White Mischief [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Uninterrupted self-gratification was a way of life for the British ex-patriots who inhabited Happy Valley, an appropriately named enclave outside Nairobi, Kenya. Aristocrats and those wishing to marry them gravitated to the area as an escape from the Blitz in London in the early 1940s, bringing with them their sense of entitlement and their arrogance. Fervently embracing a new freedom from any semblance of responsibility, their level of depravity is almost unimaginable. Director Michael Radford, basing this film on James Fox's non-fiction book of the same name, brings to life some of this decadence and the never-ending search for pleasure--through sex, drugs, alcohol, never-ending wild parties, extramarital affairs, wife-swapping, and kinky perversions.

With the action centered on the amoral Diana Broughton (Greta Scacchi), young wife of elderly Lord Jock Broughton (played by Joss Ackland), the film highlights her bold and very public affair with handsome cad Joss Hay, Lord Errol (slimily played by Charles Dance), and the disillusionment and increasing jealousy of her aged husband. When Lord Errol is shot to death by a mysterious assailant while returning from a party, Lord Jock Broughton is arrested and tried, though he denies his involvement.

The complexities of Fox's book, which shows a large number of people with reasons to want Lord Errol dead, along with their interrelationships and intermarriages, are sacrificed here for the focus on Diana. Unfortunately, Diana and the other real people on whom these film characters are based led exceptionally shallow lives, so it is not surprising that Diana, Lord Errol, and their friends appear here to be flat and wooden, lacking in subtlety and development. This lessens the impact of the film by preventing the reader from identifying with the characters. Though Scacchi's Diana is strikingly beautiful and has several well-filmed nude scenes, she remains a complete mystery. Ironically, the only person who elicits sympathy is Diana's husband (played by Joss Ackland), as he betrays his disillusionment, jealousy, and determination to soldier on with the marriage.

One of the few films which depicts Happy Valley as it probably was, this is fascinating and compelling viewing, but one watches it with a sense of revulsion at the behavior, and sadness that these aristocrats so boldly insulted Kenya's people and cultures by imposing their own. Beautifully filmed on location (by Roger Deakins), and showing the raw wildness of nature, the film vividly illustrates the decadence of Happy Valley's aristocrats ten years before the MauMau rebellion, which virtually eradicated this way of life. Mary Whipple

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars by the way, its a true story, April 13, 2003

By 

E Rice (western ny state) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: White Mischief [VHS] (VHS Tape)

this movie is based on a history of the same title. the events were, more or less, as presented in the film. of course, the real people weren't quite as beautiful, and the sordidness wasn't quite as photogenic.

africa, like australia and new zealand, was where the 'remittance' men were sent by their families, to remove the scandals from the homefront. these sometimes extremely black sheep were sent, by the families who could afford it, 'remittances' (money) to keep them in the colonies. in those days of difficult communication, they could get up to whatever mischief they wanted without embarrassing the home folks. the group in happy valley made the most of this.

the acting is superb. the sets are marvelous. the scenery is magnificent. charles dance is gorgeous. the story is gripping. what more could you ask for?