Customer Reviews

White Mischief [VHS]

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4 star:		(3)
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1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

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

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?

This is the decadent counterpoint to Out of Africa (both are good films). It's the story of British ex-pats drifting through their days in colonial Kenya. With all their money and boredom, the only thing that entertains them are parties, sex and drugs, sometimes all done together. This is the mischief these white folk get up to, while their black servants look on dispassionately but with certain disdain.
Charles Dance is wonderfully smarmy as the playboy who wins Greta Scacchi's affections. She is the young beauty who married an older man for title and money, but has no love for him. It's shameful to see how brazen Dance and Scacchi are in their affair. The old husband does what any man with pride left would do. You can almost feel the British Empire crumbling around you as you are absorbed by this movie, in much the same way as A Passage to India (another great film).
Great supporting performances by Sarah Miles and Geraldine Chaplin as part of the high society swingers.
I was fortunate to find this video on sale second hand at my local video store.

This tale of British decadence continues to resonate after many years and many other films. There seems to be no more impactful and arresting vehicle for viewing the nature of the end of the 'Age of Kings' and the planting of the sordid into the fresh earth of the twentieth century. Yet it is sufficient to view the film for the vision of Scacchi, as she bares herself and lures us into the African theater of the grotesque. There we meet the European supremacy practicing their many-pronged acts of desecration of the land and the social contract. There where civilization was 'cradled,' drugs, the most unredeemable cruelty in sex and human attachments is viscerally illuminated. Those bluebloods and bloody-handed occupiers; still regarded as archetypal standards for class and wealth make the Beats, the variety of 60's renegades look like the stereotypical pilgrims in a school play. Oh boy, there is every reason to sink into this film, because it doesn't leave you- and it continues to provoke. We haven't changed folks, though Gretta's beauty in this steamy, sordid African mystery is daringly one of a kind.

This is on my list of somewhat inaccessible films (Inside Moves is another) which reward those who make the necessary effort to see it. (I do not recall either's appearance on television.) Based on James Fox's novel of the same name and ably directed by Michael Radford, White Mischief examines a colony of British expatriates near Nairobi in the 1940s. Blessed with an abundance of wealth and leisure, the hedonistic residents of "Happy Valley" seem determined to break as many of the Ten Commandments as possible and as frequently as possible. The primary focus of the narrative is on a triangular relationship which involves adulterous Diana Caldwell Broughton (Greta Scacchi), her betrayed husband Sir John Delves Broughton (Joss Ackland), and amoral Josslyn Hay, the 22nd Earl of Erroll (Charles Dance). Of special interest to me is the revelation of the nature and extent of decadence within their culture. Inevitably, Hay is found shot to death. Sir John is the obvious suspect and brought to trial but several other husbands share the same motive. The quality of the acting throughout the supporting cast is outstanding (notably John Hurt, Sarah Miles, Trevor Howard, and Geraldine Chaplin), as is Roger Deakins' cinematography. When co-authoring the screenplay based on Fox's novel, Jonathan Gems and Frederick Raphael seem to have been influenced by the Marquis de Sade, Evelyn Waugh, Billy Wilder, and Nathanael West.

Besides the book and VHS, WHITE MISCHIEF, I have another book, written by: either the daughter of Diana's fourth husband, Lord THOMAS Delamere, or written by a friend of the daughter of Lord Thomas. She speaks of 'father' introducing Diana - but, her name does not reflect a direct kinship.

Leda Farrant, author of, "Diana, Lady Edlamere, and the LORD ERROLL MURDER," tells a story much different from the movie. Her conclusions are not footnoted and she clearly admits that in Kenya, animated conversation and a diversity of opinions will follow any mention of the murder of Joss Erroll. I brought up this topic whilst staying at Giraffe Manor outside Nairobi. We were fortunate to have the owner of the Manor present at dinner that night, and she was quite forward and positive about her response: "Diana did it."

In her book, Farrant quotes many of the residents of Kenya of that time, but she does not provide a source for any of her quotes. Nonetheless, it often appears that her research was actually more detailed than that of James Fox, author of WHITE MISCHIEF. Farrant first met Diana in 1954. She and her friends and siblings found Diana to be great fun for children. James Fox actually merely 'finished' the writing of Cyril Connolly, a distinguished man of letters in Great Britain. Connolly started his project in the 1960's, and engaged the help of staff writer, Fox, for a brief account of the event for the Sunday Times Magazine in 1969. Connolly died in 1974, leaving many scraps of information for Fox, but no outline, no conclusion - no manuscript. There is no indication that Fox did much work beyond the findings of Cyril Connolly.

Farrant's account was the first time I had read of any other possible conclusion other than Lord Broughton as portrayed in the movie. I soon learned that British Society - especially in Kenya, never, for a moment, believed anyone did it other than Diana.

Mrs. Farrant notes that Diana was never without her wonderful jewels, of which she possessed many, nor attired in clothing that was not both stylish and expensive. She was to have said on many occasion, when the topic was introduced, "Well, of course, darling! Everyone knows I shot the bugger!" This is far from the story or the ending penned by Fox.

Regardless of truth - or outcome - WHITE MISCHIEF - is a fabulous dive into sheer decedance. The clothes, the languid lifestyle, the drugs and booze - all connect to allow the viewer to be more of an on-site voyeur to the happenings in Happy Valley. The music is absolutely perfect: the sound of an old 'Victrola' playing well-worn tunes of the era. The thought to add this background is pure genius. You even begin to feel the heat of the warm African days and the chill of the savanna nights.

If you are not familiar with this film, book or the story, it will take only one exposure to get you hooked. I think I have all the accounts available, but I am always on the hunt for more!

Kenya in 1940 while London is being crushed by German bombs into a mount of rubbles. There the English are leading the most paradisiacal life, so they say, in fact a life that knows no limits, no restraint, no rules, particularly at the sexual level. But an aging aristocrat arrives with his very young and extremely attractive wife. What was to happen happens and all the men who are deprived of a permanent wife want her and she falls in the trap. The rest is aristocratic melodrama with one murder, one trial, two suicides, and a few other unsavoury facts. The interest of the film is in the escapee - and refugee - state of mind of these English that are staying as far away from the war as possible. They are rich and enjoy it. They cannot accept the slightest deception or disappointment. They want everything to go their way without any resistance. They are also totally unaware of and blind to the reality around them. They use pineapples to train their shooting in the most wasteful way. They give financial lessons to their valets, and what lessons: "The banks are ready to lend you an umbrella when the sun is shining but as soon as the rain starts they want it back." This social ombilical egoticism is shown with such precision that it becomes a denunciation of it without any sharp words or hard sentences: just small successive touches in the best British delicate style. The very negative judgment on the British trial of the accused murderer of the lady's first lover is built up with such little details strung one after another without even leading you to any rejection, far from it. The film even builds some feeling of relief when the non-guilty verdict is read, though we know, but forget, that it is not right; just as if to be murdered is a normal and standard risk one man runs and accepts when he tries to seduce the wife of another man. The next interest of the film is of course that we can see this society dying in front of our eyes. One year later it will have to come to an end because the war will demand to be taken care of. Hence we feel the vision is decadent, this society is crumbling and these people are sadly pathetic. The constant nuances introduced in every single scene make this film an extremely enjoyable trip not to paradise but down into hell.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Paris Dauphine & University of Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne

This film has style,intelligence,panache,a passable story line and incredable filming,costuming and terrific acting -why Amazon does not offer it is beyond my 67 year old comprehension --unless of course your computers tell you the entire world is between 18 and 45.For your information we older guys have all the dough and love to spend it.Please make it available on -yes-DVD-Thank you very much.

I loved this film~ Very excellent. I'm wondering why Charles Dance always manages to be killed off (our hero) just midway (see China Moon) into his films. He is truly a "Star" as is Greta Scachi.

I have 5 copies of this film, (not for sale). It took 5 purchases to find one in good condition. And the Sound Track is "Excellent"~

I loved the story and you will too~ A very true account. Beautifully done and well worth the $ for the film~