White Mischief (1988)

As someone who loathes empires and imperialism, I find myself strangely drawn to the remains of the planet's last old fashioned empire (as opposed to the new model currently imperializing, I think I can use that word, the world). I have been fortunate to wander around the post-colonial British remains in Singapore and Malaysia back in the 70s before those remains were washed from the slates of those new states in Southeast Asia. Although that peek was small it was enough to stay in my memory and to light the fire of interest in further, particularly British, remnants of their recent colonial past.This interest (probably grounded in history and curiosity) led me to this movie and I was not disappointed. I thought the script, the acting, the direction and the cinematography were excellent. The actors were brilliantly cast so the entire assembly fell into their roles to the extent that I saw the group as believable, as if they had just left their first-class cabins on one of those beautiful old liners that were the life-blood of Britian's empire.I intend to begin collecting all the DVDs of this colonial period in English history, as seen from both the colonizers and their subjects. I suppose that living as I do in a colonized country, albeit one from under the mantel for many years, has sparked this interest. Of course, not being part of the higher class I must view the insights of White Mischief as a voyeur of the recent past. The movie provided an exceptional glimpse into this lost world and for that I must congratulate all concerned with its production.

It's funny how you remember certain details with regards to certain films. I'll always remember that "Gremlins 2" was the first movie I taped on my VCR machine and that this was the first movie that I watched on my personal TV in my room. The reason being, I had not long turned 13 and the listings described this as an "erotic thriller". Now, it looks about as erotic as an episode of "Songs of Praise"."White Mischief" takes us to Kenya in the early days of WWII. A rich landowner and his young wife (Joss Acklund and Greta Scacchi) arrive to escape the Blitz and settle in a colony of affluent, upper class aristocrats. However, she soon falls in love with the dashing Earl of Erroll (Charles Dance), causing a scandal in the community. Things come to a tragic head, however, when the Earl is murdered. Anything beyond that, I can't really tell you because this film moves so slowly and so little seems to happen that other details just seemed to vanish in a hazy blur.Credit where it's due, the production values are fantastic. Like most BBC period productions, the costumes are spot-on and the unusual setting is completely believable on screen. Locations, music, dialogue etc. are all as you'd expect, although Scacchi's character occasionally looks like a 1950's Hollywood starlet, rather than a 1940's Lady. Nothing wrong with the performances either, though with a cast like this, a dodgy performance was probably the last thing you'd expect. The fatal flaw, in my eyes, is that most viewers will not have any chance of identifying themselves with the characters. It feels like a dramatised version of a Mills & Boon novel and the feeling of detachment is unsettling. The other flaw is that it runs so slow. By the time of the trial into the death of the Earl of whatever-it-was, the film had failed my Nokia test - only it hadn't technically. Instead of playing Backgammon on my mobile (battery was dead), I flicked over to watch Jennifer Love Hewitt take a shower in "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer". And quite frankly, no part of this film can compete with that.If you're interested in the period then you might take something from this. Otherwise, I can't see why it was ever released as a film. It might have been better as one of those Sunday evenings shows that the BBC like so much like "Ballykissangel" or "Monarch Of The Glen" (shudders). Editing would have removed some the (rather pointless) tit shots and apart from this, this is precisely the sort of bland, middle-of-the-road, inoffensive twaddle that seems to occupy that slot in the listings. Sorry but the only mischievous thing about this film is the title, implying that the whole film is little more than a trifle inconvenience in the lives of the characters and a trifle boring for the viewer.

Circa World War II a grisly - but rich- old buffer and his far-too-young-for-him wife enjoy the high life in Kenya's Happy Valley. However their happiness proves sadly short lived. Based on a famous true life case.Interesting approach to the "central" crime-celeb subject. While many would have plunged straight in to the murder-mystery to get the movie off with a bang - not here. This is a lesson in restraint. This film seems to view the crime of secondary importance to atmosphere and the establishment of character and order. This is probably wise, because the mystery part of the crime is rather weak and one-sided. Especially in the manner the story is told. (While tying to be true to the facts there is more nodding and winking going on here than in a New York gay bar!)You can't complain about production values and acting, they are only of the very first order. Charles Dance was an actor born in to the wrong age - if the studio system had got a hold of him they could have turned him in to a superstar. He doesn't have enough to do here - but he does this "cad" act well enough.Kenya is made to look like heaven on earth - if you are white and well off that is. Here life is one big party with plenty of sun, sea and sex - with an army of cheap black labour to do any real work.The gin and tonic set form their own little England allowing the sex games to go on a bit further than at home because there are no prying eyes.If any movie showcased Scacchi's ample prime-time charms is this one. I don't know if the lady is a naturist in real life, but she never looks that bothered about whether she is wearing clothes or not. Her classy English accent further convinces you that if any woman was worth killing over it is her. (In interviews she talks about the audience getting tired of seeing her breasts!)Watching the film is rather like watching the film Titanic. You realize that everything you see is going to be destroyed, while those on the screen sail on without a care in the world. If the central crime had been more interesting and more ambiguous I might have enjoyed it more. A clear case of a film being rather weighed down by being based on facts rather than having the freedom of total fiction.

Adapted from James Fox's non-fiction book of the same name, 'White Mischief' recounts the mystery of the murder of Scottish aristocrat and noted philanderer Josslyn Hay, 22nd Earl of Erroll in Kenya in 1941. The husband of one of his conquests, Sir 'Jock' Delves Broughton, was tried for the murder, but acquitted. While the book is really an example of investigatory, not to say obsessive, journalism on the part of Fox and his mentor at the Sunday Times, Cyril Connolly, Michael Radford's film is more evocative of time and place.Most colonial history has the rejects of the imperial society setting out to the colonies to better themselves, but Kenya between 1900 and 1940 proved a rare exception when a significant number of wealthy aristocratic English moved to the 'White Highlands' to settle. Others were found to do the actual work of ranching or coffee-growing and there was little for the rich to do except be idle. So grew the legend of the 'Happy Valley ' set, where drugs and alcohol fuelled continuous debauchery.By the time the events covered in this movie occurred, the 'Happy Valley' period was pretty well over with several of the leading lights having succumbed to the rigours of the lifestyle. But Erroll (Charles Dance, charming) a veteran of the Valley is still surrounded by admiring women and has little trouble attracting Diana Broughton (Greta Scaachi, sizzling) when she arrives in 1940 from England to escape the war. Her husband Sir Jock (Joss Ackland, his best performance ever), 30 years older, knows Diana married him for money and security. She knows Erroll is broke but thinks Jock will pay her off. What she doesn't know is that Jock, through bad luck and mismanagement, has lost most of his considerable fortune (he once owned a good slice of Cheshire) and looks like losing the rest. (The film does not mention that the real Sir Jock had by 1940 committed serious fraud on at least two occasions to get himself out of financial difficulty).In the film, Jock takes a while to realise what is going on, and then appears to accept the situation, even hosting a dinner at the Muthaiga Club in honour of the happy adulterous couple. Next morning Erroll is found shot dead in his car a couple of miles from the Broughton's house in suburban Nairobi. The case against Jock is not strong, and not carefully put together. He is represented by a first-rate South African trial lawyer, Harry Morris (Ray McAnally, in an uncharacteristically weak performance), who has little trouble evoking the sympathy of an all-white settlor jury.The aftermath, for evident artistic reasons, is altered for the film, but the sense of it is still there. Within a short time Jock is dead, and Diana marries the eccentric Gilbert Colville (John Hurt, convincing), who is the biggest rancher in the colony. The last scene, where Diana comes across a cocktail party being held in a graveyard on the shores of Lake Naivasha at the request of one of the deceased, an alumni of Happy Valley, is quite surreal, and somehow captures the evanescence of it all, the fleeting moment between birth and death we call life. This part of Africa is sometimes said to be the Garden of Eden, the paradisaical place where mankind originated, and it's a truly beautiful place, but it's also clear the serpents were there all along.Since this movie was made, a new theory about Erroll's death has emerged; that he was done to death by the British Security services as it was thought his fascist sympathies would make him likely to pass intelligence to the Italians (Erroll was a deskbound officer in the army). A lady called Eroll Trzebinski, resident in Kenya for 30 years, published a book 'The Life and Death of Lord Erroll' in 1999. Ms Trzebinski has written three other books including a well-received biography of Karen Blixen's lover Dennys Finch-Hatton. Well, I suppose it's no less credible than the theory Diana did it.PS Another version of the story is told by Julian Fellowes in his "Most Mysterious Murder " TV series (2005). It's not a patch on this one but pretty convincingly identifies Jock as the culprit, with Diana accessory after the fact.