Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
a great film, 10 Dec 2006
Im afraid I cant compete with Dr. Coulardeau's exemplary review!! However this IS a terrific film with fine performances from Charles Dance, Gretta Scacchi and in particular Joss Ackland. DVD buyers beware : if you purchase the Dutch version (which seems to be the only one readily available at present) although the dialogue is the original English, there are subtitles in Dutch all the way through the film which cannot be turned off. I found this EXTREMELY annoying, but if that doesnt bother you BUY IT NOW!!! The 4 stars are for the DVD - the film is a definate 5 stars.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
decadently gorgeous - like the best chocolate, 1 Dec 2008
One of my favourites but almost inaccessible - not currently for sale as a DVD and to my knowledge never shown on UK TV since 2001 - yet this is a classic, a first rate production that qualifies for cult status. This gorgeously filmed tale of a colony of hedonistic British upper-class expatriates near Nairobi in the 1940s continues to resonate with me after many years and many other films.
Based on James Fox's novel of the same name and subtly directed by Michael Radford, these shallow, self-absorbed residents of "Happy Valley" pursued a debauched search for pleasure through sex, drugs, alcohol, cross-dressing soirees, spouse-swapping get-togethers, and even a cocktail reception in a cemetery.
The primary focus is based on a triangular relationship that actually occurred between cynical, selfish, young and beautiful Diana Caldwell Broughton (Greta Scacchi), her betrayed, elderly husband Sir John Delves Broughton (Joss Ackland), and amoral Josslyn Hay, the 22nd Earl of Erroll (Charles Dance). When the Earl is found shot to death, Sir John is the obvious suspect because of the flaunted affair between the Earl and Diana. He is brought to trial but several other men - and women - share the same motive; in real life, the murder was never solved and a later book, on Lord Erroll by Trzebinski, claims the Earl was executed because he was a spy.
This is fascinating and compelling viewing. Stars and supporting cast (notably John Hurt, Sarah Miles, Trevor Howard, and Geraldine Chaplin) are all outstanding. Greta Scacchi is never again quite as luminously beautiful as in this steamy, sordid African mystery. Sumptuously filmed on location by Roger Deakins, the film vividly contrasts raw and wild nature with the decadence of Happy Valley's dissolute aristocrats.
The story is gripping, the acting superb, the sets are marvelous, the scenery magnificent, both Greta Scacchi and Charles Dance are gorgeous - this is a fascinating and compelling film.
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Chequered Lives In The White Hills, 18 Mar 2008
Having known a lady who was in Kenya from 1943 (3 years after the events on which this film is based) and having an English wife born in British East Africa a dozen years later, White Mischief was of huge interest to me quite apart from its intrinsic merit.
Jock Delves-Broughton (Joss Ackland) is in financial trouble and has left 1940 England with creditors pressing (not surprising: he spent up to £120,000 annually, equivalent to perhaps £5 million or even £10 million today!). He buys a place near Nairobi and settles with his much younger and very beautiful (especially but not only when unclothed) wife Diana (Greta Scacchi). She has been "bought" by him in return for an allowance of £80,000 annually, for 7 years. She, however, falls in love with the dissolute local landowner and part-time (it seems!) officer Errol (Earl of) (Charles Dance). They wish to marry. Jock pretends to agree, then suddently, Errol is found shot in the head on a country road. Delves-Broughton is tried for murder and acquitted. The plot reaches its denouement from there.
There is too much of an attempt to mix this story with the admittedly connected tale of the wifeswappers of "Happy Valley", a set based in a glen in the Aberdare Mountains, where fornication, adultery, drinking and some drug-taking took place in the 1930's and early 1940's. Although the middle and upper ranks of white settler society did contain a higher proportion of louche characters (remittance-men, the idle rich, war-evaders, more or less available women etc) than might have been the case back in England, the Happy Valley set was always a small minority.
Although not mentioned in the film, the Earl of Carnarvon (cf. No Regrets and Ermine Tales) sent a famous telegram to Delves-Broughton after the trial, using racing terminology: "Won by a neck, cleverly." ! That signal is now framed in the bar of White's Club in St. James', London.
I can recommend this film to anyone. Greatly entertaining, never boring and, if the ending is slightly anti-climactic, well...that is true to history. Like the society it shows, the film slightly peters out, but is not much the worse for that. The locations are great, the acting perfect.
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