Žanr: Drama
Format: DVD
Poreklo: Strani

White Mischief

White Mischief is a 1987 film dramatising the events of the Happy Valley murder case in Kenya in 1941, when Sir Henry `Jock` Delves Broughton was tried for the murder of Josslyn Hay, Earl of Erroll.

Based on a book by the Sunday Times journalist James Fox (originally researched with Cyril Connolly for an article in December 1969),[3] it was directed by Michael Radford.

Plot

With much of the rest of the world at war, a number of bored British aristocrats live dissolute and hedonistic lives in a region of Kenya known as Happy Valley, drinking, drugging and indulging in decadent sexual affairs to pass the time.

On January 24, 1941, Josslyn Hay, the philandering Earl of Erroll, is found dead in his car in a remote location. The Earl has a royal pedigree but a somewhat sordid past and a well-deserved reputation for carrying on with other men`s wives.

Diana Delves Broughton is one such woman. She is the beautiful wife of Sir John Henry Delves Broughton, known to most as `Jock,` a man thirty years her senior. Diana has a pre-nuptial understanding with her husband that should either of them fall in love with someone else, the other will do nothing to impede the romance.

Diana has indeed succumbed to the charms of the roguish Earl of Erroll, whose local conquests also include the drug-addicted American heiress Alice de Janze and the somewhat more reserved Nina Soames. The Earl is more serious about this affair than any of his earlier conquests, and wants Diana to marry him. She is reluctant to leave what she thinks is the financial security of her marriage to marry Errol, who has no funds or prospects, unaware that Delves Broughton is deep in debt. Privately humiliated but appearing to honour their agreement, Delves Broughton publicly toasts the couple`s affair at the club in Nairobi, asking Errol to bring Diana home at a specified time. Delves Broughton appears to be extremely intoxicated for the rest of the evening; once he is alone it is clear he was feigning drunkenness.

After dropping off Diana, Errol is shot to death in his car not far from Delves Broughton`s home, and he is soon charged with Errol`s murder.

Diana is distraught over losing her lover, as is Alice, who openly masturbates next to his corpse at the mortuary. A local plantation owner, Gilbert Colvile, whose only friend is Delves Broughton, quietly offers Diana advice and solace and ultimately shocking her by proposing marriage.

Delves Broughton stands trial. There are no witnesses to the crime and the physical evidence that appears incriminating is also circumstantial. He obviously had the motive and means, but is found innocent and the scandal comes to an end. The film ends with de Janze dying of drug overdose, and Diana discovering further evidence that implicates her husband in her lover`s death. After menacing her with a shotgun, Broughton shoots himself in front of her. The film ends with a fleeing, bloodstained Diana discovering the remaining Happy Valley set partying around de Janze`s grave.

Directed by Michael Radford
Produced by Simon Perry
Screenplay by Michael Radford
Jonathan Gems
Based on White Mischief
by James Fox
Starring Greta Scacchi
Charles Dance
Joss Ackland
Sarah Miles
Geraldine Chaplin
John Hurt
Music by George Fenton
Cinematography Roger Deakins
Edited by Tom Priestley
Production
company Nelson Entertainment
Goldcrest Films
BBC
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release date(s) April 22, 1988
Running time 107 minutes
Country United Kingdom
Language English