Conduct Unbecoming, Britain 1975

Michael York and Richard Attenborough

This film was adapted from a stage play of the same name by Barry England. The film was produced by British Lion Films with Michael Delay as producer. He has written about this film and others in a memoir, ‘Blade runners, deer hunters and blowing the bloody doors off: my life in cult movies’. (2009). The play was adapted for the screen by Robert Enders, but Deeley claims that there were several earlier screenplays that did not work. The director was Michael Anderson, he had a long career as director both in Britain and in Hollywood. He had previously directed Attenborough in the less-than-memorable Hell is Sold Out.

The film is set in an Indian Army Encampment in the 1870s, 20^th Indian Light Calvary. The play was apparently all performed in a single interior set. The film uses a couple of interior rooms: an adjoining garden: a Calvary parade ground: and, in flashback, sequences in the local countryside and also in an officer’s bungalow.

The film opens with a parade to commemorate a dead hero of the regiment,, Captain Scarlett. He was awarded the posthumous Victoria Cross and also left a widow, the young and attractive Mrs. Marjorie Scarlett (Susannah York). This sequence is intercut with two young would-be officers on a train journeying to join the regiment. They are 2nd Lieutenant Arthur E. Drake (Michael York), and 2nd Lieutenant Edward Millington (James Faulkner). Drake seems a young and keen recruit; Millington is cynical and not that keen. Their arrival introduces us to some key officers and the culture of the regiment; the latter is built round a code of honour and strict and seemingly repressive rituals and behaviour.

At the ball following the daytime ritual, Millington flirts with Mrs. Scarlett. Then she appears at the ball, dishevelled, showing signs of assault and in a state of shock. Millington is accused of the assault. However, to avoid the unfavourable publicity a court martial would bring it is decided to hold a ‘subaltern’s court’, an unofficial trial. Capt. Stuart Harper (Stacy Keech), the adjutant, is President of the court. Lt. Richard Fothergill, (Michael Culver), the senior subaltern, is prosecutor. And Drake, much against his will, is Defence Counsel. Senior Officers, even those appearing to give evidence, are seemingly unaware of the proceedings. These take place at midnight. Key witnesses are the regimental Doctor (James Donald): Mrs. Scarlett: Major Lionel E. Roach (Richard Attenborough): and the regimental Colonel, Benjmain Strang (Trevor Howard).

At the start everyone assumes that Millington is guilty. But Drake starts to uncover discrepancies even though Captain Harper tries to stifle him. Outside the court Drake is assisted by Pradwa Singh (Rafiq Anwar), the key military servant and one who knew both Drake’s and Millington fathers. And he helps Drake interview Mrs. Scarlett’s servant who provides the torn dress which she was wearing at the time of the assault; also a Mrs. Bandanai (Persis Khambatta). Mrs. Bandanai was the victim of a parallel assault six months earlier. Drake realises that the two assaults are similar; and that both are rather like a game played by the officers, ‘sticking the pig’, chasing a stuffed pig and ‘sticking’ it with their swords. He also realises that the unknown assailant appears to be wearing the bloodstained tunic of the dead captain Scarlett, normally kept in a glass case.

Finally the truth is out, Millington is innocent. One officer knows the identity of the perpetrator, Major Maj. Alastair Wimbourne (Christopher Plummer), but refuses to reveal this.

Finally Drake is a silent witness to Wimbourne confronting Roach, the perpetrator, who then commits suicide. The psychological explanation is that Roach was so appalled when he saw the body of the dead Scarlett, [in a flashback, apparently castrated] that he began the assaults, dressing up as the dead Scarlett.

There are numerous ironies in the drama. The final one being that the cynical Millington, once found innocent is welcomed as a brother officer in the mess but Drake is shunned and he is planning to resign his commission. How all this affects Mrs. Scarlet is not known. Clearly repressed sexuality is at the heart of the drama. In the early court scenes the officers cannot bring themselves to describe the result of the assault on Mrs. Scarlett. Mrs. Bandania was in Wimborne’s bed when assaulted. And the sticking the pig’ is rife with Freudian symbols and motifs.

The opening credits start with Michael York and is followed by Richard Attenborough, something of a giveaway in how the  plot develops. In fact, there are several star names in the credits and not all of them have an immediate leading role in the narrative. This turns out to be Attenborough and Christopher Plummer; we finally find that both are associated in the assault, Plummer’s/Wimbourne as an accessory in effect. Equally revealing is the opening sequence behind the credits. It shows a band of mounted officers, with some Indian troopers, engaged in a chase, presumably to ‘stick a pig’. Roach/Attenborough is the lead, chasing with real excitement.

In terms of performances, Attenborough for most of the film is not a leading character and he appears one of the traditional officer types that he has played before. When finally confronted and exposed he plays the change very effectively; a man traumatised by events. The rest of the cast are also good. Plummer plays the knowing observer well: Keech performs as something of a martinet but also serious about regimental honour. And Michael York and James Faulkner play their very differing junior officers convincingly. York changes from the naive, eager subaltern to a man with a mission. Susannah York manages combine the flirtatious side of her character with the shocked demeanour when caught out. The Indian characters are never developed in the way that the English characters are, even Pradah Singh, who has several scenes.

The film remains bound by its theatrical origins. Deeley noted that the earlier drafts of a screenplay

“”failed to crack the adaptation” but there was “a very simple solution, which was to go back to the stage play and strip out as much extraneous dialogue as possible. Robert Enders delivered a perfect screenplay by these means.” (Wikipedia)

I think some of the removed dialogue may have filled out characters; Mrs. Scarlett, the Doctor and the Colonel all felt that more would add to their contribution.

The film also filled out the play by extending the original setting on stage to several rooms and the garden. The cinematography by Robert Huke makes good use of the several spaces. In addition, a second unit shot footage on the actual North West Frontier; it seems that Huke also shot this. As well as filling out the action there are some fine widescreen landscapes. However, the leading cast presumably did not go with the second unit; and some of the flashbacks clearly appear to use back projection. The editing is by John Glen, who also directed Bond movies. The pace of the action, which involves scenes with quite an amount of dialogue is kept up.

One oddity is that we do not see Roach’s actual suicide, there is just the sound of the shot. This is followed by a sepia photograph of an officer, identified in an accompanying title;

“L. F. Roach Major 20th Indian Light Cavalry Killed in action — Ratjaphur –1878”

This inclines the audience to think this is based on actual events, which it seems is not the case. I wondered if it was an attempt to parallel some stage craft at the end of the theatrical version?

In Technicolor and 1.85:1, running time 107 minutes

 

Loot, Britain 1970

Richard Attenborough, Roy Holder Hywel Bennett and Lee Remick

This is a film farce with apparently a US connection in the producer and company, It was adapted from a play by Joe Orton by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. The play had a chequered history, partly because of Orton’s deliberately shocking writing. But it also suffered from initial censorship and problems in production. When the censored material was restored and Orton reduced the play to two acts from three it was a success. The film shares some of the problems of the early theatrical productions. Galton and Simpson seem to have transferred much of Orton’s writing to the screen but its handling then is unfortunate. This is likely down to the director Silvio Narizzano; his 1966 Georgy Girl works well, but other titles include horror and crime thrillers. This production displays some of the over-the-top style that was common as the 1960s subsided into the 1970s. It took a talent like Ken Russell to handle shock and questionable taste effectively.

The setting is a sea-side hotel, though we see little of the sea until near the end. The wife of the hotel proprietor Mr. McLeavy (Milo O’Shea) dies. Her son Hal (Roy Holder) and his friend Dennis (Hywel Bennett) see this as an opportunity to rob a local bank; tunnelling from the funeral parlour into the vault and then stashing the money in the coffin. The complications are Dennis’ sexual relations with the nurse who tended the ailing Mrs McLeavy, Fay McMahon (Lee Remick). The latter is a much married professing Roman Catholic who sees Mr McLeavy as a suitable new husband. Hal’s problem is that he cannot lie to a direct question.

This proves of assistance to Inspector Truscott (Richard Attenborough) who starts out investigating the robbery and then also the questionable past of the McMahon. Much of the farce result from the efforts of the two friends to hide the stolen cash but also to deal with the corpse in the coffin. Much of the wit follows on from the investigations of Truscott who, at times, poses as a Water Board Inspector. Among the set pieces are the actual robbery: the funeral which goes badly wrong: and the various searches and attempts at secreting the cash at the hotel.

The scenes where we get Orton’s writing and dialogue more or less transferred are at time really funny. But the film has attempted to liven up the action sequences like the robbery and also to use 1960s style pop decoration at times, for example in Roy’s bedroom. The resulting melange staggers from real farce to heavy-handed crude humour.  The older players deliver the wit and satire with aplomb. The two younger actors are stuck with the over-the-top scenes. Attenborough is very good as the investigator; at time smartly picking up clues but then at other points blind to the obvious. Lee Remick is also good as the gold-digging nurse. O’Shea’s husband and father has less great lines but is as convincing.

I assume that the craft people on the production had to work with the limits of the overall approach. Something like the funeral works pretty well. But some of the dramatic confrontations do not: there are several scenes with very fast cutting, including large close-ups which are just grotesque. Something that I feel the original play avoided.

Eastmancolor and standard wide screen, running 101 minutes