I’ve put off watching White Mischief (1987) for several years despite being interested, because I guessed that based on the era in which it was filmed, it would take a tone-deaf approach to the context in which its set. I was right — despite being set in Kenya in 1941, Black Africans are very much background servant characters. If you’re able to note that and still watch, this is an interesting film about complicated relationships among the upper classes in colonial Kenya with some real-life basis and good performances. If you’re not, well, I very much understand!
If you don’t already know where the plot goes, you may want to skip reading this and any summaries because it goes in directions you might not expect. The film dramatizes a true story, in which a newly married young woman (Diana Caldwell –Â Greta Scacchi) to a much older man arrives in “Happy Valley,” Kenya and becomes involved with a Casanova type (Josslyn Hay –Â Charles Dance) who is part of a set of elite Brits who do a lot of drugs, have a lot of sex, and generally live it up. And then things get more complicated. Both Scacchi and Dance are excellent in their roles, and Scacchi has never been more beautiful while Dance has never been hotter.
These people were adjacent to the Mitford sisters, and the real-life inspiration for The Bolter (from Nancy Mitford’s The Pursuit of Love) is a minor character, which is why I wanted to watch it in the first place.
The costumes were designed by Marit Allen (Little Shop of Horrors, Scarlett, Snow White: A Tale of Terror, Ride With the Devil) and they are super spot on for the era. According to her obituary,
“Allen trawled London in search of period clothing, and travelled to Glasgow on the trail of an original moss crepe dress; even the bra which Greta Scacchi wore was a 1940s original. On set she was no less thorough, washing a pale linen suit worn by John Hurt in a solution of local mud to give it an authentically worn look” (Marit Allen: ‘Vogue’ fashion editor and costume designer on ‘White Mischief’ and ‘Brokeback Mountain’).
And because these are upper class people having a fabulous time (until things get less fabulous), their wardrobes are glam AF:
So, if you’re interested in the Mitford-adjacent set, including a real-life scandal, and/or want to see some gorgeous early 1940s clothes or the briefest flash of Charles Dance’s wang, fire up White Mischief.
Have you seen White Mischief? What’s your take?
Find this frock flick at:
I’ve been low-key obsessed with the Happy Valley set for years. I saw White Mischief when it came out and I’ve read several books about the murder. Isabella Blow was the grand-daughter of Sir Jock Delves-Broughton played by Joss Ackland in the film.
I cannot help but think that if you were hoping to see a film that takes actual interest in the locals, a film very explicitly focused on a murder amongst the very loftiest community of expats in the colony was a deuced odd place to go looking.
It’s a bit like watching THE MIRROR CRACK’D expecting some decent insight into the suburbanisation of English country life in the post-WWII era.
In the 1980s, Wayne, my husband, was obsessed with the Happy Valley crowd and with a series of mysteries set in apartheid South Africa by James McClure. So we had to see White Mischief on its first run. For more of a view of at least the Bantu locals lacking in White Mischief, I recommend Mr. McClure’s Trompie/Zonie mysteries with a Boer detective and his Bantu assistant. While flawed (the POV Is the white man), their relationship is equal in private and man/master in public, and gives an unusual view of the necessity of a concealment of equality then in South Africa, and, alas, still done today.