leeper@mtgzx.att.com (Mark R. Leeper) (05/08/89)
SCANDAL
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1989 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: Fine, engrossing docu-drama about the
Profumo affair that toppled the British government in 1963.
Many fine ironies in the script. Is it redundant to say that
John Hurt turns in a good performance? Rating: +2.
Dr. Stephen Ward is the son of a vicar and a successful osteopath. His
hobby is hobnobbing with the real newsmakers in the upper circles of the
British (and some foreign) governments. One way he does this is that he
finds young women who have natural beauty and develops them like a one-man
finishing school, giving them some class and making them the kind of women
men in government like to be around. Just having these women around makes
Ward popular with his inner circle. When a friend in MI5--the British
equivalent of our FBI--gets interested in Ward's activities along these
lines it begins a chain of events that will eventually topple the British
Conservative government.
SCANDAL is the engrossing story of Stephen Ward and the entire Profumo
affair. The story tells how Ward (beautifully and slightly seedily played
by John Hurt) finds Christine Keeler (played by Joanne Whalley-Kilmer) as a
somewhat cheap-looking in a girlie show. Like Pygmalion, or perhaps
Svengali, he shows her a bit of the rich life and begins tutoring her and
friend Mandy Rice-Davies on how to get it ("you have to be very clever or
very beautiful"). As the film portrays him, Ward has a passion for beauty
and wants to be intimately but totally platonically involved in the lives of
the women he has transformed. His interest is not sex, but helping his
"babies" get what they want and at the same time Ward wants the feeling
that, like James Bond, he is a man with power. This power, like the
gratitude of the women he has transformed, he firmly refuses to exploit for
any tangible advantage. His biggest payoff is the irony that the woman he
trained has managed to have simultaneous affairs with the British Secretary
of State for War John Profumo and Soviet military attache Eugene Ivanov.
But just as Ward is seduced by a feeling of importance, Christine is also
when the newspapers learn of the scandal two years later. And only when the
government desperately needs a scapegoat does Ward realize how vulnerable he
has left himself.
SCANDAL seems very much the British equivalent of the American STAR
'80. While that film's Paul Snider does not have Dr. Ward's unselfish goals,
both men are puppet masters who instinctively know how to make women
attractive and how to make them stars. Both films depend very heavily on
erotic photography independent of their narrative values. Both films tell
of Svengali destroyed by overreaching himself.
The film is sprinkled with familiar actors. Joanne Whalley-Kilmer was
previously the nurse in THE SINGING DETECTIVE. Ian McKellan plays the
nervous Profumo with appropriate style considering he has the strangest-
looking hairdo of the pre-punk era. We see little of Deborah Grant as Mrs.
Profumo, but a side note of interest is that the real Mrs. Profumo was
Valerie Hobson, who played the title role in BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN. (Think
about it before you try to correct me.)
SCANDAL punctuates its story--as so many films about the recent past
do--with a broad choice of music of the period. But no piece of music is
better used than "[Listen,] Do You Want to Know a Secret" superimposed over
a montage of scandal-laden newspaper headlines. This is one more entry in a
run of good recent films. I rate it a +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
att!mtgzz!leeper
leeper@mtgzz.att.com
Copyright 1989 Mark R. Leeperbutterworth@mscf.med.upenn.edu (David N. Butterworth) (07/08/89)
SCANDAL
Reviewed by David N. Butterworth
(c) 1989 David N. Butterworth/The Summer Pennsylvanian
If you plan to go to see SCANDAL because of the much publicized orgy scene
which twice garnered the film an "X" rating prior to its release, don't bother.
The scene has been trimmed to virtual non-existence by an overzealous board of
film censors. What's left is a movie which, considering its subject matter,
remains surprisingly unerotic.
SCANDAL documents the sensational events which lead to the toppling of
Britain's conservative government under Prime Minister Harold MacMillan in the
early 1960s. It chronicles the sensational relationship between then Secretary
of State for War John Profumo (played in the film by Ian McKellen) and alleged
call girl Christine Keeler (Joanne Whalley-Kilmer in a standout performance),
an affair which shocked the nation.
John Hurt plays Dr. Stephen Ward, the osteopath who is obsessed with
beautiful young women. He takes Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies (Bridget Fonda,
daughter of Peter) under his wing and into his home. This is the type of role
which Hurt could play in his sleep - upper class, oozy and reptilian, yet
somehow sympathetic.
By contrast, Joanne Whalley-Kilmer is altogether stunning as Keeler. She
does most of her acting with her chocolate brown eyes and her physical presence
dominates the film. As Ward later tells her, "When I see beauty like yours, I
want to liberate it. I could do wonders with you. I could shock the world."
Ironic words indeed.
With Ward's social connections, it is not long before he is propositioned
by British Intelligence to use his women friends to entrap Russian naval
attache Eugene Ivanov (Jeroen Krabbe). He complies by throwing Keeler and
Ivanov together and daring Keeler to seduce the phlegmatic Russian.
Ward's connections also enable Keeler to mingle with government officials.
It is at a party at Clifton, a country estate belonging to Lord Astor, a friend
of Ward's, that she literally runs into War Minister Profumo wearing nothing
more than a few palm fronds and a smile. It's an introduction that needs no
introductions.
The affair which transpires is notorious in its own right, but made all
the more so by Keeler's dual involvement with a top Cabinet official and a
suspected Russian agent. When Profumo demands her complete devotion, Keeler
refuses to leave Ward's flat and Profumo breaks off their affair.
In the meantime, Ward does not stop at making socially correct
introductions for his "little baby." He introduces her to London's Jamaican
subculture, where she quickly becomes involved with illicit drugs and the
object of several drug dealers' desires. Two clash over her affections, and
the subsequent shooting incident makes the headlines.
The Profumo scandal breaks when a reporter from the "Sunday Pictorial"
talks with Keeler about the shooting, and Keeler, hurt by Profumo's rejection,
confesses her relationship with him, as well as with Ivanov and other public
figures.
Once his involvement becomes public knowledge, Ward's influential friends
drop him and his life is destroyed. He is formally charged with accepting
money gained through prostitution, although Keeler flatly denies the
allegation. As a result of all of the publicity, Profumo steps down after
admitting that he lied in his personal statement to the House of Commons, a
statement in which he vouched that "no impropriety" took place between himself
and Keeler.
When the outcome of a film is known beforehand, it is all the more
important to closely examine the motivations of its lead characters. In this
regard, the film is somewhat aloof. On the one hand, it might be
understandable why a woman of Christine Keeler's age and background could be
seduced into what was, essentially a lifestyle of sex, drugs, and rock and
roll, a lifestyle which, Wards tells her, "in order to enter one has to be very
clever...or very beautiful." But that doesn't tell us everything.
One thing we do learn is that she does it for love. Stephen Ward allowed
her to enter his world, and in return she loved him. He was, by her own
admission, the only man she had ever loved, yet they were never sexually
intimate. This provides a moment of insight into her character -- for her,
there is a world of difference between love and sex. Sex was her ticket to a
more glamorous life.
On the strength of Michael Thomas's screenplay, it would appear that the
events surrounding the Profumo affair were certainly sordid. The film
successfully captures the flavor and vulgarity of England in the early 60s.
Sex in this world is portrayed as quick, common and dirt cheap, rather than
anything meaningful or erotic.
What's left of the orgy scene is a total turnoff. Much more erotic - in a
trashy sort of way - is the sequence in which Keeler and her girlfriend Rice-
Davies dress for a night on the town. They are filled with their own sexual
power and, though their weapons are lipstick and lingerie, they are like two
gladiators preparing for battle. It is, perhaps, the only titillating scene in
the film.
Everything else in SCANDAL is either lewd or sad by comparison, an apt
description for an affair which single-handedly ended a political era.
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| Directed by: Michael Caton-Jones David N. Butterworth - UNIVERSITY OF PA |
| Rating: *** Internet: butterworth@a1.mscf.upenn.edu |
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