WHITE MISCHIEF

Greta Scacchi

WHITE MISCHIEF (1987). Director: Michael Radford.

In 1940 beautiful young Diana (Greta Scacchi of Shattered) has married the much-older Jock Broughton (Joss Ackland of Crescendo) and moves with him to Kenya. There the couple are part of a wealthy or would-be wealthy social set that includes rampaging lover boy Joss, Lord Errol (Charles Dance of Alien 3). It isn't long before Diana and Joss begin a highly indiscreet affair that has tongues wagging, and reaches the ears of Jock. Apparently resigning himself to the fact that his wife and Joss are in love, he agrees to step aside and even toasts the couple. But that same night one of these three people is found dead on a highway, and a murder trial ensues ... 

Scacchi with Charles Dance

White Mischief is inspired by true events that led to a fictionalized book of the same title. The characters are all one-dimensional, but that may be because they are especially superficial people, the two illicit lovers in particular. The performances, however, are quite good, with Ackland a stand-out. This is another movie which tries to present Charles Dance -- a good actor who is not especially good-looking -- as a male sex symbol. The real Lord Errol was actually better-looking than Dance -- the same is true of the real Broughton and Ackland -- although the glamorized Scacchi is much sexier than the real Diana. 

Old pals: Joss Ackland and Trevor Howard

The movie has a few intriguing scenes, such as a party in which the guests, both men and women, are required to dress in drag. A very bizarre, even gross, scene, has Alice (Sarah Miles) pleasuring herself as she stands over a corpse of a man she once loved. Murray Head plays Alice's boyfriend, and John Hurt is a weird farmer named Colville who is also attracted to Diana. Geraldine Chaplin flits in and out of the action without making much of an impression, and Trevor Howard -- who nearly got fired because of his drinking -- is fine as a dissolute friend of Broughton's. Hugh Grant appears briefly at the beginning of the film as one of Diana's lovers. White Mischief holds the attention but never fully engages the viewer. 

Verdict: Rich Caucasians behaving badly. **1/2. 

THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD

Jon Pertwee tries out his cloak

THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD (1971). Director: Peter Duffell. Screenplay by Robert Bloch.

"Dracula -- the one with Bela Lugosi, of course, not this new fellow." -- Paul Henderson

A well-known actor in horror films has disappeared from an old house he had rented, and this leads into the telling of four tales centered around this creepy domicile. In "Method for Murderer" a fiction writer's creation, a maniac (Tom Adams of The 2nd Best Secret Agent in the Whole Wide World), seems to come to life to cause havoc for which the writer (Denholm Elliott) is blamed. In "Waxworks," two men (Peter Cushing; Joss Ackland of Crescendo)  become obsessed with the wax figure of Salome, who reminds each of them of a lost love, whom -- you might say -- they lose their heads over. In "Sweets to the Sweet" the stern John Reid (Christopher Lee of The Horror of Dracula) hires a nanny (Nyree Dawn Porter) for his strange little girl, Jane (Chloe Franks), with terrible results. The fourth tale, "The Cloak," is an amusing black comedy in which actor Paul Henderson (Jon Pertwee) finds a cloak in a shop which turns him into a vampire each time he puts it on; Ingrid Pitt is Anderson's female lead in this and is fine. But the best performances come from Cushing, Lee, Pertwee, and little Franks. The House that Dripped Blood is very entertaining, and is one of the best of the horror anthologies, not lame as some of Bloch's other screenplays.

Verdict: Chills and laughs all served up with relish. ***.